A call for research abstracts and presentations is open until 8th July for the upcoming GPE KIX Continental Research Symposium on “Reimagining research and innovation for a better impact on learning outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa”, to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from October 4th – 6th 2022. The Symposium is being jointly organized by the KIX Africa 21 and KIX Africa 19 regional hubs of the Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) Hub project, a joint initiative of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). It will bring together regional and national policymakers, researchers and academics to exchange critical knowledge on innovations, evidence and good practices to improve student learning outcomes amidst contextual challenges in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly after the disruption of education systems related to COVID-19.
Proposals for research papers presentations are welcome with a focus on one or more of the KIX Africa 21 and KIX Africa 19 countries and on any of the 7 thematic sub-themes of the symposium, 2 of which are directly related to teachers and teaching issues:
Detailed instructions for the submission of papers are available here. Any questions relating to this call must be sent by e-mail to: kix.iicba@unesco.org and programmekix@francophonie.org.
In the frame of the Creating New Learning initiative, the European Training Foundation (ETF) has opened a call to collect practices in the area of innovative teaching and learning. The call is open from 15 June to 22 July 2022 and aims to identify and valorise teaching practices that support new learning dynamics and that can serve as inspiration for teachers, trainers and policy-makers in the EU neighborhood and beyond.
We are looking for practices, approaches, courses, projects, that:
These practices can take place in different learning settings: initial vocational education and training, adult education, continuous professional development, higher education, informal learning, in-company training.
Why you should submit a practice:
Applying is easy and can be done through this online submission form. The form must be completed in English in order to allow international dissemination of the practices.
Applications must be received until the 22 of July 2022 (at 23:59 CET).*
For more information & in case of technical problems with the submission please contact us at: etf.educators-community@stepseurope.it.
Join teachers, learners, mentors and trainers from 6 Serbian schools for a webinar to learn how they have changed their processes of teaching and learning over the last 5 months.
How well does multi-disciplinary learning, collaborative learning and authentic learning work in practice?
Having conducted research into innovation into teaching and learning, it became clear that there was a need to work with teachers in vocational schools to see which innovations fit with the needs of teachers and learners and with their vocational programmes. Not theoretically in the future but now, in real schools by real teachers and learners. Only in this way can we learn which innovations are relevant to vocational teachers and learners in ETF’s 29 partner countries.
Nine groups of vocational teachers from six schools in Serbia expressed particular interest in experimenting with different approaches – in particular in multi-disciplinary projects, but also in collaborative, entrepreneurial and authentic learning. These teachers participated in professional development aimed at supporting them to design new programmes that would make use of innovative ways of teaching and learning. They were then supported to implement these programmes.
In this webinar teachers will share their experiences. Mentors and researchers will discuss the results of the projects and draw out the key messages for other schools and teachers. The projects were supported by the Centre for Vocational and Adult Education, Serbia and GIZ Serbia. Mentoring and training were organised by Education Forum, Serbia.
Identifying and evaluating innovations in teaching and learning is a priority of ETF and is being addressed through the Creating New Learning Project. The projects in Serbia make up one of three innovation partnerships.
How to register?
If you wish to participate in the online event, please click HERE to fill in the registration form for this event.
After registering you will receive the link to access the meeting.
The event will take place in online on the Zoom platform and will be delivered in English and BCMS.
Contact
In case you have any questions, please contact: etf.educators-community@stepseurope.it
In the lead-up to the Transforming Education Summit 2022, the first public consultation focused on the discussion paper prepared as part of the Action Track 3 on “Teachers, teaching and the teaching profession”.
The second consultation, on 14 June, will focus on the promising practices and potential new initiatives.
Action Track 3 is being led by representatives of two member states (Nigeria and Romania) and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 has been officially designated as the co-lead stakeholder. The work of the Action Track is being supported by the UN Support team, comprised of the International Labor Organisation (anchor), and UNESCO (alternate), UNICEF, UNHCR, UNRWA and the World Bank.
The Saudi Ministry of Education will organize the International Conference and Exhibition for Education (ICEE) 2022 from 8 to 11 May in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia under the theme “Education in Times of Crises: Opportunities and Challenges”.
As part of this, the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 will organize a panel discussion entitled “Transforming the teaching profession: innovation in times of crisis”. to explore different forms of innovation to transform the teaching profession during and after crises. This panel discussion aims to explore different forms of innovation to transform the teaching profession during and after crises. The discussions will focus on the following questions:
By Carlos Vargas Tamez, Head of the Secretariat of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 and Chief of UNESCO’s Section for Teacher Development & Anna Conover, Consultant.
This blog has been originally published by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) on April 22, 2022.
Unforeseen crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and violent conflict remind us that teachers and education systems need to be able to adapt rapidly to changing circumstances to meet the learning needs of children and youth. Capacity for innovation is one of the keys to building resilient education systems. Capitalizing on the many education innovations prompted by the pandemic, the Teacher Task Force chose “Innovation in teacher policy and practice for educational recovery” as the theme of its 13th Policy Dialogue Forum, which took place in Kigali, Rwanda, and online, 2-3 December 2021.
Some of the main insights documented during the Forum are presented below, including those related to innovations in teaching and learning, teacher education and policy. These have been compiled in the Forum’s Final Report, released recently.
Teachers are best placed to assess the conditions of their own classrooms. Based on these, they innovate and adapt their practice, but their innovations often go unrecognized. The Forum highlighted the need to promote teacher autonomy and agency – that is, the capacity to act in an autonomous manner – to generate meaningful pedagogical innovation. However, they need training, sufficient resources, good working conditions, and support to develop the autonomy and agency needed to initiate, implement and evaluate new ways to teach that will improve student learning and wellbeing.
Emphasizing how teaching and learning are based on relationships, Forum participants shared innovative examples of how teachers collaborated with peers and parents during the pandemic. For instance, in response to school closures, Kenya’s Teachers’ Service Commission provided educators with guidance on how to support other teachers and offer psychosocial support to families and learners. By providing teachers with opportunities to discuss their teaching practices and exchange resources with each other and with students’ families, key lessons learned now inform Kenya’s policies to support online learning and teacher professional development.
The role of digital technologies in innovation was also explored during the Forum, emphasizing tailored and context-sensitive use of technologies rather than one-size-fits-all solutions. While the pandemic hastened the need for technology-assisted innovations, mechanisms to assess, scale up, and refine are also necessary to ensure these innovations meet the needs for equitable, quality, and inclusive education. However, it is important that digital technologies do not reproduce top-down, rote learning resulting in excessive standardization, but rather are designed and implemented using a range of approaches to help foster student-centered pedagogies and facilitate education transformation.
Teacher professional development should be embedded in teacher career paths and be aligned to teacher standards and accountability systems. Forum participants explored how countries need to avoid innovating in a fragmented fashion that does not follow commonly agreed principles. This requires alignment across levels of education and between initial teacher education and continuing professional development. It also requires better alignment between existing curricula, teacher professional development and student assessment to strengthen student outcomes.
Based on lessons learned during the pandemic, teacher education should also include peer learning and mentoring programmes. In particular, teacher education needs to integrate inquiry and research skills which prepare teachers to be lifelong-learners, able to adapt their practice to changing conditions and meet their students’ evolving needs. Teacher training and educational research institutions have an important role to support this kind of continuous exchange, particularly to address challenges brought on by rapid transformations.
Teachers need to be part of decision- and policy-making processes. One example presented was the development of the Comprehensive National Teacher Policy (CNTP) in Ghana. This process was coordinated by the Ghana Teacher Task Force (GTTF) with contributions from the Ghana Education Service, development partners, and other actors. This collaborative process established a framework for social dialogue with teachers and their representatives at the local, district, and national levels.
Policy also needs to be informed by data which reflect realities on the ground. Grassroot-level innovation can be enhanced by teacher participation in data collection and analysis. With proper training, teachers and school leaders can use data to assess their own practices and address challenges in their own schools. An example of innovation in data use came from The Gambia, where schools develop their own indicators and targets through a process of consultation that involves teachers, parents, students, and their communities.
Innovations in teacher policy presented during the Forum included establishing new forms of partnerships with civil society organizations and funding agencies. For instance, an innovative workshop organized by UNESCO and the TTF brought together policymakers from various countries to inform the development of St Kitts and Nevis’ National Teaching Council. Rather than imposing a ‘one size fits all’ approach, this process allowed policymakers to explore different types of national structures and the roles played amongst a number of high- and low-income countries before establishing their own National Teachers’ Council.
Teachers are essential to the innovation necessary to ‘build back better’ in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, their professionalism needs to be recognized and supported, and experimentation and adaptation must take place within clear policy frameworks. Governments, teacher training institutions, and other actors must balance structure and flexibility to foster both bottom-up (grassroots) and top-down (system-wide) innovations, so that they can contribute to ensure equitable, inclusive, and quality education for all.
Download the Final Report from the Policy Dialogue Forum on Innovation in teacher policy and practice in education recovery.
Photo credit: GPE/Alexandra Humme