The Agency
The Agency for Cooperation in Secondary Education seeks to offer a coherent approach to professional development of teachers across countries in Central and Eastern Europe, encouraging the pooling of ideas and collaboration across borders in preference to a country by country approach. The Agency for Cooperation in Secondary Education aims to become a key player preparing teachers for change and innovation. It is based in Duino (Trieste, Italy) where it draws on the experience of teachers and staff of the United World College of the Adriatic. Other founding members are the University of Venice Ca' Foscari, the United World College in Mostar and the other partners of the P.A.C.E. project.
The Agency goals
The Agency for Cooperation in Secondary Education aims to:
- foster cooperation among different secondary education systems;
- define and diffusea new role for the teachers;
- provide professional development opportunities for secondary school teachers;
- promote a peaceful and sustainable future, inclusion and intercultural dialogue through secondary education;
by:
- organizing networks at grass roots and at ministerial level;
- promoting and diffusing best practices in secondary education;
- organizing workshops for professional development;
- setting up on-line communities of teachers and students;
- providing teaching material, services and specialist advisers for policy makers.
The Agency core beliefs and common strategies
Core Beliefs
- Knowledge should lead to understanding.
- The personal development of the student is central.
- Independent learning should be encouraged and supported.
- Different kinds of minds (e.g. respectful, ethical) and intelligences (e.g. emotional, creative) should be respected and fostered (Howard Gardner).
- Students should be given opportunities to think about why and how they learn, about how they know what they know.
- Transparency: the goals of the programme should be clear. The modes of assessment and the assessment criteria should reflect the common strategies and be known to the student.
- Student feedback and view are essential. Students are collaborators.
Common Strategies
- Experiential learning: practical work in tandem with theory.
- Opportunities for learning both inside and outside the classroom. (For example, via small group projects, perhaps with a social service element, designed and organised by students themselves; via field trips, via visits to relevant institutions and sites.)
- Subject material with “real life applications” and connections to the world outside the classroom.
- Diversity of teaching methods, resources and aids.
- A participatory approach to class, with students taking responsibility for contributing.
- Students challenged to develop their own, well-founded ideas and express them in their work.
- Collaborative work amongst students and between students and teachers.
