SMILE: Share the Music for Inclusive Learning in Education

The inclusive educational model offered a multifaceted and continuous process that helped modernize the school as a system – attitudes, management, teaching-learning practices and development of sustainable policies and partnerships with actors connected to the school.

Project objective

The specific objective of project SMILE was to support teachers and leaders of educational institutions to address the diverse needs of all learners through introducing systemic change at school level in partnership with knowledgeable local NGOs – local multipliers which had experience in the educational sphere.
The partner organizations adapted the good practice to the local contexts and needs and prepared it for future scaling up in the partner countries and at EU level. Common principles and approaches that are overarching the European contexts were identified. A common ground in inclusive education, which bypasses the limitations and restrictions of national frameworks was created.

Target groups

The project activities were mainly addressed to teachers and educators of primary schools and kindergartens; however, their students and pupils were also indirect beneficiaries.

Results

1. Study of needs: A cross-national study on teachers’ relationship with music, their attitudes towards the use of music as a tool in inclusive education and the techniques they already used in their classrooms to achieve the above goals. in their classrooms. These were compiled into a Needs Analysis Report in order to classify them in terms of the materials developed during the project.
2. Digital repository: A digital repository of works, exercises, methods, examples that could be used as an educational tool for inclusive education. The repository also included a list of activities, instructions, lesson plans and music techniques that helped teachers to effectively integrate music into everyday teaching.
3. Teacher’s Guide: This guide included research carried out that demonstrated the relevance and importance of music in intercultural learning and inclusive education. In addition, it included information about inclusive education and ways to integrate music in formal and and informal education.
4. SMILE MOOC: An online training course designed as a MOOC was developed as the final outcome of the project, giving more teachers, in Europe and beyond, the chance to be trained in the use of music in their multicultural classrooms for inclusive education. This was a full step-by-step training on the use of music in both formal and informal forms of teaching. In addition, during the face-to-face training, teachers gained practical knowledge on how to integrate music in their classrooms, which they were able to adapt accordingly to the specific characteristics of their students.

Added value

The application of the Model supported school teams in 9 schools and resulted in better prepared teachers and principals and an improved inclusive environment in these schools. The promotion of this good practice at European level through an e-learning course, which was part of the project, created a solid environment for increasing awareness, knowledge and understanding of the developed Model in particular and inclusive education in general, among stakeholders in the EU.

Planned activities

A conference to disseminate the project results was organised in each partner country.

A teacher training course on the use of music in inclusive education was also held.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.