Developing Innovation and Creativity in Education

DICE is the acronym of the project, Developing Innovation and Creativity in Education.Institutions in the project are always facing different challenges concerning to education as it is mainly a transformation of education and teacher training to adapt our schools to the needs of the 21st century. There was a need to envisage which competences will be relevant and how these will be acquired to determinate how education and training policy can adequately prepare learners for life in the future society.The partnership of this project is made up of ten institutions in five different countries. We have two partners in each country: Spain, Denmark, United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Portugal. In each country there are two types of institutions: Teacher training organisations and primary or secondary schools. Participants in the project have the following profile:1. Participants have core competences needed to develop tasks in the project. 2. Participants have shown a commitment to the project, participating in all its phases: preparation, implementation, monitoring, assessment and dissemination. 3. Participants have shown enough competence in English language as the whole project, meetings and tools are developed in English language. All designed materials have been translated by participants in the project. Directly 102 teachers and trainers have participated in the project and 2384 students from the five schools in the project. Indirectly 1122 teachers have participated in different trainings and 10087 stakeholders in the differentt dissemintation activities that we have organised since 2017 to 2020. Indirectly 4514 students from other schools have participated as their teachers have attended our activities. This project was designed with the objective of working on those relevant competences which enable citizens to flexibly and proactively respond to changes. Problem solving, reflection, creativity, critical thinking, learning to learn, risk-taking, collaboration and entrepreneurship are the key competences that have been developed in this project.Participants from each institution gather all skills, competences, expertise and knowledge that have been necessary for getting a successful project development. The main goals of DICE (Developing Innovation and Creativity in Education) related to educators have been :-To research and promote innovative methods to work on creativity and innovation that can be easily implemented in formal education settings.-To train teachers/educators in the use of new methods and tools related to creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.-To apply the tools and methods in order to promote the ability to use a systematic process to define problems and come up with innovative solutions.-To strength the profiles of the teaching professions, including teachers, school leaders and teacher educators through enhancing teachers’ professional development and supporting teachers in collaborative and innovative practices.The main goals related to students have been:-To support students when they face the fast changes in our society in order they can have tools to turn challenges into opportunities.-To nurture the development of key transversal competences such as creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, risk taking and proactivity.-To train them in some methods where they will follow a process, define problems and create solutions in a creatively way.The main role of all institutions in the project have been to train ourselves using the previous knowledge and experience from each partner in different innovative methods. Besides, teachers have implemented these tools with their students at schools and trainers have supportted teachers during the implementation. Then, institutions in the partnership have designed a training course based on these methods and tools. The training course is made up of different modules:Module 1: The Progression Model.Module 2: The Creative Platform. Module 3: LEGO. Module 4: Creative Teaching Toolbox. Module 5: Visual Thinking Lab.Module 6. Scratch and Tynker.At local level the impact was guaranteed, as the training course has been offered to teachers in the different countries several times since 2017 in the different countries. At regional and national levels we have disseminated the results into our network of training centres so that they can reach and implement the tools in other institutions. The international impact was also guaranteed, as the direct participation of five different European countries have ensured this international impact. The innovative content and methodology provided with the course have initiated new pedagogical approach in school education in Europe.This project have achieved the aim of being a leading initiative, that have supported the education community to make progress in the field of creativity and innovation through effective, authentic, practical and sustainable actions.