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Launch of INSPIRE project

A new project, under the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme, INSPIRE, has been launched! INSPIRE (Innovative Science Pedagogy in Research and Education) will set up a validation observatory where 60 schools in Europe will test and analyse the use of new didactical tools, a digital Learning Resource Exchange service, in the field of MST.

The goal is to observe the impact of these new teaching methods on pupils and on their motivation, analyse the pre-requisites to be defined for enabling teachers to integrate these new techniques in their pedagogy and also the critical success factors to be mastered at the level of the teacher and the school for the generalization of such practices.

On a more practical level, the project will rely on previous R&D activities and implement the following activities:

• Provide a customised version of a dedicated Learning Resource Exchange service in the area of MST (a network of 20+ repositories will already be in operation at the start of INSPIRE – the objectives in this project will be to identify and evaluate a critical mass of good quality learning resources in MST within this federation) and assess the quality of the MST resources proposed.
• Implement three school pilots involving a total of 60 schools (one in Germany, one in Austria and a set of other European schools with an active interest in MST).
• Define the protocol of experimentation and organise the training of the pilot schools (via a training of trainers’ session).
• Launch and monitor the experimentation activity (for a period to 6 to 8 months) with 60 schools in Europe.
• Analyse the impact and feedback of this experimentation.
• Draw the lessons and propose recommendations, action plan and concrete support (such as a handbook for teachers) for generalizing such an approach.
• Ensure the dissemination of this project via a dedicated Science education portal (based on the existing Xplora portal).
• Ensure the exploitation of this project via the organisation of an international summer school and the development of an online community of practice for educators regarding the use of digital learning resources in MST.

This project will be coordinated by European Schoolnet (a network of 28 Ministries of education in Europe) with the Austrian Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture, Educonsult (a Belgian educational consultancy) and the Thuringen Institute Teacher Training, Continuous Training and Media as partners.

Further information: Contact inspire@eun.org