Sharing insights with the Open Schooling Community
By Èlia Tena, UAB (Autonomous University of Barcelona)
In the first semester of 2023, the MULTIPLIERS project approach and core concepts were presented at different international Open Schooling conferences.
In May 2023, the MULTIPLIERS project perspective was introduced as part of the IV ETE conference (Educating the Educators conference) in the Netherlands. In this event led by ICSE (International Center for STEM Education) and supported by the MOST project (Meaningful Open Schooling Connects Schools To Communities), we shared part of the assessment framework that the MULTIPLIERS UAB (Autonomous University of Barcelona) team is using for the assessment and improvement of their teaching and learning sequence (TLS) on the topic of Air Pollution.
Two months later, in July 2023, our project was featured in a parallel session at the CONNECT conference in Barcelona. Under the title: “One vision, several different paths: the OStogether network,” Digna Couso and Èlia Tena (UAB) showcased some of the most distinguishing aspects of MULTIPLIERS to the audience, comprising members of the general public and researchers from projects like SALL, PHERECLOS, CONNECT, Make it Open, and others.
In the session, we placed particular emphasis on three key aspects: the project definition of Open Schooling, drawing from a literature review and previous experiences from EU and nationally funded projects; the phases established in MULTIPLIERS to design a research-based TLS on socio-scientific issues (SSI); and the different project events where students acted as knowledge multipliers. As part of the session, successful strategies employed in OS projects were discussed. Moreover, the common challenges faced by these projects were underlined, along with potential creative solutions to overcome them.
A new Open Schooling Declaration was officially launched at the CONNECT conference, seeking to raise awareness about the importance, objectives, methodologies, and relevance of open schooling across various forms of education. Several researchers from MULTIPLIERS supported the declaration with their signatures.
In short, MULTIPLIERS is committed to contributing to the growth and evolution of Open Schooling, and we look forward to continued collaboration with our peers to advance the cause of meaningful education, as part of the OSTogether initiative and beyond!
