Newsletter 3: April 2022

Look below for the full versions of these articles featured in Newsletter 3:

• Key outcomes from the pilot of the forthcoming Flexible Teacher CPD Programme; and
• Two trainers’ reflections about the pilot that happened through two COILs.

​Or click here to read Newsletter 3 to discover:

• Our latest academic publication: "Global competence and teacher education programmes. A European perspective,"  in Cogent Education (Volume 9, 2022 - Issue 1);
• Meet profiled members of the Global Competence Teacher Educator network that we host together with the Association for Teacher Educators in Europe: ATEE;
• and more

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Agile COILs used to test progress &
shape the future Flexible Teacher Training Programme

Dima Bou-Mosleh and Gorik Van Helleputte, University Colleges Leuven-Limburg (Belgium)

​The GCTE Flexible Teacher Training Programme is aimed to improve the way we prepare learners, teachers and educators in general to embrace flexibility and innovation and work across differences. During the past months the GCTE project partners piloted the new training programme using internationally matched Collaborative Online International Learning (COILs). They did this through 12 modular Learning Designs (LD) that align with the ASCD’s Globally Competent Learning Continuum. This project phase has been completed.

COIL cohorts
Testing was done through two COIL clusters with each testing some of the projects’ 12 Learning Designs.

COIL Methodology according to the SUNY COIL Center (Source: https://coil.suny.edu/)

COIL 1 cluster included the project partners from AFS Intercultural Programs (US/global), University of Hull (UK), and Hellenic Open University (Greece). They had in total four testing sessions that took place between November and December. The number of participants per session varied from 17 to 22. The majority were in-service teachers and student teachers.

COIL 1 Learning Design Topics
LD 3: understanding of global conditions and current events
LD 4: understanding of the ways that the world is interconnected
LD 5: experiential understanding of multiple cultures
LD 6: understanding of intercultural communication
LD 7: communicate in multiple languages
LD 8: create a classroom environment that values diversity and global engagement

COIL 2 cluster included the project partners from the European Federation of Intercultural Learning (Belgium/Europe), Häme University of Applied Sciences (Finland), and University of Genoa (Italy). They had two testing sessions that took place between October and November 2021. The number of participants per session varied from 6 to 18. The majority were in-service teachers.

COIL 2 Learning Design Topics
LD 1: empathy and valuing multiple perspectives
LD 2: commitment to promoting equity worldwide
LD 9: integrate learning experiences for students that promote content-aligned explorations of the world
LD 10: facilitate intercultural and international conversations that promote active listening, critical thinking, and perspective recognition
LD 11: develop local, national, or international partnerships that provide real-world contexts for global learning opportunities
LD 12: develop and use appropriate methods of inquiry to assess students’ global competence development

Pilot feedback from COIL administrators and participants
Both quantitative and qualitative evaluations were conducted after the COILs to consider multiple aspects of the proposed programming.

Qualitative feedback from pilot administrators (teacher educators)
​Using a two-hour focus group with nine COIL facilitators from the consortium members, the session was divided in two parts. Part 1 addressed the thinking done before implementing the lessons and when using the lessons with the participants. Key feedback points raised were opportunities to better: 

1. Help  students define their specific contexts and needs in addition to defining their global awareness/competence
2. Take into consideration the time difference across different time zones and the time needed to complete each lesson with full student participation and reflection.
3. Be sensitive to the participants in framing the relevance of the LDs, their learning styles, and group size.

Part 2 considered reflections after completing the lessons and about the programme as a whole. Suggestions were to:

1. Keep the sessions flexible and give them longer periods of time
2. Better build in assessment of the lesson outcomes, student end-products and opportunity to plan follow-up sessions.
3. Focus more on non-formal, non-traditional and outdoor learning in order to cater to different learning/teaching contexts.​​

Quantitative feedback from pilot participants (teachers/student teachers)
​Collected after the COILs, 42 participants filled-in the post evaluation questionnaire. The findings illustrated that 

1. Being part of an international cohort was highly valued.
2. Participants appreciated the opportunity to share their views and opinions on challenging topics.
3. The content was found to be engaging overall.
4. Personal involvement of the participants was high.
5. The content was not always background/context sensitive.
6. There is a desire/need for feedback sharing at the end of each session.

Together, these inputs give us significant fodder for adjusting with an aim to improve our GCTE Flexible Teacher Training Programme before it is officially launched.

Using the COIL pilot outcomes
The immediate next step is to integrate insights from the feedback from the evaluations into an updated template for a Learning Design that aligns with the needs and ambitions of the project. Balancing the opportunities, we decided on choosing the Learning Designer tool from the UCL Institute of Education as the most appropriate instrument for our needs. 

This instrument “ticks the boxes” in many ways: it is open source, regularly maintained, backed up by research, learner-centered, flexible, exchangeable, useable as a digital resource and also can be used as analogue, is exportable to MOOC, and more: the Learning Designer approach is flexible enough to allow for the adaptations of the LDs according to the feedback from participants and facilitators.

By the end of March 2022, we will have updated Learning Designs ready to be integrated into the final product: a GCTE Flexible Teacher Training E-book. Then, in late May 2022, we will run the GCTE Flexible Teacher Training Programme in-person with teacher trainers, student teachers and in-service teachers in Leuven, Belgium.

More about the e-book and May event will be shared in the next project newsletter.

For more information, contact Dima Bou-Mosleh, UCLL Project Contact (Belgium).

Two Trainers’ Reflections about the GCTE COIL Pilot
​Νεκταρία Παλαιολόγου (Nektaria Palaiologou) & Ζωή Καρανικόλα (Zoi Karanikola), Hellenic Open University  

"When mutual understanding and respect are present, the spirit of synergy inevitably starts to develop."

REFLECTIONS & IDEAS FOR SYNERGIES WITH PARTICIPATING PILOT PARTNERS
The GCTE training seminars for teachers on Global Competence aim to share and expand our considerable knowledge, skills and expertise in teaching, provide information, clarify grey areas, introduce new approaches, and allow teachers to come together to discuss issues of common concern.

Universities and learning institutions at large thrive when their members work together with other educational organizations to achieve collective aims. That collective energy is much greater than the individual effort of each constituting part, and it is what they should, desirably, try to head for.

From our trainers' perspectives, the GCTE training courses tested in the pilot COIL program significantly enhanced the knowledge and collaboration among the trainers of the participating institutions and, therefore, can improve the knowledge base and attitudes of other trainers responsible for training teachers on global issues worldwide.

The change in attitudes may be as significant as the acquisition of knowledge to the effectiveness of these teachers in the delivery of Global Competence courses. However, short-term training may not be sufficient to change some deeply ingrained attitudes. It remains to be seen whether the changes are maintained over a long period and whether the trainers made extensive use of the training materials in the courses they subsequently delivered in their educational organizations.
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Finally, we hope there will be a sound output of this fruitful collaboration in the future regarding students/trainers exchanges and projects.

IMPACT AS TRAINERS
The pilot training session was a great example of combining theory and practice. It offered foremost the opportunity to evaluate the proposed training methods and content.

Providing immediate feedback on the methods and techniques based on the participants' reactions, it also allowed for re-evaluating, enriching and adjusting the training sessions by making evident possible implementation problems. 

Last but not least, through the pilot we familiarised ourselves with training future teachers regarding Global Competence by observing our fellow trainers in the session. It was a challenge but necessary both for the trainers and the participants to get familiarized with current issues and events connecting with the pandemic, which had and still has a major impact on people’s life all over the planet. 

IMPACT FOR STUDENT PARTICIPANTS
One of the most helpful academic impacts was that students realized or clarified the concept of Global Competence. Additionally, through the activities implemented during the training sessions, they saw how they could implement similar activities, see what makes an activity global-competence oriented, and, taking inspiration from these inputs, create their own such learning approaches. 

The collaboration with other students was also beneficial since it led to on-the-spot learning or active learning. Moreover, the participants’ expanded their horizons regarding education (practices) in other countries.

The sessions themselves provided practical training and promoted teamwork across differences and the feelings of being heard and taken into account.

To learn more, please contact the Project Lead, Dr Sarah-Louise Jones ([email protected]) or join our online network here:  The Global Education Network