With this project, we wanted to express our gratitude to science teachers who have been involved in Erasmus+ projects 3DIPhE, STAMPEd, and RISE for several years by enabling them to participate in courses that deepen their professional knowledge and metodology of teaching of the subject or content they teach. This expression of gratitude was not imposed; rather, the teachers, our colleagues, expressed the need for exchanging experiences with colleagues abroad, upgrading their knowledge, and sharing their experiences with others. This desire was particularly evident after two teachers, our colleagues, attended local events disseminating the results of 3DIPhE in Dublin and Belgium. The next implementation goal was to expand and support the ambitions of the teachers. Colleagues from the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, were aware that the experiences of teachers who focused on teaching as learning through inquiry accompanied by inquiring their own practice during the Erasmus+ projects led to excellent and innovative ideas. It would be more than reasonable if these teachers were willing to share their experiences at "serious" international meetings, such as the conference on physics education of the European international organization GIREP. Since we were familiar with the content of the conferences, we realized that their work perfectly matched the presentations encountered at such events, and sharing their experiences at such an event, either through a panel presentation or a lecture for the courageous, would positively evaluate their achievements even outside the circle of "critical friends" or well-intentioned members of the Slovenian professional learning community. Besides lectures, GIREP conferences also include a significant portion of practical workshops, and participation would directly bring information about new content useful for classroom work. As the final goal, we set ourselves the task of participating in the regular annual meeting of practicing teachers, which is organized every year in the Czech Republic. The event consists solely of practical workshops conducted by teachers, and they vary each year. It takes place over the weekend in one of the high schools in the Czech Republic. Most teachers also stay overnight at the school, cook, and engage in various additional activities. The entire families, including children, participate in the event. Discussions on classroom implementation take place alongside the activities, and every year, a compilation of workshops is published after the event, along with visual material. Colleagues from the leading partner organization had already attended the event previously, as well as one teacher from the Erasmus+ project's professional learning community even before applying for this project. Unfortunately, we did not clearly explain the content of these workshops in the project application, as the number of mobilities for this purpose was reduced with the argument that attending the same event should not be repeated. However, the teachers also did not decide to participate in this event, neither in 2022 nor in 2023, despite numerous calls. Since the event coincides with the beginning of the school year, it took its toll.
The main motivation for applying for the project was to enable teachers of physics and natural sciences in general to upgrade their professional knowledge and methodology of teaching their discipline in an international environment. In several years of collaboration with physics and mathematics teachers at primary and secondary levels, as well as elementary school teachers focusing on teaching physics and natural science topics in general in the ERASMUS+ project, we have found the following: (a) Teachers, at least those who joined us, are eager to deepen their professional and methodological knowledge, (b) they are eager for contact with teachers of the same subjects abroad, and (c) they are very often not invited to participate in Erasmus+ projects applied for by their home schools. Even if they do join Erasmus+ projects, these projects usually address broader topics and rarely allow teachers to deepen their professional and methodological knowledge. In the 3DIPhE project and later in the RISE and STAMPEd projects, we intentionally developed courses for science teachers introducing inquiry based learning approach for students and inquiry of teachers' own practice. Participation in these courses would have excellently addressed the expressed needs of teachers. Unfortunately, none of the Erasmus+ projects the coordinator was invovled in provided financial support for participation in these courses, as teachers were not employed by partner organizations. For some teachers, we planned to use project's management funds, but the interest of teachers in participation far exceeded our financial capabilities, so we decided to apply as a consortium. Additionally, teachers from different schools who would attend the training can form the core of a professional learning community both locally, at their own school, and wider in Slovenia, as well as internationally through established connections at the course.