Change of a project partner, working meetings with school principals and excellent assessment by the external evaluator

D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics has a new partner under project 2023-2-TR01-KA220-SCH-000170568 ‘Empowering Middle School Teachers for Social Inclusion through Observation-based Professional Development’. This is the Oslo Metropolitan University that substitutes the HOGSKOLEN I OSTFOLD, Norway.
The change became possible when the organizations participating in the project agreed on it during and after the first transnational meeting held in Svishtov (03-05.09.2024). Active correspondence between the lead partner EGE University and the Turkish Erasmus+ National Agency followed this initial start, and then the representatives of the five remaining partners, including the Rector of D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics Assoc. Prof. Marin Marinov, PhD, signed declarations of consent.
The current organizations involved in the implementation of the project are as follows:
Leading organization: EGE University, Izmir, Turkey
Project Partners:
1. Me We Istituto di ricerca innovativa srl - Florence, Italy
2. ACADEMIA, izobrazevanje in druge storitve d.o.o. - Maribor, Slovenia
3. Oslo Metropolitan University - Oslo, Norway
4. D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics - Svishtov, Bulgaria
5. UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO - Porto, Portugal

In order to ensure compliance with the applicable regulations and commitments, work package No. 1 ‘Project Management‘ provided for the involvement of an external evaluator to attend the first transnational meeting organized by the Academy in Svishtov. He was assigned to monitor and evaluate the conformity between the project and its practical implementation. The report prepared by the external evaluator gives excellent assessment to D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics. The evaluator presented a report in six sections: General assessment of the meeting; Assessments of the specific sessions; Quality of communication; Logistics and facilities; Future considerations; Final comments. The assessment is excellent for all six sections. The external evaluation complements and confirms the results of the internal monitoring in the form of filling out questionnaires by all participating representatives of the project partners, who highly appreciated the arrangements, the programme and the work done.

Following the project schedule related to the implementation of activities 2.2. ‘Developing toolkit for classroom observation’, and 2.3. ‘Creating a digital learning platform (DLP)‘ within work package No. 2 ‘Tools for Inclusive Education and Digital Learning‘, the project manager for D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics Head. Assist. Prof. Yuliyan Gospodinov, PhD, and the researcher Assoc. Prof. Hristo Sirashki, PhD held a series of work meetings with principals of local schools. Since the target group of the project is students from grades 6, 7 and 8 and their teachers, the secondary schools ‘Dimitar Blagoev‘, ‘Tsvetan Radoslavov‘ and ‘Nikolay Katranov‘ were appointed. Together with Ms. Tsvetanka Kirova, Ms. Mariana Markova and Mr. Genady Ivanov, principals of the three schools, they discussed the general framework of the project, the formation of school leadership teams, teacher observation practices, and note taking during observation. In addition, they shared ideas regarding the benefits teachers will have for improving their quality of teaching, various techniques for involving students in the learning process, integration and non-discrimination, classroom diagramming and other issues related to teacher-to-teacher and teacher-student interactions.