Funding from Erasmus+ Program for learning and teaching project

Dr. Dina Maniar from the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials ( ZIAM ) and Prof. Lucy Avraamidou from the Centre for Learning and Teaching ( CLT ) are collaborating as partners in the project titled 'TINKER: an Authentic Learning and Gender-Inclusive Framework for Teaching Informatics.' This project secures funding from the Erasmus+ Programme 'Partnerships for Innovation - Forward Looking Projects'.

In total, the consortium has been awarded a grant of EUR 1.5 million, with Maniar and Avraamidou receiving approximately EUR 200,000 for a period of 30 months. The project is coordinated by the Center for Research and Development (Cyprus). It involves a consortium of ten partners, both universities and NGOs in Europe.

Gender-inclusive learning

The project's primary objective is to develop courses that will enhance the capacity of high school teachers and university instructors to design authentic and gender-inclusive learning experiences for teaching and assessing informatics competencies. These courses will utilize a blended learning methodology, allowing instructors to participate in both online and face-to-face sessions. The training program will be developed through an innovative set of pedagogies, AI-based instructional methods, and challenge-based learning approaches.

Forward-Looking Projects

The European Commission aims at a strong Higher Education sector in Europe in order to be able to compete with the rest of the world. Forward-Looking Projects are large-scale projects that have the potential of becoming mainstreamed and giving input for improving education, training and youth systems, as well as to bring a substantial innovative effect in terms of methods and practices.