In this paper the focus is on professional development through informal learning. People learn a lot while performing tasks and doing their jobs, but they are not always aware of these processes. Encouraging the awareness for informal learning is a first step towards acknowledgement of informal learning activities as forms of professional development by teacher educators and their managers. In this paper, we describe a procedure to encourage awareness of informal learning. The procedure consists of keeping a logbook on learning experiences during three weeks. At the end of the period the participants discussed their experiences in a meeting and analysed their own logbooks using an analysis tool. Both keeping a logbook and analysing this logbook led to a raise in the awareness of informal learning, at least, during and shortly after the intervention. The participants got to know their own learning processes, found the logbook-keeping an interesting thing to do and sometimes were surprised by the ways they learned.
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This study aimed to examine which kind of support through professional development activities is offered to teacher educators in the (Dutch) teacher education institutes for primary and secondary education regarding conducting practice-based research and supervising students’ research. Two online surveys were executed among deans and teacher educators to examine their views on institutional policies supporting professional development; the offered activities; their evaluation on the activities and teacher educators further needs for professional development. Results show that little attention is paid to professional development activities and if attention is paid it concerns mainly courses or supervised peer-exchange groups. However, support for professional development of teacher educators in conducting research and supervising students’ research is considered important. Most activities are executed isolated in each institute. A need for more collaboration between institutes on contributing to teacher educators’ professional development and collaboration at a national level is considered important.
As all professionals, teacher educators are expected to develop themselves continuously during their working life in order to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. Smith (2003, p203) distinguishes three reasons for teacher educators to develop themselves: 1) to improve the profession (teacher education); 2) to maintain interest in the profession, to grow personally and professionally and 3) to advance within the profession, promotion. At the teacher education institute of the Fontys University of Applied Science, teacher educators are stimulated by the management to spend 10-15% of their working hours on professional development. Do teacher educators spend these hours and if they dos so, what purpose do they have in mind? What activities do they undertake to develop themselves? What topics do they choose for professional development? Are there differences between more experienced teacher educators and beginning teacher educators? To study these questions, a questionnaire was held by all 228 teacher educators working at the Fontys teacher education institute. At this institute, about 4000 student-teachers are educated to become a teacher in secondary or vocational education. First impressions of the results show that 33% of the teacher educators spend 10-15% of their time on professional development. A large group of teacher educators (42%) spends less then 10% and a small group (23%) spends more then 15% of their time on professional development. The main reason for teacher educators to professionalize themselves is to improve the quality of their teaching to students. This refers to the second reason Smith (2003) mentions. Improving the profession or advance within the profession (reason 1 and 3 in Smith's list) were much less often mentioned. The four activities most mentioned by teacher educators to develop themselves were reading of (scientific) literature (1), followed by collegial consultation (2), attending conferences or meetings (3) and trying out new approaches and systematically evaluating them (4). The topics teacher educators develop themselves in vary from didactical subjects to coaching skills, subject-specific topics and ICT-skills. Further analysis to reveal whether there are differences between experienced and beginning teachers is still in progress, but will be available at the conference in August 2011. References: Smith, K (2003). So, what about the professional development of teacher educators? European Journal of Teacher Education, Vol 26, No2, pp201-215
The project aims to improve palliative care in China through the competence development of Chinese teachers, professionals, and students focusing on the horizontal priority of digital transformation.Palliative care (PC) has been recognised as a public health priority, and during recent years, has seen advances in several aspects. However, severe inequities in the access and availability of PC worldwide remain. Annually, approximately 56.8 million people need palliative care, where 25.7% of the care focuses on the last year of person’s life (Connor, 2020).China has set aims for reaching the health care standards of the developed countries by 2030 through the Healthy China Strategy 2030, where one of the improvement areas in health care includes palliative care, thus continuing the previous efforts.The project provides a constructive, holistic, and innovative set of actions aimed at resulting in lasting outcomes and continued development of palliative care education and services. Raising the awareness of all stakeholders on palliative care, including the public, is highly relevant and needed. Evidence based practice guidelines and education are urgently required for both general and specialised palliative care levels, to increase the competencies for health educators, professionals, and students. This is to improve the availability and quality of person-centered palliative care in China. Considering the aging population, increase in various chronic illnesses, the challenging care environment, and the moderate health care resources, competence development and the utilisation of digitalisation in palliative care are paramount in supporting the transition of experts into the palliative care practice environment.General objective of the project is to enhance the competences in palliative care in China through education and training to improve the quality of life for citizens. Project develops the competences of current and future health care professionals in China to transform the palliative care theory and practice to impact the target groups and the society in the long-term. As recognised by the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), palliative care competences need to be developed in collaboration. This includes shared willingness to learn from each other to improve the sought outcomes in palliative care (EAPC 2019). Since all individuals have a right to health care, project develops person-centered and culturally sensitive practices taking into consideration ethics and social norms. As concepts around palliative care can focus on physical, psychological, social, or spiritual related illnesses (WHO 2020), project develops innovative pedagogy focusing on evidence-based practice, communication, and competence development utilising digital methods and tools. Concepts of reflection, values and views are in the forefront to improve palliative care for the future. Important aspects in project development include health promotion, digital competences and digital health literacy skills of professionals, patients, and their caregivers. Project objective is tied to the principles of the European Commission’s (EU) Digital Decade that stresses the importance of placing people and their rights in the forefront of the digital transformation, while enhancing solidarity, inclusion, freedom of choice and participation. In addition, concepts of safety, security, empowerment, and the promotion of sustainable actions are valued. (European Commission: Digital targets for 2030).Through the existing collaboration, strategic focus areas of the partners, and the principles of the call, the PalcNet project consortium was formed by the following partners: JAMK University of Applied Sciences (JAMK ), Ramon Llull University (URL), Hanze University of Applied Sciences (HUAS), Beijing Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), Guangzhou Health Science College (GHSC), Beihua University (BHU), and Harbin Medical University (HMU). As project develops new knowledge, innovations and practice through capacity building, finalisation of the consortium considered partners development strategy regarding health care, (especially palliative care), ability to create long-term impact, including the focus on enhancing higher education according to the horizontal priority. In addition, partners’ expertise and geographical location was also considered important to facilitate long-term impact of the results.Primary target groups of the project include partner country’s (China) staff members, teachers, researchers, health care professionals and bachelor level students engaging in project implementation. Secondary target groups include those groups who will use the outputs and results and continue in further development in palliative care upon the lifetime of the project.
The Next Tourism Generation Alliance (NTG) is the first European partnership for building and improving a collaborative relationship between education and industry with regard to skills development in the fields of digital, green, and social skills. The NTG Alliance will provide employees, employers, entrepreneurs, teachers, trainers and students with a set of core modules in digital, green and social skills.Project Scope:a) To establish a Blueprint Strategy for Sectoral Skills Development in Tourism to respond to the fast changing and increasing skills gaps in digital, green and social skills sets.b) To define a scalable mechanism and model for sustainable and digital curricula between the industry and education providers at regional, national and European level.c) To create transformative cooperation in five key tourism sub-sectors: hospitality, food and beverage operations, travel agencies and tour operators, visitor attractions and destination management.d) To develop, deliver and test Next Tourism Generation (NTG) Skills Products for professionals, trainers, students, university tourism departments, local authorities, companies to respond to the fast changing and increasing skills gaps in digital, green and social skills sets
Voor de kwaliteit van het middelbaar beroepsonderwijs is het belangrijk dat docenten zich continu blijven ontwikkelen. Welke activiteiten ondernemen mbo-docenten om zich te professionaliseren en wat is de doorwerking daarvan op hun denken en/of doen? In dit promotieonderzoek verzamelen we inzichten hierover.Doel We willen inzicht krijgen in de professionele ontwikkeling van ervaren mbo-docenten, de activiteiten die zij ondernemen om te professionaliseren en de samenhang tussen deze activiteiten en hun professionele ontwikkeling. Onder professionele ontwikkeling verstaan we het proces van activiteiten dat leidt tot verandering in denken en/of doen. We richten ons op: Formele en informele professionaliseringsactiviteiten en hun kenmerken; De doorwerking van deze professionaliseringsactiviteiten op denken en/of doen; Inzicht in beroepskennis van mbo-docenten en de ontwikkeling daarvan; Onderzoek naar de samenhang tussen professionele ontwikkeling en professionaliseringsactiviteiten. Resultaten Dit onderzoek loopt. Na afloop vind je hier een samenvatting van de resultaten. De verwachte opbrengsten resulteren in: Wetenschappelijke opbrengsten: vier artikelen, presentaties op conferenties en proefschrift. Praktijkgerichte opbrengsten: publicaties, workshops, en presentaties voor betrokkenen uit het mbo-onderwijs. Behaalde resultaten Onderzoeksplan 'Professionele ontwikkeling van ervaren mbo-docenten', 2017. Presentatie ‘Professionele ontwikkeling van ervaren mbo-docenten: Tijdens koffiepraat of een formele cursus?’ tijdens de mbo-onderzoeksdag in Rotterdam, november 2017 Posterpresentatie ‘Professionele ontwikkeling van ervaren mbo-docenten: Tijdens koffiepraat of een formele cursus?’ tijdens de Onderwijs Research Dagen in Nijmegen, juni 2018. Presentatie ‘Onderzoek naar kennisontwikkeling m.b.v. Concept maps’ tijdens de mbo-onderzoeksdag in Hengelo, november 2019. Discussietafel ‘Longitudinaal onderzoek naar professionalisering van mbo-docenten; ontwikkelen van de analyse-aanpak van data uit verschillende bronnen. Tijdens de Onderwijs Research Dagen in Hasselt, Belgie, juni 2022. Posterpresentatie ‘VET teachers’ professional development; a study on the impact of formal and informal activities' tijdens de EarliSIG11 conferentie in Oldenburg, Duitsland, juni 2022. Verwachte resultaten kunnen helpen bij het ontwerpen en uitvoeren van professionaliseringsbeleid en -activiteiten in het mbo. Looptijd 01 september 2017 - 01 september 2024 Aanpak Dit promotieonderzoek betreft een samenwerking tussen de OU en het lectoraat Beroepsonderwijs. De promotor vanuit de OU is prof. dr. Elly de Bruijn (ook lector Beroepsonderwijs), en de co-promotor vanuit het lectoraat Beroepsonderwijs is dr. Maaike Koopman. Om zicht te krijgen op formele- en informele professionaliserings-activiteiten en professionele ontwikkeling van mbo-docenten, voeren we een longitudinaal onderzoek (2,5 jaar) uit, waarbij docenten aan de hand van Learner Reports en interviews bevraagd worden over hun ondernomen professionaliseringsactiviteiten en de doorwerking daarvan op hun denken en/of doen. Om de ontwikkeling van beroepskennis van docenten in kaart te brengen analyseren we de door hen gemaakte concept maps en interviewen we hen hierover. Om zicht te krijgen op de samenhang tussen professionele ontwikkeling en professionaliseringsactiviteiten wordt een case studie uitgevoerd.
