Brussel, 30 January 2024

Providing our expertise to the European Union’s working groups

In 2023, we directly contributed to three of the European Commission’s working groups and in this way helped shape the European Education Area policy framework.

Being a member of the working group on pathways to school success

The Commission’s work­ing group on schools is divid­ed into two sub­groups. ECSWE is a full mem­ber in one of them and is rep­re­sent­ed there by our ped­a­gog­i­cal advi­sor Dr Mar­tyn Raw­son. This sub­group on Path­ways to School Suc­cess in 2023 main­ly focused on the top­ic of assess­ment in schools. By par­tic­i­pat­ing in the meet­ings and pro­vid­ing writ­ten con­tri­bu­tions, Dr Raw­son has man­aged to enrich the out­come of the group with the con­cepts of dia­log­ic and ipsative assess­ment for learn­ing as assess­ments meth­ods that fur­ther moti­vate learn­ing and thus serves pupils’ school success.

Contributing to the working group on sustainability in school education

The oth­er sub­group looks at sus­tain­abil­i­ty in edu­ca­tion. In March 2023, ECSWE was invit­ed to present the Stein­er Wal­dorf approach to green and sus­tain­able edu­ca­tion, with a focus on assess­ment of learn­ers’ green com­pe­tences. Our advo­ca­cy coor­di­na­tor Dora Šimunović pre­sent­ed our view­point dur­ing the group’s online meet­ing. We sug­gest­ed approach­ing the top­ic in an age-appro­pri­ate way, propos­ing that, through expe­ri­en­tial learn­ing, chil­dren should first build a close rela­tion­ship with nature so they devel­op appre­ci­a­tion for it. As the next step, they should start study­ing it and learn of its com­plex nat­ur­al har­mo­ny and only then delve into the human dis­rup­tive effects on nature and ways to over­come them.

Representing the Lifelong Learning Platform in the digital education working group

At the end of June 2023, ECSWE’s advo­ca­cy coor­di­na­tor Dora Šimunović rep­re­sent­ed the LLLP in the 3‑day in-per­son meet­ing of the Commission’s work­ing group on learn­ing, teach­ing, and assess­ment in dig­i­tal edu­ca­tion (DELTA). Know­ing how ded­i­cat­ed we are to con­tribut­ing to the Dig­i­tal Edu­ca­tion Action Plan with the out­comes of the HERMMES project and pol­i­cy con­tri­bu­tions through the Dig­Comp com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice and the Dig­i­tal Edu­ca­tion Hub, and the fact that we rep­re­sent over 800 schools in Europe, the Plat­form con­fi­dent­ly del­e­gat­ed its seat to us for this meet­ing on explor­ing the Euro­pean Dig­i­tal Edu­ca­tion Con­tent Framework.

Further reading