Two weeks of teacher training activities

Beginning of February 2020 was quite eventful for SOFTVETS project team, as well as our teachers from implementation partners, which are University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest, University of Ljubljana – Veterinary Faculty and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Zagreb. It was the time when at least four participants from each institution took part in teacher training events in three different areas and three different towns: Communication Skills in Veterinary Medicine Workshop took place in Budapest, Entrepreneurial Mindset Training was held in Zagreb, while Teacher training workshop on innovative approaches to teaching and learning with ICT took place in Ljubljana.

Work programs of all three trainings were quite intensive and lasted for three full days. Participants were always first introduced to the SOFTVETS projects, its aims and preliminary results. Their participation in creation and evaluation of project outputs was also emphasized as the participants shaped the outputs of the project through evaluation surveys.

Teacher training workshop on innovative approaches to teaching and learning with ICT was held at Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana from 3rd – 5th of February 2020. The topics covered were: Collaborative learning and flipped learning with ICT, Project based learning with ICT and Inquiry based learning and problem based learning with ICT.

Workshop “Entreprenurial Mindset, Open to Innovation” was held at University of Zagreb, from 7th – 9th of February 2020 with venues including Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Zagreb, Rural agroturism Kezele and Donkey farm around Ivanić Grad as well as Zagreb ZOO. Some of the topics covered were: Ecosystem mapping, Design Thinking, Entrepreneur interviewing, Career counselling, Creativity techniques, Storytelling and Global challenges in veterinary teaching.

The final workshop that was held was “Communication skills in Veterinary Medicine” at University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest from 12th – 14th of February 2020. The topics covered were: Communication basics, Feedback training, Role playing, Patient Owner Simulation, History taking and Communication facilitator training.

Evaluation surveys of all three workshops showed us that teachers were quite satisfied with the way they have been organised, as well as new knowledge they will be able to implement in their daily teaching. They also helped us shape our project outputs to be best suited to teachers’ and students’ needs.

The project activities continue with implementation of specific knowledge in implementation partners’ courses pertaining to life skills.