Psychosocial Support, ICT and Mentoring for Educators, Managing Children’s Worries: Cluster 1 in 2022

Despite a full-scale war, Cluster 1 of the Learning Together project, which focuses on teacher professional development, had a busy year. In this article, read about key activities that Cluster experts managed to implement during 2022.

Training sessions and webinars

Responding to challenges caused by the war, in April-May, we conducted the training «Psychosocial Support for Teachers and Students in Wartime». 15 webinars were attended by 64 primary education trainers of trainers/teacher trainers from In-service Teacher Training Institutions and NUS coordinators (grades 5-6). As a follow-up, 22 supervision sessions were organized in July-September.

Later, in November-December, the similar training was held for 74 educators from the Departments of Primary Education and Psychology of 24 pilot higher education institutions that cooperate with the Learning Together project. The training program was adapted for educators of higher education institutions who work with teacher students.

These programs were implemented by a team of Ukrainian experts, consisting of psychologists and psychotherapists Oksana Ruda, Tetiana Hnida, Victoriia Soloviova and Olha Pastukhova. 

The experience of implementation of these programs has shown that in difficult times of war, Ukrainian educators need support, in particular, psycho-emotional support.

In October-December, Cluster 1 conducted a series of webinars «Information and Communication Technologies in Pedagogy», which also consisted of 15 webinars.

The webinars were attended by 209 representatives of In-service Teacher Training Institutions – teacher trainers and NUS coordinators in charge of implementation of new educational standards in grades 5-6. The program was conducted by Finnish experts Dr. Minna Lakkala and Dr. Liisa Ilomäki.

The trainees had the opportunity to enhance their competencies for using digital technology in distance/online and hybrid education, for applying a learner-centered approach to learning, organizing collaborative learning and strengthening student communities.

Another program held in 2022 is «Mentoring in Teaching Practice». As part of the program, Finnish experts Anja Huurinainen-Kosunen and Riia Palmqvist conducted 15 webinars for educators of higher educational institutions from the Departments of Primary Education and teachers of base schools where students of these higher educational institutions undergo their teaching practice.

The program was devoted, in particular, to the value and role of practical training of students, and the trainees got acquainted with the peculiarities of mentors’ work with teacher students.

In addition, during the past year, in June, the series of 6 webinars on mentoring was attended by 164 primary education teacher trainers from In-service Teacher Training Institutions and NUS coordinators (grades 5-6). 

Preparation of training materials 

In May, together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute for Education Development we presented the booklet «Kip Crew Manages Their Worries» for 4-9-year-old children. The translation of the booklet into Ukrainian became possible thanks to the support of the «EU4Skills: Best Skills for Modern Ukraine» program and the Learning Together project. 

The publication helps teachers, parents, guardians and therapists support children in expressing their feelings and manage their worries in times of anxiety and uncertainty.

Last year, we also started preparing materials to be released in 2023. In particular:

• Methodological Recommendations on Psychosocial Support for Educators from ITTIs and HEIs;
• the online course for teachers based on the results of webinars and supervision sessions on psychosocial support for teachers and students in wartime;
• the online course «Social Sciences and Health» for the All-Ukrainian school online (it is prepared together with UNICEF and UIED);
• the online course «Teacher Professional Development» – the course will contain such topics as mentoring, creating professional communities and will be useful both for teachers and educators of higher education institutions.

Read about the results of other Clusters of our project at the following links:

• Cluster 2: education and the NUS reform promotion;
• Cluster 3: development of a modern educational environment in NUS;
• Language Component: Ukrainian as the state language for national minorities.