Extending and reinforcing good practice in teacher development Erasmus Project

Project Title

Extending and reinforcing good practice in teacher development

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 higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Our project aimed to enhance higher education in Europe through improving educational development opportunities of HE teachers. Throughout the project we designed a curriculum of a new one-year educational development course for doctoral students (O1), which gave the participants foundations in higher education pedagogy. We accredited the course at the local and international levels, which allowed all course graduates to receive 10 ECTS and an internationally recognized certificate. During two years of piloting the course, 37 PhD. students graduated from the first part of the course – the summer school. Altogether 25 PhD. students graduated from the full course, which moreover included a 10-months online mentoring programme, during which participants integrated knowledge and skills from the summer school with their pedagogic practice. We moreover prepared a curriculum of a course for new academic developers (O6) and trained 8 professionals – future leaders of educational development initiatives – with the aim to enhance sustainability of project outcomes. We published a book presenting teaching/learning innovations comprised from the best works of course graduates (19 chapters, 7 expert commentaries, 187 pages), which appeared both online and as a printed version (O5). We also wrote 3 studies (O2, O2-a and O3-b), which analyse in-depth three essential factors that help the educational development courses to achieve their planned outcomes: 1) focus on critically reflective approach to teaching, 2) nurturing trust among course participants and the individuals significant for their teaching and 3) introduction of mechanisms which support pedagogical conversations among teaching staff members. The fourth study (O4), which resulted from this project, compares three educational development programmes for doctoral students and is highly innovative in its methodology and conclusions.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 281384,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

EKONOMICKA UNIVERZITA V BRATISLAVE & Country: SK

Project Partners

• Masarykova univerzita
• LUNDS UNIVERSITET
• KOZEP-EUROPAI EGYETEM
• TARTU ULIKOOL
• STAFF AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPPMENT ASSOCIATION