The aim of the Postgraduate Programme of Special Education and New Technologies is to provide high quality postgraduate education and deepening in the fields of Education, Applied Pedagogy, General and Special Teaching Methodology and School Psychology, in connection with Biomedical Sciences and New Technologies. The study period, with compulsory Practical Training, is four (4) academic semesters with a total of one hundred and twenty (120) credit hours (ECTS).

The Programme is addressed to graduates of higher education institutions in Greece and abroad who are serving or are about to serve in General and Special Education and Education (E.A.E.), primary, secondary and/or early childhood education and care and are interested in acquiring specialised knowledge, some of it in cutting-edge fields such as Pedagogy, General and Special Teaching, Psychology and Counselling, and to be critically aware of the issues arising in the above fields and their interconnection with Education and Biomedical Sciences.

The aim of the MSc is to maximize the potential of its graduates in the educational field, on the one hand through the acquisition of a holistic approach to contemporary Pedagogical Science and the processes of Universal Design for Learning, and on the other hand through the updating of the knowledge and skills of students in the above fields.

In this context, the MSc focuses on the bridging of Biomedical Sciences with the various fields of Education, while it aims to disseminate modern interdisciplinary approaches through theory, research and application in the field of Education. The contribution of the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the University of West Attica, which covers the cognitive field of Biomedical Sciences and their Technological Applications, is of decisive importance for the Programme, because it has the appropriate scientific staff to support such an approach and the necessary high-tech specialized laboratory equipment to offer students specialized knowledge in the fields of Biology, Neurobiology, Genetics, etc..the learning process and reframe fields such as Special Education and Inclusive Education. This approach is innovative, contemporary and unique in postgraduate programmes in the country.

An additional important innovation of the I.P.M.S. is that it functionally integrates the inclusive dimension in its Curriculum and in this way it is fully in line with modern, national and international requirements for the promotion of inclusive education and the removal of barriers to equal access to education for all students with disabilities and/or special educational needs. In particular, by integrating the inclusive/inclusive dimension, the IEPP is in line with, inter alia:

– Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which underlines the need for persons with disabilities to have access to quality, inclusive/exclusive education,

– the new European Disability Strategy 2021-2030, which promotes the principles of inclusive/inclusive education,

– the National Disability Action Plan, which provides for the creation of a new institutional framework for inclusive/inclusive education for the benefit of students with disabilities and/or special educational needs and the implementation of a Strategic Action Plan with interventions in all education sectors aimed at promoting the inclusive/inclusive goal,

– the new legislative framework for the internal and external evaluation of school units, which sets inclusive education as one of the central axes for the evaluation of the educational work of school units, with particular emphasis on issues of support for pupils with special educational needs, implementation of differentiated learning practices and individualised interventions.

Moreover, the inclusive/inclusive dimension of the Programme aims to train teachers, special educators and related professionals working in the field of special education and more broadly in the education of students with disabilities and/or special educational needs, on issues directly related to this field, such as, among others:

1) theoretical approaches in the field of special education and inclusive/inclusive education,

2) the specialised applications of Neuroscience and Genetics in the field developmental disorders (e.g. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD;Y), Special Learning Disorder – dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysarithmia, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)),

3) of integration philosophy and policy,

4) the educational and social integration of pupils with disabilities and/or special educational needs,

5) learning and teaching in inclusive and special education contexts,

6) planning and implementing the principles of differentiated teaching and universal design for learning,

7) the design and implementation of targeted educational programmes for students with disabilities and/or special educational needs in formal and non-formal learning environments,

8) the use of alternative forms of intervention (theatre, music, visual arts) assistive technology in the education of people with disabilities and/or special educational needs.