Project Description
Educational Knowledge Transfer – EKT
Period: 2019-10-01 – 2023-04-30
Funded by: Comisión Europea
The EKT project aims to improve European higher education and, in particular, the development and experimentation of collaborative educational methodologies and Smart technological framework that aims to impact on a more effective, scalable, sustainable system which is closely linked to the professional contexts for which we train.
To do this, we rely on a strategic triangle configured by educational centres, universities and technology-based companies/institutions. We propose to work in an articulated way from these three contexts to establish a dynamics of knowledge development based on teaching innovation, educational research and technological development.
The project is contextualized in the Faculties of Educational Sciences and in particular in the official studies of Initial Teacher Education in kindergarten, Primary and Secondary Education. With the implementation of the European Higher Education Area, ITE in Europe converges in the incorporation of a significant period of in-school teaching practice that in some cases constitutes up to 25% of the prospective teacher training. EU Commission highlights “real classroom experience” as one of the 3 key elements of ITE, emphasizing the importance of “in-school placement” at the same level of the “academic knowledge of their subject” and “teaching approaches”. A proper teacher training requires to be trained in these three elements. Surprisingly, academic policies do not generally value these three equally, and frequently, in-school placement is less valued, understanding that prospective teachers learn these skills naturally just by being placed in a school. This way, key processes to promote reflective learning of the teaching profession, such as collaboration, interaction, monitoring, and counselling processes are neglected. EKT outputs will effectively contribute to the revision and improvement of in-school placements which is a key element in ITE, as well as to a better selection of prospective teachers.