III EPOCH. ERASMUS+ IPEP of Jaén. What should be done during an Erasmus job shadowing visit? 9 October 2022

 Good afternoon, IPEP family. 

👉 The Great Escape. Erasmus+ IPEP Jaén.

 

👉 Celebration of October 13, DIEP.

 

 

Today we are taking another step in what concerns the diffusion among our educational community of the contents, plans and objectives of the project that we are working on. 

 

 Click to see the Video of an interview

 to students' delegates.

Today we are going to address, at least in a synthetic way, what is done in an observation visit, what in English has been called 'job shadowing'. I assure you that it is not a <<El Corte Inglés>>’s trip, as some people might think probably due to a lack of awareness.

 

Today we are therefore going to enumerate the main activities that, according to the profile of the participant in the mobility and according to its objectives, should be carried out.

 

Later on, we will proceed to discuss in detail and with examples the most important bits, also providing some tips for the visit to be a success and, consequently, have a great impact on our schools both in the short and the long term. 

 

👉A piece of advice: For the work visit to be a success, the preparation must be very thorough. 

 

Rethinking educational practices for adults, prison students and young offenders.

 

What are we going to do in the ‘job shadowing’ mobilities?

1. Interview with the director of the school to thank them for their kind offer to have us in their school for a long week. A present will be delivered with the purpose of strengthening ties, revising the objectives of the stay, the procedures to follow, the behaviour rules if travelling with students, setting another interview before leaving, documents to be reviewed, activities calendar, people to be interviewed, participation of visiting teachers in classes. Likewise, there will be a brief presentation of our institute.

Job shadowing meeting in Denmark.

 

2. Guided visit of the institute's facilities, accompanied by the designated contact teachers. The goal is to know the facilities in detail, even the smallest detail. Special attention will be paid to: classrooms distribution, school furniture, decoration of classrooms and corridors, information signs, lockers to store personal belongings, teachers' rooms, meeting rooms, work rooms, offices, toilets, indoor and outdoor sports facilities, school canteen, libraries, parking for teachers and/or students, textbooks, resources available in the classrooms, security systems, laboratories, among others.

 

After a meticulous analysis of their organisation:

 

3. How does this organisation contribute to improving school results? What could we 'copy' for our centre?

 

4. Comparative study of the curriculum, focused on the methodological approaches and main activities carried out in each country. How is the work done, by areas, by subjects, by modules, by cycles, etc.? Which subjects are taught and which are not? What are their priorities? Are there alternatives to what is now being done? Which subjects should be integrated and which ones eliminated?

 

 

👉Food for thought: Should the curriculum be modified in the penitentiary centre?

 

 

Beware of the curriculum!

5. Measures of diversity attention, specially with students with economic, social and physical difficulties. Who is responsible for their design, fulfillment and supervision? How do these measures contribute to the integration and academic success of the students?

 

6. Do these measures exist in prisons?

 

7. Study of work schedules and student groupings: improvements that could be introduced. What criteria rule to establish the schedules, both for the entire centre, and for the teaching staff and the students?

 

8. Effective, real and simple measures for monitoring the entire teaching and learning process.

 

9. Evaluation procedures. What alternative methods to the traditional one do they use or could they use? What general criteria are applied?

 

10. Are the same procedures and criteria of evaluation applied in prisons as for the rest of the ordinary students?

 

11. Role of the Educational Guidance Department in adult education, especially with inmates. Is there an orientation plan for internal students, especially in prisons?

 

12. How is blended teaching carried out: student monitoring, e-learning work platforms. Evaluation of this type of student.

 

13. Organisation, purpose and schedules of face-to-face tutorials.

 

14. Main resources used to prevent school dropout.

 

 

15. Interviews with the Management Team: social importance of these education, strategic priorities.

 

16. Interviews with the teaching staff involved in the teaching equivalent to the ESPA: main difficulties encountered, challenges and how they are solved.

 

17. Interviews with the teaching staff involved in teaching with inmates: main difficulties encountered, challenges and how they are solved.

 

18. Work hours, resources, organisation and coordination with the penitentiary institutions of each country, who do they depend on in their organisation and what consequences has it, subjects studied, do you have study hours? Do you have access to libraries? etc.

 

19. How could e-learning be better integrated in our centre: what we must take into account: logistical, resources, legal, organisational aspects, specific learning platforms.

 

20. E-learning platforms in prisons and young offenders’ institutions: Do inmates have access to these platforms for educational purposes? What are the best systems available nowadays?

 

21. How all the students could be integrated, wherever they are from, in all the activities of the centre: legal and social problems, economic resources’ problems, etc.

 

22. Discussion about what needs to be improved, in general, in this type of adult education and in prisons. What is missing? What is useless?

 

23. Do the teachers involved in this type of teaching have any specific training? Is it necessary or not? Who provides it?

 

24. Cultural visits.

 

25. Design of cooperation activities for the future (study visits, exchange of teachers or students, etc.)

 

26. Planning of further Erasmus+ collaboration projects in the future. 

 

 

And in the specific case of the visit to the Portuguese school Escola Secundária João Gonçalves Zarco, in Matosinhos, Oporto, Portugal:

 

27. Planning of the visit of the ESPA students: objectives, main activities, schedules, cultural visits, subjects and classes to which they are going to enter, presentations about the respective countries, joint theme of project work (to be decided), presentations that will be done, etc.

 

As I have already told you, our colleague Víctor Torres is directing all this part of the project, helped by the Erasmus+ Team.

 

28. Preparation of the experts’ participation in the Jaén Congress, scheduled for the month of November 2023, God willing.

 

29. Preparation of the experts' participation in the training courses at the CEP and at the IPEP.

 

30. Preparation of the logistics of the visit to Jaén, resources, accommodation (as far as possible in the homes of Spanish teachers to encourage social contact, links for possible future projects, and to save costs in order to, for example, more female students could participate in the mobility to Portugal).

 

 

 

31. What environmental protection measures are included in the designs of their study plans, centre organisation and activities?

 

32. Plans for extracurricular activities that they have and carry out: what could be incorporated into ours? Could joint activities be done, perhaps through eTwinning, for example?

 

33. Student participation in school life: student representatives, functions, is there an alumni association, for example? How does this contribute to school dropout? Would it be possible to use this resource for that purpose?

 

34. Centre participation in the life of the community in which it is located: what kind of joint activities does it carry out with other institutions for the benefit of the students?

 

35. Centre internationalisation plans: experience in Erasmus+ projects organised by SEPIE or of another type: how the entire educational community has benefited and/or benefits. How are these activities organised, who is responsible for it, do they have a specific profile? Has the participation of the centre in Erasmus+ helped to reduce school dropout?

 

36. Does the centre collaborate with any other institution in the assistance of internal students? How? What measures are assembled? What activities are carried out?

 

37. Interviews with student representatives. What involvement do students have in the centre? Does it contribute in any way to the fight against school dropout? How can intern students design their own dropout prevention programs? With what resources?

 

 

38. Analyse the internal communications system between teachers, parents and students.

 

39. Attendance at any staff meeting, department meeting or school council.

 

40. During the third day of the visit, there will be another meeting with the Erasmus+ coordinator, to analyse whether the planned objectives are being accomplished, to modify the program if necessary or to resolve any problems that may have arisen.

 

41. The last day of the visit will include an interview with the Headmaster to analyse the results of the visit, comment the most outstanding aspects of it, collaboration proposals and, finally, sign all the documents that are needed to deliver to the SEPIE agency, the institute in Spain, the Junta de Andalucía, etc.

 

 

Foto de @mmolpor

 

👉In relation to the things that should be taken into account before the mobility, let me tell you some of them: 

 

1) Design of the field notebook.

 

2) Observation sheets.

 

3) Cooperation agreements.

 

4) Erasmus+ mobility documents (annexes IV and VI)

 

5) Centre presentations.

 

6) Students' presentations.

 

7) Descriptive video.

 

8) Previous diffusion in social networks.

 

9) Interviews with the selected students and teachers.

 

10) Organization of logistics: trip, insurances, accommodation, medical cards, etc.

 

11) Inform the faculty.

 

12) Inform the secondary school board.

 

13) Inform the students.

 

14) Design of the contingency plan.

 

15) Linguistic preparation.

16) A presentation of your school and main objectives of your project.

 

 

 

 

👉Once back in Spain, there are some other things that we have to do, trifles without much relevance: 

 

1. Analyse which objectives have been achieved and the degree of satisfaction.

 

2. What objectives have not been achieved and the reasons why.

 

3. What positive lessons have been obtained from the visit.

 

4. What improvements could be carried out in our secondary school as a result of what have been observed.

 

5. Prepare a report with improvement proposals for the faculty and the CEP of Jaén and the project partners.

 

6. Planning of future visits introducing improvements to correct the problems that have arisen.

 

7. Advance in the design of Erasmus + plans and projects if that is the agreed decision.

 

8. Meetings to spread the learning in the faculty.

 

9. Participation in Erasmus+ conferences.

Regards.

Translated by Soraya Fernández Pegalar.

Profesora de Biología del IPEP JAEN.