Erasmus+ – Creating Positive Behaviors

Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Special Education Practice Center and our partner institutions, have addressed the problems encountered in the field of special education in Turkey and in the Europe. We have found the problem that we can not find the most obvious and the solution can be “treatment of behavior problems” among our other problems.Thus, we have created this Ka229 project which called “Creating Positive Behaviors” to find a solution to our problem that we have analyzed with our partners. Problem behavior; which interferes the learning of the individual or other individuals, affects the social relationship and interactions negatively, the behaviors that harm the individual or his/her peers. Various behavioral problems that we often encounter in our institutions, such as bite, strike, escape from school, harm to objects, spitting, yelling; negatively affects learning process and quality of education, reduces teacher motivation and prevents the acquisition of academic skills. These problems negatively influence the active learning and teaching process and thus we don’t have the opportunity to work efficiently. In the light of all this arguments, this issue has led us to find the answer of “what shoul we do”. As a result of sharing opiniouns with our partners, we have found that each institution has deficiencies and competencies at different points in the solution of behavioral problems.The skills and experience of our partners, particularly in the implementation section, is a good opportunity to complement our shortcomings in our pupils behavioral problems. However, it is expected that the combination of the theoretical knowledge of the teachers of our institution on the behavior problem and the good practices in the partner institutions will have a positive impact on the decreasing the behavioral problems.

Therefore, five teachers will participate directly in this project, one coordinator from each partner organization, one legal representative and three teachers. Two of the three teachers who will be participate in this project need have a bachelor’s degree in special education. The other participant will be selected from the administrative staff of the school or from teachers who teach in the music, arts and sports courses to the students. Participants who will participate directly will be involved in the LTT activities of the project and participate in the workshops. During the 4 LTT activities planned in our project; Diagnostics and analysis of the behavior problems in parts of Romania, preparation of plans in Greece, implementation of the plans in parts of Italy, plan evaluation, monitoring and the results will be studied alternative solutions to produce parts in Turkey. An evaluation report will be prepared on the basis of these studies and a behavior change plan draft will be established for each partner institution.

At the end of project; we want teachers to acquire sufficient knowledge and experience, to overcome their deficiencies in the handling of problem behaviors, to specialize in effective classroom management and to increase their professional motivation. We hope to improve learning performance and reduce inequality in learning outcomes by providing an effective learning environment for them through the treatment of problem behaviors exhibited by disadvantaged individuals. We are hoping that disadvantaged individuals will be treated from these problem behaviors and become collectively more compatible and accepted by society. We will use the PRINCE2 method, which is the most risk-free method in the management of our project, to minimize the risks that may be encountered in the project management process. We will draw up various commissions, inspired by the PRINCE2 method, to ensure that our project is carried out in a healthy way, to ensure coordination among partners, and to make a sound assessment. These; the senior management commission where the legal representatives of the partner institutions will take place, the project coordination commission, where only the project coordinators will take place, and the senior evaluation committee, where the project period and post project evaluations will be made. After the completion of the project period, a report containing the project outputs will be prepared and this report will be presented to the highest official authority responsible for Special Education in our country. Our overseas partners will also submit a report to the highest authority in charge of Special Education in their respective countries. A file containing our project results will be sent to all stakeholder schools through the local institutions responsible for Special Education in the partner countries (the Provincial Directorates of National Education in our country). We will make our project results accessible to everyone by publishing the results of our project on our website and social media pages.