Event 4 - Spain
The aim of the multiplier event E4 was to communicate and negotiate with policy, policy mediators and practitioners outcomes from activity 1.1 and Intellectual outcome O1, i.e. “Policy envisions and requirements for STEM teachers competence development in Greece, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Spain”, focused on the Spanish situation.
The expected outcome was the identification of systemic opportunities and challenges to implement training activities for STEM teachers’ competence development in Spain.
E4 took place on 28th September 2017, at the beginning of the academic year in Barcelona, at the Faculty of Education, at University of Barcelona with the participation of 47 people from the following target groups: Policy makers –university teachers, members of the regional ministry of education, coordinators of regional STEM resource centers; Practitioners – STEM teachers from general and vocational schools, CPD trainers; Broad Society members – a representative of the federation of parents associations, directors of private educational centers, and a national publishing house.
The event followed an EASW methodology which allows interaction between different stakeholders and aims for consensus building. In the course of the event participants were asked to reflect and discuss on project outcomes presented in IO1 (key messages for the national context of Spain) and provided input to the questions: Which are the greatest challenges, which the new Educational Law places this school year? What opportunities the new Law opens? Groups of participants discussed opportunities and challenges and in plenary the participants synthesized all together the main points that emerged as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threads (SWOT). During the plenary session of the multiplier event, the heterogeneous groups presented the suggestions for negotiation. A summary and conclusions on the main needs and considerations in relation to STEM teachers’ training was agreed between all participants. Furthermore, the requirements for effective and efficient teachers’ training – topics, logistic, delivery were outlined.
Overall E4 developed a good network of policy makers, teachers’ trainers, teachers and broad society members, including parents associations. The main issues elaborated during the event were the opportunity and challenges that the new regulatory framework provides for efficient and effective STEM teachers’ training. Outcomes of the event are reported in O3. The outcomes are very useful in accordance to the next ELITe developments in terms of teachers’ training scenarios and e-learning content. They have the potential to contribute to improvement of the teachers’ training practices at national level.
The evaluation questionnaire shows that participants are very satisfied by the organization, quality, and interactivity of the multiplier event.