The partners have been Dalarna University, Oslo Metropolitan University (earlier Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences) and University College Copenhagen (earlier Profesjonhøjskolen Metropol). From each partner institution, two or three persons working within the fields of physiotherapy and sports have played a key role in the project. Stakeholders have been prisons, NGOs, muncipality and street soccer/HWC.This project has developed a new practice placement model for sports and physiotherapy students in their work with people of marginalized groups. The project has established a link between undergraduate education and new practice placements in particularly in new practice placement arenas such as prisons, soccer for the homeless, rehabilitation centres for drug addicted, hospital for drug abusers, activities for immigrants and for people with mental illness to lower the threshold for social inclusion.The links developed during the project have increased students competences and employability by introducing them to working with people of marginalized groups, such as inmates, drug abusers, homeless and people of multicultural background in a perspective of public health. The new practice will also improve health care for vulnerable citizens and socially marginalized groups, and enhance the relevance in the use of practice placements as part of the study programmes for the future student. An overall goal has been to focus on social inequalities in health, and empowerment of vulnerable groups and to increase the knowledge among students of physiotherapy and sports on how to work towards marginalized groups in order to equalize these inequalities. Through the project, the students have been able to apply both their professional and relational knowledge in order to lower the threshold for marginalized persons to take part in ordinary life.The partners have played an active role in developing both the practice placement arenas and the rationale for the different approaches carried out by the students during their practice placement and their practice periods. The stakeholders have played an important role in providing the practice placement arenas and giving vital feedback during the project. Teachers/supervisors, students and stakeholders have met during workshops and intensive programmes in the form of practice placements such as the Homeless World Cup and practice in Halden Prison in Norway. The students' evaluation of the practical training, the supervisors' preparations and evaluation both during the project and at the end, the stakeholders' evaluations as well as the user perspective have, along with the experiences made by them throughout the project activities, contribute towards improved use of practice placements as part of the study programmes. The main result are the new model for practice placement in order to change the health and welfare service for people of marginalized group and volunteering for the students. Furthermore, it is the attuned curriculum in Denmark and Sweden, and that knowledge about substance abuse and services for marginalized people is pointed out in particular in new guidelines for health education (RETHOS) in Norway. Two conferences have been arranged for invited guests and for the public at large. The key persons have taken part in different arenas to convey the project and the result. The project has developed guidelines for mentors in practice, we have shared our knowledge at conferences and published articles based on empirical data from the project. During the project period all three partners have established cooperation with new partners, in the field of marginalization.

Teacher recruitment, retention and well-being are ongoing issues in Europe and internationally. The well-being of student teachers is not well researched, possibly because issues in reduced well-being on such programmes has been normalised. However, there is a growing body of literature on well-being of qualified teachers, which suggests that challenges begin during training and are linked to mental health problems. The teaching profession is a core resource in any national system attempting to meet the challenges apparent in the early 21st century. However, in some countries, the profession is under pressure due to a lack of retention and a long-term problem with recruitment. The participating institutions (Kobenhavns Professionshojskole - University College Copenhagen, University of Eastern Finland and Bishop Grosseteste University) have been working together to explore student teacher well-being for two years. This project bid seeks to build upon this work, further exploring the well-being and workload of student teachers in Europe and applying these insights to the building of support structures through the development of toolkits. Its objectives are therefore to:1. Deepen understanding of well-being issues affecting student-teachers in the three contexts (Denmark, Finland and the UK);2. Understand the needs of stakeholders in developing support for student-teacher well-being3. Build support resources/toolkits for Initial Teacher Education providers, student teachers and school-based mentors.Participants are drawn from networks linked to the three participating institutions and involve student-teachers, school-based mentors and lecturers involved in delivering teacher training at university level. The aim of the project is to understand in more detail the resources and challenges involved in student-teacher well-being and how these can be used as the basis for the creation of three toolkits to support key stakeholders; one for student-teachers, one for school-based mentors working with student teachers, and one for lecturers in initial teacher education (ITE). These toolkits will be designed to aid each group in their ITE work and offer both information and resources to support their work. Activities build on our past work to further understand the complex nature of student teacher well-being, enabling the project team to understand the wider issues faced by student teachers, the issues teacher educators face in integrating well-being into university-based curricula, pastoral systems, and through individual tutor contact. It will also facilitate an understanding of the complexities of the school-based mentor role in not only supporting student teachers professionally and academically, but also in relation to their continued well-being. The insights gained are used to build and test the three toolkits, developed and trialled by the three main stakeholder groups over two cycles of refinement. To structure these activities we utilise a design-based research (DBR) methodology to use research insights gained in baseline activities to inform and focus the production and testing of the toolkits which act as the main practice-based output from the project. A number of outcomes are planned over the period of the project. A state-of-the-art narrative literature review will be conducted which will encompass literature on student teacher well-being and the resources, challenges and potential support systems which may mitigate challenges. These insights will then be augmented by baseline research in the three institutions to contextualise and particularise these issues. These baseline outcomes will support the main outputs from the project, the toolkits, including evaluations of their utility and impact. The work completed by the project team will be presented and archived on a project website and it is further expected that the project team will produce a number of academic outputs. These will ensure sharing of the project outcomes with the wider academic community as well as sharing with professionals through Open Access publishing systems used by British universities. They will also ensure a clear legacy for the project to have longer term impact.The key anticipated impacts and long-term benefit of this project is to support the well-being of student teachers, through providing guidance and a help bank of resources to those working closely with them – specifically university-based staff and school-based mentors. As a consequence of this support package and university-based curriculum reform, it is intended that retention rates of ITE students and qualified teachers new to the profession, locally, nationally and internationally will improve as a result of the well-being toolkit developed. The toolkits aim to improve the practice and offer a support resource to school-based mentors in supporting trainee teachers’ well-being.

The main goal of BANISTER project is Baltic-Nordic collaboration regarding the alignment of standard knowledge within the field of sensory integration at the bachelor and postgraduate level. A. J. Ayres developed sensory Integration (SI) theory in the 1960’s and 70’s, during which she studied the connection between sensory processing in the brain and the behaviour of children with learning and behaviour disorders. The theory evolved from Ayres’ observation that children with learning disabilities had difficulty interpreting sensory information from their bodies and surroundings. She noticed that difficulties with sensory processing and integration often coincided with learning disabilities. To understand sensory integration, Ayres designed and adapted standardized tests that evaluated the elements of SI. There are seven key persons (occupational therapists) engaged in the implementation of this project. Some of the participants are experts in the field of sensory integration and others are less experienced. Most of the participants has a long background of experience as a practicing occupational therapist an as seniorlecturers. The objective of this project is to develop a Baltic-Nordic Higher Education curriculum for the promotion of knowledge and professional skills within the field of sensory integration in order to strengthen the ability of occupational therapy practitioners to conduct a systematic assessment of SI and provide individually tailored SI intervention within their own countries. Despite progress in SI theory, it is still not widely developed in Europe, nor has it been integrated into practitioners’ curricula. In addition, we aim to lay the foundations for future Baltic-Nordic cooperation in the field of sensory integration through project activities, such as courses for practitioners and students conducted in countries where sensory integration is less developed. Furthermore, the project will encompass national data collecting and analyzing national data in order to allow for the validation of the evaluation tool EASI (Evaluation in Ayres Sensory Integration) to be the first reliable assessment instrument in Baltic-Nordic countries for sensory integration. The training modules produced in BANISTER will deal with basic neurological knowledge and understanding of SI, while providing students with tools and the expertise to analyze the EASI evaluation tool results. The project will also include translation of the EASI manual and test sheets into the languages of the participating countries so that EASI could be validated and used reliably in every participating country. Finally, the project will ensure that the necessary test equipment, such as tactile items (3D materials), will be created so they may be used for the data collection. The methodology to carry out the project will be the following: regarding data collection, all parties involved will collect normative data using the EASI test. The number of children to be tested is based on the proportion of participating country in regards to world population. Regarding the training modules, the aim of Module 1 is to create materials that enable participant to understand the current neuroscience. Also to relate sensory processing to the underlying neurology and evidence base of sensory integration. The aim of Module 2 is to create materials about theory of Sensory Integration. It covers the history, key concepts and relation between the concepts, core propositions, SI dysfunctions and their effect on children and families daily life. The aim of Module 3 is to give the participants the opportunity to learn how to use some available assessments of sensory integration through practical way. The ultimate goal of this project is to help children with special needs through a specific assessment with a reliable evaluation tool which gives occupational trustworthy results to create the best therapy plan for these children. In order to achieve it, the project will develop training module based on validated evaluation tool EASI to train professionals on how to interpret the results of EASI. Finally, we hope to strengthen cooperation and ensure equal education in sensory integration within the Baltic-Nordic countries. In the Baltic-Nordic SI Congress (Multiplier Event) the results of the project will be presented to professions in health care (occupational therapists, medical doctors, speech therapists, physical therapists, special educators) in Baltic-Nordic countries. Scientific articles will be sent to the American Journal of Occupational Therapy and the Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy. In addition, articles to national occupational therapy journals will be written. As a result of this project, the SI Basic Course in English will be shared to other Universities interested, so they may benefit and use the results of this project.

<< Background >>The UCOILD project; “Unfolding Collaborative Online International Learning Didactics”, addresses a current global paradox related to maintaining international openness and exchange within HEI in accordance with the Bologna process. Covid-19, carbon footprint initiatives and challenges towards a more inclusive approach to internationalisation, has limited the use of student mobility as a key instrument of internationalisation and of achieving intercultural competences. At the same time these challenges have forced HEI’s to focus on implementation and further investigation of virtual international learning to sustain internationalisation in times of crisis and beyond, working towards resetting education and training for a more sustainable, inclusive and digital age as prioritized within the European Education Area. Various forms of virtual international exchange have been identified as promising instruments containing an intersection between internationalisation and digital technology, thereby providing HEI’s with possibilities for supporting intercultural and digital competences simultaneously. One such instrument is Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), a form of virtual exchange that is intended to be integrated into curriculum, while also developing digital and intercultural competences and therefore requires lecturers to possess strong didactical tools if the multiple learning ambitions are to be facilitated simultaneously. But there is scant evidence of this intersection being fully exploited as intercultural and digital competences are often left unattended due to lack of knowledge/experience/focus on how to didactically unfold international virtual learning environments and hence the potential is lost. This is also the case within the Early Childhood and Care Education field prioritised within the European Education Area and represented in this UCOILD project by cooperation partners from Spain, Denmark, Netherlands and Norway. ICT and new technologies are currently permeating these professional fields that are also characterized with complex intercultural diversity, but within the HEI’s that train future professionals, systematic didactical solutions on how to support the development of digital and intercultural competences are in demand. The UCOILD project intends to support the HEI facilitation of such global capabilities by focusing on unfolding the full learning potential of Collaborative Online International Learning projects by producing a didactical toolkit for lecturers that will support their engagement in unfolding future quality collaborative online international learning environments, thereby promoting stronger digital and intercultural competences for Early Childhood and Care students and sustaining HEI interconnectedness.<< Objectives >>The overall objective of the UCOILD project is to meet the need for strong intercultural and digital competences within the Early Childhood and Care professions by developing an innovative didactical COIL toolkit for HEI lecturers. The toolkit will help lecturers to realise and facilitate COIL projects in ways that are student-centred, experiential, inclusive and reflective, thereby providing the best possible virtual learning environment for supporting intercultural and digital competences. Doing so, the UCOILD project complements large scale projects addressing structural challenges within HEIs towards development and implementation of virtual exchange and COIL projects - by focusing on the next step of this important journey: Investigating further the didactical challenges and possibilities related to COIL once implemented in order to unfold anticipated learning potentials. By developing and implementing strong COIL didactical tools and approaches, the UCOILD project wants to support current internationalisation at home and virtual exchange initiatives within the cooperation partnership and reach out to meet the demands for intercultural and digital competences within the Early Childhood and Educational professional field by providing the 3 primary target groups within the UCOILD project - the HEI lectures, HEI students and HEI educational managers and developers - with the competences and instruments needed: The first target group; HEI lecturers, are crucial for unfolding a curriculum that can both meet intercultural, digital and subject specific learning goals, but need profound new knowledge and repertoires of didactical practice and tools if they are to facilitate complex competences within virtual international learning environments - which the development of a COIL didactical toolkit will provide for. The second target group; HEI students and in particular early childhood and care students are heading towards a field of profession and require specific training to handle the complex intercultural diversity and ICT and new technologies that are permeating the professional field - which the realisation of COIL projects will provide for, if facilitated correctly, as they provide learning labs and training possibilities for students engaging with interculturally and internationally mixed student groups through digital platforms and media. The third target group; HEI educational developers and educational managers are responsible for providing structural support for implementation of COIL projects - and the UCOILD project will support their work by producing a COIL curriculum design, hereby pointing towards possible ways of integrating COIL projects and didactics into existing curricula.<< Implementation >>In order to realise the overall objective of developing an innovative didactical COIL toolkit for HEI lecturers to facilitate intercultural and digital competences, the UCOILD project will implement the following activities: 4 interrelated project results: Project result 1: “Mapping didactical challenges and approaches to COIL” will form the theoretical and methodological foundation for project result 2: “Developing a Didactical Toolkit for COIL” that will provide innovative didactical tools and an online toolkit. Project result 3 focuses on dissemination of the project results through 3 conference papers discussing preliminary project results and through a scientific paper, and project result 4: “COIL curriculum design” focuses on implementation by developing existing curriculum to include COIL didactics within the participating HEI’s. 4 COIL projects In relation to project result 2: The 4 COIL projects will be realised as key activities for experimenting, developing and testing various didactical student-centered, experiential, inclusive and reflective approaches to facilitating virtual international learning environments. 4 Learning/Teaching/Training activities for HEI Early Childhood and Care Education students that focus on extending the online international learning environment to a physical international classroom and make use of students as co-developers of student-centered, experiential, inclusive and reflective didactical tools and approaches. 4 webinars for lecturers realised as a student product in relation to the LTT activities, focusing on disseminating student experiences and insights in relation to COIL participation and co-development processes. Inclusion of 12 local lectures not involved in the UCOILD project from each partner institution (i.e. 48 lectures) to support critical feedback in relation to project results.4 transnational project meetings supporting project progress regarding the activities listed above - alternating with 3 supplementary online transnational Zoom project meetings. 1 Multiplier event to share and promote UCOILD project results realised as a blended event allowing for both physial and online participation of stakeholders, target groups and associated partner members 12 project steering group meetings to monitor and secure realisation of the UCOILD project plan and timeline3 meetings between the project steering group and a follow up group consisting of educational managers and representatives of the international offices at each partner institution in order to ensure quality project realisation and implementation3 meetings with the associated partner ETEN to work towards stronger and wider implementation, dissemination as well as sharing and promotion of UCOILD project results<< Results >>The UCOILD project will have the following project results and outcomes: *Mapping existing knowledge and experiences, hereby producing a framework nationally and transnationally that addresses questions of how COIL projects are produced, of key indicators for learning processes, of key facilitation players and of how lecturers handle challenges related to facilitating virtual international learning environments - thereby providing a baseline for the UCOILD cooperation partners, and for HEI in general before engaging with COIL (project result 1).*Developing an open access didactical toolkit for collaborative online international learning as an integrated element of HEI curriculum that can support digital and intercultural competences within the Early Childhood and Care educations and beyond (project result 2) - which includes the development of 4 COIL projects that will unfold student centered, inclusive, experiential and reflective virtual international learning labs allowing for innovative didactical approaches on how to address specific subject areas and global capabilities of intercultural and digital learning simultaneously. *Realising 4 LTT student blended mobility workshops, each related to one of the four COIL projects, extending virtual learning labs to physical international classrooms to create room for reflection, co-development processes and the production of 4 webinars for lecturers not involved in the UCOILD as the webinars will be realised as a student product where students share COIL experiences together with the UCOILD lecturers (C1-C4). *Gaining knowledge on the use of students as co-developers of didactical tools and co-facilitators of global capabilities in virtual international learning labs by: 1) investigating roles of critical friends and 2) including students in meta reflections during their participation in a COIL project and the subsequent LTT student blended mobility workshop (see project result 2 and C1-4). *Producing an international peer-reviewed scientific paper to be submitted to the Journal of Virtual Exchange and three conference papers disseminating preliminary project results and fostering international dialogue (project result 3). *Developing a COIL curriculum design addressing ways of implementing COIL and COIL didactics into existing curricula (project result 4). *Local dissemination processes for educational managers, and for local lecturers by the use of a snowflake method distributing local ownership of project results - and a global dissemination process with 60+ international partners in collaboration with the UCOILD associated partner: the European Teacher Education Network (ETEN). * Widening participation in international activities among students and lecturers by providing a quality instrument for internationalisation of the curriculum.*Supporting future early childhood and care professionals to be better equipped for understanding and acting within a field permeated with technology and digitalisation and characterised with a variety of intercultural groups of children, parents and colleagues.

<< Background >>ConCitizen addresses a key issue in citizenship education: how do we teach controversial issues particularly related to contested narratives in post-conflict and diverse societies? European education systems share a strong tradition of democratic formation, focusing on coexistence, critical stance and respect for diverse opinions and outlooks . However, new challenges for democracy have emerged such as populism, right-wing and Islamist extremism. In addition, digitalisation of society has evoked a polarized debate culture on social media characterized by echo chambers and filter bubbles.ConCitizen explores how contested narratives and controversial issues are included - or avoided - in the school subjects history, religion education and citizenship education. The aim of ConCitizen is to develop new pedagogical methodologies and strengthen teachers' ability to teach controversial issues in societies and classrooms where different narratives are at stake. ConCitizen seeks to stimulate innovative learning and teaching practices by developing pedagogical models that encourage self-reflection, awareness of power relations and critical thinking when teaching contested narratives. The aim is to strengthen the student teachers' ability to create an inclusive learning environment by addressing stereotypes and highlighting common vulnerability. ConCitizen addresses an international gap for teaching materials that combine a strong theoretical introduction to central concepts with pedagogical models and the impact of contested narratives in different national contexts. To promote digital readiness in education, ConCitizen will develop digital teaching materials and a virtual exchange format with student teachers as co-creators. An innovative element of the project is to explore the use of eTwinning as a platform for cooperation in higher education. eTwinning will be the primary tool to plan, implement and disseminate the project results.<< Objectives >>The aim of the project ConCitizen is:1. through a transnational virtual exchange format and teaching tutorials to strengthen the students’ democratic competences and to develop citizenship education build on experiences of teaching contested narratives (CN) and controversial issues (CI) in very different national and democratic contexts. 2. across the participating institutions to develop new pedagogical models for teaching CN and CI that will improve the ability of lecturers and students to include CN and CI in their teaching and strengthen the pupils’ ability to think critically, reflect on differences and contribute to peaceful coexistence. 3. through an open access textbook to combine theoretical perspectives with pedagogical approaches that strengthens the student teachers and schoolteachers ability to facilitate inclusion, dialogue, and mutual understanding in classrooms, when topics are controversial, contested, and sensitive to some or all pupils.<< Implementation >>Co-creation of new teaching material and a digital dimension is in focus throughout the entire project involving cooperation between lecturers and student teachers/NGO youth. The process is closely related to learning and teaching activities: To ensure the teaching materials reach the target group, student teachers are co-developers and continuously gives feedback. 20 BA or master's students and NGO youth participate in a blended learning process focused on contested narratives and controversial issues in citizenship education.The blended learning includes: 1. Transnational virtual exchange sessions, where the student teachers/NGO youth test and gives feedback on teaching tutorials, virtual exchange formats and pedagogical methodologies. The content will focus on greater understanding and responsiveness to ethnic, religious and cultural diversity through teaching contested narratives. 2. Symposium and face to face learning activities related to a transnational meeting. Teaching activities for 100 student teachers and NGO youth testing and evaluating a virtual exchange format for classes.The aim is to support active citizenship and ability to teach controversial issues without polarisation. Throughout the project the quality of the teaching material is ensured by activities where experts in the field gives feedback on form and content:1. Teaching activities at transnational meeting in Northern Ireland, where we present our pedagogical models and teaching tutorials and get feedback from lectures from both Queens University and Stranmillis University College.2. Symposium in Cyprus, where associated partners will challenge the project results and help us to quality assure the methods and formats.3. Conference in Norway, with presentation of all project results and a reference group for ConCitizen will give response.<< Results >>ConCitizens results and outcomes all focus on developing innovative teaching material in an iterative process, where every new outcome is based on the previous. The results and outcomes of ConCitizen are:1. Concept-mapping of key concepts and pedagogical issues related to them. Composed of a three-level process, the mapping will contain data from a) an individual level, b) a national level and c) a transnational level. 2. A curriculum mapping contributing with information about the legal frame for teaching civics, history, and religion education in the partners national settings. 3. Semi structured interviews with schoolteachers from each country focusing on their experiences on teaching contested narratives and controversial issues, and/or their experiences of avoiding such issues. 4. A comparative analysis of data from the previous data collection leading to the development of new pedagogical models. Bachelor students and Master students from teacher education and young adults from Adyan will be co-developers in this process. 5. Teaching tutorials will be developed and used in virtual exchanges with student teachers and later for the virtual exchange format to be maintained after the project. 6. A two sessions virtual exchange format will be developed, tested, and revised to anchor the project in the teaching on the partner institutions. 7. An open-source textbook will collect and disseminate the findings of the project and combine theory with pedagogical models and examples from different national contexts. 8. An international conference with dissemination of project findings, feedback and presentations from scholars in the research field. The feedback will be used for the final revision of the textbook.The results from the project will be shared on eTwinning at https://live.etwinning.net/projects/project/292626