Teachers as lifelong learners: the key to innovative and inclusive education

Teachers and lifelong learning

In a fast-changing world, being a teacher can be incredibly challenging. This is why staying motivated is key to high-quality teaching and lifelong learning.

In a policy guide on supporting teachers and school leaders, the European Commission explores how innovative and inclusive education can only be achieved with passionate and highly competent teachers.

Similarly, a recent Teacher Education Policy in Europe webinar addressing the implications of teacher career pathways for teacher education concluded that teachers’ motivation and well-being are paramount for improving the quality of school education.

Four projects for teachers’ lifelong learning

These innovative European projects can provide educators with renewed motivation and increased expertise. The Teachers Inspiring Lifelong Learning (TiLL) project shows how connecting self-reflection and lifelong learning promotes competencies that teachers will need in the future, such as emotional self-regulation and the ability to motivate and engage students. The partners of this project— from Belgium, France, Italy, Sweden, and the UK — also provide the TiLL self-assessment tool to help educators identify lifelong learning pathways and the types of skills individual teachers will need to improve.

Similarly, the Polish-led Teachers’ Leaders targets primary and secondary schools and proposes training for teachers wishing to become leaders. The outcomes of this project are available in seven languages and include an e-learning platform.

Meanwhile, Lean for Work and Lean for Life (Lean) is one of the answers to the education-occupation mismatch among young people. Lean aims to kill two birds with one stone by building trainers’ confidence in teaching lean skills while preparing students for working life.

The Erasmus+ Teacher Academies are also designed to support teacher education institutions. They will offer educators tailored opportunities to, inter alia, develop their professional competencies, improve the quality of their teaching — especially in the first years of the profession — and gain valuable cross-cultural experience.

Four projects for making education innovative and inclusive

Revitalising the role of teachers could bring down one of the several barriers to innovative and inclusive education. In the Innov8 - Innovation for Quality in Education Erasmus+ project, two schools in Spain and Estonia explored innovative educational trends by focusing on transforming educators from mere transmitters of information to active agents encouraging students to think critically. This initiative also involved teachers and students in eTwinning projects to practically implement innovation in the classroom.

Similarly, the Czech school Základní škola M. Choceňského, Choceň, focused on enhancing its teachers’ language expertise. Language and Methodology Education for Teachers enabled them to visit other European schools to get acquainted with different education systems and methods, and trends in teaching. In addition, this experience strengthened the European dimension in the school, and innovated the school curriculum.

With classrooms all over Europe changing every year, diversity is also becoming an important challenge in teaching. The Tolerance and Quality Inclusive Education in School project — launched by a Spanish educational NGO and two schools in Latvia and Poland — addresses this issue. Participating teachers had the opportunity to develop emotional management and playful teaching to deal with disruptive behaviours in the classroom, learn new tools to promote digital learning and linguistic diversity, and exchange good practices about inclusion and interculturality.

Both teachers and students were involved in the Swedish-led Inclusive Learning with High Expectations project, which tackled the lack of involvement of intellectually challenged learners. Thanks to job shadowing, study visits, and joint project planning for student mobilities, teachers were able to address mixed groups of students in their teaching, and draft assignments for all levels of understanding and learning.