In the past years ICSE and the ICSE Consortium have organized a vast number of activities throughout Europe as part of our international projects. Besides our project activities, we want to highlight two formats that continuously help to shape the future of STEM Education in Europe: our policy events as well as our international conference series Educating the Educators.
Activities
International Conferences and Events
Policy Events
Involving research, practice and policy is key to promoting innovation in STEM education. Too often, ideas and innovative practices exist only in enclaves because of a lack of links and collaboration between research, practice and policy. This insight arose during our most recent international events and conferences – and is motivating us to strengthen ties between these spheres.
In recent years, we have organised policy-oriented international events in Brussels, Freiburg and Leiden which informed policy about existing barriers in Europe to a broader take-up of innovative approaches such as inquiry-based teaching and learning. Implementation barriers which we experienced in the roll-out of PD programmes in European-wide projects (such as assessment practices, lack of cooperative structures at many schools, ineffective PD structures) were directly discussed with policy makers.
- Leidern, 2023: Policy seminar titled “Opening up school education: Ways to support schools on their path to institutional change”
- Freiburg, 2019: Policy seminar for initiating and sustaining cooperation for innovation in STEM education
- Freiburg, 2016: Scaling-up STEM teacher professional development. Overcoming challenges through a research-policy-practice dialogue
- Brussels, 2013: Learning for the future: Changing mathematics and science classes
- Brussels, 2011: Towards Europe 2020: Inquiring minds – innovative pedagogies in mathematics and science education
International Conferences
Following up on a core barrier to a broader take-up of innovation in STEM education, a conference series entitled Educating the Educators has been established. Educating the Educators focuses on approaches to scaling-up STEM teacher professional development and has, though a research-based conference, from the outset been designed to enhance exchange between research, policy and practice. To date three conferences were held.
- Leiden, 2023 : Educating the Educators VI took place in the inspiring Naturalis Museum in Leiden in the Netherlands. This time the conference focused on the topic “STEM and Open Schooling for Sustainability Education”.
- Freiburg, 2019: Following the first two conferences, ETE III continued to provide a space for an exciting exchange of knowledge on approaches to and concrete materials for scaling up professional development in STEM education.
- Freiburg, 2016: Educating the Educators II boasts a highly innovative concept combining a classical research conference with interactive formats such as a Policy Seminar, a Materials Market and a Company Visit.
- Essen, 2014: The first Educating the Educators Conference on international approaches to scaling-up professional development in maths and science education takes place in Essen.
