From 29 to 30 October 2020, the 2nd year State of Affairs Meeting of the European Education Policy Network on Teachers and Schools (EEPN) took place. Due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was organized online by the European School Heads Association (ESHA) functioning also as the coordinator of the project.
The objective of the meeting was to find answers to how to best prepare students, teachers and school leaders for future digital transformations in the school system, being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the light of this, five research papers, were presented and discussed by members and leading partners in the framework of one-hour sessions and a thereafter following workshop on the second day. The papers were dedicated to a specific subject each touching upon learning skills and ways of school management relevant to the digital age. These subjects included collaborative learning and school leadership, entrepreneurial skills, critical thinking, literacies and multilingualism, active citizenship and digital tools. This presented broadness in rethinking education was very much welcomed by EFEE. It reflects our goal to provide people with a wide range of different skills sets to become not only capable workers but also responsible learners and citizens.
In the course of the discussions, all participants agreed that the mentioned skills and management forms represent chances to make lifelong learning more inclusive and equal. In this regard, inclusive learning and communication, distributive leadership, global citizenship education as well as social entrepreneurship became key terms. Furthermore, the importance of a good evidence-based data collection in order to be able to direct efficient nationally tailored actions was stressed. In this regard, the fostering of the social dialogue as a valuable data source was highlighted as well as already existing tools such as the SELFIE tool, the OCED Pisa study.
EFEE provides evidence-based value to the research of the project by collecting best practices, research and policy papers on digital technical tools, skills and competences supporting teaching and learning. Furthermore, it contributes to the network by developing a sustainability plan in cooperation with ETUCE and ESHA, to be submitted by the end of November.
For more information please contact: samira.Buhrer@educationemployers.eu
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