Private Pädagogische Hochschule Augustinum

Erasmus@home: success through Focus on Europe, BIP and ESEP

In order to make the European dimension accessible to all students, PPH Augustinum provides a diverse mix of the international meeting forum Focus on Europe, BIP and ESEP.

Teachers from Austria, Belgium and Norway

Objectives

In these times of globalization and increasing linguistic heterogeneity in the classroom, it is important that student teachers get to know and try out (inter)cultural projects with students from other countries during their studies. These international activities raise awareness of European citizenship. The prospective teachers at PPH Augustinum are taught valuable skills through various formats during their studies, which they can incorporate into their daily work later in their careers. A conscious effort is made to reach all students at the university college with formats such as Focus on Europe and a large number of students with other formats such as BIPs. The proportion of students who benefit from international activities at our university college is actually 100%. Of course, this includes a higher proportion than those who spend a semester (or longer) abroad as outgoings or complete an internship abroad. This has made it possible to achieve the goal that all students are involved in international activities several times during their studies, even without going abroad, and benefit from the resulting positive effects. This international dimension to studies at PPH Augustinum promotes international cooperation across universities, enhances the quality of studies and encourages creativity and innovation among students and staff while taking inclusion and equal opportunities into account. The aim is to give students a stronger start to their professional careers, in which they see social diversity as normality and potential, and are able to communicate the European dimension to pupils at primary level thanks to their international experience during their studies.

Background

PPH Augustinum offers a wide range of international meeting and learning spaces for its own students and teaching staff with a broad mix of well-known formats and also its own traditional Focus on Europe format. eTwinning is a platform that has also been available to universities since 2021. Austrian students work with foreign students on a specific topic, get to know new systems, improve their language skills and try to develop problem-solving strategies in small groups so that they can create a collaborative final product (e.g. lesson plan). Also since 2021, Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) are implemented as teaching/learning elements that are carried out jointly by several universities and combine virtual components with physical short-term mobility. These two new funding lines of the current Erasmus+ program generation were immediately implemented by PPH Augustinum during the submission period of this award and supplemented by Focus on Europe. First held in 2002 under the title Europe Compact, repeated every two years from 2010 under the title Focus on Europe until 2018 and then interrupted due to the pandemic, Focus on Europe was relaunched in 2023. This international meeting forum was organized by the International Office of PPH Augustinum and provided guests, lecturers and students with a diverse and engaging programme. It is an important sign of promoting the European idea to specifically invite experts from partner universities to Graz and to offer employees and students an event format in which they are presented with current research results in innovative learning settings. Furthermore, a space is created for international professional exchange and the guests are offered an all-round experience in Graz. In addition to implementing the university college's own internationalization strategy, all of the measures implemented also serve to deepen and expand the existing network of partner institutions.

(Implemented) Activities

Focus on Europe is all about increasing knowledge, networking and exchange and brought international flair and input from experts from near and far. Aspects that are essential for modern and high-quality teacher training. For three days, normal study activities were suspended and all students and lecturers in the building actively participated in this international meeting forum together with the guest speakers. Over 2000 students attended 36 courses, including lectures and seminars! A welcoming ceremony followed by a gala dinner, specialist group meetings, informal breaks in Café Europe and a reception hosted by the Mayor of Graz at Graz City Hall provided lasting impressions and sustainable skills development for all participants. In the area of eTwinning, a creative text on picture books from www.amira-lesen.de was written together with French students from the Université de Picardie in the "Outils pédagogiques" course in the winter semester 24/25. Being aware of the very different language levels, care was taken in preparatory online meetings and the composition of the international working groups to minimize possible divergences and tensions as far as possible. The ability to work together in a team despite different levels of language proficiency is an important democratic and participatory approach. In the BIP “Can Art make the World a better place?”, four partner universities took part alongside PPH Augustinum (see notes). After the introductory online parts, the physical mobility from 09 - 18.05.2024 was the highlight. Different areas of art (music, dance, fine arts, drama, multi-media art) were applied in various urban settings. The central aim for all participants was the implementation of the five main topic areas: Discovering Arts and Culture Watching and Listening to Art Producing and Performing Art Teaching Art Discussing the Impact

Results

As part of Focus on Europe, 28 professors from no less than 19 partner institutions from 6 countries were welcomed to Graz. The circle of guests from the network of partner universities was extended by guests from India and Israel. The evaluation of all participants resulted in an excellent average score of 4.83 (possible top score of 5). We also see this good rating as proof that the intended goals of presenting current research results in innovative learning settings, creating space for international professional exchange and offering the guests an all-round experience in Graz have been achieved. In the submitted eTwinning project, both the joint final presentations and the evaluations show that the students benefited from each other linguistically, interculturally and pedagogically. The authentic approach to language that is applied in an eTwinning project is very important and essential for the positive results. The participants came to appreciate that it is an advantage to speak one or more foreign languages. Another additional benefit was that one student was encouraged by the cooperation with the French students to spend an Erasmus+ semester in Paris. A very positive summary can also be drawn in the area of BIPs. The results can be summarized as follows: Offering students the possibility to gain international experience in an accessible way, Intensifying collaboration between the HEIs, Improving Art Education Competences (attitudes, theoretical knowledge, skills) and Expanding individual competences of students and teachers. Apart from the difference in the very subject-specific proportion in the area of art education, they are closely aligned with the objectives achieved by Focus on Europe and the eTwinning project. This clearly demonstrates the highly positive overall outcome of the implemented measures.

Lessons learned & transferability

In the course of the next implementation of Focus on Europe in fall 2026, one key point will be changed: The choice of individual students among the wide range of teaching formats during these 3 days will be significantly increased by a changed registration procedure. This will give students the opportunity to better align with their personal interests to an even greater extent with the more individually selected formats.

KuBis present typical Austrian music

Erasmus@home: success with Focus on Europe, BIP and ESEP

Europe Café

Further links