Partners of INSTEM are all experienced in international collaboration and most of them were coordinators of earlier big international projects (PH FR, NTMU, LFU, UOL, DCU, UNEXE). Furthermore, almost all partners have an extensive experience in collaborating as partners in international projects. These include projects like Primas, COMPASS, LEMA, S-Team, ESTABLISH, INQUIRE, PARSEL, PENCIL, TRACES, SAILS, Fibonacci, CreativeLittleScientists or SIS CATALYST. In the following you find information about all the mentioned projects.
Projects of the partners:
PRIMAS (FP7 / University of Education Freiburg / 2010-2013)
PRIMAS aimed to change the teaching and learning of maths and science in Europe by supporting teachers to develop inquiry-based learning (IBL) pedagogies, and thus to give students first-hand experiences of scientific inquiry. Besides overall support and dissemination of the idea of IBL, PRIMAS provided teachers with a collection of teaching materials and training.
During the project, 14 partners from 12 European countries worked together to disseminate the IBL strategies. The members of the consortium are highly experienced in IBL, in training teachers in IBL pedagogies as well as in research related to the topic. With this diverse background PRIMAS aimed at bridging the gap between the researchers, teachers and local actors.
Research has shown that IBL can foster what the PRIMAS consortium considered to be characteristics of good maths and science education:
- Stimulates motivation and generates interest for learning science and mathematics.
- Gives the basic knowledge.
- Develops a “task culture”.
- Enables students to learn from their mistakes.
- Develops cumulative learning.
- Develops autonomous learning.
- Allows pupils to cross subject boundaries and experience interdisciplinary approaches.
- Promotes student cooperation.
- Reduces gender stereotypes.
However, the new approaches can be demanding for teachers as they need to combine the new approach with the school curriculum and to use new materials, teaching styles and pedagogies. PRIMAS supported teachers in this by providing teaching materials and training.
PRIMAS believes that an increase in inquiry-based teaching strategies can be achieved by providing adequate support to the relevant groups: to teachers but also to other stakeholders and supporting networks. This is why PRIMAS also organised guidance, information meetings and events for parents, students, politicians and other target groups.
Within the National Consultancy Panels (NCP), specific education authorities, political authorities, disseminators and teacher training institutions were integrated in the project. The NCP met regularly to exchange experiences and continuously develop the implementation of PRIMAS activities.
PRIMAS is the interaction between the international and regional level: the project was coordinated and the results were shown at the European level, but it was locally based, locally adapted and locally implemented.
Link: www.primas-project.eu
COMPASS (LLP / University of Education Freiburg / 2009-2011)
The goal of COMPASS was to provide teachers with interdisciplinary teaching materials which link mathematics and science. With the materials students could analyse and discuss problems relevant to society and their everyday lives.
Throughout Europe there is an alarming decline in young people’s interest in scientific disciplines. Considering the importance of science, technology and innovation (and their founding subjects) in our dynamic and interdependent knowledge society of the 21st century, Europe may in the future be seriously disadvantaged without people’s interest in learning about the concepts and developments in these fields. European citizens need to be prepared and educated to actively contribute to the knowledge society and need to have a critical understanding of the important issues (und underlying scientific concepts) that affect the world in which they live.
Therefore, COMPASS developed teaching materials that connect science and mathematics with each other and, most crucially, with the lives of individual students and their communities. The materials have the potential to foster young people’s desire to learn and their interest in science, its concepts and new developments throughout their lives.
The interdisciplinary and real-life focus together with the working methods applied can also foster the development of transversal key competences and equity for students across the partnership nations.
Classroom materials were developed in iterative cycles of research-based pedagogical design, trial implementation and evaluation by teachers, and subsequent revision as well as local adaptation. This process ensured quality classroom materials combining high applicability to all countries across Europe with easy adaptation to local needs.
A variety of methods ensured impact and exploitation of the project results that go beyond the scope and scale of the COMPASS project.
Link: www.compass-project.eu
LEMA (Comenius / University of Education Freiburg / 2006-2009)
Throughout Europe people are growing increasingly aware of the fact that students have to learn how to apply mathematics both critically and deliberately in order to meet the demands of a responsible citizen and of a productive member of society. In order to be able to guarantee this, teachers’ competencies have to be broadened so that they are, unlike in today’s current situation, in the position to integrate modelling into their everyday lessons.
This project aimed to support math teachers in the development of their pedagogical and didactical competencies through teacher training on the topic of connections to reality and mathematical modelling.
The primary goal was to establish professional development concepts which can be flexibly transferred to other countries and which comply with the requirements of both involved partner nations and other European nations.
The different experiences made by participating countries with innovative ways of teaching have been incorporated into the project. The teacher training program should address both practicing teachers and those studying to become primary and middle school teachers.
The training was developed, tested, evaluated and optimized by means of a need assessment, which were developed particularly for this project. During the project, the Europe-wide communication took place on an internet platform which is used even after the project is over. Among other things, a DVD was provided containing miscellaneous materials and sample videos of lesson sequences from the individual partner countries. This DVD, in this way, emphasize the European dimension of this project as well as contribute to the distribution of its results.
Link: http://www.lema-project.org
SiS Catalyst (FP7/MML action plan/ University of Liverpool / 2010-2014)
SiS Catalyst was a four-year FP7 EU funded project under the Mobilising Mutual Learning action plan frame, based on the idea that as children are the future, we must involve them in the decision of today. SiS Catalyst was about finding, refining and applying ways to involve children as societal actors in the decision making process that will affect their lives. It was also about empowering young people and making sure their voices been truly listened to and not just heard. SiS Catalyst was about education in both formal and informal settings, and it aimed at enabling the process of mutual learning to happen between partners and associates, pulling together global elements and identifying local solutions to similar problems. The project was on a global scale, involving advisers and associates from all the five continents around the world.
Link: http://www.siscatalyst.eu/
Creative Little Scientists: Enabling Creativity through Science and Mathematics in Preschool and First Years of Primary Education (FP7 / National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics / 2011-2014)
The project goal was to investigate the relation existing between inquiry learning and teaching and creativity development on one side and the teaching of science and mathematics on the other side, in preschool and the first years of primary school, in nine European countries.
Partners:
· Ellinogermaniki Agogi (EA)
· Institute of Education, University of London (UK)
· Open University (UK)
· Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln (UK)
· University of Eastern Finland (FI)
· Artevelde University College (BE)
· Goethe University Frankfurt (DE)
· University of Minho (PT)
· National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics (RO)
· Université de Picardie Jules Verne (FR)
· University of Malta (MT)
· Universität Bonn (DE)
The research was performed on several levels, in order to assemble the complex picture of this phenomenon:
- a literature review, done on:
· science and mathematics education in preschool and early years of primary school;
· creativity in education;
· teacher training for early years educators and primary school teachers;
· comparative education; - a policy review, to pick up the major messages official documents carry on inquiry and creativity in early education;
- a teachers’ survey, to assess teachers believes and attitudes on the subject;
- a field research, to evaluate how the policy and teachers approaches on the subjects are practically implemented.
At each project stage, national reports on the investigated issues were prepared and a project summarizing report was developed and published. In the final stage, the project international team elaborated a set of curriculum design principles, along with some teachers training templates. The principles derived from project activities were tested during a Summer School for primary and preschool science and mathematics teachers. The project concludes with a final report and a collection of recommendations on the subject, targeting policy makers and all interested stakeholders. Some of these materials were translated into partners’ national languages. The project activities were finalized with an international conference.
Link: http://www.creative-little-scientists.eu/home and http://education.inflpr.ro/ro/MiciiCercetatoriCreativi.htm)
“SUSTAIN - Supporting Science Teaching Advancement through Inquiry” (EU Comenius multilateral network / National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics / 2013-2015)
Partners:
· FONDATION LA MAIN A LA PATE – FRANCE
· ECOLE NATIONALE SUPERIEURE DES TECHNIQUES INDUSTRIELLES ET DES MINES DE NANTES – FRANCE
· FREE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN – GERMANY
· ST PATRICK'S COLLEGE – IRELAND
· ANISN - NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NATURAL SCIENCE TEACHERS – ITALY
· NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR LASERS PLASMA AND RADIATION – ROMANIA
· VINČA INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR SCIENCES – SERBIA
· TRNAVA UNIVERSITY – SLOVAKIA
· UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA – SLOVENIA
· UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER - UNITED KINGDOM
· SCIENCE LEARNING CENTRE, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION - AUSTRIA
This project is in its first year of implementation and it is focused on problem-solving and critical thinking, inquiry-based science education (IBSE) is well-suited for teaching Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) at school. Like IBSE, ESD gives explicit attention to developing young people’s creative ability to problem solving and imagine new scenarios through the active learning processes of conceptualising, planning, acting and reflecting. It provides the space for critical thinking to be combined with the creative act of interpreting images of the future. This dimension helps students to develop skills necessary for democratic engagement.
In response to the 21st century global challenges highlighted by the economic, social and environmental crisis, ESD is taking shape in schools. To ensure that ESD becomes more widespread and brings about the desired awareness among pupils, teacher professional development is paramount: it is essential to provide teachers with appropriate and cutting-edge tools and learning materials for ESD.
During 3 years, the SUSTAIN network (11 CPD providers in 10 EU countries, with extensive experience in IBSE) will develop, through collaborative work on 3 cross-cutting ESD topics, an innovative IBSE-based “toolbox” on ESD for teachers and teacher educators, which can be used and adapted to local contexts in most European countries. The project partners will form 3 working groups on 3 major ESD topics, and develop IBSE-focused teaching and training tools and activities, which will be presented in 3 European workshops, and then made available for transfer/exploitation through 3 handbooks published on the network website. An initial conference on ESD will provide up-to-date insight on the field by invited experts, while a final conference will disseminate the project to a wider audience.
Link: http://www.fondation-lamap.org/en/sustain/project
“Inquiry-Based Education in Science and Technology – i-BEST” (National project / National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics / 2013-2016)
Partners:
· National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics
· "Gheorghe Asachi" University from Iasi
· SC Computer Power S.R.L
The major goal of the project, to educate students for the knowledge-based economy, by increasing young generation interest in science and technology carriers and by promoting creativity and innovative thinking, will be achieved through a novel, mixed project-based / inquiry-based educational model for science teaching in schools at primary and lower secondary school levels. Emphasis will be placed to overcome the deficiencies Romania has as compared to the European achievements in science education at pre-university level.
A second goal of the project is to build-up a democratic citizenship both to school students and local authorities, through a participative contribution of the general public, by involving them actively into weather/ environment monitoring research projects. By its new approach, the project is an exploratory one, as it proposes a new educational paradigm based on a real time, virtually collaborative web-based platform.
The third aspect to be considered in the project is the support the continuous professional development (CPD) of in-service teachers, based on various project activities, which by themselves constitute inter-disciplinary investigations (the project will imply physics, chemistry, biology, geography, IT).
In the project frame are planned the following activities to be carried out:
A. Inexpensive teaching aids (experimental kits, educational videos, training courses and demo sessions for teachers) will be developed in order to complement the written resources available or that which will be further developed. In this way, teachers will have an easy access to practical instruments (kids, demo video) to support directly science education and will be more efficient in spending the time allocated to science lessons.
B. Assistance in using the teaching aids will be provided either through training courses or an e-learning platform (http://81.181.130.13/teachscience/).
C. A set of collaborative projects engaging a higher number of Romanian schools will be a good opportunity to have a broader dissemination of the inquiry-based science education principles in Romania. Such a program will be diversified by:
- extending the observations to a set of topics related to weather and pollution monitoring (UV radiation, water quality, noise pollution);
- runnning of measurements using data loggers and sensors;
- building-up of a virtual community of schools.
All these will be premiers and will set a track on science teaching in relation to the environmental studies. An extended database will be developed with students’ investigations results heading to multi variable, multi annual investigations performed by school communities (http://81.181.130.13/ibest/).
D. The use of data acquisition systems and sensors for field measurements will be associated to geography and mathematics. In this way, a cross-curricular approach will assist integrated science teaching.
E. Generally, Romanian teachers lack the direct interaction with foreign expertise for several reasons: financial constrains to travel or attend events abroad; poor foreign languages management; some sort of introversion because of real or imaginary complexes. To fill this gap and bring the outside world experience for a direct contact several activities are run: translations from foreign languages of learning units; organization of workshops/ courses for Romanian teachers delivered by European leading experts.
F. Through conferences and workshops, journal publications and conference papers, and project web site the project results are promoted. This will assure a better visibility of Romanian educational system on the international stage, and further participation of Romanian teams to European funded projects is encouraged (Society in Society, Life long learning, networks, twining schemes).
G. The project will be also a test bed for the use of data loggers in large collaborative projects run with school students at quite early age of education (8 – 14 years old). Based on the collected results school students will be thought elements of data mining and comparative interpretation in relation to weather and environment pollution.
Every year the international conference “Science Education in School” is organized. Special pages on the project site are dedicated to teachers’ projects in order to build a national network of inquiry-based learning practitioners, and to assist interested parties in exchanging ideas and best practice. The great success of this project in Romania is proved by the impressive number of visitors registered on the project web site.
Link: http://education.inflpr.ro/ro/IBEST.htm
ESTABLISH
The objective of ESTABLISH was the dissemination and use of an inquiry-based teaching method for science with second level students (age 12-18 years) on a large scale in Europe.
ESTABLISH has, over its lifetime (2010-2014), facilitated and widened the use of inquiry-based science education (IBSE) for second level students (age 12-18 years) across Europe by bringing together, within a collaborative environment, the key stakeholders in science education to generate a suite of substantial teaching and learning materials (Units) as well as a series of educational supports for both in-service and pre-service teachers.
Specifically the ESTABLISH partners have sought to:
- Identify, develop and localise inquiry-based teaching and learning materials;
- Provide supports for teachers to successfully implement IBSE;
- Share inquiry approaches and learn from one another’s experiences to promote IBSE across Europe;
- Stimulate student learning and promote careers opportunities in science to young people;
- Foster a mutually beneficial relationships between industrial, scientific, teaching and educational communities;
- Promote the experiential and educational benefits of IBSE.
The result of these collaborations have been a number of teaching and learning materials (ESTABLISH Units) enriched with industrial contexts and knowledge together with a series of educational supports for both in-service and pre-service teachers (ESTABLISH Teacher Education Programmes) designed to promote the use of Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) in classrooms across Europe. In addition ESTABLISH co-hosted the international Science and Mathematics Education Conference in 2012 in Dublin (http://www.dcu.ie/smec/2012/index.shtml). During this conference, teachers from each of the ESTABLISH beneficiary countries travelled to Dublin to share and learn from one another experiences of using inquiry in their classrooms.
ESTABLISH teaching and learning units can be downloaded from the website at http://establish-fp7.eu/resources/units and information on the ESTABLISH Teacher Education Programme is available at http://establish-fp7.eu/resources/programmes.
SAILS
The aim of this project is to support teachers in adopting an inquiry approach in teaching science at second level (students aged 12-18 years) across Europe. This will be achieved by utilising existing resources and models for teacher education in IBSE, both pre-service and in-service. In addition to SAILS partners adopting IBSE curricula and implementing teacher education in their countries, the SAILS project will develop appropriate strategies and frameworks for the assessment of IBSE skills and competences and prepare teachers not only to be able to teach through IBSE, but also to be confident and competent in the assessment of their students‟ learning. Through this unified approach of implementing all the necessary components for transforming classroom practice, i.e. teacher education, curriculum and assessment around an IBSE pedagogy, a sustainable model for IBSE will be achieved. SAILS will provide teacher education workshops in IBSE across the twelve participating countries and promote a self-sustaining model encouraging teachers to share experiences and practice of inquiry approaches to teaching, learning and assessment by building a community of practice.
The SAILS consortium consists of fourteen partner organisations, including universities, SMEs and a multi-national organisation, from across twelve European countries. The strength of this consortium lies in its vast experience and expertise in the areas of science education, teacher training and resource development for teaching, learning and assessment.
- Dublin City University, Ireland
- Audiovisual Technologies, Informatics & Telecommunications, Belgium
- INTEL Research and Innovation Ireland Limited, Ireland
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany
- Hacettepe University, Turkey
- Instituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
- Jagiellonian University, Poland
- King's College London, United Kingdom
- Kristianstad University, Sweden
- Malmö University, Sweden
- University of Piraeus Research Centre, Greece
- University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
- University of Szeged, Hungary
- Univerzita Pavla Jozefa Safárika v Kosiciach, Slovakia
By using a pan-European approach, SAILS will ensure that the diverse practices built up in each country can be analysed and shared, resulting in the development of models of best practice. These can be used not only in all the consortium countries but will also be available for other countries to adopt. This European approach raises the standard for everyone by encouraging national implementation, and by extending and promoting innovation in science teaching and learning in the classroom.
Recent project deliverables can be found at http://www.sails-project.eu/portal/resources.
During the 2014 SAILS/SMEC joint conference, SAILS teachers presented their experiences of implementing inquiry and the assessment of inquiry. These presentations can be downloaded from the conference website at http://www.dcu.ie/smec/2014/oral.shtml