The role and capacity of Teachers is key in OPEDUCA, the Learner-Teacher relation a focal point, the conjunction where teachers and learners operate the heart of the educational process.
OPEDUCA has been Made by Teachers
Intro
Backed up by management, it are first the teachers that take up the essentials of OPEDUCA-based learning and education. In a series of MasterClasses, they are introduced to vision, concept, background studies, fieldwork and perform small-scale experiments, building OPEDUCA.
Respecting the role, position and capacity of Teachers as being of strategic importance for any envisioned improvement of education, OPEDUCA MasterClass is a key instrument. Understanding the conjunction where teachers and learners cooperate is the heart of the educational process.
Teachers are expected to have a more prominent role in OPEDUCA than one might presume when considering the student-owned and -steered qualities of the approach. Their proposed practice contains more than classroom-based instruction, their profession not degraded to a ‘guide on the side’ or ‘coach’. Any sense of obsoleteness will make way for more relevance as the teacher has to deliver on the individual, Study-Team and school level. It is first teachers that take up the essentials of OPEDUCA-based learning by way of challenging, intensive and selective more-day OPEDUCA MasterClasses.
Teachers are expected to have a more prominent role in OPEDUCA then one might presume when considering the constructivist, student-owned and -steered qualities of the concept. Their proposed practice contains more than classroom-based instruction and does not degrade the profession to a ‘guide on the side’ or ‘coach’. Any sense of obsoleteness will make way for more relevance as the teacher has to deliver on the individual, Study-Team and school level.
As it became clear during the development of the OPEDUCA Concept, the role and position of teachers would change, requesting specific attention regarding:
1. the teacher’s comprehension of the OPEDUCA Concept and fruition of the concept,
2. the application of the instruments in practice,
3. potential conflicts with present-day reality.
OPEDUCA MasterClass has been designed to support teachers to develop the necessary understanding, knowledge and skills to implement OPEDUCA in their schools and region.
The intensive interactive training includes amongst others the Teachers' familiarity with Culture, the world of Work, contemporary Scientific insights, social developments as well as local and global trends related to sustainable development. Their pedagogical and didactic knowledge and experience is taken for granted, however, continuously addressed and assessed.
Teachers learn to take (back) responsibility for education by renewing their own professional development in line with the transformative goal and setting - are challenged to re-invent and empower themselves, realizing a development from Teacher to Educator.
OPEDUCA MasterClass is organized as a more-day course, situated in the Teachers' own region yet clearly away from school and connected to an expanding global learning space. The minimum 'take-off' speed is achieved after a 4-day version of MasterClass, following which their application in practice re-bases and upgrades their profession, position and ability to act. Through OPEDUCA MasterClass teachers start their development from being a soldier of schooling to an entrepreneur of education.
As OPEDUCA leads to rethinking education, over a 'Whole School' development towards a 'Whole Student Approach', the transition process can only be carried by a strong backbone of professional teachers. OPEDUCA is not an 'add-on' to regular schooling, but a new base that eventually affects the entire scale of educational policy and practice.
from a soldier of schooling to an entrepreneur of education.
OPEDUCA MasterClass is an out-of-school experience, a joint effort, essentially not a course or training.
4-day all-inclusive / 2+1+1 days / intermediate implementation in school-practice.
Average Group-seize: 18
Average rating
by the most recent 415 teachers is 9,4 (between 7,4 and 10).
‘Intensity’ 8,9 (on a scale to 10)
Successful pass to 2nd Year: 80%
OPEDUCA-talented on entry: 20%
Personality / Creative Competences / World wise / Organization Skills / Communication / Association / System Thinking / Critical Thinking / Subject-Integration / embedding Technology / ICT-Skills / Learning Circles / Action Planning / Entrepreneurship / Team Work
The OPEDUCA Project successfully challenged teachers to re-group knowledge and education around relevant themes and grant students an initiating role. This led to an entirely new way of working, a change more profound than many can even dream off.
Prof. Herman van den Bosch - Open University Netherlands
Trying out MasterClass in various countries where schools operate under different rules, regulations, restrictions and challenges, it was found the concept holds a universal quality. Without adoption, using the same order, wording, images and examples, the approach proved as effective in amongst others Turkey, Qatar and Austria as it is in the Netherlands. The pictures below were taken at OKAN University, where teachers from primary and secondary education followed their MasterClass under the guidance of Aytac Gogus, Associate Professor Educational Science Department. Although new to the concept and practice of OPEDUCA, the Teachers delivered nothing less than excellent performances.
