There are a growing number of countries in Europe and internationally which are refocusing their ICT curricula on developing students’ computer programming and coding skills and introducing this topic in national, regional or school curricula. And this is of course a top priority for the education system. Developing digital literacy of students is a challenge that schools are not always able to respond appropriately to, being not always able to get students involved until the conclusion of educational paths and to make them acquiring the competences foreseen by the whole educational process or due to a lack of teaching staff training. ICT combined with Inquiry-Based Science Learning (IBSL), an education technique that always begins with questions and problems, will challenge students in discovering answers themselves. Through this innovative teaching method, students can focus on learning ICT by doing, with the teacher guiding the way, and plain lectures no longer driving concept mastery. The Teaching ICT with Inquiry (TIWI) project will help upper primary and secondary educators to: - Gain new skills and be in a position to teach coding efficiently to their students - Become comfortable in using the inquiry based approach in their teaching and see its direct connection to the coding logic - Provide them and their students with self-assessment instruments that will allow them to take control of their personal development and their students’ further learning The main goal of this proposal is to provide teachers with tools and skills in order to enable them, with the help of inquiry-based approach to teach coding - the digital language spoken by ICT tools. The main target group includes in-service upper primary (9-11 y.o. students) and secondary (12-19 y.o. students) school teachers coming from 20+ countries in Europe. We will also give various possibilities to future teachers (pre-service training) to participate in this project by taking an online course, use educational material produced within the proposed project, and participate in European-wide competition. In a course of the two-year project, there will be four national multiplier events organsied by partners in Lithuania, Cyprus, Spain and France, involving 20 teachers per country. 80 teachers of ICT as a separate subject or as a part of STEM disciplines will be selected by partners through the nation-wide open calls for teachers. These focus teachers will have an opportunity to explore the concept of the project and discover new ways of encouraging students (especially those lacking motivation and at school drop-out risk) in learning ICT through inquiry. During the multiplier events, teacher to be asked to participate in a research by developing IBL activities for their classes, implementing these activities and provide responses to pre- and post-implementation survey laying the groundwork for the research based on these case studies of IBSL use for teaching ICT. The material and the knowledge that teachers will acquire through the trainings, will help them adjust their teaching practices and enrich them with elements that will contribute to the improvement of students’ digital skills while the use of inquiry-based learning will help teachers introduce the scientific method of thinking and working into classroom. Particular focus is also given to the promotion of ICT careers. The demand for digitally competent professionals across all economic sectors continues to grow and is outstripping supply. As a sector, ICT is growing rapidly and creating about 120,000 new jobs each year. Due to differences in demands and skills, and despite high unemployment - especially among the young – Europe could face a shortage of up to 900,000 skilled ICT workers by 2020. Building on this notion, the project will also develop role model profiles of ICT professionals that teachers will be able to use as prompts in order to demonstrate to their students the richness, variety and skills needed for pursuing successful ICT related careers. The acquisition of new skills and the introduction of new ideas and perspectives is expected to impact the engagement and overall motivation of students which should also reflect to their performance. In TIWI, we aim to interact closely with the focus teachers and establish long-term relationships to enable teachers’ deep involvement in the project as multipliers and survey respondents. As it has been observed from similar projects which have organised pilot activities, the development of such close collaboration with the respective schools is expected to impact the schools as a whole and foster the development of teacher communities. These communities will gradually build on the resources and knowledge acquired by the MOOC and the trainings and with the support of the respective partners are expected to create spin off activities that will build further on the gains of coding and the promotion of science education.
TIWI project developed an innovative learning and teaching methodology how to teach ICT with Inquiry aiming to: contribute to ICT curricula development, involve students into programming and coding skills development combining it with Inquiry-Based Science Learning (IBSL). Teachers enabled to focus students on learning ICT by doing, and to challenge them in discovering answers that arise from real world situations. The Teaching ICT with Inquiry (TIWI) project provided teachers with tools and skills to enable them, with the use of the inquiry-based approach, to teach coding – the digital language used by ICT tools and STEM subjects. TIWI helped upper primary and secondary educators to: gain new skills and be in a position to teach coding efficiently to their students, with the help of examples from STEM subjects; become comfortable in using the inquiry-based approach and interactive tools provided by Go-Lab ecosystem in their teaching for learning by doing; implement inquiry-based activities in classrooms all over Europe. Almost 1000 participants – ICT and STEM upper primary (9-11 y.o. students) and secondary (12-19 y.o. students) schoolteachers as main target group – were involved in the TIWI project activities in the Europe and beyond (Turkey, N.Macedonia). This number also includes future teachers (pre-service training), who could also: participate in the project activities by taking part in MOOC (IO1) that was also open to any interested teachers of other subjects, use Career material (IO3) produced within the proposed project, and participate in European STEM discovery week 2020 competition (IO2 activities). Six national face to face multiplier events (MPE) organised by partners in Lithuania (3 events), Cyprus, Spain and France (2 events), encouraged 101 focus teachers per all countries to implement TIWI methodology in their practice. These teachers of ICT as a separate subject or as a part of STEM disciplines were selected through the nation-wide open calls. MEP training activities provided in the MPE programs enabled teachers to discover new ways of encouraging students in learning ICT through inquiry – creation of Inquiry Learning Spaces (ILSs) supported by Go-Lab ecosystem, and that integrated programming or coding activities. During the multiplier events (MPE) teachers discussed participation in a research while creating and implementing ILSs in their classes. They provided responses to pre- and post-implementation survey (IO4 activity) laying the groundwork for the research based on their case studies of Inquiry based science learning use for teaching ICT. TIWI project team supported focus teachers on the national level during the MEP and beyond it, and empowered teachers to adjust their teaching practices to the innovation proposed and let them share to each other’s elements of the new learning design to their students, their XXI century and ICT skills development while using inquiry-based learning. Supporting video for teachers telling about the TIWI good implementation practice (IO2) also created to facilitate initial innovations after the project. To respond to the market demand for digitally competent professionals in all sectors of the economy and to overcome their shortage Career materials (IO3) containing role model profiles of ICT professionals were developed. These used by secondary education teachers as prompts in order to demonstrate to their students the richness, variety and skills needed for pursuing successful ICT related careers. Considering the project methodology, ILSs related to the careers, and promotional videos are also created to facilitate its use, and to help teachers introduce the particular professional scientific method of thinking and working into the classroom. Teachers confirmed the method has proven successful in developing more sophisticated programming skills and researchers thinking as well. They noted also increased students’ motivation while learning of ICT skills incorporated into an ILS implementation during the lessons. For further Teaching ICT with Inquiry implementation developed 'Blueprint on the successful use of inquiry in teaching ICT' for educators and policy makers (IO5) in English; Lithuanian short version with the TIWI teachers STEM discovery week 2020 winners’ implementation stories localised as well. TIWI main dissemination channel is a website: http://tiwi.eun.org/ Lithuanian webpage on the national NAE website: https://www.nsa.smm.lt/administracine-informacija/tarptautiniai-projektai/teaching-ict-with-inquiry/