FSC2677 Inclusion in Action: A Game-Based Course for Primary Teachers

Course Description

What does it really mean for every child to be included in your classroom — not just present, but genuinely participating, learning, and belonging? This course moves beyond awareness of inclusion toward structured, evidence-based tools that teachers can use from day one of the new school year to make inclusion happen in their daily practice.

Delivered entirely through game-based and non-formal education methodologies, Inclusion in Action is built around two peer-reviewed frameworks developed through INSIDE EU’s European research programme: SPACED and Participation Pathways. SPACED — Setting, People, Actions, Communication, Equipment, and Design — is a diagnostic methodology that enables teachers to systematically identify the barriers in their own classroom environment that are preventing full participation. Participation Pathways provides four structured approaches to planning how children participate in learning, giving teachers a shared professional language and a practical tool for ensuring every lesson offers meaningful access and genuine inclusion for all learners.

At the heart of every module is a branching scenario game: an interactive, browser-based simulation in which teachers make real-time decisions in realistic classroom situations, observe the consequences of their choices, and receive a SPACED debrief connecting their decisions to specific framework domains. There is no single correct pathway — learning comes from exploring different options, understanding their impact, and building the professional judgement to read a classroom and respond effectively. No other EPV summer course in Ireland uses game-based simulation to develop inclusive classroom skills.

What makes this course distinctive is the use of self-directed learning hours for structured reflection on participants’ own classrooms. Rather than leaving offline time to general reading, each module directs participants to use the SPACED audit template to examine their own classroom practice systematically — recalling their physical environment, their teaching habits, their communication patterns, their grouping decisions, and the extent to which children have genuine voice. This turns the audit process itself into professional learning, and means participants return in September with a concrete, evidence-informed improvement plan ready to implement.

The course is designed and delivered by INSIDE EU — a research and education non-profit directed entirely by people with lived experience of disability and social exclusion. This perspective ensures that inclusion is not presented as a technique to be applied to children, but as a fundamental commitment to understanding and removing the barriers that prevent them from belonging. Both frameworks are grounded in the social and environmental model of inclusion, consistent with the EPSEN Act’s presumption in favour of inclusive education and Ireland’s obligations under the UNCRPD.

• The SPACED Framework: Develop practical expertise in diagnosing barriers to participation across six classroom domains — Setting, People, Actions, Communication, Equipment, and Design — shifting from deficit-based thinking about individual children toward environment-based thinking that identifies barriers the teacher has the power to change.
• Participation Pathways: Learn four structured approaches to planning inclusive participation — Universal, Adapted, Progression, and Focused — and develop the professional judgement to move fluidly between pathways depending on learning context, activity, and the children in your classroom.
• Game-Based Decision Making: Apply both frameworks through five progressive branching scenario games, building the skill to read a classroom situation, diagnose which SPACED domains are involved, and make decisions that improve participation — in a safe environment where every outcome is a learning opportunity.
• SPACED Classroom Audit: Conduct a structured self-evaluation of your own classroom across all six domains using the SPACED audit template during self-directed hours, generating concrete evidence about your current practice that feeds directly into your improvement planning.
• SSE-Connected Improvement Planning: Develop a classroom inclusion improvement plan that follows the School Self-Evaluation cycle, drawing together your SPACED reflections across all modules and your understanding of Participation Pathways into specific, evidence-based actions for September.

This course is ideal for primary and post-primary teachers at all career stages — class teachers, Special Education Teachers, NQTs, and experienced practitioners — who want to bring structured, evidence-based inclusive practice into their classroom. Whether you are developing your inclusion skills for the first time or deepening an existing professional framework, Inclusion in Action provides the tools, the evidence base, and the professional confidence to ensure every child in your classroom can participate, learn, and belong.