07 April 2025
Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK), Republic of Finland

On April 7, 2025, the second part of implementation of the international project "Bridge to Inclusion: Accelerating the Value of Special Needs Education", funded by the Ministry of Education of Finland (TFK, Ukraine programme 2024), began with a research visit of the academic staff of the Faculty of Psychology, Social Work and Special Education of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University to the Republic of Finland.

The project implementation team included the Dean of the Faculty Nataliia Klishevych, PhD in Pedagogy, Associate Professor; Deputy Dean for Research, Methodological and Educational Work Roman Pavliuk, PhD in Pedagogy, Associate Professor; Head of the Department of Special and Inclusive Education Olena Martynchuk, Doctor of Science in Pedagogy, Associate Professor; Professor of the Department of Special and Inclusive Education Tetiana Skrypnyk, Doctor of Science in Psychology, Senior Researcher; Associate Professor of the Department of Special and Inclusive Education Nataliia Babych, PhD in Pedagogy, Associate Professor; Associate Professor of the Department of Special and Inclusive Education Halyna Vasylieva, PhD in Pedagogy; Senior Lecturer of the Department of Special and Inclusive Education Sophie Marie Hanevich.

Grinchenko University team visited special and inclusive institutions of general and preschool education for children with special needs, presented the results of a survey of Ukrainian teachers working with children with special educational needs and their work in the context of creating a course for improving teachers’ skills.

Special attention of the Finnish colleagues from Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) was paid to the discussion of the results of the study implemented by the faculty of the Department of Special and Inclusive Education at the Faculty of Psychology, Social Work and Special Education at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University with a coverage of about 500 respondents, including primary school teachers, subject teachers, teacher assistants, practical psychologists, speech therapists and other pedagogical and medical professionals working with children with special educational needs. The results of the study made it possible to specify and identify the urgent needs of Ukrainian teachers in inclusive education and became the basis for the development of a professional development course based on best European practices, in particular the experience of the Republic of Finland.

The next steps for Grinchenko University team include the completion of work on the development of competencies, training results and the content of the in-service training course for Ukrainian teachers, visits to various educational institutions for people with special educational needs in Helsinki and presentation of the research results in the form of an article and a developed and completed in-service training course.

Materials provided by SRL of Internationalization of Higher Education