Abstract:

Modern Education in Science for Industry 4.0 (MESI 4.0) is an ERASMUS+ KA229 Action for School Exchange Partnership co-funded by the European Union. The action wants to increase students’ interest (ages 15 to 19) in natural sciences and math, in general, and in industry, in particular. During the project students will learn about the concepts that will push global manufactures to a new level of optimization and productivity. Moreover, the students will develop the necessary skills to critically postulate how this Industry 4.0 will benefit the sustainability of the Earth. The knowledge and methodology needed to acquire these new concepts of Industry 4.0 contrast with the traditional teaching and learning approaches that they continue to dominate in natural science and mathematics. Nevertheless, modern technologies could allow teachers the opportunity to better diversify their teaching and learning approaches by including visualizations, demonstrations and exercises that are closely linked to real-life examples about Industry 4.0. The use of these modern technologies could be also an opportunity for teachers’ professional development through the deliberate dialogue about modern education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Industry 4.0.

A teacher training course was designed under these theoretical principles about what modern education in science for Industry 4.0 means. The teacher training used a peer-to-peer methodology to enhance teachers’ use of new software for communication (e.g. Webinars), organize and share information (Google Drive), improve blended learning and teaching (e.g. Edmodo), and show software for measurements (Vernier). The peer-to-peer methodology challenged the discussion about how to improve students’ presentation and communication skills in a foreign language. The discussion about how to improve these communication skills will be critical for challenging students’ discussion about the pros and cons of Industry 4.0.

In this paper, we present the first insights about the benefits of this teacher training expressed by the eighteen teachers of four different countries (Czech Republic, Spain, Germany and Lithuania) participating in the meeting. We understand this benefits in relation to their understanding about the Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge that they could use to design activities and materials for challenging students learning in Industry 4.0.

(The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein)

Keywords:

Innovation, Education, Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Technology, Teacher's professional development.