Programme

The programme of the 5th STEM-CPD Summer School will start on Monday early evening, 21 September, 2026 with an introduction and an ice-breaking event. On the following days, the co-creation interactive sessions and discussions will start at 10.00 and continue until 18.30. Coffee breaks and lunch will be organized. On Thursday there will be a community-building excursion, which will conclude with the STEM-CPD Summer School social dinner. On Friday, 25 September, 2026, participants will present the products they have developed (their CPD-User cases).

The program of the 5th STEM-CPD Summer school will address different issues with different goals:

impart innovative active teaching methods within the context of Union of skills (Erasmus+ strategy) for STEM university practice in order to inspire the CPD-Ambassadors to try them out in their local universities. Discussion sessions will be held about different pedagogies, their benefits and drawbacks based on educational research.
put into practice train-the-trainer methodologies and work in co-creation in order to empower the CPD-Ambassadors to be able to share TPACK (technological, pedagogical content knowledge) with their colleagues
develop strategies to organize continuous professional development (CPD) activities at local universities, tuned to the specific local situation.
reach out strategies to incentivize excellence in university STEM teaching such as evidence based course design using educational action research practice.

Core Staff of the 5th STEM-CPD Summer School

Natasa Brouwer
(University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Educator and researcher in STEM CPD, CPD-Ambassador

Iwona Maciejowska
(Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland)
Lecturer and researcher in Chemical education and CPD, CPD-Ambassador

Matti Niemelä
(University of Oulu, Finland)
Lecturer and researcher in Chemistry and STEM CPD, CPD-Ambassador

Brit Giesbertz
(University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Educator and academic developer, CPD-Ambassador

Outcomes

At the STEM-CPD summer school the participants will:

gain knowledge to empower their personal competence in teaching and learning in higher education in STEM, in particular within the topic Union of Skills
produce their own material to organize activities for continuous professional development in teaching and learning for lecturers at their home universities
stay in contact with their summer school staff and peers and get (peer) feedback. In this way, the summer school peers will form a community of practice which will last beyond the summer school
by successful completion of all parts of the STEM-CPD Summer the participants get a certificate considering the specific topic of this summer school and participants who attended the STEM-CPD Summer School for the first time are awarded CPD-Ambassador certificate and join the CPD Ambassadors community.