Teacher Training Academic Language Erasmus+

One of the activities in our Erasmus+ project Equity in Gifted Education is training teachers, in order to prepare them for teaching the academic language programme. On Thursday 26th September 2024 this training started for Dutch and Flemish teachers and took place in Antwerp, Belgium.

A group of Dutch and Flemish teachers met and learned about the scientific as well as the societal urgency of teaching academic language. By doing a test, the teachers underwent what it means to lack academic language. Then they checked their own textbooks and workbooks on academic language as opposed to domain-specific language.

During the second part of the training, the teachers were introduced into the academic language programme and developed a mini-lesson which they tried out with the participants. The last part of the programme was an introduction into the COVAT, the cognitive abilities test developed by Marlies Tierens of Thomas More University of Applied Sciences. She explained the process of administering the COVAT and showed the online tool.

All in all, it was an active start of the activities in the Equity in Gifted Education project. In March the group will meet again, exchange experiences, and learn more.