According to the European Commission, a key question in education is: “How to inspire teachers to be proactive, reflective professionals who take ownership of their own professional development?” In order to achieve this, there is an international drive to enhance collaboration between teacher education, largely based in universities, and schools. PROTEUS will work with a range of university/school collaborations. The project will enable participants to see these approaches at first-hand in order to consider their strengths and weaknesses, whilst learning from each other. The aim of PROTEUS is to enable key stakeholders to better integrate the academic and practical elements of learning to teach, by investigating the effectiveness of initiatives that promote university/school collaboration, such as university schools. These provide opportunities for teacher educators, teacher mentors and student teachers to develop understandings of ‘new professionalism’, across boundaries of research and teaching practice. PROTEUS will thus develop competences that enable teachers to develop their own practice, and that of their schools, based on systematic research, which is vital if human and economic resources are to be used effectively. Another aim is to enable student teachers to challenge the existing cultures of the schools where they are first employed. The objectives of PROTEUS are: 1. To identify the opportunities and constraints of existing university/school collaborations 2. To evaluate the potential of ‘university schools’ as a specific model of university/school collaboration 3. To evaluate the capacity of university/school collaborations to develop 21st century professionalism PROTEUS consists of seven universities/university colleges and two university schools, covering all levels of initial teacher education, from primary to higher secondary schools. The partners represent a broad range of European education systems and hence are able to produce detailed evidence about the opportunities and constraints of different forms of university/school collaborations and their integration into national systems. The project will produce knowledge about different forms of university/school collaboration, both locally at the partner teacher education institutions and internationally, through exchange visits and workshops with student teachers, school (mentor) teachers and university staff. It has three phases: START UP PHASE: 1. Start up meeting to discuss framework for country discussions with three teacher educators from each partner country, developing criteria for baseline measurement (Oct 2015) and resulting in Intellectual Output 1: 2. Baseline measurement. Measurement of teacher competence and professionalism among student teacher in all partner institutions (Jan 2016) Intellectual Output 2: 3. In each partner country, PROTEUS will facilitate discussions between teacher educators, teacher mentors and student teachers about their own understandings of ‘new professionalism’, and how it is facilitated within national teacher education systems. (to March 2016) IMPLEMENTATION PHASE 4. Summer seminar (Weingarten) where 9 participants from each country (3 each of teacher educators, teacher mentors and student teachers) meet to share the findings of their national discussions on ‘new professionalism’ and university/school collaboration. Outcome: Models for university schools as means for developing teacher professionalism (Summer 2016). 5. Three teacher educators from each country visit NTNU, Norway, for seminar on the emerging ‘university schools’ developments, and implemention of models (Autumn 2016) against the NTNU reference model. An interim evaluation report on development of models will be the intellectual output from this seminar. 6. Measurement of teacher competence and professionalism (Jan 2017), investigating the effect of elements within the model. FOLLOW-UP PHASE 7. Representatives of Governments, local authorities and teachers will be invited to a seminar to share observations and findings and to discuss ways forward in Europe. (Spring 2017). Other dissemination activities will be carried out in this phase. By elaborating the knowledge and experience of partners, PROTEUS will identify and understand the central elements and concepts involved in successful university/school collaborations, which support the development of student teachers’ professional competence. Through dialogue with policy makers in partner countries, we will make empirically grounded policy recommendations for the development of university schools or other specific forms of school-university collaboration. PROTEUS will thereby support the development of theoretically informed clinical practice in teacher education. Through direct interaction in networks of teacher education stakeholders, the knowledge produced by PROTEUS will be socially robust and practically useful.
CONTEXT/BACKGROUND PROTEUS started with a key question in education from the EC: “How to inspire teachers to be proactive, reflective professionals who take ownership of their own professional development?” There is an international drive to enhance collaboration between teacher education, largely based in universities, and schools. The aim of PROTEUS was to enable key stakeholders to better integrate the academic and practical elements of learning to teach, by investigating the effectiveness of initiatives that promote university/school collaboration, such as university schools. At the same time PROTEUS has, with the involvement of teacher educators, teacher mentors and student teachers developed understandings of ‘new professionalism’, across boundaries of research and teaching practice. With the involvement of different stakeholders to teacher education, PROTEUS has also involved larger sets of actors with ideas and exchanges of experiences that can contribute to the development of teacher education. OBJECTIVES The main objectives of PROTEUS have been: 1. To identify the opportunities and constraints of existing university/school collaborations 2. To evaluate the potential of ‘university schools’ as a specific model of university/school collaboration 3. To evaluate the capacity of university/school collaborations to develop 21st century professionalism PARTNERS PROTEUS consists of seven universities/university colleges and two university schools, covering all levels of initial teacher education, from primary to higher secondary schools. The partners represent a broad range of European education systems and hence are able to produce detailed evidence about the opportunities and constraints of university/school collaboration and its integration into national systems. ACTIVITIES PROTEUS has worked with a range of university/school collaboration models. Participants saw these approaches at first-hand and, through transnational meetings and the production of the PROTEUS intellectual outputs, considered their strengths and weaknesses, whilst learning from each other. RESULTS The project has produced knowledge about university/school collaboration, both locally at the partner teacher education institutions and internationally, through exchange visits and workshops with student teachers, school (mentor) teachers and university staff. The following basic principles have emerged from the work of PROTEUS: 1) The ultimate goal of teacher education, as implemented through USPs, is to provide pupils with the best possible educational and personal outcomes from their time in school. 2) A subsidiary goal of USPs is to make the teaching profession sustainable, by increasing the effectiveness of teachers whilst reducing stress, burnout and attrition. 3) University schools, as a subset of USPs, should be research-informed, meaning that they actively refer to research results as evidence for pursuing specific practices, but with a critical and inquiring attitude to research, and with the possibility of pursuing research in specific local contexts. 4) University schools should be a form of clinical practice, involving varying degrees of responsibility and with active dialogue between student teachers, mentors and other in-service teachers, as well as teacher educators and researchers. 5) USPs should maintain mutual respect and understanding between all partners/stakeholders 6) Mutual expectations should be clarified at an early stage in partnership development. 7) Systematic Teacher Professional Development should be an integral part of USPs 8) USPs should have a clear plan for mentoring new teachers, as part of an induction scheme, even if this is not mandatory at national level. 9) The roles of PhD and masters studies within USPs should be agreed at an early stage and steps should be taken to maximise the value of such studies to participating schools, for example by aligning research topics to local issues in teaching and learning. 10) Spatial factors should be taken into account in USPs. Staff should feel at home in both school and university environments, with the possibility of a 'thirdspace' for dialogue or 'trialogue' involving all stakeholders. 11) Spreading the word about the benefits of USPs is important, and communication channels and messages should be discussed by all partners/stakeholders. As a summary recommendation, we suggest that schools and universities involved in teacher education should create long-term structures to support ongoing dialogue regarding their relationship. This should cover not only practice arrangements for student teachers, but also the role of research and researchers in both school- and university based teacher education. IMPACT Partner institutions enabled to reflect on, and refine, their collaboration practices. LONGER-TERM BENEFITS Better pupil outcomes Reduced teacher attrition More cost-efficient teacher education