After the first in-person-meeting in March in Oslo, the ConnEcTED-Team met for the second time in Freiburg im Breisgau at the end of May. In the „Green City“ on the western edge of the Black Forest, right on the border to Switzerland and France, the project members reported on their work, discussed new tasks and further steps in the project, as well as forms of collaboration in different IOs.
Monday, May 23rd: Day 1 – Travelling to Freiburg
Most of the participants first landed from their hometowns in Frankfurt and then took a train to Freiburg. Die Deutsche Bahn promised a two hour ride from Frankfurt to Freiburg, but for some of the participants there was a delay because of „Baustelle“. Never the less, everyone made it to the project dinner where a few new project members where introduced.
Tuesday, May 24th: Day 2 – General Assembly meeting/City walk
At the second day the project members met at the PH Freiburg.
During the day, every project partner reported on the work that has been done and that has to be done in every single IO of the project.
- IO1 – based on the data collected from the partners, the IO1 leaders will make an comparative analysis of the teacher education systems, the governance and examples of coherence in study programs of each partner university.
- IO2 – dissemination and publication strategies where presented by the leading team. Publishing possibilities of the work done in the project were discussed.
- IO3 – a digital showcase of existing examples of good practice on coherence provided by the partners has been established. The IO leaders will continue to collect digital content developed in the project and publish it on the website of the project.
- IO4 – surveys on teacher students’ and teacher educators’ perceived coherence in foreign language teacher education study programs were developed and piloted. Data from partner countries will be collected and analyzed.
- IO5/IO6 – local projects on coherence in foreign language teacher education were developed and implemented. The partners are now developing OERs within their local projects and working together on transversal issues in foreign language teacher education.
- IO7 – videos about foreign language teacher education systems and institution were provided by the partners. The IO leaders held a webinar on digitalization in teacher education. Other partners will also organize webinars on different topics regarding digitalization in teacher education.
- IO8 – a matrix as a preparation for the digitalization of the materials developed in IO5/IO6 has been provided. Details about the work in IO8 will be discussed at the next meeting in September in Zagreb.
At the end of the meeting all further steps in the project were defined.
After an intensive working day at the PH Freiburg, the project team took a long an recreative walk along the Dreisam river to the city center.
Arriving in the Altstadt, the local guide (a very nice student of the PH Freiburg), introduced the project members to the history and historic sights of Freiburg.
During the walk through the city, project partners had to be careful not to step in one of many small ditches with water (Bächle) that flow through the whole city. It is said that if one accidentally falls or steps into a Bächle, they will marry a Freiburger. Hearing that, some of the project members started walking very closely to the Bächles.
The project members from Croatia found also a piece of their history in Freiburg. On the Historical Merchants’ Hall in Freiburg, built by the Habsburg emperors is also the historical coat of arms of Croatia and Dalmatia. Europe is somehow coherent…
Wednesday, May 25th: Day 3 – Steering Board meeting
The members of the Steering Board had their meeting at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg. The workplan for IO 2 was unanimously agreed upon, so that the dissemination plan of the project is now on track again. This was also the time when project administration questions where discussed (once again…). Also, the concrete dates for the next project meeting in Zagreb were agreed upon and a first draft of the agenda was made. The meeting ended with a lunch at “Haus zur Lieben Hand” for all those who had a work-session on Wednesday as well.
ConnEcTEd
The project “ConnEcTEd”, funded by the EU (Erasmus + KA 203), aims at dealing with challenges to structural, conceptual, and transnational coherence in European TE in a collaborative way. ConnEcTEd also supports TE educators of participating universities by establishing transnational professional learning communities, providing knowledge about European TE systems, permitting access to professional training opportunities (e.g. video-tutorials, virtual scenarios), and by integrating a coherence orientation in their teaching. This will lead to a further enhancement of European TE and represents an important step towards a strengthened EHEA.