ISSA Program Meeting ISSA Definition of Quality Pedagogy: Using Revised Standards as a Tool for Supporting Cooperation and Promoting Quality Vesna Zlatarović, Serbia MUTUAL PROFESSIONAL EMPOWERMENT e-learning course CIP - CENTER FOR INTERACTIVE PEDAGOGY

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 Goals –Establishment of the mentoring team –Empowerment for facilitating the process of quality improvement Face to face meetings and Utilizing potentials of distance learning –Empowerment for implementation of ISSA Standards Cornerstones –Mentoring Process based on the needs of participants –ISSA Pedagogical Standards Initiative for Improvement of quality in pedagogical practice

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 E-learning course on Quality and Mentoring Topics of first part –Quality; –Professional development; –Long life education/long life learning; –Professional development focused on needs and learning processes; –How adults learn; –The roles of mentor 1 and –The roles of mentor 2 Second part is under development: –Skill required for planning and conducting professional development

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 E-learning course on Quality and Mentoring (cont.)‏ Tasks –Sharing opinions on the forum –Reflective diary on blog –Chat discussions –Questionnaires and tests –Mini researches –Practical exercises Personal courses Individual feedback Evaluation of the course

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 Mini Researches All researches were carried out in schools and classes where participants of the project work and are class teachers. Six researches on two topics had been realized: Quality in Education from the perspective of children and parents – in 4 schools students from I, IV i V grade and their parents Learning styles of children- in 2 schools, students from two class of sixth grade The purpose of these researches is enhancing reflectiveness. Records from researches you can find on course blog

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 Personal courses Personal motivation and voluntariness Topics are in tune with interests and affinity of participants Learning and implementation of knowledge in planning, creating and facilitating of e-cources Ongoing mentoring and technical assistance Personal courses created until now: –Children safety in traffic, M.Bačanin –E-learning, S. Gomilanović –Utilization of the Internet in teaching, N. Perić –To violence respond with nonviolence – M. Petrić

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 Most important are: learning community as a tool for professional development, importance of critical friend and mentor and possibilities of ATutor as new way of learning. Each topic is equally significant for understanding the meaning of mutual (individual) professional development. Omission or replacement of any of the topics could result in loss of logical structure of the course. Facilitator of the course is committed to all participants, she is open and benevolent. Facilitating style is based on respect for individual choices and tempo, it provides individualization and constructive interaction on all levels. In the second part I expect our learning community to be even more active and that we are going to meet each other more often both in reality and on net. Evaluation - Voices of participants....

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 By combining best “sides” of e – learning and face to face meetings we achieve: Interactivity Individualization Support Growth of learning community Development of critical friends Self-evaluation Forming of reflective practitioners Growth of the body of knowledge about mentoring process Know-how concerning ATutor as LCMS Know - how to facilitate and create e – courses Improvement of professional development

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 Lessons learned Without policy support and documents it is very difficult to mobilize teachers to participate on topics of quality and mentoring. Without clear government support and legislature concerning use of IT in primary education it is hard to expect teachers to implement it in practice Pre-school teachers do have very limited access to Internet and PCs in general (at work and at home).

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 Lessons learned (cont.)‏ Participants are going through the process of parallel learning: how to use programme for distance learning (ATutor)‏ new approach to quality concept in pedagogical practice. For moderator the biggest challenges are: how to make balance between personal and professional development of participants how to support them in gaining autonomy and self-confidence. how to having strong structure and clear rules about participation, dynamics, accomplishing tasks and communication. Development, facilitation and management of on-line courses require lot of time, energy, additional skills and knowledge.

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 Lessons learned (cont.)‏ On-line courses are great opportunity for encouraging practitioners to become reflective to write about their practice to communicate their knowledge to the broader community. In development of our mentoring system it is necessary to use double way strategy: on-line courses for developing mentors are not sufficient, it is necessary to combine them with in-site trainings and meetings.

ISSA Meeting, dec 2008 Adaptability: –High degree of individualization; –Suitable for inclusive education; –User can adapt translation and parts of interface; –Provides individual and group forms of work, as well as combination with common methodology Licence is free – endless number of instalations; It is in accordance with standards of accesibility - WCAG 2.0 Forum, blog, mail and chat are integrated in course; It can work on Internet, but also in PC which is not connected to Internet; Main characteristics of ATutor