University Colleges Leuven-Limburg (UCLL) - Expertisecel Art of Teaching
UCLimburg vzw is a HEI in Flanders, collaborating under the name UC Leuven-Limburg (UCLL) with UC Leuven vzw. The Expertise Centre Art of Teaching is the research unit of the UCLL Teacher Education Department. The Centre aims at developing pedagogical expertise for teachers. Education is seen as a science in its own right, but also as a craft and as an art.
Teachers need knowledge but also skills and room should be given for personal creativity. Teachers take up an inspiring and unifying force in education. One of the group’s specialties is to connect subject-related pedagogies to interdisciplinary ones, to connect the school to the wider world of research, entrepreneurship and art. To this extent subject matter learning at school can become meaningful and relevant when it relates to a wider STEAM-world. Science Education, its role within STEM and its relation with arts education are some of the group’s main focuses. In all of the group’s activities we see the teacher as a competent professional, empowering teachers is considered crucial: therefore teacher research, practitioner inquiry, co-design studios and professional learning communities (with teachers) are core research methodologies for the group. In recent years the group also specialized in the development and application of digital learning material in the classroom.
The expertise center Art of Teaching wants to open up the world to the students. Based on this experience, there is also a broader focus on disseminating scientific research to citizens.Art of Teaching is currently coordinator of the citizen science project AstroSounds subsidized by the EEMCS Department of the Flemish government.
