Conferences and Seminars

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• Theme's
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From 6 to 8 February 2009 ATEE's first Winter Conference washeld at lake Garda in Italy.

Theme of the conference was

 In-service Learning throughout the Stages of Teachers' Careers. 

The ATEE Winter University has the purpose of discussing and deepening the issues studied by the Research and Development Centres (RDC) of the Association. Year in, year out the RDCs may widen their research by means of specific conferences open to European and Non-European experts.

An initiative of ATEE's RDC on In-service Learning The initiative for the first Winter Conference has been taken by the RDC on In-service learning of ATEE. This longstanding RDC brings together a group of experts who consider it a necessity and a privilege to organize a winter university conference allowing experts & players in the world of life-long learning in schools to explore and develop strategies to promote life-long learning among teachers taking into account their various career stages and related backgrounds concerns and competences.
This Winter conference will be welcoming experts and actors in life-long learning of teachers to have inputs, discussions and develop recommendations concerning life long learning of teachers in consecutive career phases. Special attention will also be paid to the role of In-service learning facilitators. Put differently, the question here is what could educational advisors, trainers, researchers etc. contribute to help teachers to engage in effective, rewarding and inspiring life-long learning.


Target group
Internal and external in-service learning facilitators and researchers in the field of in service learning / professional development and other experts involved in this field, from all levels of education. 

Winter conference 

Under the umbrella of the ATEE a cycle of winter university conferences will be organized. The ATEE Winter University has been decided by the ATEE Administrative Council and by the President for the purpose of discussing and deepening the issues studied by the Research and Development Centres (RDC) of the Association. Year in, year out the RDCs may widen their research by means of specific conferences open to European and Non-European experts.

Full conference leaflet

The full conference leaflet can be downloaded here.

For any information, please contact
Ms. Sofia Butturini
CESES – Via Pantano 17 20121 Milano (Italy)
Tel: +39 02 58306797
Fax: +39 02 58303800
Email: sbutturini@ceses.it  – segreteria@ceses.it  

Conference Committees
Honorary Committee
Giovanni Polliani – ATEE President
Cesare Scurati – Università Cattolica of Milan

Scientific Committee
Brigita Zarkovic – RDC co-ordinator - Zavod RS za šolstvo
Nadine Engels – Vrjie Universiteit of Brussels
Asa Morberg - University of Gavle
Jaap van Lakerveld – PLATO, University of Leiden

Conference Co-ordinators
Nadine Engels - Vrjie Universiteit of Brussels
Brigita Zarkovic - Zavod RS za šolstvo

Organising Committee
Michele Aglieri – Università Cattolica of Milan
Sofia Butturini – CESES staff

 
Life- long learning, a top priorityLife-long learning is high on the European agenda. In a series of EU documents (Lisbon, Copenhagen and in EU action plans) this has been underlined. It is widely acknowledged that nowadays society requires continuing education and learning in all sectors of society. On the one hand, this is necessary in order to promote Europe as an economic power in the wider global context. It requires up dating, up grading, and production of new knowledge by and among professionals of all kinds. Europe will have to be a key player, to be steering developments rather than following them.
On the other hand, we see a risk of a division in society between those that participate, that do learn and that have jobs, and others that are without employment, are computer-illiterates or otherwise disadvantaged and at risk of being out of touch with societal developments. Therefore, learning and more in particular life long learning has been declared top priority in Europe.

Preparing for life long learning (LLL) Although we acknowledge that learning does not necessarily imply that people need to be taught, we do realize that the new and strong emphasis on life-long learning has a particular impact on teachers and educators. They prepare future generation for a future in which life long learning will have to be integrated. Teachers and educators will have to be inspiring examples showing LLL in their own behaviour, thus inspiring young people to accept LLL as a normal & challenging approach of life and work.

An aging teaching force
European wide we see the effects of the aging of the baby-boom generation. The educational system still has many elderly teachers employed, but within the next ten years, they may be leaving their jobs unless these jobs could be adapted to their needs and competences.

Insufficient numbers of new teachers
Many countries fail to evoke a sufficient influx of young teachers, so a shortage of teachers is predicted in quite a few countries. Some countries therefore seek solutions such as opening opportunities for professionals in other fields to have lateral access in the teacher education and school system. No full programme of virtual TT is required for them.

A profession in a state of flux
The present teaching force is facing numerous problems, and on top of that, it is often challenged to provide solutions to societal problems that are rooted elsewhere (safety, drugs abuse, multi-culturalism, sexual moral etc.)

Goals 

• to raise awareness of career stages and in-service needs of teachers
• to raise consciousness of different learning contexts
• to explore specific competences of in-service learning facilitators
• to explore needs, contexts, resources and providers in different career stages of teachers
• to build a community of practice

In sum
Summarizing the context as sketched above, we see:

1. Society is in need of continuing learning to make Europe strong & competitive.
2. Life long learning is necessary to prevent society from splitting in two (the knowledge workers and the ones left behind) 
3. Teachers will have to be model life long learners in order to inspire new generations. 
4. There is a shortage of teachers ahead of us unless we allow elderly teachers to stay longer. 
5. There is a shortage of teachers ahead of us unless we are able to attract new ones. 
6. Education will be more attractive if it is considered from a place of learning and personal development perspective. 
7. New tasks and challenges force schools to develop new approaches and strategies to cope with new problems. To be able to do so learning is needed. Teachers need life-long learning.

Different needs for learning in different stages of careers
The teaching forces will have to engage in life long learning, but their needs, their learning styles and their ability to learn will vary with age and background.
The newly-qualified teachers will have needs for induction procedures and support to help them get acquainted with the teaching profession.
Experienced teachers will need to elaborate their work further. They may need to learn in order to deepen their understanding, improve their competence and specialize in subject, or task areas. They to a far higher extent will have to be approached as expert learners.

Elderly teachers will have age-related needs. They have vast experience, some of them may have to learn how to give their work the meaning they wish it to have, but many of them may also use their experience to help and inspire new teachers.

The ones that have lateral access to the system will again have different needs and abilities, especially since they have already been acculturated in other work sectors.

Given this variety, the issue has arisen how to promote life-long learning among these various groups of teaching professionals in ways most beneficial to them as persons but also to them as professional groups and school staff teams.

• Submission deadline for abstracts 15 December 2008
• Notification of acceptance 10 January 2009
• Deadline for submission of full papers 30 January 2009

General guidelines for abstracts

• All abstracts should be submitted in English, which is the official language of the conference.
• All abstracts should be in MS Word, font size 12, Times New Roman.
• Abstracts of individual papers, posters or workshops should be approximately 500 words in Word format as an email attachment to brigita.zarkovic@zrss.si .
• Abstracts of symposia should consist of an (up to 500 words) overview, followed by an (up to 500 words) abstract for each paper, sent in Word format as an email attachment to brigita.zarkovic@zrss.si .
• All submissions will be assessed in a review process by the scientific committee of the ATEE In Service Learning conference on merit and relevance to the conferences themes.
• If accepted, conference papers should be no longer than 5,000 words (in total!). Submissions must be full papers. Information on submission of full papers will be given with the letter of acceptance.
• After double blind review selected papers may be published in a theme issue of the European Journal of Teacher Education; other selected papers will be published in conference proceedings

Individual papers

Parallel sessions will be organised in which people can present their work. If possible, individual papers will be grouped in thematic sessions. Each speaker will have about 20 minutes of presentation time, followed by 10 minutes of discussion.


Workshops

The aim of a workshop is to create an interactive and active learning forum in which scholars and practitioners can be inspired by colleagues. Workshops may, for instance, provide an opportunity to exchange experiences and knowledge about how to deal with needs in certain career stages of teachers in practice, about professional development in specific learning contexts, or about specific competences of in-service learning facilitators. A workshop will take one hour and a half.

Posters

The aim of the poster session is to give a forum to researchers who are not yet able to present results, but want to discuss their research design, methods, etc. or to give a forum to practitioners who want discuss a design for in service learning practice. The posters will be linked to opportunities for round table discussion.


Symposia
A symposium is a group of 2 to 4 presentations (preferable 2 or 3 speakers plus a discussant) devoted to a specific topic and is one hour and a half to two hours in length. A symposium aims to be an active discussion forum on a relevant issue within the domain of in service learning. Proposals should address topics of broad concern to the participants. Symposia should be submitted as single submissions by the symposium organiser/convenor.

Registration fees include:

• Organisation of the conference
• Welcome reception, coffee breaks, social dinner
• Conference documentation
• Proceedings: online publication

Schedule

From some of the Parallel sessions, downloads are available:

• Ada Adeghe (University of Wolverhampton - UK) - Supporting the Professional Practice of Induction Tutors 
• Valentina Grion & Bianca Maria Varisco (University of Padova - Italy) - The process of narrative construction of teacher identity in an online educational context
• Katja Schröder (University of Regensburg - Germany) - JoMiTE: Preparing Teachers as Learners in Europe’s Educational Worlds
• Christine Vincent (University of Wolverhampton - UK) - Developing an integrated teaching workforce to support integrated/multi agency children’s services
• Gadušová Zdenka & Žilová Ružena  - Current Challenges for Primary School Teachers in Slovakia 
• Nektaria Palaiologou & Aggeliki Tsapakidou - Novice teachers following post-graduate studies: their needs, motives and working conditions. The case of Greece

Friday 6 February 2009 09:00 - 17:00 Arrival and registration
13:00 Lunch
17:30 Opening Session:

• Welcome address: Birgita Zarkovic, RDC In service Learning co-ordinator
• In Service Learning throughout the Stages of Teachers’ Careers: Jaap van Lakerveld, PLATO, University of Leiden
• Giovanni Polliani, ATEE President

20:00 Welcome reception & Dinner

Saturday 7 February 2009

09:00 Keynote lecture 1 : Transition from initial teacher education to lifelong learning, Asa Morberg, University of Gävle
09:45 Focussed discussion groups on the conference theme – round 1
10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Feedback plenary
12:00 Lunch
13:30 Parallel sessions - round 1
15:00 Coffee break
15:30 Parallel sessions - round 2
16:30 Poster session + roundtables
17:45 Informal presentation of RDC In Service Learning

Sunday 8 February 2009

09:00 Keynote lecture 2: Supporting self-management in the last stage of teachers’ careers, Berrie Keuper, Windesheim University
09:50 Focussed discussion groups on the conference theme – round 2
10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Parallel sessions – round 3
13:00 Lunch
14:30 Panel: Conclusions from discussions on the conference theme
15:15 End of the conference
Visit to Grotte di Catullo in Sirmione
Free time
20:00 Social dinner

Monday 9 February 2009

Departure

Conference Venue

Hotel Desenzano (4 stars)
Via Cavour 40/42
Desenzano del Garda - Italy

The hotel is located near Lake Garda


Travel information

To reach the Conference venue: 

• From Milan airports: Malpensa - Linate

• From Bergamo airport (Orio al Serio)

• From Verona airport: