Educational and technological framework for development of professional competences in in-school placement

Once the needs study (EKT Output 5)  has been carried out and the elements for improvement of the In-school placement have been defined, this report develops the pedagogical and technological framework that will drive their transformation and improvement. The document therefore seeks to respond to three objectives.

• Contextualise the EKT proposal in a shared vision of the model of teacher we want to train and the role of In-school placement in their initial training (contents sections 1 to 3)

• Define the Technological framework (user profiles, functionalities and tools) that should guide the design and development of the EKT e-learning system for In-school placement (contents section 6 and Annexes).

• To provide a flexible educational framework (objectives, sequence, instruments) which, based on the EKT technological system, allows the adaptation of In-school placement strategies of initial training institutions, European participants, innovation and testing of the system. (contents sections 4-5)

It therefore does not propose a fixed or single route to follow, but rather provides institutions and those responsible for European In-School placement with a framework (guidance and tools) on the basis of which the two mentors (academic and school) design and negotiate a personalised practice plan for each prospective teacher and implement it with the support of their educational communities.

The EKT educational framework does not constitute a fixed route for developing In- school placement in all initial training institutions in Europe. It provides a coherent and flexible framework on which to build and rethink the practice models and strategies of initial training institutions and the roles of their protagonists (mentors and future teachers).

The document consists of 6 contents sections. The first part (the first two sections) situates the proposal on the basis of the teacher model that we understand Europe currently requires and the conclusions drawn from the needs study carried out in WP 2 of the project for the improvement of In-School Placements (ISP). It provides a framework of reference teaching competences that allows academic and school mentors to determine together those competences and teaching tasks to be worked on during the In-school placement and to define from there the personalised practice plan for each student.

The second part of the framework aims to help the mentors and mentees participating in the pilot to carry out the enriched In-school placement experience that the EKT project will provide them (sections three to five). The keys to the model are therefore defined, the profiles, functions and roles in the internships of all of them, that is, what is expected of each of them in order to successfully develop the EKT In-school placement model: academic and school Inschool placement coordinators, academic and school mentors and student teachers. It also introduces the experience they are going to participate in during the pilot, what are we going to do? And the personalised learning process we will offer them during the In-school placement. The sequence of practices is developed in six stages. Each stage has its own objectives and activities and the 16 instruments designed to implement them. It is a flexible proposal that in each context and with each mentee the mentors must adapt and specify in order to carry out the EKT pilot.

Finally (section six) the proposed methodology is aligned with the different tools and functionalities of the advanced e-learning system EKT (output 8). In this final section, a help guide is set up with recommendations on the system’s tools that may be suitable for implementing the model. That is, each of the activities and strategies proposed throughout the six stages. This section is also proposed as a flexible support on which, in each pilot, the different tools that mentors and mentees agree to use in each context will be selected and mobilised. The EKT advanced e-learning system (output 8) has followed a design process that started at the Kick Off when the academic partners established a first functionalities document of the platform. During this year and a half this document has been developed in detail in the working meetings of the technical team with the academic team and in frequent CESGA-USC bilateral meetings. It has been a collaborative process that has allowed us to define, as committed in the application, the set of indications and specifications on which the system has been designed. This set of indications is part of output 6 and is introduced as Annex 7.1 of this document.

This report includes 2 versions:

EKT output 6 beta. i.e. the proposal formulated for the initial design of the EKT system which was piloted in two cycles (school years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023) in 5 countries and initial teacher education institutions.

EKT output 6 Final version. ie. After the evaluation of the pilot and the results of the EKT project, beta version was revised and the corresponding adjustments were made, resulting in the EKT Educational and Technological framework for development of professional competences in in-school placement (final version) which is incorporated as the second version of this publication and is to be considered the complete and optimised version based on the design-based research carried out.