Cardiff Met Plays Part in €374,665 Pupil-led European Lesson Planning Initiative

A new and innovative European-funded teaching initiative to deal with the problems of teacher retention and learner achievement and engagement among student and trainee teachers, will be evaluated by a team at Cardiff Met.

Cardiff Met will be responsible for collating results from the learning model which involves pupils at the lesson plan stage and has a value of €53,970.

The FUTE (Future Teaching) initiative focusses on using design methods to create lesson plans and is led by the Kolding Design School in Denmark with partners from the South Denmark European Office and will be measured by learner outcomes, once an agreed model for the implemented design solution has been rolled out in teaching institutes across Europe.

Other design partners include the South Denmark European Office, Hogeschool PXL (Belgium), Réseau Canopé (France), University of Turku (Finland), University College Syddanmark (Denmark) as well as Cardiff Met.

The five central features of the new didactic platform for teachers and student teachers are:

1. Designskolen Kolding’s 6C model, an evidence-based planning and teaching model based on design methods, which encourages co-creation and collaboration between teachers and learners.
2. Metod Cards: a planning tool.
3. Vocational training modules for teachers and trainee teachers in understanding design methods and the 6C model.
4. Good practice examples collated from partner institutions from across Europe.
5. Policy recommendations to support participative and innovative teaching and learning.

FUTE is a three-year European project funded by the Erasmus Plus programme (2017-2020).  Isabelle Adams, who is on the research team at Cardiff Met, said:

”The project gives learners participative room to determine topics to be taught in class and processes through which to learn, such as project or group work.  This will give the student ownership of the lesson and lead to increased learner engagement and more rewarding teaching for teachers.”

FUTE encourages problem solving and critical thinking and encourages young people to take increasing responsibility for their own learning. It also reinforces cross-curricular learning including literacy, numeracy and digital competence.

FUTE also aims to address the challenges of social inclusion and it is consistent with the new curriculum for Wales and the principles outlined in Successful futures (Donaldson 2015).

Led by Professor Gary Beauchamp, the Welsh implementation stage will involve rigorous evaluation of 6C design solutions through assessment of learner outcomes.  Captured in digital form, the outcomes will be made available to teachers involved in the early stage creation phase of the FUTE project across Europe.

Cardiff Metropolitan University’s dissemination of the project’s overarching findings will be presented digitally to 400 relevant stakeholders across Europe.  This will include the creation of a FUTE website through which the didactic platform will be made available.