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Teacher Professional Development on AR-Enhanced Learning: Insights and Lessons Learned from the European Projects EL-STEM and Living Book

Teacher Professional Development on AR-Enhanced Learning: Insights and Lessons Learned from the European Projects EL-STEM and Living Book

The presentation will provide an overview of the main insights gained from the design, pilot testing, and implementation of two innovative professional development programs developed within the European projects Living Book—Augmenting Reading for Life (September 2016–August 2019), and EL-STEM: Enlivened Laboratories within STEM Education (September 2017-June 2020).

Living Book exploited the affordances of augmented reality (AR) to address the underachievement of European youth in reading skills. The Living Book “Training Course for Augmented Teachers”, empowers European educators from upper primary and lower secondary schools (ages 9–15) to ‘augment’ students’ reading experiences through combining offline activities promoting reading literacy with online experiences of books’ ‘virtual augmentation’ and with social dynamics.

EL-STEM aimed at fostering an innovation “ecosystem” in European secondary schools (ages 12-18) that can facilitate more effective and efficient user-centric design and use of AR resources for personalised STEM learning and teaching. The EL-STEM professional development program familiarizes teachers with the potential of AR technology for enhancing instructional practices and students’ motivation and learning processes in secondary STEM education.

Teachers are acquainted with ways in which they could employ AR (but also VR/MR) to promote students’ engagement in STEM education and to strengthen their 21st century skills.

Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris