Case Studies

Introduction to the Case Studies

One of the objectives of the project is developing and testing effective, accessible and transferable models for professional learning of pre-service and in-service STEM teachers. The project (through WP4 led by the University of Malta) will evaluate the effectivity and accessibility of the professional learning activities as perceived by partners and by the participants in these sessions. The project involves peer-learning by job-shadowing, in which lecturers from one institution observe professional learning sessions such as lectures, organised by another institution. The project will also evaluate the peer learning through job shadowing and specifically the transferability of each activity to other contexts and other countries as analysed by partners.

This will help us evaluate the effectiveness, accessibility and transferability of strategies and programmes in different contexts. Furthermore, through the case studies we will obtain information about different models for professional learning and how these work in different contexts in order to inform policy makers.

The research questions are:

• To what extent are the individual regional activities effective and accessible?
• To what extent are the regional activities transferable to different contexts?

Based on the case studies carried out by the partners in the different countries, a cross-country analysis will lead to a report evaluating country measures across Europe from a multi-cultural European perspective. In this case the research question driving the analysis will be:

• What are the characteristics of professional development activities and technologies and in which settings do they work best?

The strategy involved:

1. A learning activity is chosen as the ‘case’ in the case study for a particular country.
2. The learning activity is observed by two partners from other institutions.
3. Reflections are written by the session provider. Feedback is provided by the observers and the participants.
4. The learning activity is improved.
5. The learning activity is adapted by a partner from another country.
6. The learning activity is transferred to another institution.
7. The partner carrying out the transfer will write a reflection.
8. The partner offering the learning activity of the ‘case’ will analyse all the data and write the case study report.

In the evaluation a focus of interest is the teachers’ competence development, their motivation and the quality of the formats as perceived by teachers.

Where are we now?

Partners have offered many sessions for job-shadowing and peer learning. They have observed these sessions and written their reflections and evaluations. Participants were interviewed. Sessions were transferred or are in the process of being transferred.

What are the next steps?

Country case study reports will be written by June 2024. A cross-country analysis will be written by Autumn 2024.

Quantitative evaluation

Quantitative evaluation of the project’s developed professional development concepts will be carried out, especially the activities carried out in the workshop series and summer schools.