Edge Hill Hosts EU Teaching Project

Edge Hill has played host to a European summit aimed at the widespread development of teaching standards.

The college, one of the largest providers of teacher education in the country, is the British representative of the EU project APT (Appraising the Potential of Teachers) and welcomed delegates from Belgium, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Estonia and Ireland for the three-day conference.

Chris Hughes, a member of the Edge Hill research group, said: "The ultimate aim of the three-year project is to devise a model that can be applied to countries? education systems throughout Europe.

"During each leg of the project the teaching standards of the host country are discussed and pilot materials are developed, hopefully to be put into action come the end of the three years."

Along with Chris, Rhonda Catterall, David Sergeant, Charles O?Brien and Brian Sprague have worked with groups of trainee teachers in the Art, Design and Technology department to gather data on the APT process.

German representative Bernd Hainm?eller, who works at the Offenburg Teacher Training College and is the project co-ordinator, said: "This project is the first step to a European teacher profile as we are beginning to find a number of common cores between the seven nations. These help us to determine what makes a good teacher such as effective communication skills, to be project-orientated and aware of race and gender issues.

"As teaching is a very personal profession we will hopefully create a system whereby we can focus more on the individual in order to improve any flaws that they may have such as poor body language."

During their three-day stay, the European entourage visited Liverpool?s tourist sights and were given an extensive tour of Edge Hill?s facilities.

"Each institution we have visited has been very different," added Mr Hainm?eller. "We were all very impressed by Edge Hill, in particular its rural campus which makes for a great teaching environment."

It is hoped that postgraduates will be invited to attend an international symposium in 2006 when the APT findings will be unveiled.

Picture: (l-r) Christina Heimdahl (Sweden), Raul Puiz-Cellillia (Spain), Kris Gillijns (Belgium), Wolfgang Loos (Germany), Chris Hughes (Edge Hill), Inge Timostsuk (Estonia), Angela Rickard (Ireland) and Bernd Hainm?eller (Germany).