Teacher professional development and student achievement: Research and vision
Dennis Relojo, MSc, MBPsS is a blog psychologist and is the founder of Psychreg. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Psychreg Journal of Psychology. Aside from PJP, he sits on the editorial boards of international journals including the Journal of Innovation in Psychology, Education and Didactics. Dennis is a Commissioning Editor for the International Society of Critical Health Psychology. A Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society, Dennis holds a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Hertfordshire and his research interest lies in the intersection of psychology and blogging.
Blog psychology: Blogging as a dynamic and transformative medium to promote mental health
Taking into account the features of blogging, it is arguably one of the effective medium to raise awareness about mental health. Blogs have the capability to demonstrate that people with mental health problems are cared about, understood, and listened to. Through the use of blogs, the powerful lived-experience narratives are reaching far more people. With the increasing popularity of blogs, it is only sensible that they should be adapted in order to change the way people think and act about health psychology, and ultimately about mental health. It is comforting to know is that across the world, people use blogs as an effective medium to share their narratives and experiences, to increase awareness and understanding, and to offer comfort and support. And not only that, blogs in similar genres are now being given recognition similar to those of mainstream blogs.
Razvan-Lucian Andronic is Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences in Brasov, Romania, where he teaches Class and School Management, Organisational and Managerial Psychology, Social Psychology, among others. At the same time, he developed a career in European-funded projects, starting in 1996 in the NGO environment and continued within his own company and within the Spiru Haret University, which includes projects in the field of of teacher education.
Blended education projects in the field of teacher training
The continuous training of the teaching staff is an obligation mentioned in the education law of Romania. However, training programmes currently provided locally are not always followed by teachers, because of lack of time or financial resources. In recent years, a number of European funding programmes have been available to provide teacher training at the level of several counties. Such a project was ‘DidactIno – Innovative training for value and performance in the teaching career’ carried out in the years 2013–2015 by the trainers of Spiru Haret University in Mehedinti and Sibiu counties in Romania, a project where 2,632 teachers following one of the nine training programmes offered. At the base of this project was blended education, a form of training that seems to fit well with the needs of teachers. This model will be replicated during the period 2018–2020 in another four such projects, each being implemented in two counties, in partnership with the school inspectorates. The communication presents the main conclusions of the past project, as well as the way the educational programmes were developed within the four ongoing projects, all based on blended education.
Dr Mihaela Cojocaru holds a PhD in Education and is the president of the Association for Education and Training. She teaches mathematics and also works as an international trainer and coach. Dr Cojocaru also serves as mentor for professional development and has managed a number of Erasmus+ projects.
The role of the mentor in continuous training of teachers
Quality education is a topic of great interest to educational policies and strategies at national and international level. One component that generates quality in education is the teacher. In addition to the traditional roles of planner, organiser, assessor, adviser, manager, teacher mentor is the person who acts as a resource for generating new ideas and exchange of best practices, and someone who promotes lifelong learning. Being a mentor-teacher is the social public authority, a state representative, expert instructor, community partner, a model who educates and motivates the whole learning process of the organisation. Ultimately, this covers lecture role of learning in professionalising teaching career.
Dr Mehmet Sahin has taught at a number of universities in Turkey. At present, he is an Associate Professor at Necmettin Erbakan University. His expertise lies in critical thinking and blended learning.
Transformative learning and critical thinking
The design and development of the curriculum in educational institutions wants to fit and integrate into the existing society including traditions and beliefs as the social values. However, the transformative learning theory argues that the individuals, especially adults, are expected to change their way of thinking and understanding based on the transformative experiences. Critical thinking is the mandatory skill for this transformative learning and change. The problem here is whether the educational institutions are willing to encourage the individuals to become critical citizens. This lecture aims to present the relationship between transformative learning and critical thinking in the context of curriculum development for the educational institutions.
Dr Liliana Mata is Associate Professor at Teacher Training Department at Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacau. She is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Innovation in Psychology, Education and Didactics (JIPED) and has authored and co-authored a number of publications about teacher education.
Dr Venera-Mihaela Cojocariu is Professor at Teacher Training Department and the Head of the Department of Professional Counselling at Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacau. She has written a number publications on current issues relating to teachers training.
The role of creative learning in the formation of future teachers
Creative learning is an essential condition for innovative training of future teachers. The key to success is ‘change’ – and innovation is the essential requirement to adapt to the new wave of changes. The main aspects that will be discussed in this presentation aim to raise the awareness of the role of creative learning in the formation of future teachers, to analyse the obstacles that arise in the realisation of creative learning, to highlight the basic ways of creative learning, to systematise the most effective strategies for stimulating creativity among future teachers. A teacher who goes through the stages of creative learning will be adapted to the ever more frequent changes in education and society.