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Empowering educators in the digital transition - Next generation strategies for teacher professional development

Supporting reforms to improve the quality of education and training systems and ensure equal access to it

Funding Programme
Year
  • 2024

Empowering educators in the digital transition - Next generation strategies for teacher professional development

The Commission is supporting the Flemish Community of Belgium and the Netherlands with reforms to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of teachers’ Continued Professional Development (CPD) as a way to support the digital transition of education. 

Context

The digital transition presents a particular set of challenges and opportunities in the field of education, both for educators and students. Education authorities need to meet the professional development needs of teachers to ensure that schools keep track of this period of rapid change.

The OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey highlights that teachers want, and need, more ICT-related professional development. Educators need to be able to use new tools confidently to enhance teaching content and delivery as well as learning management.

Digitally competent teachers are better placed to help learners develop digital skills, including information literacy, media literacy and computational thinking. Digital technologies can also help overcome barriers to teachers’ own professional development and learning and make it more impactful.

Support measures

The support measures include:

  • Development of an inventory of effective and sustainable approaches to innovating teachers’ professional development with the help of digital technologies in Belgium (Flanders) and the Netherlands.
  • A methodological framework to strengthen the digital component of CPD on offer, to be developed and test jointly by authorities and stakeholders.
  • Recommendations on adapting policies and funding for teachers’ CPD to integrate innovative digital approaches.

Results expected

The project is expected to lead to the following outcomes: 

In the short to mid-term, the authorities, CPD providers and stakeholders will be able to use the new inventory and methodological framework to strengthen the digital component of CPD for teachers in Flanders and the Netherlands. The authorities will adapt existing policy and funding instruments to ensure these innovative digital approaches become widely available to schools and teachers.

In the long run, the project is expected to contribute to a better offer of innovative and high-quality professional development, which will make effective use of digital technologies, fit within teachers’ schedules and lead to more qualitative teaching and learning.

More about the project

You can read the documents related to the project here: