Boosting teacher resilience in the EU neighbourhood

As part of the ETF’s Creating New Learning initiative, the ETF has been offering support to vocational teachers and trainers and specifically with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath.  This has resulted in undertakings including the development of a tool in 2020 to help identify the digital training needs of vocational teachers, and the development of high quality video learning materials for teachers. 

Digital Needs Analysis for Teachers Tool (DNATT)

The DNATT tool helps teachers to self-assess their digital competences but also to assess their training needs, their use of digital technologies and their experiences of relevant continuing professional development.  The tool builds upon the European Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu) that defines 22 digital competences organised in 6 Areas.  DNATT was developed and piloted by ETF in partnership with ERI SEE, EU’s JRC and the national authorities and 123 schools of Albania, Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia and Serbia.

A report on cross country analysis for all countries found that increased demand for the use of digital technologies during the COVID-19 lockdown and professional development provision led to an improvement in teachers’ digital competence and their capacity to communicate digitally with students and parents. Nevertheless, more than 70% teachers report high or very high needs for CPD in the following competences: teaching and assessing at a distance; enabling students to use digital technologies for group work; teaching students to make responsible and critical use of digital technologies; making use of digital technologies to engage students actively in learning; and, making greater and more effective use of different digital technologies.

The ETF is continuing its support by supporting the recommendations of the study which include: learning from good practice; developing teachers’ digital competences with specific focus on the empowerment of learners and the assessment; sharing digital resources and developing capability for digital resources; and finally, the tailoring of support and continuing professional development to meet the needs of schools and of individual teachers.

Teacher Booster

The “Teacher Booster” is a series of high-quality learning videos for teachers and other actors in lifelong learning designed to boost their capacity to face the challenges of remote learning and raise awareness on the importance of key competences for all learners especially when the world is facing the lockdown challenges.

It is an Open Education Resource (OER) produced by the ETF in close partnership with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

The "Teacher Booster" speakers are advanced in the development of entrepreneurial and digital competences, and related concepts – creativity development, value creation pedagogy, life skills, 21st century skills, design thinking, change-maker model, social and emotional learning. 

In the eight videos of the first series the speakers invited other teachers into their own private spaces, where a real exchange of ideas can happen. Both competences and intervention design principles identified in the EntreComp Playbook are the basis of the videos. Moreover, grassroot resources from the EU neighbourhood together with those of EU member states are being used to show how education and training professional can support each other through new and sustainable ways of learning.