8.

Teaching methods (*) In a school, the teacher is called to structure and utilize personalized teaching methods, a strategy attentive to the needs of the students, their cognitive and perceptive characteristics, or problems, and to the related modalities and relationship difficulties. A teaching method mainly focused on the individual, is necessary and fundamental, even if more demanding as in the case of handicapped and maladjusted students and other cases included in the diversity pedagogy. According to the World Health Organization three are the types of living disadvantages teachers are at times called to face: Impairment which consists in any loss or anomaly of the psychological, physiological or anatomic structures or functions and it can be permanent or transitory; Disability, consisting in the partial or total reduction of an activity, can be transitory or permanent, reversible or irreversible, progressive or regressive; Handicap consists in a condition of living disadvantage, resulting from an impairment or disability which limits or hinders the development of a normal role and is subject to improvement or worsening. Law 104/1992 which deals with the right to education and school integration of the disabled student is based on two main organizational instruments: the elaboration of a specific document involving different institutions, with the purpose to obtain personalized interventions; and the selection of specialized teachers having particular cultural and professional titles. The law provides a particular educational treatment with regard to disabled students, which implies a personalized training course, also through the realization and verification of important documents such as the medical sanitary certification, the functional diagnosis, the functional dynamic profile and the personalized education plan. The school manager is considered the key-figure for the actual implementation of a system based on the inclusion/integration culture, making the activities regarding the POF school inclusion operational, with the aim to undertake the necessary initiatives for removal of eventual architectural and sensorial barriers; involve the families actively; supervise and guarantee support teaching continuity, flexibility and full organizational realization. After a parliamentary course started in May 2009, the 8 October 2010 Law 170 on learning disturbances due to dyslexia, dysgraphy, anorthography and dyscalculia was finally approved. The recognition of cognitive learning difficulties in reading, writing and calculating represents an important conquest for the pedagogy world, since it permits the curricular and support teachers to recognize the real cause of a student school failure not imputable to negligence or incapacity, and to intervene consequently by activating efficacious and already tested personalized methods.

(*) Copyright Edizioni Simone S.p.A. Il brano tratto dal volume 526/4, Competenze linguistiche (Inglese) - Concorso a Cattedre 2012.