16 new Erasmus+ Teacher Academies to promote excellence in teacher education in Europe
The 16 new projects come on top of the 11 projects funded under the first call for proposals last year.
Today we celebrate an important milestone towards establishing the European Education Area. The Commission presents 16 new Erasmus+ Teacher Academies, which will benefit from almost €22.5 million from the Erasmus+ budget over three years to provide teachers at all stages of their careers with learning opportunities that include mobility, learning platforms and professional communities.
Together with the 11 projects funded under the first call for proposals last year, the 16 new projects will embrace multilingualism, language awareness and cultural diversity, as they develop teacher education in line with the EU's priorities in education policy and contribute to the achievement of the European Education Area, the EU’s joint vision for the education and training sector.
Two years ahead of schedule
Altogether, the target of creating 25 Erasmus+ Teacher Academies by 2025, as part of the efforts towards establishing the European Education Area, will be achieved two years ahead of schedule!
‘Innovative digital GEO – Tools for enhancing teachers’ digital, green and spatial skills towards an effective STEAM Education for Sustainable Development’
GEO-Academy is a consortium of partners from 7 EU countries. It aims to create a European network offering a comprehensive teacher training and development programme which will provide pre- and in-service teachers opportunities for professional learning and development. The ultimate goal is to prepare the groundwork for a unified framework to foster teachers’ pedagogical, digital, green and spatial skills needed for successful Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) programmes in the respective countries and beyond.
GEO-Academy aims to support the introduction of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Earth Observation (EO) along with Geospatial Storytelling, through tools and materials freely accessible to all education institutions across Europe. The material will be developed in English, German, Portuguese, Greek, Bulgarian and French. During its lifecycle, GΕΟ-Academy will usher the activities through online, physical and blended training across Europe.
‘A European Academy for integrating Nature-based Solutions (NBS) in teacher education’
NBS Academy sets out to create a European community of practice focused on developing and testing new professional learning programmes for improving teachers’ competences on education for environmental sustainability. It will do this by using Nature Based Solutions (NBS). It wil develop and pilot Initial teacher education and continuous professional development programmes in six different countries, covering different geographical, cultural and linguistic areas of the EU.
It will celebrate cultural diversity and multilingualism by implementing the training programmes via a blended mobility approach (including a summer school as well as distance VR mobility training). This will result in raising the appeal of the teaching profession and its internationalisation, by increasing the opportunities for both teachers and teacher trainers to interact and learn from peers across the EU.
Following the training programmes' implementation, NBS Academy will evaluate and validate its results and use its extensive dissemination network to raise awareness among education professionals on the benefits of NBS Education as well as the internationalisation of teacher education.
Co-constructing the continuum between initial teacher education and continuous professional development
The ContinueUP project will focus on processes and outputs at initial teacher education (ITE) and continuous professional development (CPD). The aim is to develop teachers’ capacity to benefit from online training opportunities and reduce barriers to take-up such opportunities.
The project will establish a network of ITE and CPD providers that will co-construct and deliver an education and training programme addressing teachers’ use of digital tools for professional engagement. The delivery of the module will be implemented jointly, allowing student teachers from different countries to study together. In-service teachers will benefit by developing their capacity to engage in more advanced online mobility activities and CPD opportunities.
Teacher educators and trainers will also benefit from mobility experiences in order to better promote such experiences among their peers. The co-construction process also aims to increase the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of developing new teacher education and training programmes. Furthermore, the project will pilot processes that can lead to the formal recognition of teacher CPD Massive Open Online Courses.
European Teachers' Academy for Creative & Inclusive Learning
This project aims to establish a Teacher Academy which will focus on the use of creative methods of teaching in diverse classrooms, working on the results of previous European initiatives. These methods include elements of the Montessori method, theatre, Drama in Education, Gamification, Creative Computing, etc.
The Academy is going to develop a Joint Curriculum on the use of Creative methods in diverse classrooms. It will also organise a series of joint teacher training activities (online workshops, Summer Campus, e-learning courses, blended learning courses, classroom-based courses etc) which will also test diverse mobility and training schemes. The project will establish a professional community of practice that will foster peer learning and mutual exchange of experience and expertise. An Academic publication is going to show the impact of these methods.
The Academy will have a formalised structure. It will develop strategic cooperation with authorities and stakeholders in order to ensure its sustainability. It is estimated that around 900 teachers, both trainee and in-service teachers, and 10,000 students are going to benefit directly from the project activities.
Teacher Education Academy for Music. Future-Making, Mobility and Networking in Europe
TEAM, the Teacher Education Academy for Music is a pan-European collaborative research and development network. It aims to reshape initial and ongoing music teacher education (MTE) and school music education (ME) in Europe according to the current needs of music teacher professionalisation, digitisation, intercultural learning, future viability, sustainability, and social coherence.
TEAM plans to achieve this by developing evidence-based future-making music open educational resources for initial and continuous MTE. It will do this by strengthening mobility for initial music teacher education, with a special focus on high-quality school internships abroad with intercultural mentoring. The TEAM learning outcomes will sum up the knowledge from all TEAM findings and develop this into a useful curricular policy paper to advocate for high quality in ME/MTE in European countries.
TEAM will foster a music education network of 15 partner institutions (training schools, initial and continuous MTE institutions) from 12 European countries.
Academy for creative, innovative and inclusive schools
The Academy for creative, innovative and inclusive schools, or ACIIS, intends to set up a network of teacher trainers at pre-service and in-service level, and schools.
The network will promote innovative teaching methods. These use drama techniques and drama digital tools as a means to improve and support inclusive education and development. Such teaching methods will be particularly beneficial for schools attended by children coming from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and differently able-bodied children.
Providers of initial teacher education and providers of continuing professional development will train student teachers and in-service teachers. They will engage school teams in designing and trying out teaching strategies and innovative digital drama tools. Schools will give feedback and help to develop effective forms of virtual, in life and blended trainings for teaching languages, humanities and science in inclusive education.
ACIIS project will
- bring together 87 teachers from school lab teams at Pilot training courses, and 81 teachers – newcomers at International training courses. These will then incorporate new teaching strategies and ICT drama tools into their teaching practice
- train 75 teacher trainers who will then incorporate the innovative pedagogies into their training courses and lead the same training with up to 1,125 teachers during the lifetime of the project
ACIIS will carry out 3 innovation camps where teachers, students, professors, school leaders and representatives from public authorities will work together on defined challenges of inclusive education. Generated concepts will be used for developing drama ICT tools and other teaching resources.
ACIIS will organise 11 fairs of creative teaching ideas to share good practice and raise awareness. The project also plans to prepare policy brief including recommendations for educational policy change. These which will be shared at 4 round table discussions and a final event across Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, and Croatia.
Meta-Scientific Literacies in the (Mis-)Information Age
The SciLMi Teacher Academy will develop, pilot and evaluate cross-disciplinary blended intensive mobility programmes and trainings for pre- and in-service teachers. It will provide the required transversal competences, digital skills and inclusive teaching strategies to educate the future generation to critically engage with socio-scientific issues, and research and evaluate scientific claims and arguments for decision-making and action (PISA 2025 Science Competency 3).
The SciLMi Teacher Academy will build a pan-European Hub consisting of initial and continuous education providers, schools, teacher associations, education authorities, foundations, NGOs, libraries, science centres, etc. The network will be involved in the process and will facilitate the integration of meta-scientific literacy skills into the education systems across Europe.
Trans-national STEM teacher education focussing on transversal competence and sustainability education
The goal of acaSTEMy is to develop a systemic support structure for high-quality, research-based STEM teacher education from pre-service education to continuing professional development (CPD) that includes mobility as an essential building block. The project envisions transversally competent and motivated STEM teachers who are well equipped to prepare students for their future careers.
To reach its objectives, the acaSTEMy project plans to
- develop, pilot and promote various distance and blended learning models in combination with international mobility and mentorship
- improve STEM teachers’ digital competences for meaningful pedagogies
- support the competences and pedagogies of STEM teachers for sustainable and up-to-date education by developing CPD courses to address a) major challenges, such as environmental sustainability, green deal, global health and immigration and b) methodological aspects, such as teaching diverse classes, combating science anxiety, and fostering gender-sensitive teaching
The AcaSTEMy’s network will bring together providers of pre- and in-service teacher education, as well as practice schools from 8 countries. These will develop and test mobility models and programmes for effective and accessible professional learning. In addition, the partnership network includes STEM teacher associations, ministries of education and Academies of Sciences. These will provide input for developing a policy framework for purposeful and systematic teacher mobility and to inform broader science education policies at national and European levels.
STEAME Teacher Facilitators Academy
The STEAME (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Entrepreneurship) Teacher Facilitators Academies will support professional development and build a community of service and student teachers. Working together as co-creators for sustainable development between teacher education providers who have an impact on the evolution and quality of education in Europe and the continuous professional development of teachers, the project aims to set the ground for future schools.
The main innovations by this project include
- STEAME Teacher Facilitators Competence Framework for student and serving teachers
- STEAME Teacher Facilitators Learning Modules/Workshops/Webinars
- International Sharing Observatory for STEAME Learning Facilitators
- development of the STEAME Facilitators Community of Practice/Mentoring and Certification Programme
- policy recommendations – European Federation of STEAME Teacher Facilitators Academies
Integrated Digital Educational Leadership for the Future Teaching Academy
The IDEAL Futures Teacher Academy will develop a range of professional development activities and a collaborative digital hub to provide opportunities for educators to develop as future digital educational leaders. It will support pre-service, in-service teachers and educational leaders. They will be able to consider the challenges facing education in the future, and develop a vision based on their individual beliefs and the needs of their school communities, through collaboration with the wider education and technology sector. They will be supported to simultaneously solve specific challenges in the area of digital educational leadership and acquire the necessary skills and expertise through formal online professional development.
The main objectives are to
- support high quality collaboration between ITE Universities, Teacher PD providers, Teacher employment organisations, Policy Makers and Educational Technology providers
- identify the key challenges, problems and dilemmas facing pre-service and in-service teachers in a digital era in the context of the digital leadership ecosystem. These come from the perspectives of policy, praxis, pedagogy
- and identity opportunities for teachers to re-envision and lead a transformative approach to digital leadership in education
- develop and evaluate a high quality, multi-level pedagogical model that supports transformative dialogue and leads to a co-operative and integrated approach to addressing issues facing education in the area of digital pedagogical leadership
- create a range of professional development content, activities and associated micro credentials to implement the pedagogical model. These will support educators across all levels of education to foster skills in digital educational leadership, including formal open educational resources, synchronous workshops, hackathons, peer observations, transformative learning projects and design-based research activities
Social Change through Sustainable Communication in LifeLong Learning in Schools and Society
The TASC teacher academy will provide future and current teachers with sustainable communication skills. This refers to the necessary skills to become reflective and agile European teachers capable of preventing or eliminating violence, discrimination, polarisation, exclusion and bullying.
Through TASC, teachers will enrol in a joint training programme of 20 ECTS on sustainable communication.
TASC will formulate guidelines for policymakers to implement sustainable communication as a crucial cross-cutting competence for teachers and teacher trainers.
TASC will develop a European sustained and structured partnership between the providers of initial teacher education and continuous professional development. The consortium involves 12 partners of 7 countries, all involved in (initial) teacher training and/or continuous professional development.
21st Century European Teachers
The overall objective of the 21st Century European Teacher project is to gain insight into how European teachers can approach and develop teaching in emerging subject areas (technological empowerment, sustainable learning, entrepreneurship, playful learning), that arise as a result of large complex upheavals affecting society e.g., climate changes and the ubiquitous digital development. The partners will develop and innovatively improve the competencies and attractiveness of the teaching profession by establishing strong European partnerships between teacher education and training providers and providing sustainable teaching practices across borders through mobility activities in a blended approach to teaching and learning.
The 21st Century European Teachers project has 4 specific objectives
- provide a beyond state-of-the-art mapping laying the ground for a common understanding of the four subjects and establishing a strong network of 30 pre- and in-service teachers as a driver for mobility. This will happen during study visits and co-organised teaching events (five completed) across borders
- design, develop and try out 21st Century joint learning modules for 200 pre- and in-service teachers in a “21st Century European Teacher co-education model” building on the mapping and establishment of the strong network
- provide recommendations for the 21st Century European Teacher Curriculum around the four subject areas through five learning modules (MOOCs) made available via eTwinning. A minimum of 150 pre- and in-service teachers will be enrolled in one or more of the MOOCs across countries
- provide recommendations on the policy level by conducting five dialogue labs at national level with 30-50 participants from each country and an European workshop for a broad European network to inform relevant stakeholders
Teacher Education for a Future in Flux
The TEFF Academy model-framework combines digital, green, diversity & inclusion and – uniquely – well-being skills with a European dimension to equip teachers and enrich teacher education for a future in flux.
The Academy will provide empowering learning opportunities for pre-service and in-service teachers. Innovative activities include makerspaces and urban laboratories in addition to established lecture series and learning modules. All are designed, implemented, tested and disseminated as part of the Academy’s agile project management.
The Academy is a consortium of ten European universities, their partner schools, further education providers and government institutions dedicated to strengthening cross-phased and interdisciplinary teacher education. Its goal is to contribute towards a more attractive teaching profession through its transversal, agile and life-long learning offers. The Academy is based on partners’ existing cooperation: the European University Alliance EUniWell and the district government of the City of Cologne.
School EducatioN for Sustainable and Equal Inclusion
The School EducatioN for Sustainable and Equal Inclusion project will develop a module for initial teacher training and a hybrid international continued professional development course that help in- and pre-service teachers make the (history) classroom experience more meaningful, motivating, and inclusive for all students.
In doing so, it pursues the following objectives
- create a wide and reliable network of (history and citizenship) teachers that can support the needs of its members by collaboratively working toward innovative solutions, ultimately strengthening the profile of teaching professionals and increasing the opportunities for cross-border cooperation
- produce tailored training programmes for (history) teachers, providing pre- and in-service teachers with innovative and adaptable teaching methods that will increase their confidence to cater to students’ individual needs
- upscale existing methods and approaches that make history education accessible and meaningful to all, making sure that they can be applied in different contexts and that new teaching approaches build on the success of pre-existing ones
- create a transferable model on the development of hybrid continued professional development courses that can be used in the future to promote courses on multiple subjects
Establishing Teacher Education Networks and Communities of Practice on Teaching for Sustainability Citizenship
SYNAPSES presents a vision of how pre-service and in-service programmes on teaching for Sustainability Citizenship (SC) could be interrelated and enriched to develop a joint offer with a significant European dimension. Teaching for SC can stimulate and lead to action. This could be decreasing consumption and demand, developing sustainable food and energy sources, exploring nature-based solutions for the current challenges, using school buildings as teaching tools, and greening schoolyards.
SYNAPSES will set up series of training activities (at local, regional, national, and international levels) to help teachers design the most effective and engaging lessons. They will use innovative forms of instruction (inquiry-based, project-based, game-based) and tools (e.g., access to rich scientific data archives, virtual and remote experimentations, animations) in their classrooms.
More generally, teachers will change their thinking about their students’ learning of and about the environment, science and technology. This will be expanded by offering mobility opportunities such as study visits, job shadowing, meetings, conferences, and competitions to enable the Academy to become a forum to exchange knowledge. A systematic accreditation mechanism will be designed in the framework of the project.
European quality development system for inclusive education and teacher training
EQui-T aims to enhance high quality teaching in an inclusive European context. It will enable teacher trainers and pre- and in-service teachers to identify, create and share high-quality inclusive teaching materials in the form of open inclusive educational resources (OIER), and promote transnational collaboration and exchange of good practices.
To achieve these objectives, EQui-T will
- develop a comprehensive, multi-perspective criteria catalogue for inclusive quality assessment the of OIER
- establish training courses for pre- and in-service teachers to develop and test innovative teaching materials in the form of OIER for (technology-enhanced) inclusive teaching
- identify good practices for disseminating OIER and establish and implement sustainable dissemination processes
- establish a sustainable network of teachers and other actors in the field of inclusive education on a national and international level. These will promote transnational collaboration and exchange of good practices regarding identifying and exploiting existing (high-)quality digital tools and materials (e.g. OIER)
- conduct mobility activities during the training courses and within the network (using Erasmus+ infrastructure, e.g., eTwinning)
Approximately 300 teacher trainers and teachers from different school types in the five partner countries will be directly benefiting from the training courses and the network; through these teachers, we assume to indirectly reach around 6,000 students.