Last week, teachers and teacher educators from Belgium, Austria and Greece came together for a three-day professional development workshop on self-regulation for teachers and supporting self-regulated learning in the classroom. This training was an effort to combine two European projects, tMAIL and the current project SLIDEshow. Educators from primary and secondary schools were introduced to the tMAIL mobile application that can be used as a guiding tool to support students’ self-regulated learning. Teacher educators were acquainted to the teacher educator platform on the app which has customisable functionalities for teachers to be able to personalise student SRL support. Alongside this, the participants were introduced to the latest instruments and approaches on SRL such as eTwinning and Learning Analytics. They were given the space to share best SRL practices and develop ideas with one another. Specifically, participants shared ideas on their own self-regulatory practices and discussed each other's previous knowledge and assumptions on SRL to uncover ways to further support SRL in the classroom.
In the first day of training, participants shared their expectations, questions and identified their personal learning objectives for the three-day workshop. The first two sessions introduced the participants to self-regulation learning theories and strategies as well as the role of teacher SRL in student SRL. The day ended with a hands-on activity that summarised what teachers learned and how SRL looks like in practice.
The first day did not end without a tour of one of the oldest cities in the world – Athens. The participants came together at the historic heart of the city centre – Plaka and went by foot to tour the neighbourhoods around the imposing Acropolis and after, had sumptuous Greek cuisine in one of the traditional Greek tavernas.
The second day was an introduction to the different tools and platforms on SRL and re-calling the goals set from the previous day. The use of learning analytics at the school and classroom level, as an approach in evaluating the learning processes and identifying student progress, was introduced to the educators. eTwinning was also promoted as a platform for teachers to collaborate online with other teachers and students in Europe by building projects together. The afternoon was the chance to observe the kindergarten and view the facilities of this year’s E1 training hosts – Doukas School.
The final day of the professional development workshop started with a simulation of mimicking a self-organised learning environments (SOLE) while discussing questions on student motivation and SRL support. This also involved a reflection on the teachers' self-regulatory behaviours during the session. Students from Doukas School who have been involved in projects with self-regulatory components. The final afternoon was spent looking back on the past three days and how teachers can practice what they have learned in their own classrooms.
Designed for educational professionals in primary and secondary, participants of the training would be able to utilise the knowledge and resources to guide groups of other educators in the future and learn from each other about self-regulation.
The training ended with high spirits and a new set of SRL competences that are ready to be used in the classroom.
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