Discovering the European educational landscape

Quebec enjoys an envious reputation in France when it comes to education. Did you know ?

In fact, we tend to forget this when we review Quebec educational news in our main media. However, the Quebec school system is a progressive figure among the French, particularly in terms of study programs and the integration of technologies into educational activities!

However, it seems that France and Finland approach the issue of teachers' professional development differently. Myth? Reality?

In recent years, we have hosted a few French and Belgian delegations at school. If educational tourism initiatives are good from Europe to Canada, they are certainly good the other way around, right?

As a result, I have the incredible chance to be invited to the Laboratory of innovation and digital in education (LINE) of the Higher School of Teaching and Education (ÉSPÉ) of Nice (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis) and to be able to assist Professor Margarida Romero in various research related to the development of skills in the 21^e century among students and teachers for five weeks. It will be a journey that will also take me to Lille, Toulon and Paris, where I will meet the speakers of other ÉSPÉs, of the French National Education, of CANOPÉ (the equivalent of Quebec's RÉCIT), as well as those of the Academic Delegation for Digital Education (DANE). In addition, I will go to Savonlinna, Finland to meet Kati Mäkitalo-Siegl, professor at the University of Eastern Finland and director of PREP21, a collaborative initiative involving three Finnish universities, whose aim is to develop the professional skills of future teachers.

There are three main goals of this trip:

1- Importing European ways of doing things

Importing winning European ways of doing things in my school environment in connection with the development of 21 skills^e century, as much for the students as for the professional development of the teachers and that of the members of the administration.

How can students develop these skills in the classroom? Several repositories exist, the best known of which are those of Université Laval and ISTE. I am therefore looking to bring back winning practices to share in my community.

For education professionals, this is a little explored area. Moreover, in Quebec, taking the example of teachers, the professional skills framework dates from… 2001. That said, at a time when technologies have clearly invaded the school world, what are the new skills to be developed professionally or which old ones become even more important? How to develop them and what are the winning conditions for doing so?

2- Join the Quebec educational community

Disseminate European ways of doing things to the Quebec educational community to allow the emergence of local initiatives linked to the development of skills in the 21^e century for professionals and students alike.

3- Contribute to French practices

Contribute to French practices by sharing winning practices from Quebec or North America. In this regard, the French are particularly interested in the following subjects (in no particular order):

• Managing social media at school;
• Managing mobile devices in the classroom;
• The integration of electronic tablets in educational activities in 1: 1 mode;
• Artificial intelligence;
• Programming and robotics;
• Digital manufacturing workshops.

Over the next few weeks, you will read about fifteen reports that will be published in the École branchée. They aim to share various European approaches, ideas, events or ways of doing things.