TeachUP, First Country Dialogue Lab in Spain

TeachUP, First Country Dialogue Lab in Spain

A particular feature of the TeachUP (Teacher UpSkilling) Project is a series of Dialogue Labs supporting cross-institutional collaboration in teacher education at national and European levels.

Country Dialogue labs are one day workshops which take place at country level and provide opportunities for collaboration, knowledge sharing and co-creation between Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and Continuous Proffesional Development (CPD) organisations and other relevant stakeholders.

The first Country Dialogue Lab took place in Spain on Tuesday November 7. 28 people from different profiles (student teachers, teachers, teacher educators and policy makers) engaged themselves actively in exchange of views and ideas, sharing expertise through dialogue around mixed tables to co-create new possibilities for teacher education.

Through different dynamics, participants had the opportunity to answer the following reflective questions, organised in four main topics:

  1. Identify gaps in ITE and CPD provision in relation to the teachers’ new roles and key competences
    • What do we expect for teacher education?
    • What kind of new competences or set of skills do teachers need for new ways of working in schools?
    • How does curriculum fit with new ways of working in schools?
  2. Formative assessment
    • What are the main characteristics of formative assessment?
    • Is there a mechanism to upscale formative assesment?
    • How can we introduce formative assessment in teacher education?
  3. Personalised Learning and Teaching and Collaboration
    • What are your views about personalised/differentiated learning?
    • How do spaces in school help/constrain collaboration and personalised learning?
    • How can a collaborative classroom culture be created?
    • How can we encourage collaboration between teachers?
  4. Creative thinking
    • How do we understand Creativity in Education?
    • What methodologies promote the development of Creativity?
    • How can we integrate Creativity in the Curriculum?
    • How can we integrate Creativity in teacher education?

All the conclusions of the different workshops will be reported during the Cross-country Dialogue Lab that will take place in Brussels on December, 13-14. The Cross-country Dialogue Lab will give the opportunity of drawing together key points made across countries to enable comparative analysis and agree on any changes to be made to the courses that will be launched in 2018.