Teacher innovation

Event
  • 09.09.2022

Transforming Education Through Teacher Leadership and Innovation

This United Nations Transforming Education Summit session on Solutions Day will explore teacher leadership, autonomy, and innovation as key enablers of widespread transformation, affecting not only teachers, teaching and the teaching profession, but as a catalyst for accelerating global progress.

  • The session will be in-person in the United Nations Headquarters, Conference Room 1.
  • Watch the event online here.

Useful links:

  • Full official programme of the TES Solutions Day 
  • #TeachersTransform campaign, led by the Teacher Task Force in collaboration with the Action Track 3 co-leads, Nigeria, Romania, the International Labor Organisation (anchor), UNESCO (alternate), UNICEF, UNHCR, UNRWA and the World Bank.

Speakers:

  • H.E. Dr Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of Education, United Arab Emirates
  • H.E. Mrs Angelina Motshekga, Minister of Basic Education, South Africa
  • Mr Tinti Enoch Rabotapi, TTF Co-Chair / Chief Director at the Department of Basic Education, South Africa (moderator)
  • Mr Tom Vandenbosch, Global Director of Programmes, VVOB-education for development
  • Ms Rebecca Pringle, President of the National Education Association, United States
  • Dr Hassan Obaid Al Mheiri, Assistant Undersecretary for Licensing and Quality, Ministry of Education, United Arab Emirates
  • Mr Johannes Schwartzkopff, young teacher, Teach for All Network
  • Ms Lykke Storgaard, student, Teach for All Network
  • Ms Keishia Thorpe, 2022 Global Teacher Prize winner
  • Mr Agustin Porres, LATAM Regional Director, Varkey Foundation, and co-Coordinator of the TTF Thematic Group on School Leadership
  • Mr Borhene Chakroun, Director, Division for Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems, UNESCO

Attend:

  • The session will be in-person in the United Nations Headquarters, Conference Room 1.
  • Watch the event online here.
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Event
  • 09.09.2022

Teachers at the Heart of Education

This United Nations Transforming Education Summit session on Solutions Day will be a call for action for the transformation of teaching by developing comprehensive teacher policies through social dialogue. 

  • The session will be in-person in the United Nations Headquarters, Conference Room 3.
  • Watch the event online here.

Teachers, trainers and other education personnel are generally considered the single most influential variable in an education system for achieving learning outcomes. The achievement of SDG 4 and the transformation of education will depend heavily on teachers and education personnel that are empowered, adequately recruited, well-trained, professionally qualified, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems.

National teacher policies that are formulated and adopted through participatory processes that capture the voice of teachers, education personnel, and other stakeholders are a key strategy for countries to ensure a high-quality and sustainable education workforce. Ensuring that the needs and aspirations of teachers are included through social dialogue at every step of teacher policy formulation can ensure that teachers’ perspectives and expert knowledge form the basis of decision making, and, ultimately, lead to quality teaching and learning.

Drawing on experiences by countries and by previous teacher policy and social dialogue initiatives carried out by multilateral agencies, the co-leads of Action Track 3 on teachers, teaching and the teaching profession are proposing a global call for action to develop and support national teacher policies through social dialogue. The areas of action would support countries to:

The areas of action would support countries to:

  • Map and identify challenges and opportunities in developing a quality education workforce, such as training bottlenecks, refugee and crisis contexts, career counselling, housing, gender issues, violence and harassment, wages and social protection;
  • Formulate innovative policies to train, recruit, deploy and professionally develop teachers, trainers and other educational personnel to achieve national education goals;
  • Formulate policies to ensure quality teaching in crisis contexts and in relation to refugees;
  • Develop innovative policies to train education personnel in relation to current priorities, including labour market access, gender equality, crisis and conflict, digital competencies and environmental sustainability;
  • Establish robust social dialogue mechanisms to ensure participation of education personnel and their representative organizations and other relevant stakeholders in education policy-making;
  • Anchor achievements in education workforce development through national financing and continuous professional development strategies.

Useful links:

  • Full official programme of the TES Solutions Day 
  • #TeachersTransform campaign, led by the Teacher Task Force in collaboration with the Action Track 3 co-leads, Nigeria, Romania, the International Labor Organisation (anchor), UNESCO (alternate), UNICEF, UNHCR, UNRWA and the World Bank.

Speakers:

  • Ms Alette van Leur, Director Sectoral Policies Department, International Labour Organization (ILO)
  • Mr Oliver Liang, Head of Unit, Public and Private Services Sector, International Labour Organization (ILO)
  • Dr Heike Kuhn, Head of Division ‘Education’, BMZ, Germany
  • Dr Ligia Deca, Presidential Adviser, Presidential Administration of Romania
  • H.E. Jaime Perczyk, Minister of Education, Argentina (tbc)
  • H.E. Li Andersson, Minister of Education, Finland
  • Hon. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister of Education of Ghana (tbc)
  • Dr Abdulsalam Mohammed Al-Joufi, Advisor, Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States
  • Ms Susan Hopgood, President, Education International
  • Ms Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO
  • Dr Khalifa Al Suwaidi, Board of Trustees, Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance
  • Prof Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission of Nigeria
  • Ms Mary Maker, Teacher

Attend:

  • The session will be in-person in the United Nations Headquarters, Conference Room 3.
  • Watch the event online here.
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Blog
  • 08.09.2022

#TeachersTransform the classroom: Using ICT to create a safe space for learners to thrive inside and outside the classroom

“Technology is as destructive or constructive as the people who use it. So, if teachers, educators, and parents use technology with clear purpose, and model constructive behaviours, I believe it can have a positive impact on education.”

Nana Gulic spent a decade of working with government, schools, and teachers to help create a learning environment that supports children’s social-emotional needs as well as their educational needs. Now through SEed (Social and Emotional Education), an ed-tech start-up that empowers non-profits like schools, Nana implements character and leadership development programmes that help learners increase self-confidence, motivation, physical and mental health and build positive relationships with their parents and peers.

According to a report by UNESCO and the International Academy of Education, “Social-emotional learning, or SEL, is sometimes called ‘the missing piece’, because it represents a part of education that links academic knowledge with a specific set of skills important to success in schools, families, communities, workplaces and life in general.”

“By combining my B.A. in Child and Youth Care and M.A. in Social Justice and Equity Studies, I am able to identify innovative ways to empower my students in the classroom, and help them become active participants in their own lives and homes,” says Nana.

Using tech for parent & learner counselling during the pandemic

The critical role that psychosocial support plays in the learning environment was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. A report noted that it would not be enough for schools to simply reopen their doors after COVID-19. Students will need tailored and sustained support to help them readjust and catch-up after the pandemic. Teachers are being encouraged to incorporate remedial education approaches and social-emotional learning into their pedagogy.

This is exactly what Nana is doing in her school. After initiating online social and emotional learning workshops for students and their parents during the pandemic, she continues to host them now that schools have reopened.

“One of the biggest benefits of online counselling is that we can have group discussions, but then we can turn our microphones on mute, and have private internal chats between family members. You can’t do this in an in-person group setting. And there were some amazing things that came out of those private moments. Some major breakthroughs between parents and their kids.”

Technology can create a space for struggling learners to communicate

Teachers and child and youth workers can use digital tools to support the socio-emotional development of learners both inside and outside the classroom. “Technology doesn’t replace a good teacher or counsellor. It just adds an extra layer, it’s an extra tool that we can use to communicate with our learners.”

One of Nana’s roles is to help struggling students develop the skills they need to talk about, and deal with various challenges in their lives, like the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education, “Many students felt lonelier, a vast majority, missed contact with their classmates, many were worried about how the disruption impacted their learning and will affect their future education.”

To help her learners process their experience of the COVID-19 lockdowns, she invited them to build their ‘ideal post-COVID world’ in Minecraft. Four 10-year-old learners from Canada and four from Croatia were tasked with working together to create a digital space that met all of their wants and needs.

“They might not have been able to verbally express how much they missed social interaction, but their Minecraft world clearly showed this,” says Nana. “It included a flying van to travel with family and friends, a portal that allows you to travel wherever you want, an amusement park, and a school cafeteria with lots of space to have fun and spend time with friends.”

Polls, YouTube, and instant messaging to develop ‘social and emotional literacy’

According to a report on social and emotional learning in education systems, the main purpose of ‘emotional literacy’ – a skill that involves being able to name and understand one’s own emotions and the emotions of others – is to improve relationships and facilitate more cooperative functioning between individuals, within communities and throughout society as a whole.

In the classroom, students are often afraid to reveal how they really feel in case they are ridiculed. So Nana uses an app to allow learners to respond to a digital poll anonymously. When the poll shows that “everyone” feels nervous on their first day of school, or over 90% of the respondents have anxiety about exams, it helps learners feel less vulnerable.

Nana has also created a fictional YouTube character called Dolly Ghostsmith who enlists the help of the students to track down four escaped ghosts called "Denialy", "Doubty", "Worry Anne", and "Fearan". The ghosts help Nana’s elementary school learners develop their social and emotional literacy by identifying their unique characteristics.

Research shows that by implementing SEL in schools, students can begin to recognise and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, establish positive relationships, make responsible decisions and handle challenging situations.

When it comes to encouraging learners to share their struggles, Nana has even turned to texting.

“Over the years, I’ve found that some students would rather communicate by typing than by talking. I really struggled to get through to them until I offered the option to text rather than to chat in person. Some of the learners even use a second language to express themselves emotionally.”

Using apps to give students with learning difficulties more independence

There are also several tools which Nana uses to help those with learning difficulties integrate into the classroom. For those with dyslexia, she uses text-to-voice apps and transcription apps which give learners who struggle to read and write more freedom to work independently.

For those with attention difficulties, Nana uses digital cognitive training apps together with in-person therapy sessions. One of her favourite tools is Lumosity which features games that are scientifically designed to help improve memory, processing speed, and problem-solving skills.

“Technology is such a natural environment for kids. It is a place where their voices can be heard, and where they can meet with other students around the world and engage with them.”

“In the future, I hope that we can all work together to build a teacher-led collaborative and empowering environment that focuses on sustainability, equity and social justice.”

Learn more about the #TeachersTransform campaign as part of the Transforming Education Summit.

Photo credit: Nana Gulic

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Event
  • 20.06.2022

Call for abstracts. GPE KIX continental research symposium: Reimagining research and innovation for a better impact on learning outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa

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:

  • Proven innovations in improving learning and teaching in Sub-Saharan African contexts
  • Quality teacher education and professional development programs and support mechanisms, as measured by learning outcomes

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.

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Event
  • 17.06.2022

Call for practice: ETF Innovative Teaching and Learning Award 2022

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:

  • support personalisation and differentiation of learning
  • foster new pedagogical approaches
  • use digital technologies for teaching and learning
  • increase social inclusion of learners
  • are focussed on new learning content
  • innovate the teaching curricula
  • contribute to building key competences and new skills
  • implement new assessment approaches

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:

  • Submitting your practice will take you no more than 15 minutes
  • By submitting an eligible practice, you will receive an ETF Open Badge recognizing your contribution, and your practice will be displayed through the ETF Community of Innovative Educators
  • If your practice is evaluated as one of the 10 most innovative ones by an international jury, you will be invited to the ETF New Learning Event in Torino, Italy, in November 2022
  • During the event, three practices will be selected and will be awarded the 2022 ETF new Learning Award.

 

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.

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Event
  • 15.06.2022

Learning from innovation in teaching and learning in Serbian Vocational Schools

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

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Event
  • 18.05.2022

Transforming Education Summit – First public consultation on the discussion paper on teachers

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”.

Replay the consultation here.

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.

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