The Iberoamerican University Foundation (FUNIBER), together with the other partners of the Erasmus + DigitalTA (2022-2025) project, shared the main results of the project on April 3 and 4 at an international scientific conference, held at the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology of the Jan Kochanowski University (UJK) in Kielce (Poland), which brought together scientists from up to 70 countries.
The conference, with the theme: “Identifying and Meeting Teachers’ Professional Needs – Contemporary Discourses” was coordinated by Dr. Agnieszka Szplit and Dr. Zuzanna Zbróg and was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the framework of the Excellent Science II program.
The opening of the conference was attended by a number of political personalities from the city and the region: prof. Beata Wojciechowska, rector of the UJK; Michał Skotnicki, vice-president of the Świętokrzyskie Region, Renata Janik, governor of the Świętokrzyskie Region; Agata Wojda, president of Kielce; Grażyna Dekiel, deputy inspector of education of Świętokrzyskie; and Dr. Tomasz Huk, deputy inspector of education in Silesia and professor at the University of Silesia.
“I am interested in the perspectives of people from abroad on teacher education. Comparing the dominant trends in Poland with those abroad is important for the development of education and for changing the approach to teacher education” stated Dr. Huk.
The conference allowed the exchange of reflections and experiences on the professional needs of teachers in several European countries. In addition to DigitalTA’s participation, 7 other projects under the action “Erasmus+ Teacher Academies” disseminated their results.
The conference included panel discussions, seminars and scientific poster presentations. Dr. Thomas Prola, Project Manager at FUNIBER and co-coordinator of the project, conducted a workshop with students of the university to show them how the digital platform works and invite them to prepare a case study on it. The tool, which is still under development, already has more than 1,000 users and is expected to be completed in May.
The University of Limerick (Ireland) delivered several lectures on teacher educators in schools, professional teacher collaboration, socially responsible pedagogy and continuing professional development for digital leaders in education. CFIE Segovia and AP Hogeschool also participated in seminars to explain how the digital platform works and promote its use.
Final project meeting
During the week, the project partners also held the final project meeting at the UJK premises. Among other issues, the consortium discussed the sustainability of the project results and reaffirmed their commitment to continue supporting the use of the digital platform for students, mentors and newly qualified teachers.
Those interested in the DigitalTA project can obtain more information through its website.
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