The last months demanded from teachers to rapidly up-date their competences, operate digitally, and act self-efficiently. However, top performance requires top conditions.
Therefore, 3C4life gathers 12 partners from 6 European countries, in each country an educational authority teaming up with a research partner. This powerful tandem structure tackles a fallow issue, which impedes top conditions in STEM education across Europe: STEM education systems lack the capacity to support teachers to make the best of their life as teachers.
Our objective is to change that.
Our measure is an all-digital STEM teacher platform with an innovative occupational advancement concept. Its key innovative features are
a. a sequential process of motivational triggers, from low threshold attraction to shared advancement.
b. a multi-directional variety of vertical and horizontal occupational advancement perspectives unfolded at a glance
c. enhancement-propellent collaboration through Communities of Practice.
Our hypotheses:
1. A sequential arrangement of motivational triggers increases the involvement of STEM teachers in occupational advancement programs.
2. Multi-directional advancement perspectives raise teachers’ motivation to shape their best personal path as a teacher.
3. Targeted community-building features increase teachers’ participation in Communities of Practice.
The digital field trials (pandemic-safe!) follow a quasi-experimental design in our 6 partner countries Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Turkey.
Our evaluation follows a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative before-after comparison and qualitative case studies.
We will provide robust data on how to motivate STEM teachers to pursue lifelong occupational advancement from the beginning of their careers.
Our measure bears a high capacity to be up-scaled and mainstreamed across Europe, as it is all-digital, research-based, system-contextualized and policy-strategized.
