Échanges européens de pratiques d’inspection Erasmus Project

Project Title

Échanges européens de pratiques d’inspection

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

• Context of the project
Considering :
– The global environment in which school training is included,
– The absolute necessity to reach a knowledge society in which every citizen will have to involve,
– The high levels of school dropout,
the 3 partners of the project, in charge of educative systems in the Canary Islands (Spain), in the Wallonia-Brussels federation (Belgium) and in the Academy of Nice (France) decided to engage a strong action at a european level.
This action has been given to the inspections units in the 3 partner countries.
• Goals
In this context, the project goals are defined around 2 main themes :
– Discover and analyse the 3 education systems.
– Discover, compare and analyse the inspection systems and the evaluation modalities in the 3 countries.
– To that one must add the will to begin the harmonization of practices by putting together the most efficient practices in this field.
• Number and profile of participating organizations
The 3 organizations associated to the project are the Academy of Nice for France, the autonomous community of Canary Islands for Spain and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation for Belgium.
Each structure identified and charged 12 inspectors from first and second degrees to create the hard core of the working group, so composed of 36 inspectors from 3 different nationalities.
• Description of the main activities implemented
The project has been prepared and followed through numerous conference calls, emails and videoconferences.
4 transnational meetings allowed the 12 inspectors to prepare the plenary sessions, the research activities, the readings, the conferences… The last meeting was dedicated to the results and the report of the project.
Three common training events in each partner country lead to the implementation of the work prepared by the transnational steering committee : visits in schools, observation of classes, meeting with the management and educational teams, discussions between inspectors, conferences following, round tables, inspection reports, interpersonal relations.
• Results and impacts
The EEPI project has been an amazing human and professionnal experience.
Through the possibilities offered by Erasmus +, the inspectors were able to meet each others, to compare and evaluate (positively or not) their practices, and to have free and transparent discussions concerning their own systems. The results of this work are significant.
In particular, each participant noted the various approaches and the lack of universality of its own practice. The French inspector, focused on its discipline and teachers, noted that the spanish inspector was not getting into a class with a disciplinary role, but was observing and evaluating the pedagogical practices whatever was the observed discipline. A salutary shock !
The immediate impact is surprising for a project based on practical exchanges. Each participant became aware of the differences between each country, and was able to work on the implementation and improvement of their practices.
The dissemination towards inspectors and trainees management staff (about 600 people), in the ESENER of Poitiers for example, brought similar results.
Rules and laws specific for each organization prevent from a radical change of actual inspection practices, but all participants shared the message that diversity was a wealth on a long term period.
• Benefits on a long term period
It is on a long term period that we should expect all the benefits from this project, because individual spirit transformations remain slow.
A continuation of this project is to be considered. It should give the opportunity to apply the fruit of the reflections to reach best practices that would be shared to improve the student results at the European level, which is the main goal in a long term view.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 115040 Eur

Project Coordinator

GIP FORMATION ET INSERTION PROFESSINNELLE DE L ACADEMIE DE NICE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Consejería de Educación, Universidades y Sostenibilidad del Gobierno de Canarias
• Affaires générales de l’enseignement et de la recherche scientifique – Service général de l’Inspection – Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles