Kick-off Meeting Antalya

Welcome note by Prof. Dr. Mehmet Canbulat, Dean of the Faculty of Education

Start of the works by Dr Rabia Vezne, Akdeniz University

Understanding MATT:
- the acknowledgement of the changing scenarios in language classrooms due to the influx of students from migrant background
- a reaction of the partners to support Native Language Teachers (NLT) in the new challenges that this changing scenario is creating and
- the vision of the partners that the native language lesson / classroom can be the best possible agent for fostering integration of the students with the rest of the classroom when they acquire the local native language.

Round Table by the partners about:
- the background of each organisation in the field of education / NLT, teacher education and
- obtaining national scenario in so far as change in demographics in the classroom and challenges are concerned.

What MATT will do by Dr Rabia Vezne, Akdeniz University and Antoine Gambin, VisMedNet Association

MATT will be inspired by:

- the need to intervene with new skills for NLTs in this changing scenario,
- the change in teaching methods that are taking place in education irrespective of this social change in the classroom and
- changes in technology and in the way individuals (especially the young) learn and the innovation in language teaching in general needed to meet these new trends seeing if these changes are also an opportunity to bring change into the native language teaching as a form of coping with the present changes and challenges and as a form of readiness for future ever more changing scenarios.

Step 1 will consist of the generation of a showcase of the initial and continuous teacher education offer within the partnership and within the networks around it. This will include activities of all partners in building this showcase using common tools that help make the findings homogeneous in form to make analysis possible. (micro)
 
Step 2 will consist of the partners identifying the similarities and differences between these different NLT training programs and with the 4 HEI partners and MAERA identifying lacunas in the training provision given experience tapping from networks around the partners. This will include therefore engagement with beneficiaries (especially NLTs) who share challenges they come across due to a more multicultural classroom. (micro)

- NLT's undergraduate programmes in all the partner countries: the curriculum they implement form 1st to 4th year
- Teaching practice courses including the period of teaching practice and assessment thereof
- Specific courses or parts of courses for teaching native language of the hosting country to immigrant students

 
Step 3 will be led by VisMedNet and it will consist of a mapping activity by all the partners and in it they will identify those trends in education and learning that are happening even if these are even from outside the language classroom but that can be tapped to help NLTs change and modernise native language teaching irrespective of the challenges from the new social texture in the classroom and also, at the same time, help them with new skills in classroom management, delivery, tapping of new technologies and in making their teaching more flexible, personalised and mobile that may and are also part of the strategy to meet the said challenges. (macro)

Step 4 will bring the findings from the previous 3 steps into one MATT book that will design a recommended training path in initial and continuous teacher education in the area of native language teachers specifically in the context of multicultural and multilingual classrooms and in view of the challenges obtaining due to rapid changes in the social texture of European communities. (Publishing)

Publishing through joint discussion by all partners

The findings of the Showcase and the Mapping Activity will be published in a book format.
Establishment of the Editorial Board
Decisions on:
- tools to collect the information for the showcase
- reach outside the partnership for content of the showcase and
- final format of the publication

Administrative and Financial Issues by Dr Rabia Vezne

Dissemination Effort and Exploration of further sustainable action beyond MATT by Antoine Gambin, VisMedNet

The partners had a short welcome meeting with the Dean of the Faculty of Education Prof. Dr. Mehmet Canbulat.

Meeting started with an overview of the mission of the project and following up to the notes about the MATT project in the Agenda that was circulated with the partners in the days running up to the meeting.

Participants included:

Rabia Vezne, Burak Asma and Bayram Bıçak from Akdeniz University

Katrine Dalbu Alterhaug from NTNU

Marta Milani from University of Verona, Centre for Intercultural Studies.

Anabela Mesquita from MAERA

Antoine Gambin and Patrick Crehan from VisMedNet

Joana Komorek from The Academy of Business and Health Sciences joined the meeting via Skype

Decisions were made following a discussion about Steps 1 and 2 ie. the showcase of obtaining training offer and practice in the training of NLTs. 

1. "NLTs" will be defined in a wider manner than how it is understood in the education system and terminology in Turkey ie, it will be taken to include any teacher teaching the native language at any level.

2. In key with the project proposal the showcase will include:

- the system and criteria for the selection and admittance of new students that would start training as future NLTs,

- the training offer of future all teachers in so far as pedagogy, methodologies are concerned even beyond the teaching of native languages,

- the training offer of future NLTs in HEIs and training providers in the specific area of teaching of the native language,

- the training offer of special courses that are offered by HEIs and other training providers that serve for teachers wishing to specialise in NLT, other areas like learning support assistance, intercultural mediation etc. that would in some way help cater better for the challenges met in the scenarios envisaged by the context of MATT and

- the organisation, mentoring, monitoring and validation of teaching practice of NLTs.

3. Akdeniz University will generate a scheme to cover all areas that fall under the above categories of training of NLTs and then VisMedNet will put this up in an online tool where the other partners can"

- tick those that are in common with their respective training offer and

- add other areas that are not covered by the Akdeniz training offer and that might be interesting for the area of intervention of MATT.

4. The HE partners will then take on the responsibility of widening this showcase to their areas / territories as identified in the showcase presentation in each or the training activities.

Regarding step 3 there was to be a discussion in day 2 of the meeting.

Regarding step 4 there was a discussion about the general structure of training activities and how these will serve as milestones in the development of the mapping and the design of the proposed innovative training of NLTs that caters for the challenges in the native language classroom.

The editorial board was set up composed of 

• Rabia Vezne from Akdeniz University
• Katrine Dalbu Alterhaug from NTNU
• Agostino Portera from University of Verona Intercultural Studies Centre.
• Anabela Mesquita from MAERA
• Antoine Gambin and Patrick Crehan from VisMedNet
• Joana Komorek from The Academy of Business and Health Sciences

Discussion about the method of structure of publication of contribution to the mapping leaves space for further discussion later on in the project however the general principles of agreement are that the publication will be:

• published in modular form to make distribution easier
• during training participants will contribute to the mapping via the use of the platform of the Community of Practice that was started in the VISConti / UPPScience projects by way of cross-project cooperation and
• final contributions would be published on the project website via an embedded excel where users can filter according to key words unless another online user friendly tool is found by the time it is time for publication.

Rabia Vezne presented issues and administrative issues of the project and used a powerpoint presentation. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Od1LfRbHM2QG0x08id6MMmEafJuzE1GM?usp=sharing

Dissemination general effort will be led by VisMedNet with some concertation of the partnership wide effort.

Resources are already available in the private area of the website of the project and more will be added.

There was indication of the rules for visibility of the Erasmus+ funding, disclaimer and also logo of Erasmus+ NA of Turkey.

Website is already up online at https://mappingteachereducation.uppscience.eu/ and it is under development.

The Macro Approach by Patrick Crehan, CKA and VisMedNet and Antoine Gambin, VisMedNet

Deciding on paths and tools we will use for the the mapping activity that will look at:

- new trends, technologies and methodologies in learning even outside the language that are changing classroom dynamics,

- new trends, technologies and methodologies in language teaching and not only in the native language classroom,

- social changes that are changing classroom dynamics,

- making the mapping activity itself can help the partners project their thinking into the short and medium term future and

- ensuring that the partners research and think to produced organised content that will help them design innovative training for NLTs that equips them to new trends and inspires READINESS FOR CHANGE in education and society.

This macro vision will help the new training design produced by MATT be in key with what is happening in education due to social, psychological and personal changes taking place in the lives and minds of young people populating the classrooms whatever their cultural, migration / native and social background may be.

Meetings and Mobilities by Dr Rabia Vezne, Akdeniz University

Decision on dates and participants

Kick-off Meeting in Antalya (follow up)

C1 Training in Verona : Native Language Teacher Training : 1st Round of Showcase Building (Special session on the potential of the native language classroom as a platform for intercultural mediation in the class, in the school and in the Community. This special session is chosen because of the specific skills and experience of the members of the team of the host organisation in Intercultural Education.)

Interim Meeting in Norway coinciding with C2 Training : Native Language Teacher Training : 2nd Round of Showcase Building (Special session on trends in education mostly related to flexibility, mobile and personalised learning and new emerging technologies in education. This special session is chosen because of the specific skills and experience of the members of the team of the host organisation in innovation and trends in education.)

C3 Training in Antalya : Native Language Teacher Training : 3rd Round of Showcase Building (Special Session on scenario building and Foresight tools and techniques with activities focused on creating scenarios for a curriculum for teacher training that is based on readiness rather than reactivity to change delivered by VisMedNet.)

First Activity in joint publishing and therefore preparation for the MATT Book showcase part

C4 Training in Porto : Adaptive Curriculum Design : Readiness not Reactive to Change (Sharing of findings by VisMedNet of identification of new trends in education. Findings will be made by a partner wide activity led by VisMedNet as preparation for this training and they will include how insights and reflections how each trend can be tapped to the benefit of NLTs.)

Second Activity in joint publishing and therefore preparation for the MATT Book curriculum design part.

C5 Training in Lodz : Curriculum Design : Micro Intervention with Macro Vision 

Curriculum Design that merges micro intervention with macro vision and
Second Activity in joint publishing and therefore preparation for the MATT Book curriculum design part

Final Meeting in Porto
 

Closure of the works by Dr Rabia Vezne

- plans for validation activities

An open discussion about the mapping strategy brought about some general framework of how it can work.

Ample contribution on future / present technology development in technologies was made by Patrick Crehan from VisMedNet.

The process started by the partners coordination team then amplified during the training rounds C1, C2 and C3 and finished in C4.

There will be research that would:

• supplement the showcase activity and
• be disciplined by three main blocks of key words that are linked to three major drivers and by key words from the show case.

Some early work about key words of the drivers was started up during the discussion and it will continue to mature pari passu with the development of the showcase.

There will be a switch between location and hosting of C1 and C2 due to capacity and logistical limitations of Centre of Intercultural Studies at the time of the planned training of C1.

Content of training will remain as planned in the project proposal in spite of change in location for C1 from Verona to Porto.

There was also a discussion about the general structure of the training activities, the general plan for content for each round of mobilities and how they relate to the showcase, mapping and training design activities.