First International Summer School for Teachers Held at IOE
The year 2018 marks an important addition to IOE’s learning and networking agenda as a new International Summer School on modern L&D design and instructional practices made its debut early this July.
A joint initiative between the IOE Center for the Study of 21st Century Curricula and Teaching Practices and the Rossijsky Uchebnik corporation, the Summer School has provided a dynamic venue for educators to learn and debate about designing and implementing best-practice curriculum & teaching approaches, promoting professional networking and community integration, as well as fostering teacher involvement in the development of modern L&D aids.
Of more than 150 applications received from teachers in various disciplinary areas and at different levels, 45 most resourceful and motivated candidates have been shortlisted for participation. The School’s faculty has involved a superb cohort of international experts with diverse experience in education research and teaching.
As part of the School’s multi-format agenda, including lectures, workshops and informal networking, the participants have explored various perspectives in multiple areas central to the modern-day curriculum & instructional frameworks. In particular, the following key topics have been addressed: teacher’s personal and professional attributes that are required for effectively developing 21st century skills; what needs to be emphasized in designing best-practice school-age L&D environments; models for advancing the teacher professional community and continuing L&D frameworks; harnessing ICT-assisted practices in 21st century schooling; the format and content of modern teaching and learning aids; etc.
One of the School’s keynote lecturers, Dr. Jarkko Hautamäki of the University of Helsinki, has delivered workshops about the development and assessment of schooler cognitive capacitates from PISA and TIMSS perspectives as well as on how student learnability can be best evaluated.
Maria Dobryakova, Head of IOE’s Key Competencies and New Literacy project, has presented about best-practice international models for developing and deploying the 21st century skills agenda in school-age education.
A joint class by Elena Chernobai and Daria Savelieva has sought to acquaint the participants with the Lesson Study and Action Research frameworks, which are instruments that enable comprehensively evaluating teacher competency strengths as well as areas to be improved through personalized professional development strategies.
A seminar by IOE doctoral researcher Kirill Kostitsyn was dedicated to the taxonomic approach to learning outcomes. The discussion has taken comprehensive critique on this framework to identify its key pros and cons and enable participant teachers to gain a better understanding about how prospective L&D results can be ranged by difficulty. In addition, the participants were able to share their own experience in using various types of L&D assessment scales.
The School’s special sessions have hosted a series of presentations on innovative solutions in L&D design and teaching. In particular, students learned about how the Agile and Scrum teamwork practices can be used in L&D settings. Also, guest speakers representing innovative EdTech startups have discussed new ideas for effective lesson planning and student career guidance.