Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MenSI (Mentoring for School Improvement)
Berichtszeitraum: 2020-11-01 bis 2021-10-31
=== 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 will carry 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 will also leverage 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 will create a network of 24 Mentor Schools working with some one hundred Mentee Schools. By the end of the project, the network will open up 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 will carry 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 will also leverage 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 will create a network of 24 Mentor Schools working with some one hundred Mentee Schools. By the end of the project, the network will open up 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.
While part of the MenSI activities are still to be developed and further defined within the lifetime of the project, a number of elements have already been achieved, especially in connection to objectives 1, 2 and 4 presented within the project summary section.
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 objective nr. 2, specific policy or curriculum challenges in partner countries were discussed extensively when preparing the school selection process. 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 in this regard has already been launched including ad-hoc online meetings and connection to national and European interest groups (such as education ministries working in EUNs Small & Rural Schools’ Working Group).
Finally, regarding objective nr. 4, the MenSI Community platform has already been launched. The MenSI website, was created as a sub-website of the European Schoolnet’s Future Classroom Lab platform and is available in English and open to all visitors. The website was launched in May 2021 (month 7 of the project) with initial content which is mainly static. More content and interactive functionalities described in D6.3 will be available in parallel to the launch of the school pilot activities. Web platform enhancements will happen throughout the project to support different stages of the project.
=== Other key deliverables/actions:
D1.1 Project Management Plan (Confidential)
D1.2 Charter for Advisory Members (Public)
D1.3 Data Management Plan (Confidential)
D1.4 First Interim report (Confidential)
D2.1 School-to-school mentoring: a European perspective (Public)
D3.1 Mentoring Operations Manual (Public)
D3.2 Teacher community and support infrastructure (Public)
D3.5 Online training (Public)
D6.1 Communication and Dissemination, Exploitation Plan (Confidential)
D6.2 Dissemination and communication package (Public)
D6.3 Community Platform (Public)
D6.6 Initial Exploitation Plan (Public)
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 objective nr. 2, specific policy or curriculum challenges in partner countries were discussed extensively when preparing the school selection process. 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 in this regard has already been launched including ad-hoc online meetings and connection to national and European interest groups (such as education ministries working in EUNs Small & Rural Schools’ Working Group).
Finally, regarding objective nr. 4, the MenSI Community platform has already been launched. The MenSI website, was created as a sub-website of the European Schoolnet’s Future Classroom Lab platform and is available in English and open to all visitors. The website was launched in May 2021 (month 7 of the project) with initial content which is mainly static. More content and interactive functionalities described in D6.3 will be available in parallel to the launch of the school pilot activities. Web platform enhancements will happen throughout the project to support different stages of the project.
=== Other key deliverables/actions:
D1.1 Project Management Plan (Confidential)
D1.2 Charter for Advisory Members (Public)
D1.3 Data Management Plan (Confidential)
D1.4 First Interim report (Confidential)
D2.1 School-to-school mentoring: a European perspective (Public)
D3.1 Mentoring Operations Manual (Public)
D3.2 Teacher community and support infrastructure (Public)
D3.5 Online training (Public)
D6.1 Communication and Dissemination, Exploitation Plan (Confidential)
D6.2 Dissemination and communication package (Public)
D6.3 Community Platform (Public)
D6.6 Initial Exploitation Plan (Public)
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 expected 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 expected 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.