Inspired by the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) for initial teacher education, SciLMi set out to develop a counterpart for continuing professional development, where no equivalent Erasmus+ format for sustained learning exists. Building on the Quality Standards for Courses under Key Action 1 (EC 2021) and the design elements of effective professional development (Darling-Hammond & Hyler & Gardner 2017), the SciLMi team co-designed the BIT as a European-level blended format for in-service teachers (→ Validation & Implementation Criteria). All three BITs ran variants of the same core modules on meta-scientific literacies, with each BIT reflecting a specific project priority in its focus module: critical thinking, digital media and information literacies, and inclusion.
\nThe BIT format was piloted in three SciLMi teacher trainings in 2025:
\nThe BITs brought together 62 in-service teachers from 20 countries, who taught 16 different subjects, 12 to 13 in each BIT. Each BIT followed the same blended structure: a three-hour virtual kick-off four to six weeks before the five-day on-site week, preparatory tasks, and a three-hour virtual follow-up 6 to 13 weeks after the on-site week, depending on school holidays in the participating countries. The on-site weeks took place in residential training centres and comprised 28.5 hours of learning activities. After the on-site week, participants were to implement their lessons, involve colleagues in implementing a multidisciplinary sequence, and revise their lesson plans on the basis of their experience.
\nTwo further SciLMi trainings in 2026 provided additional experience with the course modules. They were held as on-site weeks without virtual components and were not part of the BIT evaluation:
\nHÉTFA evaluated the BITs in a mixed-methods design along three dimensions: the design of the BITs, the competences they addressed, and the course experience. The evaluation combined pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys, semi-structured interviews with trainers and organisers, structured observation of the sessions, the teachers' daily feedback during the on-site weeks, and live polls during the follow-up (→ D 7.2).
\nThe evaluation was complemented by feedback from BIT participants during the on-site weeks and at the SciLMi Hub Scale-Up Event on 28 May 2026, where teachers and teacher trainers who had taken part in SciLMify Your Teaching and Train the Trainer also commented on their experience, and by an ad hoc impact survey of all 114 participants of the five SciLMi trainings, of whom 71 responded (→ D 7.3).
\nParticipants rated the blended format highly, and they judged it more effective than a traditional one-week on-site course, all the more so after they had implemented their lessons and completed the follow-up (→ D 7.3).
\nLessons learnt from each training fed directly into the next. The most important lessons concern the following aspects (→ D 7.3):
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