In late October, 10 school education teachers from Spain, Serbia, Estonia and Portugal gathered for a 3-day Illumine teach-the-teacher workshop held in Barcelona, Spain. The workshop was hosted by the TIDE research group from Universitat Pompeu Fabra who are coordinators of the Erasmus+ Project, Illumine (2020-1-ES01-KA201-082504). The project which runs until the summer of 2023 aims to foster a community for exploring and sharing uses of evidence-based teaching strategies.
The primary goal of the workshop was to prepare teachers to teach/co-teach professional development workshops based on authentic case studies created during their participation in the Illumine project. Participants also took part in co-design sessions to help shape the overall Illumine professional development program and supporting technology. The 3-day workshop was co-led by Illumine partners: Marc Beardsley and Khadija El Aadmi Laamech (TIDE-UPF), Biljana Branković (archiPLAY Doo), Ana Silveira and Catarina Neto (Kokoro Association), Natasa Simic (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade), Merike Saar (Tallinn University), Cristina García and Mònica Fernández (Escola Pia Sarrià).
One of the highlights of the workshop was a cultural visit to Escola Pia Sarrià. Participants were able to observe classes as they were being taught, explore the school grounds, share experiences, and design future learning experiences around innovative teaching practices. While reflecting on their participation in the Illumine program, one of the teachers wrote about their hope to be a better example to their students;
'I recommend it to my peers because the strategies we learnt, we are now able to implement in our daily teaching practice. In the future I hope that I can keep implementing these strategies and improve my professional practice to be a better example to my students.'
Another teacher stated their wish to share their learnings with their school colleagues;
'My main takeaways from this experience are that there is always room for innovation and learning in the teaching area. I was able to put a case into practice and see my students enjoy it! I recommend it to my peers because the experience is interesting and gives you different teaching practices and approaches that are scientifically validated. In the future I hope that I can embark my school colleagues into putting that into practice in their teaching.'
All in all, teachers and instructors enjoyed the opportunity to learn together, share experiences and cultural perspectives, and work toward innovating educational practices.
