STEM Continuous Professional Development at European Universities – STEM-CPD@EUni

This 3-year project is funded by the EU under the KA2 – Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices, KA203 – Strategic Partnerships for higher education action of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

The project is led by the Faculty of Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and involves four other important European universities and ECTN (within which it was initiated by the Work Group on Lecturing Qualifications and Innovative Teaching Methods).

Fast development of science and technology knowledge is strongly connected to complex social quests. To cope with these developments and to assure sustainable quality of teaching and learning in higher education STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) courses, a lifelong continuous professional development (CPD) of lecturers in their local context is needed. The activities of this project aim at integrating technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) in teaching and developing technology-based approaches, enhancing student learning experiences.

During the three years of the STEM-CPD@EUni project, two summer schools will be organised for lecturers who intend to implement STEM-oriented CPD activities in their faculty. Following the summer schools these lecturers will become CPD Ambassadors, by sharing the knowledge in the higher education STEM-CPD community. The activities of CPD-Ambassadors will improve the quality of teaching at their faculties and beyond, adopting a train-the-trainer approach, embracing co-creation, peer-learning and knowledge sharing. The CPD-Ambassadors will put the basis to reach sustainability of CPD of teaching staff in STEM education at European universities.

Within the STEM-CPD@EUni, six partners will collaborate on six interconnected intellectual outputs (Os)

• O1: design of a roadmap to set up STEM-CPD at EU Universities, based on the expectations of the different stakeholders. University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
• O2: development of the framework for STEM-CPD according to the CPD-Ambassador principle. University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
• O3: collection and sharing of STEM-CPD scenarios and user cases on open platforms. University of Oulu (Oulu, Finland)
• O4: development of open online modules (microMOOCs) to be used in CPD activities in different user cases. University of Ljubljana (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
• O5: design of the summer schools, related activities, materials and certification of CPD-Ambassadors. University of Naples Federico II (Naples, Italy)
• O6: evaluation and effect measurements of the user cases and CPD scenarios in the European context. Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland)

ECTN is in charge of dissemination activities and sustainability.

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