Learning from School-based Professional Development in Montenegro

School-based Coordinators in Montenegro were offered support to research and plan training for their own teachers. Four coordinators went forward to plan their own two day training programmes addressing themes such as communication, self-assessment, active teaching and team work. 108 teachers and managers were involved – giving up their weekends to participate in training. Participants rated the training highly and an external evaluation report is in preparation.

Training was delivered by experienced trainers from the Bureau of Educational Services and the training programmes were accredited by the National Education Council.

A Facebook group was created and is run by CPD VET Centre representative Ivan Markovic and administered by 4 CPD coordinators: Selma Sabotic (Elelctrotechnical school), Adisa Balota (Medical School), Aleksandra Lalevic (Commercial School ‘’Sergej Stanic’’), Snezana Krsikapa (Secondary School ‘’21 maj’’). This will share the outcomes of training: https://www.facebook.com/groups/822655561501157/. The training programmes and materials are also available on ETF’s platform: https://openspace.etf.europa.eu/wikis/training.

Below are some extracts from the evaluation:

“CPD coordinators at VET schools are usually school pedagogues or teachers and all of them say that they are over-burdened (they coordinate a number of other activities at school level). They also agree that they need a lot of training (on school-based CPD, conducting workshops, conducting needs analysis, designing the school plan of professional development, translating individual CPD plans to school plans, various school-based CPD activities etc.)

School based CPD in Montenegro has been defined really nicely but in practice it does not function very well. It is much more supply-driven than demand-driven, with schools having no planning budget for such activities. Schools do not use their own training expertise well (promoted teachers, pedagogues, principals and deputies). It is also very interesting to notice that schools prefer big talks and huge topics (critical thinking, assessment, etc.) to minor, but equally important topics such as class management, video pedagogy, etc.)

What has been seen and advised to schools is to follow the example of ‘’Sergije Stanic’’ School. It was a very good example of the whole school being a learning organization, as two workshops were attended by 50 teachers and 2 school management staff. The school was advised to put the workshop topic Communication at the heart of all the CPD activities at school level for the term/the rest of the academic year. It can be discussed, surveyed, observed, etc. Generally, it might be a good idea to choose a topic on a burning issue at school (assessment, using ICT in teaching, video pedagogy, etc.) and then organize a training event at school for as many people as possible, and after that organize a range of activities as a follow-up to measure the impact of the very training, boosted by providing literature and a lot of discussion, observation and surveying students/teachers/parents on the topic.

As for the Coordinators’ Network and its contribution to CPD, the general feeling is that this network is a must if we want to see progress in CPD activities. First, there are new coordinators who have not been trained on their role, so using experiences from their colleagues could be a great help. It is also a good way of exchanging various materials (plans, articles, reports, templates, good practice examples, etc.). Having VET Centre involved through Ivan Markovic will help a lot with regard to the mechanism of communication.”