University Practice Schools: sustaining collaboration across learning environments Erasmus Project

Project Title

University Practice Schools: sustaining collaboration across learning environments

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Health and wellbeing; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions

Project Summary

The UPSscale project aims to create an innovative, non-hierarchical space for sustainable, collaborative transnational working that responds to the needs and interests of educators and staff in early years settings, schools and universities.

There is wide recognition that most EU countries face a shortage of teachers, prompted by an ageing teacher population, fewer students enrolling in initial teacher education courses and more teachers leaving the profession before they reach retirement age. A centrally important part of attracting and retaining teachers is early career support for novice teachers and continuing professional development for staff who are more experienced. A career that remains attractive through opportunities to learn and progress contributes to greater job satisfaction and wellbeing, and is likely to promote higher levels of staff retention.

The project will be undertaken by five national partnerships of an HEI and a school/early years setting from Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, England and Spain. Twenty staff will be closely involved from these institutions; they will involve other staff in project activities and disseminate learning through their institutions. Over 1,000 non-partner educators and learners will be engaged with different project activities from HEIs, schools, early years settings and local communities.

The project will adopt a four-phase methodology of Discover, Design, Deliver and Disseminate. The objectives will be to develop structures, activities and resources that promote an attractive, sustainable and fulfilling environment for educators and learners by:
• Creating principles for collaborative transnational working that draw on best practices from the national contexts (Discover).
• Undertaking case studies in each country of educator career paths that are facilitated by collaboration with local communities, or between HEIs, schools and early years settings. These will illustrate the power of collaborative working (Discover).
• Planning and co-creating transnational partnership projects (TPPs) in which project partners work together on topics of educational interest, focused on an aspect of sustainability and that have inclusion as a central theme (Design and Deliver).
• Setting up a website that has a section in each of the five languages; training partners in cutting edge ICT and multimedia technologies (Design and Disseminate).
• Preparing and disseminating project findings and recommendations via a compendium of the TPPs, e-portfolios, webinars and an e-book, using state-of-the-art technology and careful presentation to maximise their usefulness, accessibility and reach (Disseminate).

These project activities will develop creative teaching and assessment methods that are responsive to educator and learner interests and needs, and that carefully consider staff and learner wellbeing. Using Learning Design methodology and cutting edge technology for the dissemination of materials will ensure that they have longevity in a fast-moving digital environment.

Project learning and resources will be uploaded onto the website, which will be used as a platform from which to share the e-portfolios, compendium of TPPs, webinars and e-book in five different languages with local, national and European educators and academics. Project findings will also be widely disseminated via social media, local dissemination events, practitioner and academic journals, and presentations at regional, national and international conferences.

UPSscale’s target groups are student teachers, teachers, school leaders, early years staff and university staff involved with initial teacher education and professional development. All will benefit from responsive cross-national professional development activities that develop and support enjoyable, sustainable and inclusive teaching approaches in their institutions and more widely. Learners in the settings will benefit from the innovative teaching that arises from this work.

The expected impact will extend over the four phases of the project. In phase I: Discover and II: Design, the impact will be on project partners’ skills and knowledge; in phase III: Deliver, the impact will extend to teacher and learners in project schools and other schools recruited to participate in the TPPs. In phase IV: Disseminate, the project findings and resources will reach the broader national and international educational community of educators, HEI students and staff involved in Initial Teacher Education, and training organisations looking for material to support collaborative approaches to professional development. Longer-term dissemination will continue beyond the funded lifetime of the project by project partners by, for example, approaching publishers and European journals of educational research about special issues or standalone publications to set project findings in a broader context.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 302497 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH & Country: UK

Project Partners

• VIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
• Fortunaskolen
• UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE
• Vrije Basisschool Buitenschool Bergop
• UNIVERSIDAD DE SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
• Ermington Primary School
• UC LEUVEN