'ESIST - Evaluation Strategies for Improving School Leaders' Training Programmes - A European Perspective'' aims to develop strategies, methods and materials for evaluation and improvement of quality of school leaders' training courses/programmes and bring them together in a manual. More specific objectives are as follows:
· to write a comparative study about the existing school leaders' training programmes;
· to develop evaluation tools for school leaders' programme;
· to pilot evaluation tools in national settings;
· to compare results and experiences related to the process of evaluation;
· to publish a manual about strategies, methods and materials of evaluation;
· to suggest improvements of school leaders' training programmes at national levels;
· to strengthen European co-operation in the area of school leaders' training.
The main target group are school leaders' training providers as well as policy makers in partner countries and beyond. The project will be implemented through the following activities:
· comparative study;
· research (designing and piloting evaluation tools);
· evaluation (of programmes and project activities);
· sharing experiences;
· producing a manual, national and international reports;
· suggesting improvements for school leaders' training programmes.
Comparative study will be published on-line. Strategies, tools and methods of evaluation as well as case-study of evaluation will be published in a manual. Results and recommendations will be published in national and international reports.

www.solazaravnatelje.si

'EDIPED - The Development of an European Digital Portofolio for the Evaluation of Educators'' project's objective is the development of new, dynamic, digital appriasal tool for the collection and presentation of portfolio evidence of teachers' competencies, which can be used in the various educational and appraisal systems throughout EU. The project intends to address the self-improvement/self-evaluation of educators (such as teachers, educational administrators, inspectors, teacher trainers and trainees). The main activities will be:
- analysis of the existing appraisal systems in the partner countries;
- analysis of the tools used for the evaluation of educators in particular portfolios and digital portfolios of achievements/competencies in the partner countries;
- creation and implementation of a draft digital portfolio of  achievements/competencies;
- implementation of the digital portfolio tool, dissemination and evaluation.
The main outcomes will be:
(i) the development of an European Digital Portfolio in which personal documents of different types (texts, films, videos, tapes) can be stored and presented;
(ii) the development of a training course on how to use the above mentioned portfolio.
Target group are teacher at all educational levels, teacher trainers and student teachers.
The project sets to help enhance the quality of portfolio assessment thus enabling greater mobility of recognised professional teachers.

www.intercollege.ac.cy

The purpose of this project is to develop advanced courses for mentors of English and German teacher trainees and newly qualified teachers. This is a project partnership between 5 institutions from 4 different countries - UK, Austria, Lithuania and Lativa. This project builds on a previous project-the ApartMent project. In this project bookletswere produce in DE, EN, ES, and FR to disseminate findings from the project and courseswere designed and delivered for mentors of trainee teachers. The intention of this project is to develop further the teaching and learning strategies whichhave been successfully used (UK focus), broaden the range of materials to include the NQTs and trainees in all subjects (LT), support mentors as key change agents in postsovietclassrooms (LV focus) and incorporate the vies of children who are taught by traineeteachers (AT focus). As part of the project, trainee teachers will spend a minimum of 3 weeks on a schoolplacement with host partners as Teachers in Residence. A major part of the project's work is to develop materials that can be used as part of this placement.

k.shaw@ucsm.ac.uk

The project focuses on the development of a European science-course for teachers and teacher students working with pupils from 10-16. The main project output consists in a two-week course that will be offered to the participating national and regional educational institutions that in turn, will implement and disseminate the course in their respective countries. It is anticipated that the course shall be translated in seven European languages (EN DE DK SE SI PL RO), in order to be introduced in several EU countries.
The project anticipated products and outcomes shall concentrate on the following axes:
The course modules are composed and will be developed in a way that pupils undergoing education within the existing conventional educational system do not develop false conceptions; the course sequences are designed in a way that they offer new possibilities for pupils, which will enable them to carry out experiments, which will result in creative and open access to science.

www.pi-ahs.at

The main project's aim is to introduce educational staff with the use of new technologies in their way of teaching, in our Society of the Information and Knowledge, which is characterised by the increased use of technology in all the aspects of modern life. For this purpose, the projects focuses on the use the Internet to produce an online course, whose main contents are based on how to give an educational use to WWW. The main project activities include the design of an e-learning environment in which teachers will improve their own training in order to enhance the quality of teaching using cooperative learning
tools, the development of guidelines, manuals and tutorials to attend the virtual course and to create WebQuest projects, the study of the potential of this new web based educational technique in the classroom within the curriculum, the development of dissemination activities to share experiences with the different participating countries and to spread the outcomes to the rest of Europe using ICT, the monitoring and evaluation of the distant learning process in order to create a guideline of good practices for teacher trainers and other school education staff who want to use these tools and the creation and promotion of
effective networks amongst European schools to carry out European Educational Projects.
The main project outputs are an on-line WebQuest course, teaching materials,
assessment tools, WebQuest projects made by teachers and teacher students, a guideline of best practices in WQ projects' creation, a CD Rom with these projects, the project's web site, an on line course for more European teachers from the partner countries and under the influence of the Teachers Training Centres involved in the project, as well as a face-to-face course to be implemented under Comenius 2.2 to spread the teaching strategy, methodology and the outcomes.

jrodri22@olmo.cnice.mecd.es

The project that the UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia - Spanish National Distance Education University) intends to coordinate is expected to contribute to the analysis, study and diffusion of the different national policies concerning a new issue, until recently foreign to schools, has become relevant. Problems such as indiscipline, bullying, thefts, vandalism and other violent actions seem to be causing a growth in some kind of school uneasiness and social alarm. These disruptive behaviours affect the daily
life of schools. The final aim for this study is to provide in-service secondary school teachers with the appropriate training to face the diverse students' reactions, and to train teachers in how to explore their own professional behaviour models.

www.adm.uned.es

The purpose of this 2 year project is to develop a tool that will be helpful to schools in their use of ICT as part of the teaching and learning process focussing particularly on the idea of a school web-page. The tool will be published in on-line format. The focus is particularly on the primary level but the partnership believes the process they intend to undertake could be applied equally to web-pages of any educational insitution.
This project is being developed by a partnership of 13 institutions from 5 countries- Spain, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, UK.

asangra@ouc.edu

The purpose of this two-year project is to develop an in-service training programme focusing on the multigrade primary level-learning situation.
The implementation of the training programme will include extended cycles of school centred work supported by the project team. The training programme will have three main sections- Methodological approaches for multi-grade teaching -theory and practice.
Introduction to the use of ICT-theory and practice. Cross-curricula applications and projects-theory and practice. The training programme will be produced in a Guide to Good Practice. This will be available in paper, CD and electronic format.
This is a project partnership of 11 institutions from 4 countries- Greece, Spain, Finland, United Kingdom.

tsolak@aegean.gr

Qualification of pedagogical professionals for the education of hearing impaired
persons.
The aim of the project is to develop, test, review and disseminate an INSET course for teachers and other pedagogical professionals working with hearing impaired children and youngsters. The objective of this INSET course is to improve the professional knowledge and skills of the teachers and other specialists, leading to a positive impact on the quality of the teaching and learning processes.
The INSET course modules will cover: (a) anatomy, physiology and pathology of the hearing process, (b) measurement of the hearing functions and hear devices, (c) methods of rehabilitation and of assessment of results, (d) guidance of coaching of parents, (e) ethical-social aspects of actual rehabilitation of hearing impaired. The contents of the INSET course will be published on the internet in altogether 12 study packages. To execute a first trial and evaluation of the course, a group of teachers and other specialists
from DE, ES, CZ and PL will be formed. This pilot group will stay in touch with the authors of the study packages through e-mail; they also will participate in chat forums; the members of the pilot group will also participate in a pilot course and act as important multipliers. The collaboration and combination of practice and expertise in several European regions should lead to the development and dissemination of high quality outcomes.

www.ph-heidelberg.de

Objectifs :
- Construire le concept d'échanges interculturels chez les jeunes de 10 à 18 ans, européens et arabes, et faire vivre ce concept dans les écoles.
- Intégrer dans leur système de valeurs un nouveau type de citoyenneté vis-à-vis d'une entité sociale élargie.
- Susciter de nouveaux comportements, fondements d'une coopération véritable : le double regard (décentration) et le dialogue.
Groupes cibles :
1) les étudiants de l'enseignement supérieur qui rédigeront les scénarios des sept vidéos;
2) les bénéficiaires du projet, adolescents européens et arabes qui visionneront les vidéos;
3) en particulier, les jeunes issus de l'immigration, intermédiaires entre les deux cultures.
Résultats escomptés :
une meilleure connaissance de sa propre culture et de la culture de l'autre;
l'aptitude au dialogue interculturel, avec moins de préjugés et plus d'esprit de découverte;
le désir de participer à des projets communs avec des partenaires venus de différents horizons.

http://www.hecharlemagne.be

In many countries of the enlarging European Union, ethnic groups and minorities still find themselves on the very margin of society and socio-economy. The project's objective is to make people aware that minorities enrich every country. It will place at the centre of school interest minorities and ethnic groups from seven European countries that have been exceptionally disadvantaged. This is because puberty is known to be the decisive point in life where stereotypes, prejudices and hostility are either formed or not; therefore, the project aims at dismantling the former on a meta-level.
The theory that sheer transfer of knowledge brings about a change in attitude and behaviour, has to be dismissed once and for all. This has decisive effects on adequate teaching methods (projects, learning circles and learning buffets) as well as the teaching material that has to be developed (subject-centred and oriented towards everyday life) in cooperation with minority schools and cultural circles.
The main results of the project will be the following:
-An ''everyday-world compendium'' ''From the Margin to the Centre'', which bundles up what sort of experiences in life youths of minorities have and what they expect from their future.
-Each project partner develops teaching material that suits these two products, and which has been adjusted to the respective regional and national circumstances regarding school and society.
-A web page that includes all relevant material and methods as well as a web magazine, an audio CD (''dramatisation''), and a poster labelled ''Diversity in Europe'' complete the material to form a whole which can then be used in school as a media package.
-In order to make it possible for teachers to use the material produced according to their aims and intentions, project staff from each of the participating countries offer regional and national classes for in service teacher training. These will be used both to present and test in practice adequate, innovative forms of teaching and learning which the material promotes. In addition to this, the project partners that work at teacher training institutions will integrate the results of the project into their classes.

http://www.pabw.at

Objectives:
Using the contexts of Estonia and Slovakia as concrete examples, this project aims to develop a replicable teacher training module and learning materials appropriate to the needs of early learners from minority language communities, through greater inclusion of their mother tongue and home culture in the classroom, combined with effective learning of 'state language' as second language. The project thus aspires to nurture childrens' self-confidence and group identities in the classroom, and strengthen the relationship between schools, families and communities.
Target Groups
1.Pre-school children from 5 to 7 years old, who are non-native language speakers,
2.Pre-school educators who have non-native speaking kids in their classrooms.
Main Activities
- Authorship of Teachers Handbook and Compendium of Learning Materials
- Design of an in-service teacher-training module.
Expected Outputs
The project will develop:
1) inclusive classroom environments using Estonian/Slovak as the respective teaching language;
2) teaching/learning materials for non-native-language speaking preschool students and their teachers, and
3) a model in-service training course for teachers on effective use of these materials, on ways of adapting them to the local context, and on creating new materials that promote language development in children.

http://www.issa.nl

The proposal considers new qualification needs for teachers affected by policy shifts from a „compartmentalised“ concept of second languages (SL) teaching to immigrant pupils to an „inclusive education“ in which SL education is seen as an integral part of a generalised and common curriculum process, i.e. mainstreamed SL literacy education. A mainstreamed SL literacy education demands changes in the teacher education curriculum. All teachers need qualifications regarding the work with ethnic and linguistic minority pupils. At present, none of the Member States have a general teacher education curriculum addressing these needs.
The objective of the project is to improve the pre- and in-service training of all teachers for their work with immigrant pupils by elaborating a competence-based European Core Curriculum for teacher education and national adaptations.
The main outputs will be:
• the European Core Curriculum, its national adaptations, the European manual and its national adaptations;
• Needs Analysis Reports on the countries involved.
The material will be published by various means, including: print and web-based publications, a web-based databank including all relevant material produced in the participating countries, and abroad as well as the material produced by the project.
The project shall generate general changes in teacher education. By creating national/regional Teacher Education Partnerships (TEPs) involving teacher pre-service and in-service education institutions, schools and education authorities in the project’s work, it will be possible to change teacher education programmes, state examination standards and facilitate the mainstreaming of the project’s proposals.

hans-joachim.roth@uni-koeln.de

The consortium of iGuess (Introducing GIS Use in Education in Several Subjects) will develop a teacher training course to promote GIS and instruct teachers in using it. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are systems of hardware and software that can be used for storage, retrieval, mapping and analysis of geographical data. These systems allow spatial data to be linked with descriptive attributes in tabular forms in the same coordinate system that then can be layered together for mapping and analysis. It gives us information about the earth: climate, natural hazards, vegetation, population and indefinitely more characteristics, which can be analysed in a GIS, using computerised maps, satellite images, databases, graphs. Using GIS in class or in an extracurricular way will produce new, innovative approaches of teaching.
Lots of people use GIS applications daily, like car navigation systems, interactive maps on the internet, yet GIS learning in Europe is lagging behind. Progress could be made if we initiate continent-wide educational programs, following the example of the US. Not only do we need more GIS-trained people, teachers also need to become aware of the advantages of GIS. It will give them opportunities for collaborating and realising interdisciplinary, cross-curricular, even European projects.
Our project aims to bridge this gap by getting the stakeholders to work together, disseminating GIS skills by sharing ideas and best practices in learning about the use of GIS. In the two-year time span of our project, the partners will develop, share, test, enhance and optimise a course for teaching and learning with GIS. The course will contain methodologies, guidelines, good practices and exercises for using GIS in the classroom practice.
Standard templates, facilitating the integration of exercises in courses, need to be developed. All content will be made available on a website, containing databases, reports, news, network links.
GIS-knowledge in Europe will expand by the increasing number of teachers and pupils that will work with GIS and this will have a great impact on the industries, thriving on GIS.

danny_vanderveken@hotmail.com

Despite proven benefits of ICT in raising standards, developing key competences and autonomous learning, many teachers in Europe are not yet exploiting its creative potential. Lack of confidence, support, time and relevance are reported as barriers to making progress. Young learners meanwhile suffer none of these barriers, and are at best forging ahead, networking with their friends, surfing the net, albeit oblivious to the possible dangers, but at worst becoming isolated in a virtual world. They find it difficult to connect this kind of activity and the ICT they learn at school, seen as a bolt-on activity with little intrinsic purpose.
As a network of educational professionals with many years experience of co-operation at European level, as well as considerable expertise in ICT, WiMi is well placed to address this dilemma. We bring our conviction of the benefits of engaging whole school communities in meaningful international projects promoting intercultural dialogue and understanding, and the learning of languages.
WiMi will promote the human face of digital learning, developing Regional Coordinating Centres in 13 countries (all partner countries apart from Germany) where teachers will see the familiar faces of their peers and local advisors while they learn new ICT skills, thus providing the reassurance needed to foster positive attitudes.
We will provide opportunities / motivation for learning with new faces: 3 conferences combined with ICT training for teachers from all over Europe, focusing not on eLearning in isolation but in the exciting context of international projects promoting integration, language learning, and sustainability.
Virtual and real meetings for both teachers and pupils with their European peers will be facilitated through these projects and a ground breaking video conference initiative.
Combined with an expert-led action research pilot in supporting language acquisition through multi-media learning and CLIL, WiMi will provide ample scope for purposeful, creative and enjoyable language learning.
Our human face is also reflected in the use of open source software in our multilingual Moodle based website and collaborative platform to develop digital literacy within the network and participating schools. Other products include an online magazine and training manuals, progress reports resulting from internal and external evaluation. These will be disseminated via a fourth, final conference, and a DVD of good practice.
Ultimately WiMi will have a direct impact on approximately 25,000 pupils, 1,000 heads/teachers in its 14 partner countries and beyond. As its message influences regional and national policies it will enhance the future of European education in ever increasing circles.

christineh@ceredigion.gov.uk

The project focuses on assessment & coaching. Develop and try out a universally applicable model for functional and dynamic assessment and coaching “from assessment to practice” of children with learning difficulties/disabilities and their environments (schools, families), leading to a more adequate individual educational programming (IEP), useful to facilitate learning development and participation of all children in inclusive education.

Target group:
Children and youth experiencing barriers of learning (because of disability, learning difficulties, ethnic minority or socio-economic deprivation); teachers and professionals dealing with assessment & counselling; parents

Key Activities:
1. collect and exchange information regarding best practices of dynamic and functional assessment and consultative models regarding inclusive learning.
2. create an experts group to develop a common model of a “Daffodil” assessment linked to coaching of inclusive educational intervention, based on a model of cognitive modifiability of learning potential, dynamic assessment, functional assessment, a child’s differential needs on various levels and contextual approach
3. field test a pilot version of the Daffodil model in each of the participating countries
4. field test of a common training
5. organize an international course on the subject of dynamic, functional, contextual & inclusive assessment & coaching
6. publishing articles, books & multimedia materials for professionals
7. disseminate results via existing Inclues website www.inclues.org, e-mail campaign, and associations of school guidance psychologists

Expected outcomes:
1. a book and DVD describing a model of dynamic, functional, contextual & inclusive assessment (EN)
2. a series of articles, in a scientific and in a practitioners’ journal, in EN, NL, HU, RO, PT, SE
3. a model of a training course & framework (EN, PT, NL, SE, HU, NO) “From dynamic assessment to inclusive education & learning activation”
4. guidelines describing a framework for a consultation model in order to link dynamic assessment results to educational intervention, available in EN, FR, ES, NL, HU, RO, and PT
5. A leaflet to disseminate the project, the website and the outcomes
6. International seminar to disseminate outcomes of the project involving partners' countries and other countries, especially countries where some pilot projects in dynamic assessment and inclusive education are in the beginning, as Brazil and Angola.

jo.lebeer@ua.ac.be

Research into second language learning indicates the benefits of introducing languages to children at an early age. Adopting a CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) approach has the potential to deepen children’s cultural understanding and offer them authentic language learning opportunities.

An initial needs assessment in five countries identified support for teacher educators working with colleagues developing CLIL-based approaches within the secondary phase but little existing support for those involved in the primary phase. The consortium, comprising members from six institutions concerned with initial teacher education, has formed to support primary teacher educators in introducing and developing CLIL pedagogies with their student teachers. The main products include: a profile of a primary CLIL teacher (a development of the European Foreign Language Teacher Profile); an online portfolio (a monitoring/assessment tool) enabling student teachers to record their achievements and areas for development, and the tutor to monitor the student teacher’s progress and identify where support is required; a series of training packages, on predetermined CLIL areas enabling teacher educators to address a range of primary CLIL issues with student teachers. These will include commentaries on usage of video footage of student or experienced teachers trialling and exemplifying CLIL strategies within primary classrooms.

Training materials will be produced in each of the five main languages of the consortium (namely Spanish, German, Polish, Italian and English). There is potential to adapt the products for direct use by speakers of other languages.

The impact envisaged for this project is substantial. Teacher educators are ideally placed within their own institutions to influence the teaching practices of several cohorts of student teachers, and therefore subsequent generations of future teachers. Moreover, existing interest in the potential of this project and support at local and national levels, to assist in the dissemination process is forthcoming from such bodies as the TDA, CILT and UCET in England, local authorities (aside from Berlin) in Germany and similar institutions within Spain, Italy and Poland which are responsible for educational matters including the in-service training of teachers.

ROWEJ@hope.ac.uk

The link between art and citizenship education has not previously been explored in the European context and this is a new area of research and curriculum development.

The project will produce four different products for publication as an education resource:
1. A review of relevant practice, curricula and resources and visual images available in all 6 countries involved
2. Lesson Plans and Exemplars for teachers to help children create images using digital media.
3. Image Banks of by contemporary artists and images that children have selected and created
4. Guidelines and Strategies for:
• Engaging school children in critical reflection and discussion of images that explore and represent personal and group identifications
• Facilitate lessons in which children explore and represent their own identifications using digital media
• Integrate citizenship education content, resources and methods into discussion of images (including a political dimension and human rights)
• Guidelines and list of online resources for introducing European Citizenship discussions into Art lessons using images.
These products will be tested in a variety of European contexts to ensure best practice is adopted and be disseminated for use across Europe.

The project will employ forms of art production such as photo stories, staged images, fictional website and may include digital collage, blog animation or video/ film. This project will use ICT in innovative ways through:
• A website for public dissemination and awareness raising
• A final product that is web based (including an image bank, examples of curricula, teacher guidelines and a list of web resources).
• Use of web sharing sites (such as flickr and in-house produced portals) for internal communications
• Training teachers to use digital media in art lessons.

All higher education and teacher participants will be trained in digital imaging for art teaching and Web based methods of documenting curriculum development in action. The project will impact directly on participating schools and be incorporated into initial and in-service teacher education courses at for generalist and specialist teachers at the partner institutions. National coordinators will disseminate project outcomes at each stage to local and national subject associations and at a European Regional and World Conference of the International Society for Education through Art. The final product will be disseminated via the project website to educational and arts policy makers (e.g. UNESCO, The Arts Council of England) locally and nationally and globally.

r.mason@roehampton.ac.uk

ELIAS aims to advance Europe-wide establishment of bilingual preschools and collaboration with non-academic educational institutions. Researchers will monitor young children's learning progress in second language acquisition (SLA), intercultural communication, bilingual science skills and environmental awareness in one bilingual zoo preschool and six bilingual preschools. Located on the premises of the Magdeburg Zoo, the unique zoo preschool thrives on its proximity to animals and zoo personnel and provides an ideal learning environment for bilingual nature and science education. Such collaboration is unprecedented in Europe and the world.

Bilingual or immersion education from native speakers of a second language (L2) is the most effective CLIL teaching method for L2 acquisition and simultaneously imparts other key skills such as content learning and intercultural awareness. Thus, this innovative pedagogical concept is ideal for Europe’s knowledge-based society, giving young children the earliest head start in their lifelong learning process and preparing them to better exploit their foreign language skills in later schooling.

The ELIAS team comes from Belgium, England, Germany and Sweden and closely collaborates with the Saxony-Anhalt Ministry of Health and Education and Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment in Germany. Applying such approaches as ethnographic participant observation and standardised qualitative and quantitative assessments, ELIAS will conduct thorough research studies of the development of the children's first and second language acquisition (L2 English) and intercultural competence. The zoo team will produce bilingual teaching materials on zoo animals and nature topics. Additionally, the research group will conduct teacher training workshops for the preschools' staffs, compile an implementation guide for bilingual preschools and deliver recommendations for the strategic implementation of immersion in European school systems to guarantee programme continuity.

Target groups for the results of the ELIAS project will be specialists in the European education sector, preschools, schools, research institutions and non-academic cultural institutions (e.g. zoological and botanical gardens, aquariums, museums) and the general public. Press releases will announce the kick-off and the end of the project. The project team will present its findings at international academic conferences and a final symposium. Moreover, the symposium proceedings and the final report will be published as books and the bilingual science materials on CD ROM. All project results will be available on the project's website.

projekte@kristin-kersten.de

Education about sustainable development is more or less compulsory in schools in different levels all over Europe.
The forests play an important role in a sustainable society due to its economical, environmental, social and cultural values. In this project we want to create a method which will facilitate the teaching and improve the learning about forests and how it influences the every-day life for all of us. The target group is teachers in compulsory schools and the method should fit for children from the age of 12.
The project will be based on a problem-based methodology which is developed at the University of Juensuu in Finland. In this methodology the children use a computer based planning tool. With this tool the pupils can plan in advance an excursion to forests, forest industry, forest museum or some other place. The pupils have to choose a research problem or a question they are interested in and decide how they will solve it. Then they do their research, interviews, study visits or another activity. In the final analysis they share the results of their study; how have they been able to open the concept sustainability and what did they discover?
In the project we will test the methodology in all eight countries and we will adjust it for national conditions.
We believe that this methodology will increase the value of forest pedagogy and it will be used by all organisations in the consortium. We also believe that it will be of interest for teachers who like to improve the education about sustainability especially when it comes to forests.
Besides the methodology, the project will result in a web-page which will include teacher-manuals, fact-sheets about sustainable development with emphasis on forests and contacts and links to other useful pages in different countries. Except for the teacher manuals, which will be in eight languages, the web-page will be in English.
The consortium consists of 12 partners from 8 different countries; Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria. We represent both the education sector and forest sector and have long experience of forest pedagogic.

marja.gustafsson@skogsstyrelsen.se