ERC Workshops

Making and Connecting: LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and Teacher Education

Organised by:

• ML White (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland)

Speakers:

• Anna Beck (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland)
• Ainat Guberman (The MOFET Institute, Tel Avivi and The David Yellin Academic College of Education, Jerusalem, Israel)
• Susann Hofbauer (Helmut-Schmidt-Universität and Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg
• Hamburg, Germany)
• Itxaso Tellado (University of Vic and Universitat Central de Catalunya, Vic, Spain)

Teacher education is an important field for research, since the quality of teacher education has been regularly questioned by governments across Europe, whilst teacher quality is increasingly seen as crucial to improving educational outcomes and pupil achievement (OECD, 2011; European Commission, 2015). Although it might look ’deceptively simple’ (Grossman et al, 2009), the work of teacher educators is complex and multiple (Boyd and White, 2017), and we are not just teachers of teachers (Lunenberg et al., 2017).

This workshop will begin with a short presentation from each of the convenors outling their current research practcies  before we move on to make connections using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, a facilitated methodology that uses brick-building and metaphoric storytelling as a form of communication and problem-solving.  In Making is Connecting Guantlett (2018) argues that through making things people engage with the world and create connections with each other. The aim of the workshop is to offer an opportunity for those interested in teacher education to engage with the themes of the network and create networking opportunities for doctoral students, emerging and early career researchers and those interested in learning more.   In this workshop you will learn about the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®  method and how it can be used in a wide range of learning, teaching and research contexts as well as explore possibilities for connection and collaboration in teacher education.

Boyd, P. and White, E. (2017). Teacher educator professional inquiry in an age of accountability. In Boyd, P. & Szplit, A. (eds.) Teacher and Teacher Educator Inquiry: International Perspectives . Kraków: Attyka.

Guantlett, D. (2018) Making is Connecting: The social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Grossman, P., Hammerness, K. and McDonald, M. (2009) Redefining Teacher: Re-imagining Teacher Education. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 15(2): 273-90.

Izadinia, M. (2014). Teacher Educators’ Identity: a review of the literature. European Journal of Teacher Education, 37 (4), 426-441.

OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) (2011) Building a Teaching Profession: Lessons from around the World. Paris: OECD Publishing.

Lunenburg, M. Murray, J, Smith, K. and Vanderlinde, R. (2017) Collaborative Teacher Education Development in Europe: Different Voices, One Goal. Professional Development in Education, 43(4):556-572.

Connecting Research, Practice and Infrastructure

Organised by:

• Dr. Christoph Schindler (DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education)

The workshop aims to involve and enable emerging researchers into the discussion about open research, its practices and infrastructures in education. In recent years, the open movement and the digitisation in scholarship have enhanced a cultural transformation in research towards accessibility, re-usability, and participation. Open Science and Open Research have become umbrella terms for several developments calling for the transparency of scholarship and its processes, for the accessibility and traceability of outcomes and resources. While the discussions have on the one hand led to pragmatic guidelines[1], on the other hand a UNESCO Recommendation emerged.[2]

Network 12 changed this year its name to Open Research in Education to provide a platform for engaging in these discourses on openness in scholarship. We want to shed light on potentials, concerns, and possible ways forward in aligning Open Science to educational research and its practices. The new network name Open Research in Educational address this perspective and the heterogeneity of educational research.  

The workshop starts with a short introduction to Open Research in Education focussing on open research practices and enabling infrastructures. The format will be interactive and open to stimulate a high engagement and encourage ongoing collaborations at the sessions and beyond. Therefore, participants can pose their own questions which serve as a starting point for discussion. Participants are welcome to participate in the discussions forthwith at: https://yopad.eu/p/ERC-Workshop_Open_Reseaerch_on_Education-365days

[1] See https://www.cos.io/initiatives/top-guidelines

[2] See https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000378841 

The end is where you start from: how to defend your thesis and convince examiners of its merit right from the start of your doctoral journey.

Organised and presented by:

• Shosh Leshem (Kibbutzim College of Education, Israel and Research Associate, Stellenbosch University, South Africa)

Assume that the thesis defense focuses on the critical criteria used by examiners to judge the merit of your thesis as they read it and create the agenda for the assessment report, or for questions to ask in the defense event. This will also determine the level of award that they will recommend to your university. So, knowing what the criteria are and what questions will possibly be asked, provides a framework from which to approach and undertake your research. Making the destination explicit should be the starting point and guide to the subsequent planning and execution for your doctoral research.

The workshop will introduce inescapable pre-requisites for a thesis to become doctoral- worthy. It will provide insights on what examiners consider to be the determinants of ‘Doctorateness’ in a thesis so that you can incorporate them right from the start of your writing. It will offer strategic practical tools to apply in your thesis and help candidates and readers appreciate:

 1. The ‘whole’ and the’ parts’ that form ‘synergy’ between the account of the research that has been undertaken and the written text. 

 2. The high quality of conceptualisation expected from a doctoral thesis and recognized by presentation of argument and structure, which make the thesis a coherent piece of research. 

The workshop will include both theory and practice where participants will be able to interact with each other and discuss issues regarding their own research.

Writing for your Research Community, Writing for the EERJ

Organised and presented by:

• Paolo Landri - EERJ Editor (CNR-IRPPS (Fisciano) , Italy)
• Dr Sotiria Grek - EERJ Editor (University of Edinburgh, UK)

This session will discuss the purposes of research publications and its audiences, the process of journal selection, manuscript preparation and the issue of (blind) review procedures. The session will also include information about good practice in Open Access policy publishing and advice about the new problem of fake journals and how to avoid them.

Part of the session will be about the European Educational Research Journal (EERJ) as a medium for publishing about the changing landscapes of educational research across Europe and how to 'write' for a European audience.