This project/mobility 'Principal Study Tour', organized by Learning Scoop Finland, in co-operation with the University of Tampere, provided the 15 participants with an insight into the Finnish education system via lectures and school visits at pre-primary, primary, secondary and post-sectondary levels. The main objectives of this project were to euip Senior Management Team members with the right educational approaches in order to ameliorate the pedagogical methods prevalent within the College and the educational outcomes of the different schools, in order to give all students provision of the necessary skills and attitudes to be active citizens and succeed at work and in societyThe participants were all Senior Management Team members consisting of the College Principal, Heads, Deputy Heads and Heads of Department. The lectures and on-site visits had an impact on the knowledge, skills and attiudes acquired and improved of the participants. These competences were further disseminated to all staff members within the thirteen schools, while practicies from the Finnish education system have been adopted in our classrooms.

CONTEXT:The project PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH FOREIGN EXPERIENCE - FINLAND, strengthened the synergy between education and training (continuous and non-formal) and stimulated new approaches in the educational sector.Comparing the Finnish education system to our Maltese education system, we are already doing a lot of good things. Certain initiatives that are being taken in this Scandinavian country are difficult to be assimilated in our country. However there are some things that could be implemented.In the last few years, Finland has been noted not only to be offering quality education at higher levels with optimum results, but has also obtained excellent results in international examinations such as PISA and TIMMS. Consequently in recent years, educators and policy makers across the world (including Malta) have taken a special interest in the Finnish education system and in those characteristics that have brought about so much progress.The project also developed a wider interpretation and approach of Continuous Professional Development (CPD). It helped the school to meet successfully the contemporary challenges. This in line with the recent developments in the Maltese education in which a number of reforms that are being implemented at primary and secondary level are based on the success of the Finnish system of education. ACHIEVED OBJECTIVES:- improvement of technical and practical teaching skills of the school teachers;- offer of a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) platform;- understanding of the importance and the dynamics of the 'knowing-how-to-do' concept;- generation of synergies between different education worlds;- additional yearly national workshops on Finnish education held in Malta by Learning Scoop in 2018 and 2019;- Maltese educators are now more aware of the Finnish system of education;- methods and concepts being adopted by Finnish schools implemented within the local Maltese educational context.PARTICIPANTS:The PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH FOREIGN EXPERIENCE - FINLAND addressed to 10 participants, split in two groups of five each:- 20th to 27th August 2017- 19th to 26th August 2018who respectively carried out a period of 6 days of shadowing experiences (excluding 2 days travel). The participants were senior leaders and educators working at pregrade, primary and middle secondary years, all from St Joseph Paola School. ACTIVITY AND METHODOLOGY:The project offered teachers from St. Joseph, Mater Boni Consilii school the possibility to expose themselves to new realities in the education sector by means of key visits to several entities so as to better understand their approach, how it works and the end result. Before visiting the host country, Maltese educators have been prepared and researched re the Finnish system of education, its success and also the type of schools that they would visit in Tampere in Finland. They also researched the history of the country and the history of the hosting city to better understand the context of the schools and institutions to be visited.RESULTS AND IMPACT:- enhancement of initiative and entrepreneurship senses;- enhancement of individual emancipation;- continuous professional development;- strenghtening employability and career prospects;- making participants more aware of the Finnish system of education;- the local participants have been prepared beforehand for the changes being adopted within the Maltese education context;- facilitating the implementation of Finnish teaching and learning methods within the Maltese education context.

•Context/background:In 2017 the formation of the so-called „Bildungscampus Hartberg“ was launched within the municipality of Hartberg after a successful citizens participation phase and with the active involvement of all the local educational facilities. In their efforts to improve the cooperation and to foster joint future activities the idea was born to gather even more inspiration from international educational institutions.•Goals: to work towards a better mutual knowledge and networking, to solve any issues concerning interface management, to develop joint offers, to strengthen Hartberg as a school location, to gather pedagogical and organisational input from the educational establishments visited within the EU mobility project, to recognize possible courses of action. •Number and type / profile of participantsNumber and type / profile of participantsTwelve persons took part in the EU mobility travels, four of which participated in two mobilities. The participants consisted of head teachers (seven persons), one representative of the school quality management, one teacher (who teaches English at two of the participating schools), the educational consultant of the municipality of Hartberg (political), the head of the department for building & construction, infrastructure and urban development of the municipality of Hartberg and Campus-Hartberg representative (responsible, above all, for the construction and maintenance of the educational and sports institutions of the municipality), as well as the head of the department for education, culture and sports of the municipality of Hartberg and Campus-Hartberg representative (in charge of all the educational institutions and the childcare institutions of the municipality of Hartberg in particular).…•Description of previous activities:There were two EU mobility projects – one to Kent, South England, and one to Vänersborg/Göteborg in Sweden. The participants visited educational institutions ranging from kindergarten to university entrance level and were hosted by “The Education People” in England and the Frida-Skolan in Sweden. They gained insight into the individual educational systems with regard to pedagogical as well as organisational aspects and were able to compare their experience and insights to the local circumstances in Hartberg.•Findings and consequences: The participants returned to their home institutions with a lot of insight coming from the educational institutions visited; they presented the experiences they collected to the public and are currently working on adapting the gathered information according to the local framework given. One of the main insights was that the visited educational institutions are closed systems within themselves. A cooperation among each other or with the individual municipal authorities could not be confirmed - a fact which makes the idea of a joint “Bildungscampus”, however, not less attractive.•Long-term effects:To summarize, one of the main effects was the strengthening of the “Bildungscampus Hartberg” by improving the networking and cooperation of the participants.

Learning science helps to train students in observation, reasoning and argumentation, which are some of the foundations for all learning. It also helps improve transferable skills, such as logic, critical thinking and organisation. In order to develop an awareness of the complex interactions in contemporary society between science, technology, society, education and the environment, it is important to have an understanding of scientific practices and processes. This understanding also helps students to become active, scientifically literate citizens. With waning interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among young people, OTTER aims to enhance understanding of education outside the classroom (EOC) methods and how they can be utilised to increase interest in STEM subjects among students and improve their acquisition of scientific knowledge and transferable skills. The project will connect EOC experts from Finland, Hungary, Spain and Ireland, strengthening networks within Europe and building a foundation for the development of EOC pilot schemes within the four focus countries. The effects of these pilots on the performance of participating students, including their levels of sophisticated consumption and scientific citizenship, will be analysed to better understand the effects of EOC on EU citizens. The pilots will build on recent momentum in tackling environmental issues and help to promote sophisticated consumption by incorporating a theme of reducing and managing plastic waste. The analysis will seek to identify differences in the effect of the programmes on students from different geographical locations and of different genders, comparing those who participated in the EOC pilot schemes with students who only participated in formal education. OTTER will further aim to improve accreditation of EOC teaching methods within Europe, contributing to the selection of accreditation tools available for use beyond the end of this project.