Professional support of learning and school building development Erasmus Project

Project Title

Professional support of learning and school building 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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers

Project Summary

The PULS+ project aims to enable the entire German-speaking region (D, Ö, Südtirol, CH) to develop schools, education and learning spaces that are up-to-date and meet the requirements of the 21st century.
In the course of 3 years, it has developed a certified, well-founded training and further education in the form of two interlinked or interlocked university courses. The courses are offered by the University of Innsbruck (basic course) and the University of Art in Linz (continuing education course) in cooperation. The target group is all professionals from the entire German-speaking area who are involved in school construction and learning space development (teachers, architects, experts from the respective offices and authorities).
The basic training (12 ECTS credits) focuses on professionalisation in one’s own professional and content-related field of activity. Participants in the advanced training (15 ECTS credits) are given the opportunity to develop interdisciplinary projects and processes in a professional and outward-looking manner. Both courses were successfully piloted between May 2018 and May 2020 in addition to project funding. The broad impact on the targeted professional audience was remarkable. A total of 33 professionals from administration (schools, municipalities, state offices, specialised authorities), planning (architecture, spatial planning, open space design, project management) and education (social work, school development, organisational development) from all nations involved in the Erasmus+ project successfully participated in the two course programmes. Well over a hundred students were involved in the newly established university courses via the “REALLABORE” module. The offer is currently unique in the European area, meanwhile with charisma beyond the German-speaking countries.

Two further innovative project results are publications that deal with the topic of learning space development and school construction from different perspectives. While the growing handbook approaches the topic from the perspective of pedagogy with various contributions, the growing learning book takes the perspective of architectural practice. Precisely because of the synergy effects due to the complementarity of the contents, it was decided to unite both publications under one roof. The findings from the Covid 19 pandemic also led to the decision not to publish the publications in printed form, but on the specially created digital platform – Notes on Architecture and Education – of a publishing house (www.nab-notizenarchitekturbildung.net). The contents are accessible to a broad audience at any time and guarantee topicality in the international discourse through their continuous expandability with new contributions.

The open, digital PULS+ cooperation and learning platform (www.kooperation.pulsverbund.eu) is an innovative, virtual networking and information portal that does not yet exist in this form in Europe or in the transatlantic, English-speaking world. The goal is a long-term, international and multi-professional linking of the three disciplines of education, architecture and administration on a common digital portal in order to contribute to a sustainable European educational landscape. Starting in German-speaking countries, a networking platform was created that also gives interested laypersons the opportunity to obtain well-founded information on the topic of learning and space via various media. School building consultants/learning space developers can register so that they can be contacted by interested municipalities for participatory process support, and an interactive forum invites exchange.

The PULS+ School Building Atlas is an interactive, growing database (www.atlas.pulsverbund.eu) in which schools are presented with their pedagogical concept, their goals and the current spatial substance. At the same time, it is divided into spatial and pedagogical modules that can be called up as individual building blocks. The uniqueness lies in the fact that interested parties can either obtain comprehensive information about individual schools or search for specific current individual modules and then find a multitude of answers to related questions.

Beyond these intended goals, within the conducive atmosphere of the strategic partnership, in addition to the project results described above, a Master’s degree programme in architecture with a focus on educational construction was established at Alanus University (Germany) in cooperation with the City of Düsseldorf, two further Erasmus projects were successfully applied for to expand the subject area, the PULS+ network tripled in size and the results were presented at numerous specialist meetings and conferences. In addition, new participatory processes were integrated into numerous school construction projects and influence was exerted on school construction guidelines in some of the participating countries.

Project Website

https://erasmus.pulsverbund.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 324802,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET INNSBRUCK & Country: AT

Project Partners

• PROVINCIA AUTONOMA DI BOLZANO
• Alanus Hochschule gGmbH
• Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf
• LIBERA UNIVERSITA DI BOLZANO
• SOPHIA::Akademie gGmbH
• Schulsprengel Welsberg
• Landesschulrat für Tirol