The project intends to support the professional development of teachers by strengthening their relational competences through a training programme combining the methodologies of e-learning, micro-learning, and gaming. The training programme will deal with the following themes: 1] education (teacher-pupil relationship); 2] participation (communication with the pupils’ parents; 3] co-operation (relationship between peers and between the diverse organisational levels). During the project an online course for teachers will be designed and produced, along with a simulated practice educational game and guidelines for transferring the project results by implementing sustainable Permanent Laboratories for Soft Skills. Institutional stakeholders will be engaged in a participatory design process for developing a medium-long-term strategy to incorporating soft skills in the curricula of training course for teachers. The project intends to train 300 teachers during the educational experiment, and imoact on the participants in terms of improvement of relational skills, development of reflective practice, improvement of assertive response to stressful situations, improvement of thr quality of the relationship with the pupils and with the pupils’ parents; increase in self-esteem; effective communication in everyday’s professional practice.
By developing an online training course for teachers, the aim was to develop and strengthen their interpersonal communication, conflict management, leadership, collaboration and relationship management skills in the following areas of interaction: teacher-pupil, teacher-parent/carer, teacher-teacher/non-teaching staff. The aim of the project is not only to improve skills, but also to foster, through this improvement, the application of the learnings in daily professional practice, with a positive impact on relationships at various levels and on teachers’ self-esteem. Further expected positive effects concern TEACHING PRACTICE (self-awareness of the teacher with respect to his or her role as an educator and role model; increased teaching effectiveness thanks to improved leadership and collaboration skills; improved classroom climate thanks to increased empathy towards pupils), the PUPILS (greater involvement in lessons, improved relationship with the teacher) and SCHOOL ORGANISATION (increased efficiency thanks to improved communication and collaboration between the various levels.)
The project aims to support teachers' professional development by strengthening their relational skills. Since school is a complex environment,in which teachers have to deal with 3 groups of interlocutors (pupils,parents,non-teaching staff) on a daily basis,the relational component is the most important one to improve and maintain satisfactory relationships with these 3 groups over time. On the didactic side, teachers' needs relate, for example, to the management of oppositional, conflicting attitudes or inappropriate behaviour in the classroom, and to the communication of information to pupils and families on pupils' academic performance, with the consequent need to deal with possible reactions by offering clear explanations in an assertive manner. On the organisational side, there is the need to manage the dynamics of collaboration among peers and with the different organisational levels of the school. The inclusive and intercultural component is equally important in a logic of inclusion at all levels. Communicating effectively even in conflict or frustrating situations contributes to teachers’ well-being and organisational well-being at school.