This paper reports on the EU-project 'Professionally Networking Education and Teacher Training' (PRONETT). The key objective of the PRONETT project (2001-2004) is to develop a regional and cross national learning community of pre- and in-service teachers and teacher educators supported by webbased resources and tools to collaborate and to construct shared understandings of teaching and learning in a networked classroom. The reasons for the initiative and the design principles of the PRONETT portal offering a virtual infrastructure for the collaboration of participating students and teachers at www.PRONETT.org are presented. The initial pilots carried out by the project partners are described, highlighting the co-ordinating partners activities targeted at contributing to the local realisation of ICT-rich, competence based Teacher Education Provision. Results are reported of the evaluation and implementation efforts aimed at validating the original portal design and collecting information to inspire further project development and implementation strategies. We conclude by summarising the lessons learned and providing recommendations for improved and extended use and further dissemination of the project results and facilities.
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High-quality interactions between young children and teachers in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are the cornerstone of educational quality. International findings suggest that the quality of interactions that support emotions and classroom organization is at a medium to high level, but the quality of instructional support is at a lower level. Within the “Teaching Through Interactions” framework developed by Hamre and colleagues (2013), several efforts were made to evaluate and improve key teacher-child interactions through in-service training. Our review includes experimental studies that evaluate professional development using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System measures. The systematic literature search and coding of studies was carried out by two independent reviewers. Our review includes 15 recent studies with 18 treatments. The meta-analysis (random effect model) showed an overall statistically significant professional development effect of g = 0.39 (SE = .08), i.e. close to a medium-size effect. In addition, effect sizes were almost equal for interactions related to emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support (g= 0.35, 0.30, and 0.43, respectively). The quality of experimental studies and professional development was at a high level (e.g., individual component, feedback, or modeling) and experimental findings were generally positive. Our meta-analysis indicates that high-quality in-service programs have the strength to improve teacher-child interactions and pedagogical quality across all three domains.
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In these uncertain times, politicians and society have been voicinghigh expectations from teacher education asking for evidence ofadded value and impact on the student. In this study a longitudinalmixed-methods approach was used to determine theimpact of in-service Master of Education programmes on teachers(N = 1,917) and their work environment in the Netherlands. Theresults of online surveys were explained by means of realist evaluationusing focus-group and in-depth interviews. The studyshows that Master of Education programmes had an impact onprofessional and pedagogical skills of teachers, and in some casesalso on their work environment. A two-tier mechanism is proposed:the Master’s programmes provide teachers with more indepthknowledge about teaching and learning and a more criticalstance through inquiry and research. Consequently, some teacherscontribute to a culture of inquiry in their schools, provided thatthe schools facilitate them in new roles.
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Teachers have a crucial role in bringing about the extensive social changes that are needed in the building of a sustainable future. In the EduSTA project, we focus on sustainability competences of teachers. We strengthen the European dimension of teacher education via Digital Open Badges as means of performing, acknowledging, documenting, and transferring the competencies as micro-credentials. EduSTA starts by mapping the contextual possibilities and restrictions for transformative learning on sustainability and by operationalising skills. The development of competence-based learning modules and open digital badge-driven pathways will proceed hand in hand and will be realised as learning modules in the partnering Higher Education Institutes and badge applications open for all teachers in Europe.Societal Issue: Teachers’ capabilities to act as active facilitators of change in the ecological transition and to educate citizens and workforce to meet the future challenges is key to a profound transformation in the green transition.Teachers’ sustainability competences have been researched widely, but a gap remains between research and the teachers’ practise. There is a need to operationalise sustainability competences: to describe direct links with everyday tasks, such as curriculum development, pedagogical design, and assessment. This need calls for an urgent operationalisation of educators’ sustainability competences – to support the goals with sustainability actions and to transfer this understanding to their students.Benefit to society: EduSTA builds a community, “Academy of Educators for Sustainable Future”, and creates open digital badge-driven learning pathways for teachers’ sustainability competences supported by multimodal learning modules. The aim is to achieve close cooperation with training schools to actively engage in-service teachers.Our consortium is a catalyst for leading and empowering profound change in the present and for the future to educate teachers ready to meet the challenges and act as active change agents for sustainable future. Emphasizing teachers’ essential role as a part of the green transition also adds to the attractiveness of teachers’ work.
