On 14 May 2019 IVEPE-SEV and p-consulting.gr implemented the 1st focus group of the MagicSens project in Patras. The team consisted of primary and secondary school teachers, as well as Special Education and Parallel Support Staff coming from the Region of Western Greece. The meeting was held at IBEPE-SEV premises in the center of Patras.

The MagicSens program is an Erasmus + KA2 program and is about creating a flexible curriculum with techniques and best practices to help develop teachers' skills in how to support and empower students experiencing learning difficulties. Participants are from Romania, Italy, Ireland and Greece.

The focus group exchanged experiences and analyzed how the teachers identify learning difficulties of their students. In addition, there was a constructive discussion about the problems of the educational system and about the relationship between parent and teacher.

Besides the impressive fact that the protocol is typically quite comprehensive, its implementation can take several interventions to cover as many types of learning difficulties as possible. Even more impressive is that teachers beyond the "Special Education" course at the University are not obliged to undertake any other training for Learning Difficulties. So while the teacher can easily identify student's Learning Difficulty, he/she lacks skills and techniques concerning the best ways to re-adapt educational process and integrate the student in the "class community". Unfortunately, up to date there are no psychologists and social workers in every elementary school. It is quite satisfactory that the teachers who participated in the focus group have a deep knowledge of what they know and what they need to learn, in order to be even more effective in the ever-increasing phenomenon of having students with learning disabilities.

For more details: https://magicsens.eu