The professionalization of teacher education is a widely discussed phenomenon in Europe (Cain 2015, Smith 2106), especially the transfer from theory into practice and vice versa. The main focus is how to provide students with practical skills and knowledge during their professional education, which has led to a current ‘practice turn’ in teacher education. Therefore, a cooperation between schools, university and other stakeholders (local government, ministry, teacher organizations) on the organizational level is needed. In this field, an innovative concept is the organization form of "university schools" similar to the idea of university hospitals, where teaching and research are supposed to build a productive combination. The intention of university schools is to build a strategic alliance with a university for educating the future teachers in study programs and to cooperate in research and school development processes. In detail, our objectives are: - Establishing an European understanding of university schools as an important stimulus for the future of teacher education in Europe - Identifying success factors for implementing university schools related to different stakeholders (i.e. non-governmental institutions) - Identifying good practice activities of university schools in Europe to develop an orientation knowledge for teacher educators and teachers at university schools in a digital handbook - Development of an educational module for teachers at university schools Our consortium in this project consists of 5 partners (University of Bamberg, University of Nuremberg, University of Norway (NTNU), Masaryk University (MU) and the University of Lisbon) and 4 university schools (associate partners: Commercial School Bamberg, Vocational School Nuremberg (Technics), Charlottenlund secondary school (Norway) and university-school in Czech: basic school). All partners are experts in the field of teacher education and have already implemented the concept of university schools. Through our results we want to develop a common European understanding of university schools and their concepts regarding to all stakeholders and making a significant contribution to the European teacher education system. As a consequence, we want to find and systemize organizational and cooperational structures, which are emerged in the concept of university schools among all stakeholders (school, university, governmental and non-governmental organizations), in order to improve teacher education system (meso-level) through developing an educational module and creating a handbook about university schools. A main result should be in finding a “common factor” in the different university school concepts that is critical for success in teacher education in Europe (Smith 2016). For the project seven activities can be identified, which can be dividied in two main directions: Firstly, the development of an education module and the creation of a digital handbook including monitoring and evaluation. Secondly, the multiplyer event to involve a wider range of stakeholders such as teachers, school-based teachers, school leaders, governmental and non-governmental organizations. These activities lead to following goals: First, institutional description. We want to find organizational as well as communicational and cooperational patterns within the different implemented university school concepts in Europe. Methodology: documentary analysis and literature review. The second Intellectual Output is a collection of good practices. Hereby, we want to find examples of best practice within the concept of university schools. Methodology: telephone and online interviews with participants of the university school concepts (school-based teachers, school leaders, academic staff, university lecturer etc.) The third Intellectual Output is an educational module. Methodology: different didactical methodologies like an active learning approach, etc. The last Intellectual Output is a digital handbook of and for university schools. We want to design a digital handbook, which describes the different university school concepts and their different implementation on the meso-level. The project will have a significant impact in the teacher education system. Through the involvement of all stakeholders participating already in the different university school concepts, it is possible to get a deeper insight how the communication and cooperation channels and networks work in teacher education in different European countries within this concept. Finding a „common factor“, which makes university school concepts to a valuable part of the teacher education system and to disseminate to all European countries are goals, which can foster the theorie-practice connection.
see above