This event takes place once a year during the life cycle of the JM project.

Background

Teaching effectively with digital tools/digital technology in higher education or in the secondary school system requires the teaching staff to benefit from continuous training and professionalization opportunities in order to adopt innovative pedagogic approaches. As evidenced in the Annual Implementation Reports of the Bologna Process on the European Higher Educational Area or in the Eurydice reports on the training of the human resources, not many universities offer in their curricula courses for doctoral students on pedagogical approaches. This is also valid in the case of young researchers or teaching assistants.

The same pattern can be identified in the secondary school system, where the teaching staff does not benefit from courses meant to develop their digital skills or digital approaches in the teaching and learning process. This situation identified at university and secondary school system leads to poor skills and competencies for students which prevents them from being competitive on the labour market or participating actively in democratic life, lacking the instruments for enhanced participation. Another effect is dissatisfaction with the quality of education. In Romania, only 39% of higher education students are satisfied with the quality of teaching(Bologna Implementation Plan, 2018), one of the lowest levels of satisfaction among EU member states. Romania is not a singular case, with similar levels being displayed by Bulgaria and other countries from the region.

Based on the arguments presented above and the recommendation made by the European Commission to the member states, to strengthen the capacity of the universities in preparing students for the labour market but also to equip them with strong digital skills, this event aims to select 10 young researchers(doctoral and post-doctoral students, teaching assistants with less than two years teaching experience) and 15 secondary school teachers which are teaching in the secondary school system and equip them with appropriate tools and methodologies in the teaching process