The Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change hosted colleagues from the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso for a professional learning visit in September/early October, where they travelled to Scotland to find out more about leading initial teacher education.
Colleagues participated in university sessions and visits to local primary and secondary schools. Their university sessions included discussions on building networked learning systems, rethinking initial teacher education and understanding standards, quality and professional learning.
Presentations were delivered by colleagues from the General Teaching Council for Scotland, the Robert Owen Centre, the St Andrew’s Foundation for Catholic Teacher Education.
Whole school visits
Whole school visits focussed on school-wide issues pertaining to ITE and, and the opportunities and challenges faced by creating the contexts for school-university partnerships in the delivery of excellence in initial teacher preparation.
During week two of their visit, participants took part in two further visits to schools targeted to their professional needs and expertise, where they were able to meet teachers of specific subjects (maths, biology, music and Spanish) and additional support needs.
The intention was to offer participants both a generic and targeted set of experiences and insights within a diverse set of contextual school experiences; to stimulate in-depth yet reflection and analysis during the reflective sessions and across the study visit more broadly.
Opportunities for further collaboration
Several of the schools visited have indicated that they would welcome the opportunity to continue collaborating.
Professor Chris Chapman, founding director of the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change and President of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI), said: “Strengthening our networks with other universities and countries is key to our work at the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change, and we welcomed the opportunity to set out our approach to initial teacher education and research practice partnerships in schools.
“The Robert Owen Centre has been recognised by the Research Evaluation Framework (REF) for its generation of new understandings about the structures and processes associated with collaborative improvement that enhances teachers’ professional learning and ultimately impacts on student outcomes.
“We were delighted to be able to share this with our colleagues from Chile and look forward to catching up with them again early in 2023, when the ICSEI conference takes place in Chile.”