STEAM capacity building

Lithuania,Lithuania, Greece, Portugal, Greece, Spain, Netherlands; Vilnius, Kilkis, Sesimbra, Santiago de Compostela, Amsterdam
2016

Time frame	Long-Term Development Program
Categories	Career Orientation
Level of Schools	Primary School Lower Secondary School Upper Secondary School Other
External Partners	Other
Type of Schools	Lifelong Learning Centre (LLC) “Epimorfotiki Kilkis sm llc” specialises on modern Vocational Training and Lifelong Learning (LLL), as well as advanced Consultative & Supportive Services, which aim at continually promoting sustainable development of Kilkis Prefecture, the business activity and the development of local human resources. CREF - Educational Resources and Training Centre is a private non-profit educational institution which provides educational support for the basic and secondary schools staff in all the Sesimbra region. CREF is also responsible for the continuous training of the teachers from public and private pre and primary schools, in partnership with the CFAE Order of Santiago and the municipality of Sesimbra. Dide Kilkis is an organization which manages preliminary, primary and secondary schools in City of Kilkis. The CAFI is responsible for the design and evaluation of innovative instructional programs, as well as other innovative initiatives for the Network for Teachers' Continuing Education. The University of Amsterdam is the Netherlands' largest university, offering the widest range of academic programmes. At the UvA, 30,000 students, 6,000 staff members and 3,000 PhD candidates study and work in a diverse range of fields, connected by a culture of curiosity.
URL	https://steam.ugdome.lt/
Number of Schools involved
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Number of Teachers involved
Number of Students involved
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Number of External Partners involved

Short Description

The “STEAM capacity building” is a free online course, designed for basic and secondary teachers, interested in STEAM education, integrated teaching and learning, innovative teaching methods, using ICT in the classroom. This interactive self-paced audio/video/text courses are created by the best Greeks, Lithuanian, Spanish, Netherlands, Portuguese teachers and designed to help teachers meet their educational goals.

Objectives

Project goal:
To build a critical mass of teachers capable to implement a cohesive approach in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) teaching, which is based on ideas of values promotion, more complex integration in STEM education and learner-focused approach, and contribute to the development of a responsible individual, who uses science to contribute to the progress and well-being of society.

Project objectives:
- To identify new and explore effective forms and methods in STEM teaching, learning and assessment; -- To share the experience of good practice on increasing students’ interest in STEM and creative STEM application through engaging, integrated STEM learning activities tailored to learner needs and capabilities; -- Developing students’ skills of creativity and critical thinking, STMD competences (STMD = mathematical competence, basic competencies in science and technology, digital competence) social and civic competences;
- To guide teachers, how to organize STEM teaching based on values promotion, more complex integration in STEM education and learner-focused approach;
- To develop teachers’ skills and competencies necessary for cohesive STEM education implementation;
- To support the development of an international network of STEM teachers and peer learning community.

Methodology

For being to strengthen didactic and key competencies of teachers, the program developers created a variety of training methods and working techniques in correspondence to the different learning styles: gamification methodology, STEAM techniques, collaborative problem-solving methods.

Funding

EU-funded (Erasmus+ KA2) funded it.

Outcomes

MOOC. Massive online courses as a form will guarantee that we reach the maximum possible number of teachers in STEM-focused schools and at the same time will ensure equal opportunities for the best STEM subject teachers from schools not focused in STEM. MOOC will also provide a virtual meeting and discussion space for international peers. As a consequence, it will contribute to the scalability of implementation and provision of distance learning opportunities. The course evaluation questionnaires will be built in MOOC to collect participant feedback to be used in modifying/updating the final product.

Long-Term Professional Development Program. It will increase the competencies of STEM teachers and will make them aware of the very recent developments in science education. At the same time, Professional Development Program will introduce and train on effective forms and methods in STEM teaching, learning and assessment.

Justification

The practice has many similarities with our (SNELLMAN’s) LEC plan: to design and implement a science education instructor training.

Didactical Concept

The inquiry-based design of the program facilitates an understanding and mastering the logic of inquiry in teaching practice.

Innovation

The program created the first international MOOC for STEAM educators.

Interdisciplinarity

The developing of the program requires experts from various disciplines: pedagogies, e-learning specialists and STEM education specialists.

Transdisciplinarity

During the developing, the experts brought their practical knowledge to the program.

Cooperation

Building a high-quality MOOC and Professional Development Program is challenging. It requires dynamic and robust collaboration between the partners and the teachers.

Qualitative assessment Inclusiveness

The MOOC contributes to the provision of distance learning opportunities.

Supervision

EDC and EC are the coaches and supervisors.

Cooperation Quality

When I look at the versatile and comprehensive content list of the MOOC, (https://steam.ugdome.lt/modules- 2/) I am convinced myself that the cooperation must be very successful.

Role of External Partners

n/a

Institutional Learning

The knowledge transfers to schools and other institutions via the teachers who participate in the courses created in the program.

Implementation

The above mentioned six institutions implement the project.

Evaluation

I couldn't find this information but presumably EDC must have the data.

Documentation

phere

I couldn't find this information, but presumably, EDC must have the data.