Our Erasmus+ Project ENSITE (ENvironmental Socio-Scientific Issues in Initial Teacher Education) supports the development of future science and maths (from now on referred to as science) teachers’ environmental citizenship and related teaching competences.We face severe global environmental challenges such as deforestation and plastic waste. Europe’s society needs to acknowledge these challenges and accept their role in supporting sustainable development. Our educational systems have to fulfil the obligation to enable citizens to do so. Science education, in particular, must equip them with the ability to find adequate technological solutions.ENSITE supports this endeavour. Research proposes the engagement of socio-scientific issues (SSI) as one promising path to developing environmental citizenship competences. However, science teachers graduating from higher education (HE) institutions are not prepared to teach SSI, because they not only require teaching “scientific facts” but also involve controversial information, complex data sets and ethical, social, economic or cultural motives. Such aspects are rarely covered in initial teacher education (ITE).We aim at improving HE by including environmental SSI in science ITE. To this end we will develop an innovative approach to support teachers in (1) developing competences in dealing with environmental SSI (“Learning”) and (B) acquiring teaching skills to supporting their future students at school in becoming responsible citizens (“Teaching”) themselves.ENSITE consists of 11 HE teams from institutions across Europe comprising experts in science education (research and practice), environmental issues, pedagogical concepts to acquire transversal and forward-looking skills (e.g. critical thinking, creativity, reasoning, reflection), students’ mobility, diversity in science courses/classrooms and large scale dissemination. All partners acknowledged that their educational science courses rarely cover citizenship education and see huge potential with regard to benefits for them and their students.We decided on a thoroughly elaborated range of activities to produce purposeful results.Our research activities cover the development of 13 teaching modules on environmental SSIs for future science teachers. These intellectual outputs (IOs) cover subject knowledge on SSIs (definitions, topic areas, relevance, etc.) and how to deal with them, implications for learning/teaching processes, pedagogical concepts to design lessons, and the role of teachers’ background (beliefs, cultural, etc.) which affects teaching SSIs.In order to ensure highest quality and a convincing red thread relating to our overall topic (environmental citizenship education), each research activity follows a clear methodology: In our iterative design process, each development phase is followed by a review and pilot, optimisation loop and, finally, production. Every partner has precisely defined responsibilities. Project meetings will be organized to support internal communication.We perform several pilot activities validating our IOs at partner HEI and paving the way for long-term implementation. We use feedback from participating teaching staff and students to improve our IOs (content, user-friendliness, media format, impact etc.).We will also disseminate our results in three subsequent summer schools. Thus, in every project year we will reach out to future science teachers across Europe. We will present our IOs, engage students in a variety of innovative activities and stimulate inter-cultural and social experiences. Feedback collected during our summer schools will be used to further improve our materials.We organize (national and international) multiplier events to promote the project among relevant educational stakeholders, initializing dialogue on the matters at hand and substantiate our findings, as well as boost sustainable dissemination and exploitation.We plan several targeted European-wide and national communication, dissemination and exploitation activities, such as establishing a web portal, pursuing a flexible and modern social media strategy or scientifically present our research findings.We expect ENSITE to boost innovation in HE and more particularly science ITE across Europe. This will lead to a substantially higher number of HE educators with a versatile range of scientific, transversal skills, citizenship competences and related teaching competences. In the longer term, this contributes to a widespread shared awareness of social and environmental responsibility. Our open-access materials will support Europe’s science teaching staff to benefit beyond project duration. Our materials will particularly allow each partner HEI to strengthen their trans-national collaboration, implement innovative approaches in their science ITE programmes and facilitate institutional change, raise their reputation, and actively contribute to Europe’s smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

BackgroundThe digital transformation has fundamentally changed our life in the last years and will affect us and our life in ways today not even imaginable. Despite the sometimes excessive use and exposure to modern technology, the generation of the digital natives does not automatically develop sophisticated digital competences. As a consequence of the digital transformation, however, the development of the so called 21st century skills and competences is crucial for the participation in a rapid changing world and job market. Computational Thinking (CT), as one of those skills, is a way of solving problems from the perspective of a computer scientist and formulating the problem in a form such as an algorithm that is easily readable for a machine or other human. Despite a stronger focus and various different approaches of embedding CT in formal education all over Europe, there are still many problems to be addressed. The availability of information technology varies considerably and thus often prevents the teaching of digital skills. Also, the socioeconomic status is unfortunately a strong predictor for CT skills and indicates towards the existence of a so-called digital divide. Even with sufficient and appropriate equipment at hand, the successful implementation of CT in the curricula requires support for in-service teachers providing them with trainings to learn about and deepen their understanding of CT. It is also necessary to offer a platform to share best practice examples amongst teachers and to create a corresponding community.AimThe idea of this project is to develop a learning environment which can be used to teach and learn CT independently from the socioeconomic background of the students and schools. Approaches to CT using hardware and modern technology (e.g. robots, 3D-printers) can be very motivating for students. However, there are many practical reasons such as the costs, safety concerns and the availability of the tools to only a small group of students at a time outweighing their possible benefits. Using the technical possibilities of the digital transformation, we want to provide the students with an opportunity to learn CT without the requirement of buying additional hard- or software. Since nearly all students (91% in upper secondary schools) in Europe possess a smartphone, our approach aims at exploiting the benefits of the so-called Bring-Your-Own-Device-approach in a way that enables teachers to include CT in in their regular lessons. To reach the project's aim, three different aspects are focused on: -(1) the technical development of a digital learning environment called COLETTE, -(2) content-based and -(3) educational support for the teachers regarding the use of it. COLETTE will be a two-component system (1), namely a web portal and an app for mobile devices. Using the web portal as an authoring tool, teachers will be able to use existing exemplary tasks, modify and assign them in task sequences to their students. Moreover, the sequences can be shared with other teachers. By sharing task sequences, a European community of interested teachers can emerge. Using the app on their own mobile devices, students solve the tasks given by their teachers. To provide teachers with plenty of didactically well-funded content, a set of so-called generic tasks (2) will be created and implemented. A handbook about the functionality and use of the digital tool and teacher trainings based on a short-term curriculum (3) will provide the teachers with educational support.ConsortiumThe consortium contains 7 partners from 5 countries (GER, FR, NL, AT, SK). All of them will contribute to the project in different ways. It consists of experts for app coding, teacher trainings, the use of digital media and technology in education with a strong background in mathematics and computer science education and dissemination, covered by universities and a company. The associate partners include teacher associations, schools and other institutions interested in the dissemination of CT. The planned activities in the consortium are annual project meetings for coordination and to present current work results, teacher trainings based on the short-term curriculum and a conference for experienced teachers to enrich and disseminate the project and the technical and didactical developments of the application and web portal.ResultsIn the end, European teachers and teacher trainers receive a concept how CT can be taught in regular lessons with results on a technical (two-component learning environment), content-orientated (generic tasks) and educational (handbook short-term curriculum for teacher trainings) level. The impact of the project on teachers will thus be that they obtain a deeper understanding of CT concepts and their relevance which, combined with the knowledge of how to apply the new CT learning environment, will lead to a greater presence of CT in European schools.

This project focuses on sharing good-practice and collaboration to improve integration and achievement for Gypsy-Roma students in the UK, Spain and Slovakia and builds on links forged and knowledge gained through a previous Erasmus+ project 'Right to Roma'. It is a statistical fact that only a minority of Gypsy-Roma students continue to further and higher education and this is partly due to discrimination and the lack of aspiration for and by the Gypsy-Roma community. This project aims to bring together organisations that are all working to improve outcomes and aspirations of Gypsy-Roma at different stages and in different contexts, so that they can learn from each other about initiatives that work, and also to improve the provision provided in each country and across Europe.QKA is a secondary school serving almost 70% EAL with 10% of the whole cohort declared as Gypsy-Roma migrants from Central and Eastern Europe, it has an additional 10% undeclared suspected Roma students. Many pupils have experienced institutionalised racism and segregation in their home countries and have not had access to quality education. QKA has developed its practice and created a bespoke linguistics-based curriculum for newly-arrived migrants, with tailored interventions to fill educational gaps (which many Gypsy-Roma students have due to a lack of (quality) prior education). QKA has also worked side by side with the Roma community and employs 3 Gypsy-Roma staff and a school governor.The University of Nitra Institude of Romani Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Healthcare, CPU has detailed knowledge of the different Gypsy-Roma communities and culture, they understand how and why friction and tension within the Gypsy-Roma community can arise and also how this can be avoided - this is very important, particularly in the UK where there is an on-going influx of Gypsy-Roma famlies from different countries, groups and cultures - having a detailed understanding of the different cultures, dialects and beliefs could help schools and organisations to pre-empt issues and to support students and families to integrate appropriately. The University works with schools in Slovakia where Gypsy-Roma and non-Gyspy-Roma study together in an integrated way (against national norms). This knowledge of working with all members of the community to make integration work against the odds are important to share.CampusRom is an organisation supported by the Catalan Government that works with the Spanish Gypsy-Roma community. The organisation is staffed by Gyspy-Roma and works with schools as well as adults. It delivers education and support to Gypsy-Roma students to give them access to further and higher education. It has worked closely with Barcelona University to secure places specifically for Gypsy-Roma students. At QKA, there is a suspected 19% of the whole school cohort who are Gypsy-Roma, but that percentage is not nearly represented in the school's sixth form. We hope to learn from CampusRom how to develop provision to ensure more Gypsy-Roma students access further education.This project will share the good practice of the participant organisations and learn more about the different European Roma communities. The project will consist of a series of Learning and Training Visits, during which participants will carry out observations, discussions and interviews as well as collating case studies of good practice activities which can then be shared widely. In addition to this learning, the host partner will organise a CPD training event during each Visit for wider stakeholders, with each partner delivering a presentation or workshop detailing their context and sharing resources, methodology, research finding and strategies for success. There will also be a report produced after each visit collating the research findings, learning outcomes and actions for adaptation within the visiting partners' organisations, as well as advice to support those working with Gypsy-Roma. Each of the training events will be videoed and the recordings and resources from those, the research reports and case studies will be collated together on an open-source digital platform that can be accessed by a wider range of stakeholders to support them in their working It is envisaged that the resources, pedagogy, best-practice case studies and advice of how to successfully support Roma in a variety of contexts across Europe will enrich the knowledge and provision in the partner organisations, and that, through wide dissemination through established networks in each country, the number of Gypsy-Roma continuing to further / higher education will increase, building aspirational role-models within the community. It is also envisaged that, through proving educational achievement with Gypsy-Roma, more pressure will be placed on educational providers and policy-makers in segregated countries and regions, to develop ways of educational and social integration.

The focus on the quality of education and related to it teacher competences and teacher education is a vital and broadly discussed issue not only in the Central European region but in many countries all over the world. One of its aspects is practical training of will-be teachers and introduction of novice teachers into their profession which in much extent depends on the quality of their supervising teacher, i.e. mentor teacher. As practical experience show, though the position of mentor teacher is legislatively recognized in many countries, the mentor teachers are in most cases not adequately trained for this position. Out of the countries from which the institutions involved in the project are, mentors have been supported within their life-long professional development in Hungary only. The partners in the project are 6 HEIs from 4 countries: SK - Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra and J. Selye University in Komarno, CZ - Ostrava University and University of Economics in Prague, HU - K. Eszterhazy University in Eger, RS - University of Novi Sad. All the institutions have long-lasting experience and expertise in teacher training and communication with mentors responsible for teaching practice of will-be-teachers and induction phase of novices. Analyses of the gained experience have shown that appointing mentors is done ad hoc and they lack any support or training to perform well in this position. That is why the partners have decided to tackle the topic of mentor training and use their expertise as well as share the experience of Hungarian colleagues with the issue. Realizing the crucial role of mentors in the process of teacher training and education, while running the project, the project partners intend: -to support mentor teachers professionalism and equip them with relevant mentoring knowledge and skills, thus to make them more self-confident about their role, -to increase the level of their mentoring competencies and understanding of their importance,-to develop an innovative modular mentor training programme for face-to-face and self-study implementation,-to design and develop mentor training materials in five languages (EN, SK, CZ, HU, RS) reflecting the modular programme,-to run teaching practice of will-be-teachers and induction phase of novices in professional environment and make them more trainee friendly, -to increase the quality of practical training of future teachers,-to increase motivation and ensure willingness of young teachers to stay in the teaching profession, -to strengthen the profile of the teaching profession. In order to achieve the above stated objectives, the project partners will make sure the relevant measures are taken within the life of the project and conditions for their fullfillment are created in their respected institutions which will provide the trainings in future. This task requires:-to design an innovative modular curriculum for a mentor-teacher training course, i.e. to design and agree its content and topics addressed and modes of its delivery,-to develop training materials in compliance with the designed curriculum and make it accessible in the national languages (SK, CZ, HU, RS) of the project participants and in English,-to make aware the target groups (existing and prospected mentor teachers and school head teachers) of the project about the interim project outputs and elicit the discussion about them in order to increase their relevance and quality, and make them as tailor made as possible for the intended stakeholders,-to make subject methodology teachers and other teaching staff (willing to be involved in the course delivery) in their institutions knowledgeable about the project objectives and outputs and train them in short-term staff training events,-to design CPD modular training programme in compliance with national legislation and submit it for accreditation to the relevant legislative body,-to advertise the programme and use the developed materials in the face-to-face trainings, and for self-study of mentors. The intellectual outputs developed within the project life will be accessible on the project website not only for the project partners but also for wider community of educators and other interested public also beyond the life of the project. They will serve as the basis for multiplier events with project stakeholders who are expected to disseminate the information about the otputs to staff and experts involved in education. The developed materials will have long-lasting impact on the target groups of will-be-teachers mentors and novice teachers mentors especially after the life of project when the institutions deliver the accredited CPD training programmes for mentors and when the mentors being aware of the project results and outputs start using the materials displayed on the project website for their self-study, thus raising their self-confidence and quality of young teachers competences.

PLUS Change brings together 23 institutions from across Europe including 5 Universities, 5 research institutes, 3 stakeholder network organisations, 1 performing arts collective, and 9 practice partners representing regional planning and land management authorities and organisations. The objectives directly address the call with an aim to create land use strategies and decision-making processes that meet climate, biodiversity and human well-being objectives of sustainability, and to develop interventions that leverage political, economic, societal, material and cultural contexts to achieve these strategies, by involving actors at multiple decision-making levels (individual, land management, planning, policy). Activities include land use modelling (including historical and future trajectories of change), systems mapping, causal loop diagrams, performing arts approaches, randomized controlled trials of behaviour change, sociological surveys, and policy and governance reviews. All activities brought together in an integrated research design that draws on their different contributions to a holistic approach to understand multi-scale land use systems across a diversity of socioeconomic and biogeographical contexts, and create usable tools for land managers, users, planners and policy makers. The project is anchored in, and integrated through, 11 location-based cases for co-creation, and in a high-level multiplier cluster to identify challenges and impacts at EU and Global levels. Outputs include recommendations of co-designed and tested interventions to unlock behavioural, structural and procedural changes to achieve identified land use strategies; and a toolkit to support land use planners in enacting these interventions, including knowledge training, a planning dashboard and simulation tools, and methods for engaging citizens and land managers in behaviour change.