On 5 – 6 October 2018, Olga Surina, Director of Belinsky Institute of Teacher Education, and Natalya Pavlova, Head of the Department of Foreign Languages, participated in the international consortium on teacher education “Improving quality of teacher education through integration of science and practice”. The meeting was held at Eötvös Loránd University that is the largest HEI in Hungary located in its capital, Budapest.

Eötvös Loránd University dates back almost to the eighteenth century. Its modern name commemorates one of its professors, well-known physicists, Baron Loránd Eötvös.

The consortium was devoted to the state of teacher education in Europe.

The most topical issues included the professional development of teachers, teaching in classes consisting of students from different social and cultural backgrounds, etc. The participants also touched upon the issues of creating a safe and attractive educational environment and constructing individual paths for learning through the involvement in reflective practice and research.

The representatives of universities from Norway, Finland, Denmark, Russia, Hungary, Estonia, Austria, and Spain indicated the importance of improving the link between teacher training programmes at HEIs and school practice. From this point of view, schools should be considered not only as places for learning, but also as the bases for training future teachers. During the event, interim reports on the implementation of Erasmus+ grants (РROTEUS, SATE, RECTE, UPPscience, RECREADE, etc.) were presented.

The round table discussion was devoted to a wide range of conceptual, methodological and organisational problems in the field of higher pedagogical education in Europe. In addition, the experts outlined further ways to implement joint projects within the consortium. The topics for future projects were also identified, as well as the number of potential partners.