Ghent workshop on evolution, December 12, 2022 /

Within our project team, Verschelde is a strong advocate of underlining the fun of teaching and learning with objects, as a vehicle to get information across. To actually participate in a lesson (instead of observing as an outsider) gave us new ideas for the remaining term of our Erasmus+ project.

To mention one: Fresco SAM-SIN (TTT) has a visual impairment making it difficult to follow any sort of instruction that involves detailed visual information. Within our project group, we are keen on contributing to a teaching and learning environment that is inclusive. Veschelde had the talent and empathy to cater to the needs of SAM-SIN, which not only created a pleasant learning environment for him, but also for the other students. How can we generalize this experience? Well, why not introduce 'test' students to our teaching practice. That could mean that, within our website, we could think about connecting to a pool of students from relevant networks to 'test' lessons. In Leiden, for example, we have the Access and Support Platform. Why not explore the opportunities to collaborate with them?

A second example: Dominick Verschelde is a resourceful and creative teacher. Sitting in on his lesson really reinforced the idea to think about a way where we can document his practice so that the whole community of teachers (individually or as part of a group activity) can discover his pedagogy, and think about how it may inspire one's own practice. Things That Talk and the GUM agreed to pilot this idea. Question is: how do we record and document lessons in a way that indeed helps the wider teaching community?