context and background: The OECD spread during CERI (Conference on Innovation, Governance and Reform in Education-Paris, 2014) evidence on how schools have to cope with diversity in the future. They noticed that diversity in education is one of the future challenges for schools the next decade. The current challenges are: - Practice, research and policy are disconnected; - Schools have to integrate diversity in their school models; - Teachers and students are disconnected. The OECD noticed that: - Teachers are not equipped to incorporate local diversity into their practice; - Schools are not ready to realize the integration of diversity in their models; - Schools and teachers are not ready to implement what is asked; - Support organizations are not ready to support the schools: o they don’t have the right knowledge; o they are not ready to provide IST. Practitioner inquiry by the members of the consortium recognize the current challenges and needs noticed by the OECD. objectives of the project: 1. To support school (teams) in coping with diversity in order to enhance student learning by: a. Supporting schools & teachers in connecting practice, research and policy according to diversity; b. Integrating diversity in school models; c. Connecting teachers and students according to diversity; d. Developing tools and IST-modules that support a, b, c; 2. To realize local, regional, national and international recognized professional learning for practitioners and providers of IST on diversity. number and profile of participants: - The primary target group (school teams): o informed schools (120 schools x 6 participants = 720) o associated schools: (60 school x 12 participants = 720) - The enlarged primary target group: o Providers of IST (at least 25) - The secondary target group: o advisers, stakeholders, policymakers,… (at least 180) description of activities: The project develops: IO1: a common frame of reference (CFR) on the content of the project; IO2: 72 tools on the CFR and 72 IST modules on each tools for professional learning; IO3: 60 local, regional and national IST courses (4 half days/each course) / 2 international courses for school teams (one in AT and one in SI) / two international conferences (one in CZ and one in IT); IO4: 1 international course for IST providers. methodology: The project will use the European examples of good practice on diversity as the starting point. From there on, the project will look on how teams & schools can be supported to use diversity as a strength in education to realise better learning. The consortium will learn together during 2 LTT-activities and work in a diamant model in triads, that share continuous their expertise. The project creates a (IO1) common frame of reference (CFR) to realise the needs formulated in the rationale of the project. This CFR on its own is not enough. Research by prof. Helen Timperley (Auckland univ. New Zealand) shows that real change in education happens on the working floor. So to realise this, school(teams) need support to incorporate diversity into their practice. Therefore the consortium will develop a (IO2) set of practical tools and IST-modules on the tools. To be sure that these tools will be used in the practice, the consortium will develop (IO3) local, regional, national and international professional learning (IST) for schools & teams, on IO1 and on IO2 and using the tools and the IST-modules on the tools. The consortium will use this ‘power of professional learning’ to incorporate and implement diversity in the practice. The experiences of the consortium with the IST will lead to (IO4) international IST for providers in the use of outcomes of the project to support the professional learning of local/national schools and teachers within Europe on the issue of diversity. To stimulate lifelong learning, the consortium will recognize and valorize the professional learning. impact The desired impact is that school teams can cope with the diversity in their classrooms and schools and that they can use the challenge of diversity to enhance learning by all students. So schools and school teams have a renewed frame of thinking on how practice, research and policy are connected and on how schools can integrate diversity in their models to enhance the learning of students through using the diversity. Their renewed frame of thinking is based on the CFR, developed by the consortium partners during the lifetime of the project. They have access to a lot of handy tools to cope with diversity to enhance learning by the use of diversity in their groups. Teaching in diversity has become a stance and a culture in their school. The results of the students will be optimized, which makes that students have better results, are more willing to come to school, are less excluded and there will be less drop out by the students.
Schools have become more and more diverse and this diversity will not stop growing. Teachers are faced with challenges and often they are not prepared and as a consequence see diversity as problematic and frightening. Diversity is found in language, culture, background, gender, learning (different talents, special needs, learning preferences) and more. There is no school that can ignore this. But are our schools ready? Challenges are often found in the integration of diversity in the school models, starting from initial frames of reference and the fact that teachers need practical support, material and training to work in a diverse classroom. In this context, our project was born. 'Use diversity to enhance learning in the 21st Century' (UDEL21) was the project title and ambitious goal of a partnership that was initiated in a 'diamant' work- model: a university on academic level, three service providers and network organizations on middle level and two school groups on practical level. The general objective of the project was a mindshift from diversity as a problem to diversity as an asset: take the diversity in the classroom as the norm and use its richness to make teaching and learning better (learning and teaching in diversity). Next to this, use the diversity in the classroom to educate and build on attitudes and values of the learners to prepare them for a very diverse future society (learning and teaching for diversity). Dealing and coping with diversity happens from different frames of references and is often based on stereotypes, prejudices, fear, and deeply rooted norms. This is not different in education, so first we needed a common frame of reference on diversity, based on literature, research, legislation and current practices. The university made sure that this common frame of reference was evidence informed and current and conducted a short pre-survey for schools in the partner organizations. The general frame of reference was further refined in introductions on language diversity, gender diversity, learning diversity and cultural diversity, the fields in which we worked. The frames were all written in an accessible and compact version, ready to use for schools. The second work package was the collection and design of 'tools'. We defined a tool as a class activity or a work method, to be used in combination with lessons or as separate activities, both in primary and secondary schools. The result was a collection of 88 tools. We made sure that all these tools were tried out in schools. The three network organizations (one in Czech Republic and two in Belgium) were the leading partners for the tools. The two groups of schools (primary schools in Slovenia and secondary schools in Austria) inspired the work, from bottom-up. They were our ‘practical’ guardian, a very important role, as our results needed to be usable in the class. The next step was designing support and training with the frames and the tools. This work was done by the partner organizations in their own context and finally processed in two international conferences, two courses and a train-the-trainer. The two conferences were a mixture of state of the art academic input and practical work-sessions. We reached more than 60 participants in both conferences. The two courses were more practical, always accompanied by frames and an action plan for the school as end product. With the courses we reached more than 40 participants for each course, with a very rich combination of nationalities. After the courses, the participants returned to their own context with an action plan for further implementation in the school or training. The overall objective of the project was met, considering the fact that we count on follow-up work in the schools. In some cases, working with the tools confirmed an already existing positive view on the richness of diversity. Other teachers appreciated the diversity of the tools and were eager to design new ones. By making teachers aware of the opportunities in teaching for diversity and teaching in diversity, teachers became stronger and valued the profession more while realizing the importance of the impact they have on the students. As one teacher formulated it so nicely: “If a mindshift happens with me as teacher, the mindshift will have its effects on the children in the classroom". Also in the partner organisations the effect was visible, as the discussions at the project meetings showed, with more understanding, knowledge, skills and attitudes as outcomes. At the end of the project all partners learned a lot and were ready to work further with the results of the project which were continually shared within the organizations in the network and connections were made with the other units within the partner organizations. We do hope that this project has made a difference, even if it is only an oil stain that can be further spread out. We invite everybody to use our results and keep on spreading our work.