Abstract:

The European project LLWINGS aims to support teachers in applying the “learning to learn” goal into daily practice and enhance motivation to learn among pupils in their classroom, and to equip them with solid wings for lifelong learning.

One of the main objectives of the project is to provide a critical insight in the national situation highlighting as to what extent institutional teacher education/training provision are focused on and prepare teachers to orient their teaching practices towards learning to learn and motivation and impact on school innovation, and which are the main critical aspects emerging in that respect.
The paper we present in this conference focuses on the analysis carried out by the partners of the LLWINGS project on:

- reconstructing the national picture of teacher education/training provision (with specific focus on the dimensions of learning to learn and motivation)
- critically analysing to what extent these provisions fit with school needs, are able to orient teaching practices towards learning to learn and motivation and which are the main critical aspects which emerge

The research was carried out in diverse countries (Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Finland) under a European perspective. The methodology used to achieve the above mentioned objectives was based on desk research (literature and normative review and content analysis) and in-depth interviews to key informants.
Regarding the main results obtained, it is relevant to point out that what seems quite common to all countries analyzed is a certain degree of discrepancy between policy discourse and official documents provision and innovation capacity in daily practice. Not really surprisingly, a “scalability” problem seems to affect education systems where a lot has been done at the grass-root level (innovative practices, highly motivated teachers, successful teacher training initiatives) though with a difficulty in mainstreaming and up-scaling innovation in the whole system (hereby failing to ensure also “equality in excellence”).

Another result that came across over the comparative research carried out is that teacher training - even when speaking of practice – remains too theoretical. In that case, the role of University in managing and designing teacher education and training provision has to be taken carefully into account as well as that of other teacher education providers.
This paper was developed under the project "LLWINGS", funded with support from the European Commission.

Keywords:

Learn to learn, motivational strategies, secondary education, teacher training.