The INSIDE project - Inclusion in and after secondary school in Germany - is coming to an end. The INSIDE team took this as an opportunity to reflect on and discuss the results already available. More than 80 participants from academia and educational practice took the opportunity and came together for a virtual final conference at the beginning of March. At the event, the researchers involved presented selected research results that were obtained using data from the INSIDE project. Initially, around 4,000 pupils with and without special educational needs took part in INSIDE, as well as their parents, class, German and math teachers and school administrators. The pupils were surveyed almost every year at lower secondary level and followed up beyond that. After two project phases, the longitudinal study of this scope, which is unique in Germany to date, now offers a wealth of data with which empirically sound statements can be made on the status of school inclusion in Germany and the consequences for the school and post-school development of pupils with and without special educational needs. This will soon be available to the scientific community free of charge as a scientific use file.
To kick off the two-hour conference, the INSIDE team let the images do the talking: The project, its objectives and methods as well as selected results were presented in a specially created short film. In her welcoming address, LIfBi Director Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt made it clear how closely the history of the INSIDE Project is linked to that of LIfBi. Even when the institute was founded, considerations were made as to how the lack of data on school inclusion could be improved through a longitudinal study. The first phase of the INSIDE project began around a year after the institute was founded and focused on socially and methodologically highly relevant questions. Some selected questions that the project team is working on together were examined in more detail at the final conference in short talks and poster presentations.
To the INSIDE film
Short presentations on selected results
Prof. Dr. Katrin Böhme (University of Potsdam) presented the development of reading and mathematics skills in the course of lower secondary school. The INSIDE data shows that all students' math skills increase from the 6th to the 7th to the 9th grade. This finding is evident for both students with and without special educational needs. Reading skills, on the other hand, only increase slightly over the course of secondary school and in some cases even decline among students without special educational needs.
To the video of the lecture
In his presentation, Prof. Dr. Michael Grosche (University of Wuppertal) shed light on the development of social participation (sense of belonging) of pupils with and without special educational needs, also from the 6th to the 9th grade. Here, the INSIDE data shows that students with special educational needs rate their social participation slightly lower overall than their peers without special educational needs. It was also noted that the social participation of all students deteriorates over the course of lower secondary school, although it is comparable for those with special educational needs and their peers without special educational needs. However, positive relationships with teachers are a protective factor against a decline in social participation for all students equally.
To the video of the lecture
Dr. Cornelia Gresch (Humboldt University of Berlin) concluded the session by presenting analyses of the generic skills of pupils with and without special educational needs in year 6. These competencies include learning methodological competence, social competence and self-competence, i.e. skills such as how to acquire knowledge or deal with conflicts. The INSIDE data shows that interdisciplinary skills are lower among students with special educational needs than among students without special educational needs. Among other things, the presentation looked at inclusive school structures as explanatory characteristics for generic skills. It was shown, for example, that the extent of joint teaching of pupils with and without special educational needs does not per se have a positive effect on the self-competence and learning methodological competence of all pupils - smaller class sizes, on the other hand, do.
To the video of the presentation
Poster session on further results
During the poster session, it became clear just how wide the range of topics was that were covered in the INSIDE surveys and for which data is now available. Research results from the project team were presented in seven virtual rooms. The topics ranged from democracy education, cooperation between teachers, the transition to work, school well-being as a target dimension of education, the situation of pupils without special educational needs, the achievement of inclusive educational goals at all-day schools and, finally, the educational aspirations of pupils with and without special educational needs.
To the posters
What do we want for inclusion?
The two-hour conference concluded with a keynote speech by Dr. Angela Ehlers. The Federal Chairwoman of the Association for Special Needs Education (vds), who is also a member of the INSIDE advisory group of experts, commented on the results of INSIDE from a practical perspective and addressed the key question: What do we want for inclusion? She emphasized the long-term impact of INSIDE on the inclusion debate in Germany, as the project provides a broad data basis that can be used to create empirical facts on the conditions for success and obstacles to inclusion in schools.
Further results and information from the project
The INSIDE team is currently working on a special edition of the Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaften (ZfE), which will present various results from the project on topics relating to the design of inclusive learning opportunities as well as academic and social aspects of inclusive learning. The special edition is due to be published at the end of the year. The data obtained from the project will be published as a scientific use file in summer 2025 and thus made available to all interested scientists in inclusion and educational research.
News from INSIDE will be published regularly on the project website.