Here you can find information on project publications, such as the Teacher’s Induction Programmes and Mentors Capacity Programmes, the field trials and policy seminars, as well as project activities and meetings, along with the growth of the LOOP network in all partner countries!
👉 Read our newsletter here: https://t.ly/3aN2F
🗓️ On September 28, a remarkable event took place in Italy that left over 800 participants, including teachers, policymakers, researchers, and scholars, buzzing with enthusiasm.
Sponsored by LUM University and supported by INDIRE, the event centered on the MCP (Mentors’ Capacity Programme) course, part of the larger LOOP project.
📚 The event delved deep into the multifaceted aspects of the MCP course, emphasizing its importance in bridging theory with practical application.
The enthusiasm for the MCP course was off the charts! So much so that, due to an overwhelming number of applicants👤, we are planning a special registration day to ensure everyone gets a fair chance.
👉 Mark your calendars for October, as the course will soon be available on the S.O.F.I.A. platform, offering a wealth of knowledge and resources to all educators.
We can’t wait to see how the MCP course impacts education and learning across the board!
Mentoring and induction programmes are essential to support teachers at different stages of their careers, ensuring their well-being, motivation, and retention, according to a European report.
The report, published by the LOOP project, supported by the European Commission, reveals that induction programmes for teachers supported by mentoring offer opportunities for personalized training, professional development, and career progression, as well as preparing teachers to face the challenges they encounter, supporting them in five dimensions of their action – didactic-pedagogical, disciplinary, bureaucratic and administrative, emotional, social, and cultural.
The successful experience of programmes in countries such as Germany, Italy, and Croatia suggests that they should be politically legitimized and incorporated into teacher training, so the experimental implementation involving 888 teachers currently underway will prove the need for their effective implementation in countries such as Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, and Greece.
The Induction and Career Progression Model of the LOOP programme is a reference in the introduction and renewal of sustained mentoring programmes in the seven countries of the LOOP Project consortium.
Mentors are selected based on practical criteria, such as personal motivation to support, participation in innovative projects, and years of experience, which translates into accumulated knowledge, allowing these teachers to embrace a new and noble professional challenge of supporting and training other professionals.
The creation of mentor training schools and a committee to monitor programme implementation is also considered relevant in this report. The LOOP induction programme is organized into three blocks, containing 14 modules and more than 50 activities that invite exploration, allowing adaptation to the needs of teachers in induction, as well as enough flexibility to adapt to different contexts and realities.
The implementation of LOOP requires a partnership between the authorities, school principals, and intermediate leadership, ensuring that the right conditions are provided and the programme is successful.
As we embark on this exciting journey into a new school year, LOOP partners are thrilled to invite you to participate in an important European initiative. We cordially invite you to participate in our European Survey on Teacher Induction Programs, specifically focusing on the invaluable practice of peer mentoring. Your professional insights are invaluable to us, as they will contribute to a deeper understanding of the prevailing perceptions and experiences related to teacher induction programs in Europe.
With this wide and groundbreaking European survey, LOOP partners aim to analyse the current professional development practices available for teachers when starting their careers, along with the impact shown on new teachers’ motivation.
We are addressing two target groups through different questionnaires:
👉 For teachers: https://rb.gy/24t0g
👉 For School Leaders: https://rb.gy/tvb5g
The feedback gathered from all respondents will help LOOP partners ensure and strengthen the results of the field trials, which were conducted in the past months across EU. The final results of the European survey will be published on LOOP website by the end of 2023 and will be actively shared and promoted to National and European authorities for policy actions.
Share your views and ignite change – Your input will contribute to the improvement of the educational landscape across Europe!
Warm regards and best wishes for an inspiring school year ahead!
The LOOP Project Team
In Portugal, 29 schools, 83 new teachers and 49 experienced teachers accepted the challenge and tested the teachers‘ induction programme from January to July 2023!
The induction programme humanizes the role of a teacher in the school.
In the aftermath of the close of the school year, the implementation of the LOOP induction programme reveals to be a success and Portuguese teachers value the opportunity they had to take part in the process.
The planning of the implementation of the LOOP programmes started at the end of the school year 2021-2022 and beginning of 2022-2023, with a set of meetings that DGAE, INOVA+ and Casa do Professor had with principles from schools from the North and South of Portugal.
In Croatia, shortly after the beginning of this year, the implementation phase of the programs in a real environment began. We contacted more than 200 teachers and schools across Croatia to join the project. We conducted surveys, worked with focus groups, and interviewed primary and secondary school teachers. The results then indicated that the teachers are somewhat satisfied with the knowledge of the subjects they teach, pedagogical knowledge, and even the hated administration. On the other hand, they feel a lack of support in the emotional and social/cultural part of the teacher’s vocation, which was not provided or insufficiently provided in college education and preparation for professional exams. The obtained results pointed to the fundamental problems of today’s teachers who face great professional instability in an increasingly challenging society and demotivation to remain in their profession. Due to the inconvenient geographical layout of Croatia, when we started the programs, we organized seminars and workshops in larger cities (Zagreb, Osijek, Pula, Split).
Over 140 teachers and mentors actively participated in the project. The mentors reacted quite well and seriously to the project with greater engagement and willingness to participate. We are still in the implementation phase, which will last until October of this year. As time goes by, the voice of the project is heard more, and teachers and mentors contact us who would like to get involved or learn more about the project itself and the programs. Because of them, we extended this phase in order to achieve higher numbers and the involvement of especially new teachers, which we lack. We are currently finishing up some of the groups and filling out the last surveys. Feedback and impressions of the project itself are quite positive. The first results are that the mentoring program is commendable, but that there is an urgent need for an equally strong program for new teachers. The local management of schools presented distinct challenges that require careful attention and collaboration.
One key outcome was the recognition of the importance of creating an environment where mentoring goes beyond a measure of formality. The participants expressed a strong desire to establish a platform for mentor exchange, elevating the mentoring experience to a higher level. Addressing the concerns of beginning teachers entering the education system emerged as a priority. Providing comprehensive preparation and a sense of security to new professionals is crucial for their success. The Ministry of Science and Education plays a vital role as a supportive partner in this project, and we are hopeful that the significance of the project’s initiatives will receive even greater recognition. It is essential to emphasize the need for increased support from the competent education authorities in implementing these programs. For now, we are proud of the progress made and the positive feedback received from educators and education leaders.
Slovene new teachers and their mentors enthusiastically engaged in field trials.
In a bold move to improve educational practices, Slovenian Ministry of Education, Faculty of Theology of the University of Ljubljana and National Education Institute Slovenia, has recently initiated a series of field trials in participating schools and kindergartens across the country. The pilot programme, involving over 350 new teachers and their mentors, aims for better educational policies and more efficient immersion and progression in the teaching career.
The programme’s initial roll-out has taken place in the capital city of Ljubljana and later in the second city of Maribor respectively. Teachers and mentors have been meticulously trained in the new methods and are keen to implement these in their classrooms. The first impressions from the ground are encouraging – teachers are reporting better and improved engagements, while mentors have expressed satisfaction with the programme’s robustness and effectiveness.
The next steps for Slovenian programme involve monitoring and evaluating these initial trials’ outcomes. Data will be collected and analyzed to ascertain the effectiveness of the innovative approach methodologies, guiding adjustments and improvements. Plans for a country-wide expansion on permanent basis are set to be contingent on the results from this pilot phase, as the feedback and results obtained from these trials will be pivotal in refining the programme’s next iterations. As the country eagerly awaits the outcomes, the educational community is already applauding the initiative’s progressive approach.
In October 2022, the schools for the pilot phase implementation of the LOOP New Teachers’ induction program in Greece were selected. A total of 80 schools participated, with 30 in the experimental group and 50 in the control group, from all the levels and many regions in the country. Out of these schools, a total of 166 experienced teachers participated as mentors, along with 197 new teachers.
During the period of November and December, all participating teachers attended training sessions for the program. A total of 14 such training sessions took place, involving different groups of mentors and new teachers.
After the Christmas break, specifically from mid-January 2023 until June, i.e. the end of the 2022-23 school year, the pilot phase of the LOOP New Teachers’ Induction program was implemented for six months. During this pilot implementation, mentors and new teachers collaborated to implement the Program, which was developed in the previous phase of the project. The program consisted of 14 units, and schools were provided with a comprehensive guide and materials for all these units.
The LOOP program fills an important gap in the Greek educational system, where the introduction of the mentorship scheme is very recent, offering a comprehensive support program for mentors and the induction of new teachers into the profession.
The main conclusion that emerged from the pilot implementation of the LOOP program is that there is a need for a structured program that supports the relationship between mentors and new teachers during their induction phase into the profession. The experience of the pilot implementation showed that when educators and schools are properly supported, they can achieve significant outcomes. All participants in the program expressed the opinion that they would like to see the LOOP program adopted in the future as a national policy for all schools in the country.
The implementation in Catalonia (Spain) of the Teachers Induction Programme was carried out with 21 mentors and 24 new teachers from 7 educational centres from all over our territory. They are, on the one hand, nursery and primary schools and, on the other hand, secondary schools. The schools/institutes that participated in the project were: “El Torrent de las Bruixes”, Escola “La Mercè”, Institut “Joan Oró, Institut-Escola “El Temple”, Institut “Antoni Martí I Franqués”, IE “MdD Portal”, and the school La Canaleta”. Todos los centros están situados en Cataluña, en la provincias de Barcelona, Tarragona y Lérida.
The training was conducted virtually due to the distance between the schools and the time availability of the teachers. All the training took place from February to July with a total of 7 sessions. In general terms, we can say that all the schools value the training very positively because they consider it an essential training for future teachers. Being a teacher is a complex profession and it is necessary to be accompanied during the first year in order to establish a solid practical basis for training competent teachers who are committed to education and today’s society. The materials generated in the LOOP project have been valued as useful instruments, not only for the training of new teachers, but also as elements of interest for the training of the school as a whole and for the individual and collective growth of all the teachers who form part of the school’s teaching staff.
In the recent Policy seminar implemented in June, participants were immersed in a two-part exploration of the challenges and opportunities set by the Teacher Induction and Mentor Capacity Programmes developed through LOOP project. The event, aimed at new and experienced teachers, brought together professionals from various schools to discuss the implementation of programs and the ways they impact their institutions.
The highest moment of the seminar was an eye-opening exchange of individual experiences and challenges faced by teachers in their respective schools. As teachers shared their struggles, they collectively envisioned how program implementations could be the catalyst for transformative improvements. It was an invaluable moment that emphasized the power of collaborative dialogue in shaping the future of education.
Main Conclusions
