Among its objectives for 2020, the European Commission is seeking structural improvements in education systems and calling for an improvement in the initial training of future teachers as – and this has been shown by international education research – they are the most fundamental pillars of any education reform and essential to achieving an improvement in results from pupils.
Our project aims to improve the quality of the initial training given to teachers by focusing on two major areas – research and the ability to undertake entrepreneurial action. Recent international reports call for a focus on these factors as they are skills that facilitate lifelong learning, the transfer of knowledge, employability, autonomy and the ability to manage both oneself and complexity.
This project is based on the competence definitions provided by the Catalan Agency for Quality in the University System (AQU) (2009), as well as other scientific literature, national and international reports, and the recommendations contained in the 2012 report entitled “Rethinking Education” by the European Commission. The latter document highlights the importance of working on transversal competences with future teachers and recommends developing all those skills “related to reflexive practices and research in the classroom” and the “capacity to think critically, take initiative, solve problems and work with others”. The European Commission (2007, 2008, 2012) also calls for work on competences related to entrepreneurship: “there is a need to concentrate effort on developing transversal competences… most especially on entrepreneurship competences”.
The overall objective for the project is to improve the quality of the initial training given to teachers through the development and assessment of strategies that foster work on two types of transversal competences: scientific competences to foster the critical, investigative and inquiring spirit; and competences related to innovation and creativity that can promote the entrepreneurial spirit and insertion into the labour market.
Both types of competences will be worked on with a view to inter-relating the research and practice in university and school classrooms.
The specific objectives will be as follows:
- In all years of pre-school and primary education degrees, apply and assess those actions that have proven successful at the university (AEU) based on research and that are used at the best universities to improve the learning of scientific competences in students.
- Help students studying the pre-school and primary education degree to develop those competences related to entrepreneurial activity in two ways: they must be capable of training their future school pupils in entrepreneurial activities and they must be able to create projects that demonstrate their entrepreneurial ability.
- Completion of innovative projects by university students based on the latest research and aimed at training school pupils about the entrepreneurial spirit.
These specific objectives will be worked on simultaneously in various subjects and in every year of the pre-school and primary education degrees. The goal is to show how these competences can be improved by working on a few key skills.
Headings will be established under which to assess the level of development in the competences of “learning to research” and “learning to be enterprising”, the latter based on four main indicators: personal autonomy; group leadership and teamwork; innovation, research and creativity; and ability to be enterprising at educational, social and business levels.
Five types of results are expected: firstly, an improvement in the competences to be worked on; secondly, improved university-school links and better ties between academics and professionals; thirdly, improved training and learning in collaboration with all the stakeholders involved – university students and professors, school pupils and teachers, experts in AEU and entrepreneurship; fourthly, the creation and spread of knowledge on the two main areas (innovation and entrepreneurship); and, finally, improved prestige for the teaching profession – the main goal for the ARMIF Project.