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Environmental Socio-Scientific Issues in Initial Teacher Education

Summer Schools

Each year, we reach out to future science teachers across Europe. These intensive study programmes (ISP) allow future science and maths teachers to deepen their knowledge about environmental socio-scientific issues in a multinational environment. In the course of the summer schools, the students engage in a variety of innovative activities and gain first-hand inter-cultural and social experiences.

Summer School in Bulgaria, Varna, July 31th – August 11th 2022

Dealing with environmental issues in science education – Deeping future science and maths teachers’ learning by teaching

Intensive programmes for higher education learners

 

Organised by the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Science (IMI-BAS)

Venue: Bulgaria, Varna

Duration: 12 days

Objectives

The aim of this summer school is to provide future teachers with experience in teaching small groups of high school students with specific STEM interests and in introducing environmental SSI. It will allow participants to learn (gaining knowledge, skills and competences) but also to gain experiences in teaching. In addition, they will not only learn about teaching concepts but will be able to try them out in a realistic context. This will be achieved through inviting high-school students (from regional schools) to serve as test group.

Target groups:

  • Science and maths ITE students
  • PhD students in STEM fields
  • High school students interested in working on projects related to environmental socio-scientific concepts

All target groups learn about environmental SSI. Future teachers gain knowledge on pedagogical concepts, widen their teaching scope and have the possibility to actively teach students, whilst PhD students gain experience in both aspects and can elaborate on how the respectively gained knowledge might contribute to their research work.

Procedures and workflow

The summer school will be set up following a format that has been refined during the last two decades in the annual summer school of the IMI High School Students, subsidiary of IMI-BAS. The experience of IMI-BAS has shown that future teachers like to work with high school students and value the teaching experience. In turn, each future teacher will get support from experienced educators, who will oversee the process, provide useful advice and held seminars on relevant topics.

The event will start with several days of training for participants, where they will be introduced to the ENSITE modueles (Intellectual Outputs). The HE students will then work individually or in small groups to design lessons introducing SSI research topics.  The summer school will end up with the future teachers presenting their work by teaching high school students the lessons designed in the previous stage. Finally, participants and experienced educators will present and discuss their observations in a workshop, highlighting good practices and important challenges, along with suitable strategies for addressing them.

Venue

The summer school will be held at the Conference and Recreation Centre of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (also known as Creativity House of BAS) in Varna, Bulgaria, from July 31st to August 11th, 2022. Referred to as the marine capital of Bulgaria, Varna is the third-largest city in the country and the largest seaside resort on the Black Sea Coast. It is a major economic, social and cultural centre.

A social cultural programme tailored to enrich the experience of the participants will be provided. Half-day trips to sites of cultural and/or scientific importance will be included, as well as shorter visits to relevant exhibitions and museums.

The organisers will issue a certificate for each student and each future teacher, describing the scope of the activity and the attained learning outcome. Suitable assessment tools will be developed both for the students and the mentors. It is intended that participants will get 3 ECTS points.

For more and detailed information please contact Albena Vassileva: albena.ava@gmail.com

Summer School in Slovakia, March 7th-11th 2022

Event Programme

INTENSIVE PROGRAM FOR HIGHER EDUCATION LEARNERS AND FOR TEACHING STAFF

Theme: Social-Scientific Issues in Mathematics and Science Teachers Education

Organized by the Constantine the Philosopher University (CPU)

Venue: online lectures and workshops, Moodle course digital support

Date: 7 – 11 March 2022

Please click here for registration!

Target groups:

  • Science and maths students in initial teachers’ education
  • PhD students in mathematics and science education
  • Young researchers and scientists in mathematics and science education

Participants will be actively involved in discussions and will be informed about all other project initiatives and experiences. This will support them in taking up socio-scientific issue ideas to their future teaching and academic work. Participants will have the chance to demonstrate their knowledge and experience during interactive workshops.

The organizers will issue a certificate for each participating person, describing the scope of the activity and the attained learning outcome. The work and performance of participants will be acknowledged by 3 ECTS credits for those participants for whom the certificate is relevant.

Participants will be actively involved in discussions and will be informed about all other project initiatives and experiences. This will support them in taking up socio-scientific issue ideas to their future teaching and academic work. Participants will have the chance to demonstrate their knowledge and experience during interactive workshops.

The organizers will issue a certificate for each participating person, describing the scope of the activity and the attained learning outcome. The work and performance of participants will be acknowledged by 3 ECTS credits for those participants for whom the certificate is relevant.

Programme

Monday 7 March 15:00 – 16:00

Welcome, ENSITE Summer School course introduction and technical instructions

Janka Medová, Soňa Čeretková, CPU Nitra, Slovakia

Introduction ICSE and ENSITE project; Nature of Socio-Scientific Issues in Education

Laura Wanckel, Oliver Strasser, Ph Freiburg, Germany

16:30 – 18:00

Reasoning, Argumentation & Critical Thinking

Gultekin Cakmakci, Hacettepe University, Turkey

Tuesday 8 March 10:00 – 11:30

Socio-Scientific Issues and ASSESSMENT of Student Learning. Opening session of the topic.

Josette Farugia, University of Malta

Tuesday 8 March 14:00 – 15:30

Complex Socio-Scientific Topics Need SCAFFOLDING

Christina Pichler-Koban, Andrea Frantz-Pittner, University of Klagenfurt, Austria

Wednesday 9 March 14:00 – 15:30   and  16:00 – 17:30

Designing SSI Lesson, Focus to METHODS

Soňa Čeretková, Janka Medová, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia

Thursday 10 March 10:00 – 11:30

We KNOW what we EAT!

Decision-making based on confronting scientific positions on the example of food provision for the world Opening session of the topic

Martin Bílek, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Thursday 10 March 14:00 – 15:30 

Analysing (Big) Data

Monica Wijers, Vincent Jonker, University in Utrecht, The Netherlands

Thursday 10 March 16:30 – 18:00

We KNOW what we eat!

Decision-making based on confronting scientific positions on the example of food provision for the world

Closing session of the topic.

Friday 11 March 14:00 – 15:30

Socio-Scientific Issues and Assessment of Student Learning. Closing session of the topic.

Josette Farugia, University of Malta

Friday 11 March 16:00 – 17:00

Final presentations, feedback, certificates, …

Janka, Medová, Soňa Čeretková, Laura Wanckel, Oliver Strasser, other ENSITE partners and guests

Please click here for registration!

Summer School in Prague, June 15th – 24th 2022

Socio-scientific Issues in Mathematics and Science Initial Teachers Education

Join a unique intercultural experience preparing you for the future classroom!

Czech Republic, Prague: Univerzita Karlova (CUNI)

Duration: 10 days

Main target group: Students of maths and sciences in ITE programmes at higher education institutions

For implementation of socio-scientific issues (SSI), first-hand experiences are indispensable and in particularly relevant for the future classroom. Yet, prospective science teachers need to be aware of the social realities of many science tasks as well as of culturally different algorithms.
They should be able to perceive social different perspectives and develop socio-scientific sensitivity. Participating students of the ENSITE summer school will have numerous opportunities for intercultural exchange, both within the international student group and outside when meeting local students, teachers, and pupils. This will enable them to gain rich experience connected to their own future profession.

Lectures will be held by an international team of renowned lecturers from 4 countries! 

All important information at a glance:

Venue: Faculty of Education, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic (M. D. Rettigové street 4, closest Metro station – Národní třída or Můstek)
Main target group: Mathematics and natural sciences students in teacher education programmes – also interested teachers welcome!
Application deadline: June 6th, 2022
Award:
3 ECTS credits from Faculty of Education, Charles University, certificate of participation
Language: English
Costs for students of ENSITE partner universities: free of charge
Fee for students of other universities: Attendance fee 100,- EUR. Travel, accommodation and subsistence costs on own expenses.
Organizer: ENSITE Project – Charles University Faculty of Education

Contact for information and application: martin.bilek@pedf.cuni.cz

The social cultural programme will include special excursions such as relevant visits to exhibitions (e.g. Czech National Museum, Technical Museum, Centre of Environmental Studies of the Charles University, Non-governmental institution with environmental focus etc.) or school excursions to give prospective teachers an insight into school life in another country.

CUNI will issue a certificate for each student/participant, describing the scope of the summer school programme and the learning outcomes attained. For the successful participation in this summer school, Faculty of Education CUNI will award 3 ECTS credits.

Find here feedback from the summer school in Prague.

The creation of these resources has been co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union under grant no. 2019-1-DE01-KA203-005046. Neither the European Union/European Commission nor the project’s national funding agency DAAD are responsible for the content or liable for any losses or damage resulting of the use of these resources.

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