Workshops

For the exchange week, the teaching staff of STEP has prepared six workshops that offer further understanding and various practices of promoting learner autonomy from an inclusive perspective. You can find the description of each workshop below (for profiles of the teacher trainers, see People). The workshops are scheduled in pairs: each time, students select one to attend. Instructions on how to register can be found in the final step of the digital course, Goals and preparations.

Parallel workshops 1 (Monday, 1.30-3.00 pm)

Workshop A Empowering Students: Inclusive Strategies to Enhance Students’ Sense of Belonging and Autonomy

Dr. Petrie van der Zanden (Nijmegen)

A strong sense of belonging is a key factor in students’ well-being and academic success. It reflects students’ experience of social support, relatedness, and mattering within their academic community, as well as their identification with peers and the learning environment. Drawing from research on the transition from secondary school to higher education, we will explore what students’ sense of belonging is and how it intersects with students’ personal development and their ability to take ownership of their learning. Through group discussions and hands-on activities, we will brainstorm (teaching) strategies to foster students’ sense of belonging in their unique educational contexts. Additionally, we will also examine how teachers can encourage students to take an active role in developing their sense of belonging. This workshop will support teachers in translating insights into practices that empower secondary school students to develop a strong, supportive sense of belonging.

Workshop B Promoting learner autonomy in multilingual classrooms

Dr. Flora Woltran (Vienna)

As multilingualism continues to be a reality in schools around the world, it is imperative that pre-service teachers are prepared to take advantage of the linguistic diversity of students in their daily practice. Given the overarching theme of STEP, this workshop will explore the challenges and opportunities of promoting student autonomy in the context of a linguistically and culturally diverse classroom. A variety of methods will be used and explored throughout the workshop. The workshop will begin with a language journey map, which will be used as an icebreaker and to discover your own experiences of language learning across the life course, as well as your experiences of interacting with multilingual learners. We will then work together to identify what learner autonomy might look like in your future classrooms and what specific challenges you might face in a multilingual environment. This will be followed by a group brainstorming approach to think about specific challenges learners face (e.g. different levels of proficiency in the language of instruction). In the next activity, we will build metacognitive skills about language learning, discuss methods of peer learning and how to promote translanguaging. The workshop will conclude with a plenary reflection on the lessons learned and what you can take home from this workshop.

Parallel workshops 2 (Wednesday, 10.30-12.00 am)

Workshop A Analyzing Teaching and Mentoring Practices During Practicum: A Video-Based Approach for Professional Development

Dr. Juan José Mena Marcos (Salamanca)

This talk aims to analyze the practices of teachers and mentors during the practicum, with a focus on fostering student autonomy through reflective and self-directed learning. By employing a systematic, video-based analysis approach, the talk encourages participants to critically engage with teaching and mentoring practices that promote independent decision-making and self-regulation in student teachers.

The talk is divided into two main areas: student teachers' teaching practice and mentoring practice. For the analysis of student teachers' teaching, a comprehensive framework will be used to observe and review class sessions. This framework will encourage student teachers to take ownership of their learning by using proximity maps to evaluate their teaching effectiveness and develop personalized action plans for ongoing professional growth. The emphasis will be on empowering student teachers to assess their own performance and reflect on their pedagogical choices, fostering autonomy in their teaching practice.

The mentoring practice will be analyzed using two complementary research models: the Propositional Discourse Analysis (PDA) model (Mena & Clarke, 2015) and the Types of Knowledge model, which categorizes knowledge into content, pedagogical, and technological domains (Koehler & Mishra, 2008).

The talk will feature two key interactive components: (1) video analysis of a student teacher delivering a lesson, where participants will work in groups to observe, review, and discuss the findings, emphasizing self-directed evaluation and feedback; and (2) video analysis of a mentoring session, following the PDA model, where participants will collaboratively assess the discourse and explore ways mentoring can encourage autonomous learning. These activities are designed to deepen understanding of effective teaching and mentoring practices while facilitating the promotion of professional development through student reflective learning.

Workshop B Instructional differentiation: a focus on students’ roles and responsibilities

Dr. Lieke Jager (Nijmegen)

In finding ways how schools may provide equal opportunities for diverse groups of students instructional differentiation is often highlighted as an important strategy. Instructional differentiation is a teaching strategy that can be defined as teachers’ proactive instructional decisions in response to students’ varying learning needs. The main assumption underlying instructional differentiation is that when a teacher provides a match between the instructional approach and the diverse learner needs of individual or groups of students, this match would lead to an increase in their learning opportunities. However, students are not passive recipients of their education, they are actors in their own educational process. In this workshop we focus on the role that students play, both in the determination of their learning needs, as well as, realizing a match between their needs and the instructional setting within a class. Methods for, and challenges when, engaging with students perspectives (student voices) regarding their own learning are discussed. In addition we will reflect on whether the philosophy underlying differentiated instruction can be aligned with principles underlying inclusive education.

Parallel workshops 3 (Thursday, 10.30-12.00 am)

Workshop A "If you have some influence over something, it makes you feel good." - Student, Metameer Lower Secondary School, Boxmeer

Mannick Wolters MA (Nijmegen)

In this workshop, we explore how you, as a teacher, can support the development of student autonomy by giving them more responsibility for their own learning. Both research and practical experience show that when students have more freedom of choice, insight into their learning needs, and room for reflection, their engagement increases. This aligns with motivation theories, which emphasize that meeting the basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence fosters greater motivation. Students who feel heard and whose learning needs are acknowledged tend to be more involved. However, some students may struggle with this newfound responsibility, as they are not used to making decisions about their own education, which can lead to insecurity. How can you guide them through this process? How do you maintain balance in the classroom? In this workshop, we will explore these challenges together and seek strategies to stimulate the autonomy development of your students while addressing the difficulties that arise.

Workshop B Inclusive education – Didactic approaches and effective teaching strategies to support all learners

Dr. Britta Ostermann (Bremen)

Inclusive education is the most effective way to give all children a fair chance to go to school, learn and develop the skills they need to thrive. But what does “inclusive education” really mean? What are the challenges of inclusive teaching and learning? And what are the conditions to create an inclusive learning environment? These questions will be discussed and examples of good practice will be developed during this workshop.

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