The first workshop organized for the partner schools was held on 7th March 2017 at EKU- HIERD (Eszterházy Károly University Hungarian Institute for Educational Research and Development) covered the following topic: Student voice and the student-focused learning.
All the three partner schools (Hunfalvy, Kőbányai Széchenyi and Kaesz Gyula) were represented by several teachers, while some colleagues of the EKU-HIERD also participated in the meeting.
Lucia Kákonyi, the Hungarian project coordinator of the Student Voice Project began with a brief overview of the project, highlighting its main goals, upcoming events and outcomes, and finally the main phases of the implementation of the project itself. Then the actual work began on ‘Bridge to Learning’ that is to say student- focused learning. Teachers were invited to express their thoughts what this bridge could mean for them personally and professionally. Furthermore, Lucia detailed the four aspects of the students’ voice, as well as the five levels of students’ engagement, which teachers could progressively introduce in their classes.
The workshop was then followed by group work where participants could interpret what paradigm shift in teaching could mean. This happened to be a very stimulating exercise for the teachers because they received a few suggestions about how to incorporate a student-focused approach in their own teaching. The workshop was continued by a discussion about the process of student learning focusing especially on learning goals and intentions, while Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives was also examined from this point of view. Last but not least the teachers were given the opportunity to come up with one of their own good practice where they managed to realize previously planned success criteria. The workshop ended up in a free-flowing discussion where teachers could share their thoughts and experiences in relation to the workshop’s topic. Participants finally agreed on the date of the next meeting where student assessment will be considered.
