Teaching Practice Partnership Model in Pre-Service Teacher Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Teaching Practice Partnership Model in Pre-Service Teacher Education

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

The project aims to develop educational innovation in the area of higher education through a complementary partnership model for teaching practice (TP) in initial teacher education. The project follows four main objectives: (1) Provision of appropriate educational opportunities for student teachers in the course of TP (INSHIP-model), (2) Enhancement of the professional competencies of academic staff i (INSHIP-course), (3) Operationalization of tools and guidance materials for implementation of TP (INSHIP-toolkit), and (4) Development of Professional Learning Network in TP (INSHIP-PLN).
INSHIP-project derives from an international consortium of experts in the field of teacher education and is evidence-based. Its background is a socio-constructivist paradigm, at the forefront of which is situational learning of student teachers, and the role of collaboration and professional learning communities in bridging the gap between theory and practice in teacher education, which can be exceeded in an authentic learning context, i.e., in the concrete work environments. Moreover, in the course of the TP student teachers become professionally socialized, evolving their professional identity on the basis of shared attitudes and values within the teaching and learning community. Finally, the active participation of students in their future work environments contributes to their professional promotion, as the particular school gets to know the individual students during the TP course, which provides for a higher level of security of the institution in the employment of the graduates.
The main intellectual achievement of the project will be the INSHIP-model, which will take the form of four basic elements covering the educational principles of strategic complementary partnership collaboration, professional socialization, the student teachers TP competencies, and quality indicators for TP, with its own innovative developed evaluation system. Supporting the INSHIP-model, the INSHIP-course for academic staff will be developed and piloted within the project, as well as the INSHIP-toolkit and INSHIP-PLN fostering the spread of the professional learning community in TP by using INSHIP-portal, attending various professional meetings and using the materials produced in INSHIP. INSHIP-project is planned for a period of three years, with the 1st year’s focus on developing the INSHIP-model based on previous empirical-based evidence from international context; in the 2nd year on its piloting, whereas in the 3rd year besides its continuous piloting the final optimization and evaluation of the model are foreseen. Under the combination of linear and spiral methodology, the implementation of INSHIP-course and the INSHIP-PLN along the INSHIP-model implementation is planned. The INSHIP-project aims to bring together a total of 60 education professionals for INSHIP transnational teaching/learning training events. It is planned to engage with another 100 education professionals for dissemination events taking place ones simultaneously across 5 partner countries and 60 participants in the INSHIP final conference. It is expected to gradually involve more professionals across the participating countries who will benefit INSHIP-PLN as well as other project outputs over time. The management of the project activities in the duration of three years will be allocated among the partners according to their strengths and preferences, the prevailing method of collaboration will be networking. Altogether 6 transnational and 15 national meetings are planned, 3 short-term joint staff training, a simultaneous 5 multiplier events, and the final conference. The sustainability of the project results will be secured through professionally justifiable, transnationally proven and transferable findings and a thoughtful dissemination plan (INSHIP-portal, INSHIP-toolkit, INSHIP-PLN, publications and presentations of the project results in various professional settings). The project findings will be shared through a rolling programme of evaluation and dissemination in the course of the entire duration of the project, as well as after its completion. New identified specific problems of TP during the course of the project will additionally stimulate and maintain the professional and research attention in the target field continuously in the future. The aim is that through the planned actions the international, positive and sustainable results of the INSHIP-project will contribute to a higher quality of the study process in pre-service teacher education. The impact will ensure that young teachers will enter the job market professionally empowered, more competent and confident and, second, due to INSHIP-project essentiality, it is expected that the project will be transferable to non-educational study programmes within the European Higher Education Area empowering it with professional competencies, knowledge, and values crucial for quality work and development of society.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 209465 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI & Country: SI

Project Partners

• UNIVERSIDAD DE ALICANTE
• FRIEDRICH-ALEXANDER-UNIVERSITÄT ERLANGEN-NÜRNBERG
• Masarykova univerzita
• UNIVERSITE LYON 1 CLAUDE BERNARD
• UNIVERZA NA PRIMORSKEM UNIVERSITA DEL LITORALE