Learn Sheffield Amongst Partners for Erasmus+ CODE Project

Published: 28 December 2019
Learn Sheffield is part of a consortium of partners who have successfully applied to the Erasmus+ programme. The CODE project seeks to explore the experience and best practices in using coaching as a tool for more effective change management and creation of a supportive and growth-oriented environment. The project runs from September 2019 to January 2022 and involves seven partners from six countries.

The Erasmus+ CODE Project seeks to explore the experience and best practices in using coaching as a tool for more effective change management and creation of a supportive and growth-oriented environment.

The impact of the project is intedned to be a deeper understanding and better knowledge of using coaching techniques to improve school achievement.  

 

A digital Resource book of coaching techniques, methods and examples of best practices from different settings will foster schools to use coaching techniques and elements for effective change management, collaboration, mutual understanding, problem identification, decision making, reducing of burn-out syndrome, individual and team development and growth, as well as improvement of socioemotional competence.

The target groups of CoDe project are educators (school leadership and teachers) and staff of partner institutions (policy makers, consultants, educators, trainers, lecturers, project managers, etc) who directly or indirectly work with schools. Indirect target groups are students, staff of public and local authorities, business organisations, NGO's and other stakeholders.

Context 

The diversity and complexity of students and classrooms in the 21st century place increasing demands on the teacher to provide effective pedagogy and instruction. To meet these demands teachers have to adopt new professional practices, skills, competences and knowledge. Individual and team coaching is increasingly being seen as the tool through which to address these challenges and support teachers.

Coaching is widely used in business organisations to strengthen individual and team capacity and productivity. In educational settings there are some good examples of how teachers coach teachers, but coaching is not widely used in schools in project partner countries. Our long-term goal outside the scope of this project is to increase schools in which coaching is used as a systematic approach. The goal for CoDe project is to explore the experience and best practices of partner countries in using coaching as a tool for more effective change management and creation of a supportive and growth-oriented environment, and to identify the opportunities that coaching provides for staff development and collaboration.

 

The main objectives of the project are:

1.  

To develop a description of current state of coaching in staff development both in business and educational settings.

2.

To organize 6 learning visits in partner countries to explore how coaching techniques, both individ-ual and group, have helped to create growth-oriented environments through more effective cooperation and well-being that lead to change in practice, reflection and school-wide collective efficacy that promote student achievement. The experience will be sought not only in schools but in institutions from various sectors, i.e. higher education institutions, state/public institutions, local authorities, businesses, NGOs, etc., to iden-tify how experience from other sectors can be transferred to education sector. The collected techniques and methods will be tried out in the follow-up workshops.

3.

To create a digital Resource book of individual and group coaching techniques, methods and examples of best practices from different settings in partner countries.

4.

To disseminate the best coaching practice and to introduce and try out various coaching tech-niques and elements in all partner countries.

 

The consortium is made up of 7 partner organisations from 6 countries

 

LSHF                      Learn Sheffield (UK)

 

CARDET                Centre for Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology (Cyprus)

 

ETTA                      Education and Teacher Training Agency (Croatia)

 

ISJI                         School Inspectorate of Lasi county (Romania)

 

MU                        Masaryk University (Czech Rep.)

 

RIIMC                    Education and Information Services of Riga City (Latvia)

 

VISC                       National Centre for Education (Latvia)

 

Project tasks

  • To carry out desk research of current state of coaching in staff development in partner countries both in business and educational settings.

  • To organise 6 learning visits in partner countries to explore how coaching techniques, both individual and group, have helped to create growth-oriented environments through more effective cooperation and well-being that lead to change in practice, reflection and schoolwide collective efficacy that promote student achievement.

  • To create a digital Resource book of individual and group coaching techniques and examples of best practices from different settings in partner countries.

  • To disseminate the best coaching practice and to introduce and try out various coaching techniques and elements in all partner countries.

 

Results of the project

  • A completed desk research of current state of coaching in staff development both in business and educational settings;

  • Raised awareness on coaching techniques and methods to improve staff development through learning visits, follow-up workshops, dissemination and multiplier events;

  • Developed digital resource book for educators and schools to use for building supportive and growth-oriented environments;

  • Improved capacity of school educators in using coaching techniques and methods through workshops and multiplier events using the developed digital resource book;

  • Informed public and local education authorities of the value of using coaching techniques and methods to lay the foundation for introduction of coaching in school plans;

  • The expected impact is deeper understanding and better knowledge of using coaching techniques to improve school achievement.

     

Activities/events

Introduction meeting                    Riga, LV                                October 2019

Learning Visit 1                                  Sheffield, UK                      January 2020

Learning Visit 2                                  Cyprus                                  Apr/May 2020

Learning Visit 3                                  Croatia                                  September 2020

Interim report                                                                                   November 2020

Learning Visit 4                                  Czech Rep.                          December 2020

Learning Visit 5                                  Latvia                                    March 2021

Learning Visit 6                                  Romania                              May 2021

Project Meeting 2                            Sheffield, UK                      September 2021

Multiplier Events                              all countries                                        November 2021

Final report                                                                                        January 2022

 

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