Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MenSI (Mentoring for School Improvement)
Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2023-02-28
=== About MenSI
The Mentoring for School Improvement (MenSI) project is a 28-month Coordination and Support Action (November 2021 – February 2023) funded by the European Commission H2020 programme. The project has carried out a pan-European investigation into how different approaches to mentoring can support the mainstreaming of innovative digital teaching practices in primary and secondary schools. It builds on the outcomes and lessons learnt from the earlier EU-FP7 Living Schools Lab project (2012-2014), which provided support to school clusters via ‘regional hubs’, and also leverages the network of learning labs that are part of the current European Schoolnet Future Classroom Lab initiative.
Involving ministries of education in six countries (Belgium-Flanders, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Portugal), MenSI has created a network of 24 Mentor Schools working with some one hundred Mentee Schools. At the end of the project, the network was also opened to other schools interested in applying school mentoring approaches to develop innovative pedagogical practice involving digital technologies in teaching and learning.
=== The key objectives of MenSI are:
1. To investigate school-to-school mentoring theory and practice including the strengths, weaknesses and related costs of different mentoring and school peer-to-peer learning models.
2. To create and animate a network of over 100 Mentor and Mentee Schools to pilot a range of approaches to addressing policy challenges.
3. To analyse the effectiveness of whole-school mentoring approaches applied by network schools to support mainstreaming of ICT and address policy challenges in partner countries.
4. To offer evidence-based recommendations and guidelines for the cost-effective coordination of school clusters through different approaches (top-down, bottom-up, virtual, etc.).
5. To create a community of practice and professional development opportunities for a wider group of school staff and an exchange mechanism for policy makers.
The Mentoring for School Improvement (MenSI) project is a 28-month Coordination and Support Action (November 2021 – February 2023) funded by the European Commission H2020 programme. The project has carried out a pan-European investigation into how different approaches to mentoring can support the mainstreaming of innovative digital teaching practices in primary and secondary schools. It builds on the outcomes and lessons learnt from the earlier EU-FP7 Living Schools Lab project (2012-2014), which provided support to school clusters via ‘regional hubs’, and also leverages the network of learning labs that are part of the current European Schoolnet Future Classroom Lab initiative.
Involving ministries of education in six countries (Belgium-Flanders, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Portugal), MenSI has created a network of 24 Mentor Schools working with some one hundred Mentee Schools. At the end of the project, the network was also opened to other schools interested in applying school mentoring approaches to develop innovative pedagogical practice involving digital technologies in teaching and learning.
=== The key objectives of MenSI are:
1. To investigate school-to-school mentoring theory and practice including the strengths, weaknesses and related costs of different mentoring and school peer-to-peer learning models.
2. To create and animate a network of over 100 Mentor and Mentee Schools to pilot a range of approaches to addressing policy challenges.
3. To analyse the effectiveness of whole-school mentoring approaches applied by network schools to support mainstreaming of ICT and address policy challenges in partner countries.
4. To offer evidence-based recommendations and guidelines for the cost-effective coordination of school clusters through different approaches (top-down, bottom-up, virtual, etc.).
5. To create a community of practice and professional development opportunities for a wider group of school staff and an exchange mechanism for policy makers.
All objectives have been successfully accomplished following the finalization of the project in February 2023.
In relation to the first objective, Deliverable 2.1 (School-to-school mentoring in Europe: Models of whole-school peer networking), was finalized in April 2021. The report serves as a succinct overview of the state of the art in school-to-school mentoring in Europe and an outline of effective and affordable models and scalable strategies. The focus is on networking, clustering or partnering between two or more schools where the school is the primary unit of analysis and the purpose is to address a policy challenge. The models include ‘top-down’ mentoring initiatives that support whole school take-up of a broad range of innovative digital practices in teaching and learning, ‘regional hub’ models (those successfully piloted in the LSL project along with others being implemented by education ministries) and ‘bottom-up’ strategies with limited or no ministry support where mentoring is provided by ‘self-starter’ learning labs (e.g. in the Future Classroom Lab network) acting as Advanced Schools. Digital products used to support mentoring are also analysed and recommendations made.
As for objectives 2, 3 and 4, specific policy or curriculum challenges in partner countries have been extensively discussed throughout the project. While certain common policy challenges were identified, the partners could choose their focus areas. For example, small/rural schools and schools with socially disadvantaged students were targeted by two countries (Italy and Portugal). Moreover, the policy discussion has been extended via ad-hoc online meetings with the advisory members and the policy exchange mechanism. The results of these exchanges have been published within the project website and the conclusions of the overall project included as part of the WP4-WP5 deliverables and the final report.
The MenSI Community platform was created as a sub-website of European Schoolnet’s Future Classroom Lab platform and is available in English and open to all visitors. The website was launched in May 2021 and updated with more content and interactive functionalities throughout the project to support the mainstreaming of mentoring practices in schools. As a result of the different community exchanges and in connection to the final project recommendations and school guidelines three key outputs have been delivered by the end of the project (the MenSI video animation, the final project brochure and the final project report.
Finally, regarding the sustainability of the MenSI Community and the Policy Exchange Mechanism a detailed and comprehensive final exploitation plan (D6.7) was developed and is currently being implemented following the end of the project.
In relation to the first objective, Deliverable 2.1 (School-to-school mentoring in Europe: Models of whole-school peer networking), was finalized in April 2021. The report serves as a succinct overview of the state of the art in school-to-school mentoring in Europe and an outline of effective and affordable models and scalable strategies. The focus is on networking, clustering or partnering between two or more schools where the school is the primary unit of analysis and the purpose is to address a policy challenge. The models include ‘top-down’ mentoring initiatives that support whole school take-up of a broad range of innovative digital practices in teaching and learning, ‘regional hub’ models (those successfully piloted in the LSL project along with others being implemented by education ministries) and ‘bottom-up’ strategies with limited or no ministry support where mentoring is provided by ‘self-starter’ learning labs (e.g. in the Future Classroom Lab network) acting as Advanced Schools. Digital products used to support mentoring are also analysed and recommendations made.
As for objectives 2, 3 and 4, specific policy or curriculum challenges in partner countries have been extensively discussed throughout the project. While certain common policy challenges were identified, the partners could choose their focus areas. For example, small/rural schools and schools with socially disadvantaged students were targeted by two countries (Italy and Portugal). Moreover, the policy discussion has been extended via ad-hoc online meetings with the advisory members and the policy exchange mechanism. The results of these exchanges have been published within the project website and the conclusions of the overall project included as part of the WP4-WP5 deliverables and the final report.
The MenSI Community platform was created as a sub-website of European Schoolnet’s Future Classroom Lab platform and is available in English and open to all visitors. The website was launched in May 2021 and updated with more content and interactive functionalities throughout the project to support the mainstreaming of mentoring practices in schools. As a result of the different community exchanges and in connection to the final project recommendations and school guidelines three key outputs have been delivered by the end of the project (the MenSI video animation, the final project brochure and the final project report.
Finally, regarding the sustainability of the MenSI Community and the Policy Exchange Mechanism a detailed and comprehensive final exploitation plan (D6.7) was developed and is currently being implemented following the end of the project.
The MenSI project has been designed to maximise impact mostly via two ways: on schools and education ministries participating in project activities and through dissemination actions. Impact is expected to be both quantitative (numbers of countries/policymakers and schools/practitioners receiving project outputs, networked and exchanging best practices) and qualitative (improvements resulting from the digital innovation actions, whole-school approach to implementing ICT, policymakers provided with guidance on mainstreaming an innovation culture).
=== The key results of the MenSI project are:
1. An overview of school-to-school mentoring in Europe – Based on desk research, interviews and surveys, a report on different types of mentoring between schools in Europe, including examples and case studies, with reference to models of digitally supported innovation.
2. 24 school clusters in six countries – The participating mentor and mentee schools will work collaboratively on developing digital competence and identified policy challenges (e.g. disadvantaged students), benefiting from customised professional development activities.
3. Experimenting with different whole-school mentoring approaches – Information on regional hub mentoring approaches, including the role of online mentoring and different incentive/reward schemes, and how school clusters have implemented different types of bottom-up, self-organised approaches to cluster management.
4. Documentation and analysis of mentoring practice – A summary on the different types of mentoring clusters with focus on innovative, effective and scalable strategies, practices, processes and digital tools used, and a report on effective whole-school mentoring, as evidenced in the project.
5. MOOC and community of practice for practitioners – A MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on school mentoring open to teachers and school leaders across Europe and an open community of practice to share, exchange and improve.
=== The key results of the MenSI project are:
1. An overview of school-to-school mentoring in Europe – Based on desk research, interviews and surveys, a report on different types of mentoring between schools in Europe, including examples and case studies, with reference to models of digitally supported innovation.
2. 24 school clusters in six countries – The participating mentor and mentee schools will work collaboratively on developing digital competence and identified policy challenges (e.g. disadvantaged students), benefiting from customised professional development activities.
3. Experimenting with different whole-school mentoring approaches – Information on regional hub mentoring approaches, including the role of online mentoring and different incentive/reward schemes, and how school clusters have implemented different types of bottom-up, self-organised approaches to cluster management.
4. Documentation and analysis of mentoring practice – A summary on the different types of mentoring clusters with focus on innovative, effective and scalable strategies, practices, processes and digital tools used, and a report on effective whole-school mentoring, as evidenced in the project.
5. MOOC and community of practice for practitioners – A MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on school mentoring open to teachers and school leaders across Europe and an open community of practice to share, exchange and improve.