BEHAVE: modele europene de management comportamental – proiect

Medical statistical data reveals that Social Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties (SEBD) are often associated with other medical conditions such as ADHD, depression, learning difficulties, mental retardation, psychosis, autism and so on. The prevalence of these disorders is 2-16% of the general population. Children with SEBD, diagnosed or not, are likely to live in social isolation, to receive a poor education, and they risk becoming deviant teenagers, or unemployed adults. Teachers and staff with responsibility for behavioral matters in school are often alone in the management of these difficulties, and poorly prepared for dealing complicated educational challenges. The bad management of the SEBD provokes further costs for the health system and, more in general, for the whole society.

A way to approach SEBD with consistent level of educational success is to equip teachers with proper training on practical and proven classroom management strategies that can help them to effectively control difficult behaviours with confidence and competence.

The BEHAVE project aims exactly to reinforce and enlarge networks and to promote a transnational culture about some of the most effective strategies to approach SEBDs in classroom. To pursue this aim the project provides a set of tools to empower teacher’s professional profile also enhancing the sharing of evidence and knowledge. The BEHAVE target are teachers of primary schools who are daily involved in the fight to guarantee SEBD students a better quality of life. The estimated number of both direct and indirect participants is about 650 among teachers in training (about 500) and stakeholders.

More in depth, the project carry out the following activities:

– The adaptation of the WHAAM application developed in a previous LLL European project. Currently, this application offers an ICT-based solution supporting the observation of ADHD behaviours in order to better comprehend their meaning and plan appropriate, well-timed, and statistically consistent interventions. The BEHAVE intends to add new features to the WHAAM app in order to widen its scope and make it available for other psychological disorders.

– The development of a Behavior Management Hub (BMH) to sustain a community of teachers and experts that tackle daily behavioral problems at schools. It collects also relevant materials and educational resources adaptable to both formal and informal learning, contributing to the lifelong learning of teachers and everyone who is a motivated user. The hub represent also the main tool to sustain the establishment of a community of practice interested in the topics of the project.

– The design and delivery of 5 three-day specialization courses about the most popular and effective models of behavioral management across Europe for the benefit of primary schools’ teachers. The courses will take place in each partner country (IT, UK, PT, RO, BE).

– The implementation of the BEHAVE survey to investigate how the government of the nations involved in the project address the behavior management at school.

– The organization of 4 multiplier events, some devoted to verify the coherence between project objectives and outputs, other to disseminate the results and increase the expected impact.

A consistent project management methodology will be set up to carry out the project. This methodology is aimed at translating all the project workflow in appropriate, professional, repeatable, standardized, and documented collection of processes, tools, technique and templates.

Generally, we expect to make a direct impact, both at local and transnational level, mainly on Children with Social Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties (SEBD), teachers and educational staff, partner organizations and other stakeholders. To obtain the envisaged impact a combination of tangible and intangible project results will be achieved: primarily in enhancing intrinsic teachers experience and expertise in managing SEBD, promoting the development of professional networks, increasing compliance and trust among educational and health professionals, building skilled community of practices. All these results are linked to a smart application of ICTs to boost and promote new practices and approaches in the Evidence Based Education.

The BEHAVE project have also long-term benefits. It, in fact, can represent an important reference point for orienting policies and intervention in the sector of the education for special needs. Coherently with the strategic objectives in the ET 2020 framework, the project promote equity, social cohesion and active citizenship, for children and adolescents with SEBD, and for their caregivers. Its actions are improving the quality and the efficiency of education by means of the provision of training and learning paths for teachers and educational staff.