Faculty of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts at Kaunas University of Technology, hosted Nordplus Horizontal-funded project known as Teacher Research Literacy (TREL) partners on October 30, 2023. The meeting continued the project activities related to research literacy in teacher education and pre-service training. During the meeting, the project partners got acquainted with KTU and the Faculty of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts.
One of the main activities of the TREL project, and the main focus of this meeting, was the observation of the workshop where the students of Professional Studies in Pedagogy programme were introduced to Action research. This observation was the fourth one during the project. In the context of the TREL project, this experience is somewhat different and, in a way, unique from what the project partners have experienced before. The one-year Pedagogy studies at KTU, unlike the study programmes implemented by other project partners, are focused on purely professional teacher training and do not provide any degree, i.e., they are essentially practice-oriented, and this type of studies is subject to slightly different requirements under the legislation of the Republic of Lithuania than, e.g., the BA or MA studies. Obviously, this type of studies is oriented towards the development of slightly different competences and, for example, the development of research competence is reflected in a slightly different way than in BA or MA studies, i.e., students are provided with as much research literacy as they may need in their practical activities - in the improvement of the educational process, in the development of lessons, in the analysis of studies related to the educational process, etc. The handbook prepared by the TREL project partners will certainly be enriched by the Lithuanian experience and will provide a different perspective on research literacy in teacher education. After observing the workshop, colleagues from the Latvia (University of Latvia), Estonia (Tallinn University (TLU)) and Norway (Oslo Metropolitan University & Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge (USN)) had the opportunity to have a discussion with the lecturer Assoc. Prof. Dr. Berita Simonaitiene.
During the discussion, questions that remained after observing the lecture were raised and feedback was given. Berita Simonaitiene noted that the lecture observation and the feedback provided by the project partners was very useful for her as a lecturer of the module, as the insights expressed allowed her to rethink her own practice, and maybe will foster some changes in further teaching. Other relevant issues concerning dissemination activities, handbook preparation, student survey were discussed during the partners’ meeting in Kaunas. At the end of the meeting Anna-Liisa Jõgi (TLU) presented the details of the forthcoming visit to Estonia, which will be the fifth in a series.
It was a pleasure to discuss, question and create knowledge together. We look forward to the meeting at Tallinn University, Estonia, in the coming week.
(Post by Jolita Horbačauskienė & Milda Ratkevičienė)
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