ACADIMIA - European Teachers' Academy for Creative & Inclusive Learning

It has been proved that the use of traditional, teacher-centred methods poses challenges in the successful education integration of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. While the use of creative methods could improve at a great extent the educational attainment and inclusion of disadvantaged students as well as of the whole classroom, most of the teachers do not use them at the classroom since they have not received relevant training. Teacher training is very important in order to change this situation but teacher training curricula are usually slow to include such innovations, especially when it comes to innovations developed at an EU level. The project is aiming to establish a Teacher Academy which will focus on the use of creative methods of teaching (elements of the Montessori method, theatre, Drama in Education, Gamification, Creative Computing etc) in diverse classrooms valorising mostly the results of previous European initiatives. The Academy is going to develop a Joint Curriculum on the use of Creative methods in diverse classrooms and is going to organise a series of joint teacher training activities (online workshops, Summer Campus, e-learning courses, blended learning courses, classroom-based courses etc) which will also test diverse mobility and training schemes. In the same time, a professional community of practice is going to be established in order to allow for peer learning and mutual exchange of experience and expertise. An Academic publication is going to show the impact of these methods. The Academy will have a formalised structure and will develop strategic cooperation with authorities and stakeholders in order to ensure its sustainability. It is estimated that around 900 teachers, both trainee and in-service teachers, and 10.000 students are going to benefit directly from the project activities.