Paths of inclusive school development

A simulation game-based seminar concept

Abstract

The present article offers lecturers in teacher education a didactic suggestion in the context of a simulation game to illuminate the complex subject area of inclusive school development. Based on the fact that simulation games contribute to the sustainable, application-oriented transfer of knowledge (Klippert, 2008), since the summer semester 2018 Maser teacher students at the University Duisburg-Essen are motivated in the compulsory elective subject “School Quality and School Development” to deal with a realistic scenario with different aspects of inclusive school development. For example, during a three-day simulation game, up to 50 teacher students in three courses (N=150 per semester) take over the roles of steering group members from five schools in socially deprived situations. Using fictional case histories of the individual’s initial situation and simulated data, the steering groups work on specific challenges for the individual school, identify their own school development goals and lead them to planning with the goal of an inclusive school. Possibility rooms for the training of an inclu-sion-sensitive basic attitude are opened on the one hand by the simulation method and content-related emphasis itself. On the other hand, experience-oriented exercises as well as a seminar-accompanying learning diary offer occasions for reflec-tion. In addition, impulse lectures, the processing of working materials as well as the self-study of relevant literature contribute to the accumulation of knowledge and to the deepening of knowledge in the field of inclusive school development. The learning diaries show that initial reflection processes with regard to inclusive school development are triggered on...