Illumine is a 32-month project, under the European Erasmus+ 2020 call for the promotion of education, training, youth and sport projects. In the project, researchers, social companies and school teachers from four countries (Spain, Estonia, Serbia and Portugal) are collaborating to create and test a continuing teacher development programme and support technology. Illumine is coordinated by Davinia Hernández-Leo, director of the Research Group on Interactive and Distributed Technologies for Education (TIDE) of the UPF Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC).

Illumine’s approach is inspired by Lesson Study in Japan, a professional teaching development methodology in which teams of educators design and implement research lessons and apply scientific methods to explore the effectiveness of their teaching and learning activities. Illumine participants focus specifically on designing research lessons that use learning technologies and apply concepts of the science of learning. The science of learning is based on a recent Erasmus+ project, Illuminated, which organized more than 29 workshops for more than 400 participants in 5 countries on the science of learning science, as the content of Illuminated is reused in Illumine.

Marc Beardsley explained that “teachers were calling for an ongoing relationship that would help them translate research results to classroom practices”.

Marc Beardsley, a TIDE researcher, explained that “teachers were demanding more than one-off workshops. They were calling for an ongoing relationship that would help them translate research results to classroom practices”.

In addition to coordinating the project, TIDE is directing the development of the training programme and the support technology and is working in close collaboration with the Escola Pia de Sarrià school to co-design and test the results of the project. A team of eleven educators at the Escola Pia de Sarrià school is taking part in monthly co-design workshops throughout a school year as part of the project. Besides, the project is to draft a handbook for teachers that contains case studies based on the research lessons led by educators, and will conduct research related to the use by teachers of learning technologies in the classroom.

In addition to coordinating the project, TIDE is directing the development of the training programme and the support technology and is working in close collaboration with the Escola Pia de Sarrià school

The Illumine consortium includes the Centre of Excellence in Educational Innovation of the School of Digital Technologies at the University of Tallinn (Estonia), Institute of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade (Serbia), Kokoro Association (Portugal), ArchiPLAY (Serbia) and Escola Pia de Sarrià school (Spain). In addition, the project partners include the following schools: Colégio De São Gonçalo (Amarante, Portugal), Medicinska škola “Nadezda Petrović” (Belgrade, Serbia), Braća Baruh Primary School (Belgrade, Serbia), and Mihajlo Petrović Alas Primary School (Belgrade, Serbia).