Teacher’s Professional Development in EU Policy Jakub Christoph 20/09/2016

The Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) is the executive branch of the European Union responsible for policy on education, culture, youth, languages, and sport.

DG EAC’s activities focus primarily on policy cooperation, helping countries learn from one another and work together to improve education across Europe. The DG also manages the Erasmus + programme. The European Commission has only a competence to support, coordinate or supplement actions of the member states (see Article 6 TFEU) in the area of education, vocational training and youth. This means that legally binding EU acts in these areas cannot imply the harmonisation of national laws or regulations.

Education and Training 2020 – ET 2020 Education and training are Member States’ responsibility, but many face similar challenges. European cooperation supports Member States’ reforms and actions This cooperation is known as Education and Training 2020, or ET2020 The mechanism of implementing the ET2020 is called Open Method of Coordination

Open Method of Coordination (OMC) Open Method of Coordination (OMC) is a form of cooperation among EU Member States in order to exchange good practice in the way they design policies and funding schemes Representatives of ministries of education and experts meet multiple times over 2-2,5 years to exchange good practice and produce policy manuals or toolkits which are shared throughout Europe. Through an exchange of good practice between EU countries, OMC contributes to improving the design and implementation of policies, without regulatory instruments The Commission is responsible for organising the OMC, hosting most of its meetings, reimbursing travel expenses, and supporting members of OMC groups with research and studies.

There have been 3 generations of Working Groups (WGs) 2011 - 2013 eleven Thematic Working Groups 2014 - 2015 six ET2020 Working Groups  2016 - 2018 six ET2020 Working Groups The primary focus of the Working Groups is to benefit the Member States in the work of furthering policy development through mutual learning and the identification of good practices, as well as understand what works in education.

The Group focused on improving initial teacher education. 2014-2015 WG on Schools Policy The Group focused on improving initial teacher education. It published a report “Shaping career-long perspectives on teaching. A guide on policies to improve Initial Teacher Education” Report Executive summary Video Infographic The report focused on three policy challenges around Initial Teacher Education This Group identified Initial Teacher Education (ITE) as a fundamental area for education policy to support a shift towards new working cultures and teaching practices, to lay the foundations for teachers’ capacity to adapt to changing contexts and circumstances and to increase the attractiveness of teaching as a career choice. The policy challenges are presented in the following slides

1st challenge – Making Career-Long Continuum of the Teaching Profession

2nd challenge – Promoting Collaborative Learning

3rd challenge – Governance of Initial Teacher Education This report and supporting materials were produced as an output of the 2014-2015 WG on Schools Policy. 2016-2018 there is a WG on Schools Policy but it has a little focus on ICT.

Erasmus+ Supported Initial Teacher Education Activities KA1: teachers benefit from Erasmus+ grants, both to pursue parts of their studies, or school placements abroad. This gives them a much supported European/international perspective. KA2: strategic partnerships typically include co-operation between providers of Initial Teacher Education, schools and other stakeholders. Often universities lead these partnerships, and many projects aim at improving ITE curricula and organisation. KA3: A recent call (now closed) for "policy experimentation" projects included a priority on ‘Strengthening teacher training and education by using the opportunities of new technologies (School education)’. KA – Key Action.

2016-2018 WG on VET Themes Governance and exchange of good practice among relevant stakeholders, with a focus on partnership arrangements between VET providers and companies; Quality, relevance and attractiveness in work-based learning through the professional development of teachers and trainers. Implementation of VET reforms through knowledge sharing, policy learning and the development of policy guidelines and targeted reference tools. In all the three themes, particular attention will be given to equipping teachers and trainers with the right set of skills to work with priority target groups: migrants, disadvantaged learners, minority groups. In 2016, the WG discusses questions of governance. In 2017, they will move to aspects linked to teachers‘ competences and professional development, with digital competences being one of the topics.

DigCompTeach – Digital Competence Framework for Teachers The framework is being developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission It aims to provide a common understanding of the digital competence needs for teachers at all levels The project will identify and describe the key components of teachers' digital competence and provide an instrument for (self-)assessment

Only teachers and school staff can become members of this community eTwinning is a platform for staff working in schools in Europe, to communicate, collaborate, and develop projects together It offers professional development workshops, online learning events, online seminars, self-teaching materials and other opportunities for teachers’ skills development Only teachers and school staff can become members of this community Available in twenty-eight languages, the eTwinning Portal now has the involvement of nearly 371 597 members and over 44 449 projects between two or more schools across Europe. Launched in 2005 as the main action of the European Commission’s eLearning Programme, eTwinning has been integrated in Erasmus+ since 2014.

Thank you