The project aims to develop educational innovation in the area of higher education through a complementary partnership model for teaching practice (TP) in initial teacher education. The project follows four main objectives: (1) Provision of appropriate educational opportunities for student teachers in the course of TP (INSHIP-model), (2) Enhancement of the professional competencies of academic staff i (INSHIP-course), (3) Operationalization of tools and guidance materials for implementation of TP (INSHIP-toolkit), and (4) Development of Professional Learning Network in TP (INSHIP-PLN). INSHIP-project derives from an international consortium of experts in the field of teacher education and is evidence-based. Its background is a socio-constructivist paradigm, at the forefront of which is situational learning of student teachers, and the role of collaboration and professional learning communities in bridging the gap between theory and practice in teacher education, which can be exceeded in an authentic learning context, i.e., in the concrete work environments. Moreover, in the course of the TP student teachers become professionally socialized, evolving their professional identity on the basis of shared attitudes and values within the teaching and learning community. Finally, the active participation of students in their future work environments contributes to their professional promotion, as the particular school gets to know the individual students during the TP course, which provides for a higher level of security of the institution in the employment of the graduates. The main intellectual achievement of the project will be the INSHIP-model, which will take the form of four basic elements covering the educational principles of strategic complementary partnership collaboration, professional socialization, the student teachers TP competencies, and quality indicators for TP, with its own innovative developed evaluation system. Supporting the INSHIP-model, the INSHIP-course for academic staff will be developed and piloted within the project, as well as the INSHIP-toolkit and INSHIP-PLN fostering the spread of the professional learning community in TP by using INSHIP-portal, attending various professional meetings and using the materials produced in INSHIP. INSHIP-project is planned for a period of three years, with the 1st year's focus on developing the INSHIP-model based on previous empirical-based evidence from international context; in the 2nd year on its piloting, whereas in the 3rd year besides its continuous piloting the final optimization and evaluation of the model are foreseen. Under the combination of linear and spiral methodology, the implementation of INSHIP-course and the INSHIP-PLN along the INSHIP-model implementation is planned. The INSHIP-project aims to bring together a total of 60 education professionals for INSHIP transnational teaching/learning training events. It is planned to engage with another 100 education professionals for dissemination events taking place ones simultaneously across 5 partner countries and 60 participants in the INSHIP final conference. It is expected to gradually involve more professionals across the participating countries who will benefit INSHIP-PLN as well as other project outputs over time. The management of the project activities in the duration of three years will be allocated among the partners according to their strengths and preferences, the prevailing method of collaboration will be networking. Altogether 6 transnational and 15 national meetings are planned, 3 short-term joint staff training, a simultaneous 5 multiplier events, and the final conference. The sustainability of the project results will be secured through professionally justifiable, transnationally proven and transferable findings and a thoughtful dissemination plan (INSHIP-portal, INSHIP-toolkit, INSHIP-PLN, publications and presentations of the project results in various professional settings). The project findings will be shared through a rolling programme of evaluation and dissemination in the course of the entire duration of the project, as well as after its completion. New identified specific problems of TP during the course of the project will additionally stimulate and maintain the professional and research attention in the target field continuously in the future. The aim is that through the planned actions the international, positive and sustainable results of the INSHIP-project will contribute to a higher quality of the study process in pre-service teacher education. The impact will ensure that young teachers will enter the job market professionally empowered, more competent and confident and, second, due to INSHIP-project essentiality, it is expected that the project will be transferable to non-educational study programmes within the European Higher Education Area empowering it with professional competencies, knowledge, and values crucial for quality work and development of society.
Main objective was to develop a model of pedagogical practice (INSHIP model) based on a complementary partnership between university and schools. Our work has attempted to unify knowledge from different national contexts and create a valid European model that is transferrable to different study programmes. Based on an international comparative analysis, we identified basic building blocks of the model that should enable academic staff as well as mentor teachers in schools to understand the complementary partnership, with the aim of contributing to quality university studies and for the acquisition of professional competences of prospective teachers for pedagogical work in the European educational area. In order to optimise the implementation of the model, which we designed as a holistic integration of the core elements of the model, while flexibly considering the specifics of a given higher education system, we also planned to create a training programme for academic staff that would allow them to gain a deeper understanding of the INSHIP model to implement it in partnership with learning environments outside the faculty.
Despite the successful harmonisation of study programmes within the Bologna Process, the teaching practice of prospective teachers remains a neuralgic point. In fact, despite its importance for the professional development of future graduates, practical training is the least standardised in European higher education. The only common feature is the minimum number of 15 ECTS, the implementation of which can vary and can affect the quality of study programmes and the competences of the graduates. As a result, teachers in some countries start teaching with a few weeks and in others with a few months of practice, which affects the quality of their work with students, which does not meet modern European guidelines. We therefore applied for this project with the aim of contributing to solving the problem of teaching practice in the context of an international team of experts who culturally covering the different European traditions of initial teacher education. For this reason, it seemed worthwhile to examine the similarities and differences within and between the selected national systems and, based on this analysis, to develop a model of teaching practice that approaches its role in a content-valid, holistic and complementary partnership approach and ensures the quality of teacher education in Europe.