The annual European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) has taken place in Copenhagen between August 22nd and 25th 2017. More than 2700 scholars have taken part and contributed to reflect on the role of educational research in reforming education and the imperative of constant change.

COMETA Formazione (Italy)

In particular the international network VETnet (researchers on vet) have organized several parallel sessions to reflect on those issues considered crucial for the development of the VET system not only in Europe, but worldwide. Among them, some have clearly emerged as common elements in the current academic research:

• The gap between theory and practice in VET: scholars are realizing how often their research has no clear impact on quality and practices in the daily experience of VET system;
• The need for a stronger research on life-long learning schemes and adult education: the constant change in the socio-economic context requires a new attitude in current VET students, as well as current workers;
• The development of practices of professional learning communities inside VET schools or among them, to foster new opportunities of mutual exchange of knowledge and to boost innovation

All the abstracts of the presentation can be found on the ECER2017 website.

Cometa Formazione was present with Alessandro Mele, Paolo Nardi and Rachele Ropelato, members of the new Cometa Research, an internal research center in the fields of education and vocational training based on a practice-led research approach. Educational innovations and practices developed by Cometa teachers, tutors and leaders are now transformed into scientific production by themselves and spread internationally: papers, publications, conferences. During the conference, Rachele Ropelato, tutor in Cometa, presented her research “From Job- to Career-Training: Tools for a Growth Mindset in VET” on the impact of internships and tutoring on the growth mindset of students.

The innovative approach of teacher-researcher developed by Cometa has also been presented during the annual VETnet members meeting, collecting great interest in the stakeholders. On this very point, Cometa Research is open to further discussions with other VET school teachers or leaders to share activities and to start new joint researches. For more information on VETnet activities and research on VET developed by Cometa Research, please feel free to email us (paolo.nardi@puntocometa.org).