Between July 6th and 14th, 2023 the summer conference on Professional Development in Special Needs Education in Iraqi and Kurdistan Universities (PROD-I) was held at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. Two academic staff of the University of Zakho namely; Asst. Prof. Mr. Ivan H. Murad, Faculty Member of English Department, Director of Language Center, and Dr. Jehan Hussein Omar, Faculty Member of Psychology Department. The conference started with a warm welcome by Prof. Dr. Clemens Hillenbrand, the Head of the Department of Special Needs Education and Rehabilitation in which he presented a short history of the project and the aims and objectives of its continuation.
n
The conference lasted for eight days during which a number of workshops, activities, and school visits were conducted. Below is a list of the workshops that were covered during this conference:
n
1. Inclusive Education in Germany.
n
2. Dealing with errors as a social-emotional learning object.
n
3. Implementing the trauma sensitive work in schools.
n
4. Introduction to special needs education for pedagogical work.
n
5. Children with complex disabilities in schools.
n
6. Assessing and supporting students with special needs through methods of formative evaluation.
n
7. A visit to a center for hearing research.
n
8. A visit to the library of the university of Oldenburg.
n
9. A visit to Dikita kindergarten for special andinclusive learning
n
Towards the end of the conference each participating University delivered a presentation on a topic related to the theme of the conference. It is worth mentioning that Asst. Prof. Mr. Ivan Murad and Ms. Jehan Omardelivered a presentation on Zakho City and University to introduce the university of Zakho to Germans and the participating individuals. Finally, the conference was closed by a conclusion and the dissemination of the certificates on the attendees from the participating universities from Iraq and Kurdistan Region.
n
