Q4I Is a Project Designed to Combine Quality and Innovation in a New Way That Makes It

Invitation to join the Q4I pilot Quality approaches in schools should support innovation

Introduction

The world we live in is constantly changing. Our economies, the way we search for information, the way we communicate. The information technologies we are exposed to are proliferating rapidly. Digital technology is universal and virtually unstoppable. In education, it is our primary concern to cultivate the skills and abilities that will allow our children to live successfully in this 21 st century world. It is our duty to define new approaches and strategies to prepare youth for future challenges, encouraging their autonomy and critical thinking skills, but also fostering creativity and imagination, as forces of individual growth and social innovation. Schools must adapt and innovate so they can support the acquisition of these 21st century skills.

To meet the needs in this globalization era, students have to acquire 21st century skills. By having 21st century skills they can be effective learners, collaborators, communicators, and creators. Students who have these 21st century skills are more prepared to align with the shift in how people learn, how people get jobs and how economies are constantly changing. School leaders and teachers should have ability to integrate 21st century skills into core academic subjects.

The Q4I project

The Q4I project, which started in December 2012, aims to develop, test and mainstream a quality development approach for schools that includes a strong commitment to innovation and that is based on the participation of all key stakeholders: students, teachers and parents, employers and representatives of local community. Q4I is a project designed to ensure high quality education while innovating educational practices. Using the innovative Q4I processes will lead to higher quality standards and the ability to adapt to constant changes. The four engines of change

The Q4I approach addresses four engines of change, used at a different degree according to the specific situation. These drivers are an integral part 21st century skills map.

1. Key competences for lifelong learning should become a pillar of school education achievements, and in particular the learning to learn competence should be a main focus of efforts. This first engine is useful to set the basic learning outcomes that will give pupils tools to become active learners and have an active citizenship. The lifelong learning competencies are then involved in the development of other skills that, in turn, reinforce basic competencies.

2. The use of ICT to support learning processes and to integrate the informal learning of digital natives should become an integral part of school education, considering the specific value of ICT in supporting the acquisition of key competences and learning/working processes. ICT can pay a fundamental role on innovation, allowing a direct flow of information to the school head, teachers and administrative staff about the pertinence of used methods. On the other hand, ICT enormously increase transparencies of processes thus giving its contribution to raise the level of quality.

3. Creativity and innovation attitudes and skills. Creativity should be understood as a factor interacting in all areas, required for our personal fulfilment, fundamental in making innovation possible in each area, and essential for a social dimension that allows inter-cultural positive interactions.

4. Inter-cultural learning skills Schools have a role to play in the development of an intercultural society equipping pupils with intercultural skills essentials to appreciate the richness of diversity of culture but also to raise their awareness of their own culture. Who is only familiar with his own culture does not really know it. The Q4I approach

Q4I is a new approach to schools development respecting and building on the specificity of the world of school education.

The Q4I model addresses all the areas where change is needed and all the processes that must be affected by change. This differentiates Q4I from many existing approaches, which focus on a single dimension of school without being able to have an impact at the level of the organisation.

Q4I is network of all the school stakeholders: teachers, school leaders, administrative staff will all play a role in the innovation pathway that the project will instill in the schools that will participate in the pilot and in the others that will join the Q4I operation. How to participate The Q4I consortium invites 5 schools in each country (Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Spain) to participate in a pilot project. The consortium offers a process of ‘supported’ piloting, for a period of 6 months. During that period the school staff will become familiar with the quality management tools and establish the processes that will ensure a continuous improvement of the quality of education.

The consortium is looking for a productive collaboration with committed staff members of innovative schools. The participating schools are offered the opportunity to be supported during the process and to be part of a great network for innovation in Europe.

The piloting will be structured in three phases: 1. Definition phase, in which schools are assisted to define their final goals. 2. Achievement phase, the core part of the initiative. The school will have access to the network and to the experts that will follow-up and sustain the actual steps necessary to achieve the defined objectives in terms of quality and innovation. 3. Evaluation phase, useful to verify and prove progresses. Definition phase: Self-Assessment, defining goals and improvements

The project starts with a first meeting necessary to illustrate all the aspects of the process. The initial support is directed to a raise in awareness of school attitude toward quality and innovation through a self-assessment procedure. This exercise will reveal strengths, weaknesses, critical situations and opportunities, all of them essential to make a good use of existing skills and decide which the priority objectives are.

The first direct contribute will be the proposal of possible quality and innovation objectives, also on the basis of a review of the most interesting cases included in the study Q4I carried out in ten European countries. The research was intended to identify excellence in innovation with the best results in terms of quality. The review will help the school to clarify its own expectations, defining the areas to be improved. Q4I will share the expertise of all partners in order to fine tune the existing models and define their own path during the trial in order to develop all concrete desired and agreed goals in the school context. At the end of the meeting, all the aspects of the process of piloting, explained in details, will be converted into a shared dynamic, so to be fully exploited within a ‘learning community’.

Achievement phase: Sharing experiences and support to innovative processes

Learning from each other is a core principle of innovation in the school systems and Q4I fosters collaboration among the participants and promotes the visibility of this initiative to ground the diffusion of productive connections. Raising awareness in the use of ICT as a learning support paves the way for innovative uses suitable to increase the quality of contents and to create a shared database of valuable experiences. All the participating schools will be connected to the same network, representing the starts of the Q4I Schools Network.

We are committed to promote the Network, providing experts’ opinions and collaborating with representatives of local, national and European organisations related to innovation processes in schools. Communication and collaboration with colleagues that experienced changes with good results, with experts all over Europe and any other person involved will be the best guarantee of success in quality and innovation.

Evaluation phase: appreciating achievements

In the final phase of the experimentation we expect the schools to be ready to continue to develop within the international network established, being capable to feed it with content and find inspiration in the exchange of experiences in national context and in collaboration with schools of different countries. It will also be important for the school to evaluate the achievements and verify the degree of concordance with the expected outcomes. A feedback from the school on the quality and effectiveness of the support received during the piloting will help the Q4I team to improve these components of the Q4I initiative in the future. The value of the experience in all its aspects will be monitored to demonstrate its effectiveness and sustainability. Join the piloting phase

To apply, please contact our national partner as soon as possible, the start is planned for the school year 2013/2014. The national partners are:

Greece: Hellenic Association for Education, www.haed.edu.gr Mr. Nikos Zygouritsas, Tel. 0030 210 6030411, e-mail: [email protected]

Italy: Euridit, www.euridit.eu Mr. Giovanni Polliani, phone number: +39 335 5723799, e-mail: [email protected]

The Netherlands: ESHA - European School Heads Association, www.esha.eu Mr. Fred Verboon, phone number: +310302361010, e-mail: [email protected]

Romania: Fiatest, www.Fiatest.ro Mrs. Anca Popovici, Phone number: +40 213121347, e-mail: [email protected]

Spain: Generalitat Valenciana - Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, http://www.cece.gva.es/es/ Mr. Jorge Anton Jornet, Tel +34 961970393, e-mail: [email protected] mt Educación y Formación, S.L., www.mteducacionyformacion.com Dr. Jose Ramon Garcia Aranda, phone number: +34976482150, e-mail: jrgarcia@mtgrupo