{"CACHEDAT":"2026-11-12 10:50:00","HOWSUBJECTMAP":{},"SLUG":"validation-implementation-criteria-8SSOwd2R7F","MARKDOWN":"# Foundations\n\nThe design of the BIT builds on the Quality Standards for Courses under Key Action 1 (EC 2021), which every course must meet, for example on average at least five hours of learning activities per on-site day, teaching adapted to participants' learning needs, and participant feedback used to improve the course. The validation and implementation criteria below are formulated for the course format and apply to courses on any topic. They go beyond the Quality Standards where the SciLMi pilots showed what makes the difference: a multi-phase blended sequence, a defined group composition, co-delivery by a trainer team, and, in the PRO, openness to job shadowing. As in D 7.3, *teacher trainers* refers both to those who train pre-service teachers in initial teacher education (ITE) and to those who train in-service teachers in continuing professional development (CPD).\n\nAccording to Darling-Hammond & Hyler & Gardner (2017), effective professional development\n\n* is **content focused**: it focuses on teaching strategies associated with specific curriculum content within teachers' classroom contexts,\n* incorporates **active learning**: it engages teachers directly in designing and trying out teaching strategies, in the same style of learning they are designing for their students,\n* supports **collaboration**: it creates space for teachers to share ideas and collaborate in their learning,\n* uses **models of effective practice**: curricular models and modelling of instruction give teachers a clear vision of what best practice looks like,\n* provides **coaching and expert support**: it involves the sharing of expertise about content and evidence-based practices, focused on teachers' individual needs,\n* offers **feedback and reflection**: it provides built-in time for teachers to think about, receive input on, and make changes to their practice,\n* and is of **sustained duration**: it \"provides teachers with adequate time to learn, practice, implement, and reflect upon new strategies that facilitate changes in their practice\" (*ibid.*: 2).\n\n# Validation Criteria\n\nD 7.3 proposes that providers of continuing professional development be accredited on the basis of the courses they have successfully piloted. Validation takes place once per course. A course can be validated as a PRO if it\n\n* has been **co-created** in a Key Action 2 project, ideally an Erasmus+ Teacher Academy, by teacher trainers from both ITE and CPD and practising teachers,\n* has been **piloted** in the Key Action 2 project in at least one delivery with at least 16 teachers from at least six countries,\n* has been **assessed** by these teachers in a uniform assessment and has been **revised** based on this assessment,\n* and is offered by a **state-funded or non-profit provider**.\n\nValidated courses would be listed in the Course Catalogue of the European School Education Platform under a legal agreement that makes providers subject to further, unannounced on-site quality checks.\n\n# Implementation Criteria\n\nThe implementation criteria apply to every delivery of the course. Criteria marked PRO go beyond the BIT as piloted (→ D 7.3). Each delivery\n\n* brings together a **multidisciplinary and international group** of teachers\n  * at least 16 teachers from at least six countries ([→ Participants](/doc/participants-M56pGAyrdO#h-group-composition)), including those from schools without an Erasmus+ accreditation,\n* promotes **cross-subject learning**,\n* follows a **blended sequence**: a virtual kick-off, an on-site week, individual classroom implementation, and a virtual follow-up for shared reflection,\n  * **PRO**: with virtual follow-up coaching during the implementation phase, ideally in small groups,\n* is **co-delivered** by a trainer team of at least two teacher trainers and one practising teacher ([→ Trainer Team](/doc/trainer-team-6WE4YbGxk8)),\n  * **PRO**: with teacher trainers from both ITE and CPD,\n* **PRO**: is **open to job shadowing** by teacher trainers to continue the cross-sectoral collaboration,\n* and follows the **workload and certification** defined for the course, the latter building on the European approach to micro-credentials (Council of the European Union 2022; [→ Overview](/doc/overview-0HNPN7yIfh)).\n\n# How the SciLMi BITs Met the Criteria\n\n## Features of Effective Professional Development\n\n* **Content focused**: Meta-scientific literacies are linked to the participants' subjects, curricula, and teaching materials. Participants bring teaching materials they already use ([→ Virtual Modules](/doc/virtual-modules-i6hm6rDzpa#h-virtual-kick-off)). These materials, rather than new ones, are the starting point for their lesson plans, so that the result can be used in their own teaching immediately.\n* **Active learning**: The SciLMi BITs are highly learner-centred. Participants experience SciLMi activities as learners and design their own lesson plans and HOW activities.\n* **Collaboration**:\n  * **Rotating teams**: All work is organised in rotating international teams. Participants alternate between subject-specific teams, in which they discuss subject-specific links with colleagues teaching the same or related subjects, and SSI teams, in which they develop a cross-subject lesson sequence with colleagues from other subjects and countries. Rotating teams allow participants to work with as many colleagues as possible and to compare teaching approaches across education systems.\n  * **Learning community**: The training is deliberately designed to foster relationships that last beyond the course: all participants and trainers stay at the same residential training centre and share meals throughout the week, twice-daily energisers add an element of playfulness and strengthen team spirit, and a cultural activity complements the programme. Contacts made in the SciLMi courses grew into school exchanges, job shadowing, and joint Erasmus+ projects (→ D 7.3).\n* **Models of effective practice**: Model lessons, example lesson plans, and HOW examples show what SciLMi teaching looks like in the classroom. The training combines digital and analogue methods and tools, selected according to the learning goal, the learners, and the context rather than technology itself, and thus models their purposeful use.\n* **Coaching and expert support**: Trainers and a practising teacher support participants during the on-site week and give feedback on lesson plans on request. The trainers respond to the participants' individual needs: in a short anonymous feedback survey at the end of each day, participants indicate what worked well and what could be improved, and the trainer team discusses this feedback the same evening, together with its own observations, and adapts the programme of the next day, for example the grouping, the pace, or the balance between input and team work ([→ Course Evaluation](/doc/course-evaluation-aMwULMfBfp#h-formative-evaluation-during-the-course)).\n* **Feedback and reflection**: Participants receive feedback on their lesson plans and HOW activities in structured feedback loops with peers in subject-specific teams and SSI teams, from trainers in individual consultation, and from the practising teacher in the trainer team, who brings in the classroom perspective. Formats such as Glow & Grow Together model feedback methods participants can use with their own students. A meta-level reflection at the end of each on-site day (→ Going Meta) gives them time to reflect on the methods and tools they have experienced, including the choice of digital and analogue tools, and to evaluate how these can be transferred to their own classrooms. In the virtual follow-up, they reflect together on their classroom implementation.\n* **Sustained duration**: The blended sequence extends over about three to five months from the kick-off to the follow-up, depending on the length of the classroom implementation phase, which should be set in consultation with the teachers ([→ Course Format & Delivery: From BITs to PRO](/doc/course-format-delivery-from-bits-to-pro-vcTyvPbRxd#h-piloting)).\n\n## Validation Criteria\n\nThe SciLMi BITs met all validation criteria:\n\n* **Co-created** in the Erasmus+ Teacher Academy SciLMi by teacher trainers from both ITE and CPD and practising teachers.\n* **Piloted** in three deliveries with 62 teachers from 20 countries ([→ Course Format & Delivery: From BITs to PRO](/doc/course-format-delivery-from-bits-to-pro-vcTyvPbRxd#h-piloting)).\n* **Assessed** by the participating teachers in pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys as part of the evaluation by HÉTFA (→ D 7.2), and **revised** on the basis of the evaluation and the lessons learnt.\n* **Offered** by state-funded or non-profit providers of the SciLMi partnership (→ D 7.3).\n\n## Implementation Criteria\n\n* **Multidisciplinary and international group**: Each BIT brought together 18 to 22 teachers from 7 to 15 countries, who taught 12 to 13 different subjects.\n* **Cross-subject learning**: Socio-scientific issues serve as the shared anchor for cross-subject learning. In international SSI teams, teachers of different subjects develop a lesson sequence on a common SSI, while each lesson keeps its subject-specific learning goals ([→ SciLMi Approach](/doc/scilmi-approach-X2ZVnAl3K7#h-multidisciplinary-with-socio-scientific-issues-as-a-shared-anchor)).\n* **Blended sequence**: All three BITs followed the blended sequence of virtual kick-off, on-site week, classroom implementation, and virtual follow-up. \n* **Co-delivery**: Each BIT was co-delivered by at least two teacher trainers and one practising teacher. Teacher trainers from ITE and CPD and practising teachers developed the BITs together; during delivery, all three were mostly represented as well, at times only teacher trainers from one sector together with a practising teacher.\n* **Workload and certification**: Each BIT comprised a three-hour virtual kick-off, 28.5 hours of learning activities during the on-site week, and a three-hour virtual follow-up ([→ Course Format & Delivery: From BITs to PRO](/doc/course-format-delivery-from-bits-to-pro-vcTyvPbRxd#h-piloting)). Teachers received both a micro-credential and a PDF certificate.\n\n\n\n---\n\n**References**\n\n* Council of the European Union. 2022. Council Recommendation of 16 June 2022 on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability (2022/C 243/02). In: *Official Journal of the European Union* C 243. 10–25. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32022H0627(02)\n* Darling-Hammond, Linda & Hyler, Maria E. & Gardner, Madelyn. 2017. *Effective Teacher Professional Development*. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.\n* European Commission (EC). 2021. *Quality Standards for Courses under Key Action 1 (Learning Mobility of Individuals)*. https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/resources-and-tools/quality-standards-key-action-1.","RENDERMODE":"markdown","HTML":"<style>.scilmi-outline-content h1,.scilmi-outline-content h2{font-weight:700}.scilmi-outline-content .badge-scilmi{background:#0d6efd;color:#fff;padding:2px 8px;border-radius:99px;}</style><h1>Foundations</h1>\n<p>The design of the BIT builds on the Quality Standards for Courses under Key Action 1 (EC 2021), which every course must meet, for example on average at least five hours of learning activities per on-site day, teaching adapted to participants' learning needs, and participant feedback used to improve the course. The validation and implementation criteria below are formulated for the course format and apply to courses on any topic. They go beyond the Quality Standards where the SciLMi pilots showed what makes the difference: a multi-phase blended sequence, a defined group composition, co-delivery by a trainer team, and, in the PRO, openness to job shadowing. As in D 7.3, <em>teacher trainers</em> refers both to those who train pre-service teachers in initial teacher education (ITE) and to those who train in-service teachers in continuing professional development (CPD).</p>\n<p>According to Darling-Hammond &amp; Hyler &amp; Gardner (2017), effective professional development</p>\n<ul>\n<li>is <strong>content focused</strong>: it focuses on teaching strategies associated with specific curriculum content within teachers' classroom contexts,\n</li>\n<li>incorporates <strong>active learning</strong>: it engages teachers directly in designing and trying out teaching strategies, in the same style of learning they are designing for their students,\n</li>\n<li>supports <strong>collaboration</strong>: it creates space for teachers to share ideas and collaborate in their learning,\n</li>\n<li>uses <strong>models of effective practice</strong>: curricular models and modelling of instruction give teachers a clear vision of what best practice looks like,\n</li>\n<li>provides <strong>coaching and expert support</strong>: it involves the sharing of expertise about content and evidence-based practices, focused on teachers' individual needs,\n</li>\n<li>offers <strong>feedback and reflection</strong>: it provides built-in time for teachers to think about, receive input on, and make changes to their practice,\n</li>\n<li>and is of <strong>sustained duration</strong>: it &quot;provides teachers with adequate time to learn, practice, implement, and reflect upon new strategies that facilitate changes in their practice&quot; (<em>ibid.</em>: 2).\n</li>\n</ul>\n<h1>Validation Criteria</h1>\n<p>D 7.3 proposes that providers of continuing professional development be accredited on the basis of the courses they have successfully piloted. Validation takes place once per course. A course can be validated as a PRO if it</p>\n<ul>\n<li>has been <strong>co-created</strong> in a Key Action 2 project, ideally an Erasmus+ Teacher Academy, by teacher trainers from both ITE and CPD and practising teachers,\n</li>\n<li>has been <strong>piloted</strong> in the Key Action 2 project in at least one delivery with at least 16 teachers from at least six countries,\n</li>\n<li>has been <strong>assessed</strong> by these teachers in a uniform assessment and has been <strong>revised</strong> based on this assessment,\n</li>\n<li>and is offered by a <strong>state-funded or non-profit provider</strong>.\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Validated courses would be listed in the Course Catalogue of the European School Education Platform under a legal agreement that makes providers subject to further, unannounced on-site quality checks.</p>\n<h1>Implementation Criteria</h1>\n<p>The implementation criteria apply to every delivery of the course. Criteria marked PRO go beyond the BIT as piloted (→ D 7.3). Each delivery</p>\n<ul>\n<li>brings together a <strong>multidisciplinary and international group</strong> of teachers\n<ul>\n<li>at least 16 teachers from at least six countries (<a href=\"/doc/participants-M56pGAyrdO#h-group-composition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">→ Participants</a>), including those from schools without an Erasmus+ accreditation,\n</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n<li>promotes <strong>cross-subject learning</strong>,\n</li>\n<li>follows a <strong>blended sequence</strong>: a virtual kick-off, an on-site week, individual classroom implementation, and a virtual follow-up for shared reflection,\n<ul>\n<li><strong>PRO</strong>: with virtual follow-up coaching during the implementation phase, ideally in small groups,\n</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n<li>is <strong>co-delivered</strong> by a trainer team of at least two teacher trainers and one practising teacher (<a href=\"/doc/trainer-team-6WE4YbGxk8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">→ Trainer Team</a>),\n<ul>\n<li><strong>PRO</strong>: with teacher trainers from both ITE and CPD,\n</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n<li><strong>PRO</strong>: is <strong>open to job shadowing</strong> by teacher trainers to continue the cross-sectoral collaboration,\n</li>\n<li>and follows the <strong>workload and certification</strong> defined for the course, the latter building on the European approach to micro-credentials (Council of the European Union 2022; <a href=\"/doc/overview-0HNPN7yIfh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">→ Overview</a>).\n</li>\n</ul>\n<h1>How the SciLMi BITs Met the Criteria</h1>\n<h2>Features of Effective Professional Development</h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Content focused</strong>: Meta-scientific literacies are linked to the participants' subjects, curricula, and teaching materials. Participants bring teaching materials they already use (<a href=\"/doc/virtual-modules-i6hm6rDzpa#h-virtual-kick-off\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">→ Virtual Modules</a>). These materials, rather than new ones, are the starting point for their lesson plans, so that the result can be used in their own teaching immediately.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Active learning</strong>: The SciLMi BITs are highly learner-centred. Participants experience SciLMi activities as learners and design their own lesson plans and HOW activities.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Collaboration</strong>:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Rotating teams</strong>: All work is organised in rotating international teams. Participants alternate between subject-specific teams, in which they discuss subject-specific links with colleagues teaching the same or related subjects, and SSI teams, in which they develop a cross-subject lesson sequence with colleagues from other subjects and countries. Rotating teams allow participants to work with as many colleagues as possible and to compare teaching approaches across education systems.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Learning community</strong>: The training is deliberately designed to foster relationships that last beyond the course: all participants and trainers stay at the same residential training centre and share meals throughout the week, twice-daily energisers add an element of playfulness and strengthen team spirit, and a cultural activity complements the programme. Contacts made in the SciLMi courses grew into school exchanges, job shadowing, and joint Erasmus+ projects (→ D 7.3).\n</li>\n</ul>\n</li>\n<li><strong>Models of effective practice</strong>: Model lessons, example lesson plans, and HOW examples show what SciLMi teaching looks like in the classroom. The training combines digital and analogue methods and tools, selected according to the learning goal, the learners, and the context rather than technology itself, and thus models their purposeful use.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Coaching and expert support</strong>: Trainers and a practising teacher support participants during the on-site week and give feedback on lesson plans on request. The trainers respond to the participants' individual needs: in a short anonymous feedback survey at the end of each day, participants indicate what worked well and what could be improved, and the trainer team discusses this feedback the same evening, together with its own observations, and adapts the programme of the next day, for example the grouping, the pace, or the balance between input and team work (<a href=\"/doc/course-evaluation-aMwULMfBfp#h-formative-evaluation-during-the-course\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">→ Course Evaluation</a>).\n</li>\n<li><strong>Feedback and reflection</strong>: Participants receive feedback on their lesson plans and HOW activities in structured feedback loops with peers in subject-specific teams and SSI teams, from trainers in individual consultation, and from the practising teacher in the trainer team, who brings in the classroom perspective. Formats such as Glow &amp; Grow Together model feedback methods participants can use with their own students. A meta-level reflection at the end of each on-site day (→ Going Meta) gives them time to reflect on the methods and tools they have experienced, including the choice of digital and analogue tools, and to evaluate how these can be transferred to their own classrooms. In the virtual follow-up, they reflect together on their classroom implementation.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Sustained duration</strong>: The blended sequence extends over about three to five months from the kick-off to the follow-up, depending on the length of the classroom implementation phase, which should be set in consultation with the teachers (<a href=\"/doc/course-format-delivery-from-bits-to-pro-vcTyvPbRxd#h-piloting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">→ Course Format &amp; Delivery: From BITs to PRO</a>).\n</li>\n</ul>\n<h2>Validation Criteria</h2>\n<p>The SciLMi BITs met all validation criteria:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Co-created</strong> in the Erasmus+ Teacher Academy SciLMi by teacher trainers from both ITE and CPD and practising teachers.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Piloted</strong> in three deliveries with 62 teachers from 20 countries (<a href=\"/doc/course-format-delivery-from-bits-to-pro-vcTyvPbRxd#h-piloting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">→ Course Format &amp; Delivery: From BITs to PRO</a>).\n</li>\n<li><strong>Assessed</strong> by the participating teachers in pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys as part of the evaluation by HÉTFA (→ D 7.2), and <strong>revised</strong> on the basis of the evaluation and the lessons learnt.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Offered</strong> by state-funded or non-profit providers of the SciLMi partnership (→ D 7.3).\n</li>\n</ul>\n<h2>Implementation Criteria</h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Multidisciplinary and international group</strong>: Each BIT brought together 18 to 22 teachers from 7 to 15 countries, who taught 12 to 13 different subjects.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Cross-subject learning</strong>: Socio-scientific issues serve as the shared anchor for cross-subject learning. In international SSI teams, teachers of different subjects develop a lesson sequence on a common SSI, while each lesson keeps its subject-specific learning goals (<a href=\"/doc/scilmi-approach-X2ZVnAl3K7#h-multidisciplinary-with-socio-scientific-issues-as-a-shared-anchor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">→ SciLMi Approach</a>).\n</li>\n<li><strong>Blended sequence</strong>: All three BITs followed the blended sequence of virtual kick-off, on-site week, classroom implementation, and virtual follow-up.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Co-delivery</strong>: Each BIT was co-delivered by at least two teacher trainers and one practising teacher. Teacher trainers from ITE and CPD and practising teachers developed the BITs together; during delivery, all three were mostly represented as well, at times only teacher trainers from one sector together with a practising teacher.\n</li>\n<li><strong>Workload and certification</strong>: Each BIT comprised a three-hour virtual kick-off, 28.5 hours of learning activities during the on-site week, and a three-hour virtual follow-up (<a href=\"/doc/course-format-delivery-from-bits-to-pro-vcTyvPbRxd#h-piloting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">→ Course Format &amp; Delivery: From BITs to PRO</a>). Teachers received both a micro-credential and a PDF certificate.\n</li>\n</ul>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>References</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li>Council of the European Union. 2022. Council Recommendation of 16 June 2022 on a European approach to micro-credentials for lifelong learning and employability (2022/C 243/02). In: <em>Official Journal of the European Union</em> C 243. 10–25. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32022H0627(02)\n</li>\n<li>Darling-Hammond, Linda &amp; Hyler, Maria E. &amp; Gardner, Madelyn. 2017. <em>Effective Teacher Professional Development</em>. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.\n</li>\n<li>European Commission (EC). 2021. <em>Quality Standards for Courses under Key Action 1 (Learning Mobility of Individuals)</em>. https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/resources-and-tools/quality-standards-key-action-1.\n</li>\n</ul>","UPDATEDAT":"2026-11-04T14:34:25.036Z","ID":"79dc2f49-ed89-409e-bd74-9521f1c11ee0","TITLE":"Validation & Implementation Criteria"}