Welcome to the public web site of CIPDE - Continuing Intercultural Professional Development in Europe
This is the public (open access) web site for the CIPDE Project. This 2 year (2007-2009) Project, funded by the European Union, is designed to develop and promote a new and exciting form of teacher professional development across Europe. It operates across 5 European nations (Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and the UK), and involves teacher participants at various stages in their career.
The main activities relating to the Project take place on a separate website which is reserved for Project organisers and participants, however this site provides exemplars of some of the activities, some of the responses from teacher participants, and regular updates on the Project.
The European Union has agreed to support this initiative as it is consistent with many of the goals and objectives of the current EU Lifelong Learning Programme. The Project Partners believe that the approach taken in CIPDE will have a positive impact on teachers and how they view themselves as professionals in an intercultural world. In our view, the most important reason for doing this is to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom.
As part of the research around the Project, we are trying to find out whether participating in the Project has a significant impact on teachers' approach to their professional lives; if so, it could have significant implications for teacher professional development across Europe.
What is CIPDE ?
CIPDE is an Internet-based project, funded by the EU Comenius Programme. Teacher participants take part in an interactive online course that is intended to help them:
- learn more about their own culture and society
- learn more about other cultures and societies
- improve their ICT skills
- communicate and work with teachers in other countries
- improve their classroom practice
- improve their ability to foster effective citizenship and intercultural understanding among students in schools.
In short, it is about trying to change the way we look at things, how we think about things, and ultimately how we approach teaching and learning in our classroom or school.
The Partner Institutions
Co-ordinating Institution
- UNITED KINGDOM Education for Global Citizenship Unit (EGCU), University of Glasgow.
National Partners
- FINLAND - OPEKO [National Centre for Professional Development in Education, Tempere, Suomi]
- ITALY - CIID [Cooperativa insegnanti di iniziativa democratica, Roma]
- NETHERLANDS - SLO [Hoofd Maatschappelijke Thema's, Kamer, Nederland]
- POLAND - CKU [Centrum Ksztaicenia Ustawicznego im. Obroncow Wybrzeza w Sopocie, Sopot, Polska]
CIPDE celebrated the final stages of the project with an exhibition and partnership meetings. This took place from Monday 19th to Friday 23rd October 2009 inclusive at the University Chapel. You can find out more about the CIPDE project by visiting www.cipde.eu
