EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION: MODELS, PRINCIPLES AND EXAMPLE - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The educational intervention encompasses the actions that seek for the student to achieve integral development through education. Educational interventions are not just any educational action, but rather refer to a series of strategies (that can be part of a program) that will depend on the student's need.

If something characterizes educational interventions, it is that they have intention; that is, if they are given without being planned, they are not educational interventions. These actions usually refer to the formal sphere, such as in nursery schools, colleges and universities, among others.

The use of assistive technologies in the classroom can be part of an educational intervention

In addition, they are considered formal because they are framed within a planning and require an initial evaluation, an establishment of objectives, programming and periodic reviews.

Basic concepts

There are a number of concepts that are closely related to educational interventions and that are necessary to understand where they arise and how they are applied.

It is important to bear in mind that, depending on the legislation of each country, the terms and fields of action may vary.

Inclusive education

Inclusive education is a process in which it is sought that the educational system has the capacity to reach all students, by determining what barriers exist to access and participate in education, and providing resources to overcome them.

This is important because this commitment to inclusive education is what has made it possible to see the needs of students as something to which the educational system in ordinary ways is obliged to respond.

In this way, the need for more segregated special education is minimized or eliminated. From this perspective, the student with needs must be under the tutelage of the ordinary classroom teacher, although always attending to the student's needs.

Specific educational support needs

Includes special educational needs, which are related to disability or serious conduct disorder. It also includes students with specific learning difficulties (reading, writing, mathematics) and high abilities.

Finally, students with other situations are included, such as late incorporation to the educational system and personal conditions or complex school history.

Models of intervention

Ordinary measures

These measures are aimed at avoiding, compensating and helping to overcome minor difficulties without altering key elements of the common curriculum.

In this way it is sought that the students as a whole achieve the objectives proposed for the course.

For example, they can be curricular measures such as planning different types of activities (individual, group, exhibitions, etc.) or organization, such as seeking that the center is organized in such a way that there is easy communication between teachers for the same group / subject.

Specific measures

With these measures, programs and actions are applied that are personalized for the student with specific educational support needs. The important thing is that they are measurements that are saved for when the general measurements did not obtain the desired results.

Some of these are adaptations for access to the curriculum, significant adaptations, flexibility, support from a specialist teacher in Special Education, among others.

Beginning

It is necessary to follow a series of principles that are based on the idea of ​​inclusive education, either as an institution or as teachers:

Meet the students

The teacher must know his students to be able to assess the needs they present and thus plan properly. In addition, this allows you to have a starting point to compare in the future.

Because the teacher knows his students, he can properly plan the type of strategies or approach that will be necessary.

Offer various ways of accessing the curriculum

Based on what the teacher learns after careful evaluation of the student, they can offer different types of ways to access information, activities and other resources.

In addition, it should be taken into account that students may vary in learning styles, autonomy, social and communication skills, previous educational opportunities, interests and motivations, among other elements.

Criteria and planning

The teacher must plan the strategies to apply, so that they can have clear criteria that demonstrate their progress and effectiveness. That is, the planning process does not occur randomly but must be well structured.

Example of an educational intervention project

A high school student has visual difficulties that do not allow her to access information in the same way as the rest of the students in the Literature class, in addition to other social and family factors that influence her case.

Based on this, the teachers establish specific measures, especially for access to the curriculum, which involve a series of modifications that must be taken into account so that she can actively participate in the classes.

For example, from school it is suggested that they make use of an electronic device (a tablet) with assistive technologies such as text-to-speech reader, which allows them to listen to the documents required to participate in the class.

It was also decided to use meaningful adaptations based on the curriculum, since it was planned that the note with the most weight included an exhibition and a poster related to the chosen topic.

In his case, this structure was modified, to give more weight to the presentation and allow him an alternative form of oral evaluation with the teacher.

A periodic follow-up was scheduled to determine if the modifications were being sufficient for the student to achieve the proposed objectives.

References

1. Gupta, RM and Coxhead, P. (2014). Counseling and psychopedagogical support: practical educational intervention strategies. Madrid: Narcea, SA de Ediciones
2. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2009). Policy guidelines on inclusion in education.
3. Torres, GJA, Peñafiel, MF and Fernández, BJM (2014). Evaluation and didactic intervention: attention to the specific needs of educational support. Pyramid Editions.
4. Weber, C. (2016). Foundational Principles of Instruction and Intervention Systems. International Center for Leadership in Education.
5. Wright, J. (2011). RTI: Academic & Behavioral Evidence-Based Interventions. Intervention Central.