<< Background >>The capability of teachers to generate a positive, creative, and exciting learning environment is strictly related to teachers' competences and their ability to stimulate learners' agency and motivation to learn. Research data at the European level show that high proportions of teachers express a moderate or high level of training needs in areas that would allow them to develop more appropriate, diversified, and innovative teaching practices; teachers claim for new skills, including for dealing with cultural and linguistic diversity in the classroom, teaching in a technology-rich environment, and adopting collaborative teaching practices (Eurydice 2015; EC 2019).The recent lockdown in 2020 and the emergency use of distance teaching has strengthened the need to recognize and address the “core competence area” of in-service and future teachers at a European level and to introduce some innovations (Council conclusions on European teachers and trainers for the future, 2020).<< Objectives >>The project aims at improving creativity, inclusiveness, and equity in European schools. Whilst the ultimate beneficiaries of this project are the school pupils/students who will benefit from more inspiring and inclusive learning environments, EXCIITE addresses this aim by focusing on teachers’ competencies: it proposes a conceptual framework, concrete requalification paths for in-service teachers, and a set of methodological and organisational resources suitable to support the “creative and meaningful transition” of school systems, substantiating and enriching the required “digital transition”.Its objectives are:1. To design a series of training modules that combine into flexible and personalized learning paths based on a self-assessment tool designed to help teachers recognize their own training needs.2. To build a Hub for teacher training, consisting of a web repository of multilingual learning resources for teachers (building on what is already available in national teacher training agencies and at EU network level), to help them develop and practice creativity skills, learning innovation, self-regulatory learning, appreciation of diversity and social inclusion.3. To create an alliance of teacher education institutions capable of collaborating transnationally and supporting the exchange of resources and good practices in the field of in-service teacher education.<< Implementation >>The project objectives are directly addressed by the set of activities leading to the project results:1. The first objective will be firstly addressed by the co-creation of a State-of-the-art report on current methodologies and practices for teacher training (PR1). The development of this framework will be concentrated in the first period of the project, through the European Design Workshop sessions starting from the Kick-off Meeting until the completion of the Analytical Report by FRC. Original research will then be conducted on the training needs of teachers in the four target competence areas. The collected data will be analysed and discussed in the Descriptive report (PR2) and the conclusions reached will contribute to the progress towards the objective: a set of module-based, flexible training curricula, allowing individual teachers to self-assess their training needs and choose on which competencies they want to focus more (PR3).2. The second objective will be addressed by PR4, which will offer a Multilingual Learning Resource Hub for self-managed CPD. 3. The third will be achieved not only by promoting the dissemination and use of the previous results (PR 1 to 4) in the largest possible number of Teacher Training Institutions, but also, and more specifically, by PR5, which will develop Recommendations for Policymakers and a Roadmap to innovate the way CPD of teachers is conceived and offered, proposing concrete ways through which existing Schools of Education may collaborate and provide recognisable certificates and differentiated qualifications for the teaching professions, while sharing a common reference framework at the European level, according to the Council Decision of May 2020.The Partnership is composed of the University of Modena & Reggio Emilia (IT) - Fondazione Reggio Children (IT) - Örebro University (SE) - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (ES) - FREREF (BE) - Eötvös Loránd University (HU) - IC Manzoni (IT) form a Strategic Partnership comprising academic, educational, research and training expertise, oriented towards making recognition, validation, training and exchange opportunities a normal practice throughout Europe, thus giving a contribution to the internationalisation of qualifications in the teaching profession.<< Results >>EXCIITE is committed to producing the following results:- Analytical report of good practices and intervention models for teacher training, summarising existing knowledge and good practices in the field of teacher training and establishing a clear link between the macro-scenarios for innovation of school systems and the school practice to make schools more creative, inclusive, and inspiring learning environments.- Descriptive report on teacher training needs related to the four target competence areas, based on a transnational survey, further enriched and detailed by the use of qualitative approaches. The report will also examine the ideas and practices school managers have regarding in-service teacher training.- Guidance tool for teachers, based on the first two Project results, providing tools for self-assessment of competencies and a set of possible teachers learning pathways corresponding to differentiation of teaching professions as they are organised in the target countries and at the different educational levels and kinds.- Multilingual Learning and Testing Resources Hub, providing a multilingual collection of self-manageable resources accessible for the teachers who are interested in improving inclusive and creative competencies for inspiring lifelong learners.- Policy recommendations, feeding policy definition and implementation through an evaluation-rich bottom-up exercise to make the teaching professions stronger at the EU level with the aim to foster creativity, lifelong learning skills and inclusion - as among the main priorities for the European society. The “Roadmap” element in the output will precisely consist of the suggestions on how to change teacher CPD and make it a cross-country issue to accelerate the innovation policies regarding the school systems of Europe, as defined at the EU and National/Regional level.- Five international workshops to promote results, evaluate learning paths and resources, and dissemination.In the long-term, the EXCIITE project is expected to produce a qualitative and quantitative leap forward in the availability of a coherent set of teachers' training opportunities, locally and transnationally, directly addressing well-known criticalities in school system performance, namely unsatisfactory levels of inclusiveness, creativity, and inspirational value.It is expected to have the following impact and long term benefits:- Participant organisations will gain common experience in the field of innovative teacher training design, implementation, and evaluation.- All partners will enhance their ability to impact, locally and beyond, on in-service teacher training and competence recognition processes.- Teachers will be provided with continuous professional development (CPD) courses and learning programmes leading to the development of creative, inclusive, and inspiring learning strategies.- Schools will have the chance to enhance their professional assets, increasing the teachers’ competencies related to creativity, learning innovation, learning self-regulation, diversity appreciation, and social inclusiveness.- Pupils attending the participating classes are expected to experience increasingly creative, inclusive, and inspiring learning practices that will support their future as lifelong learners.- Policymakers participation will have the effect of reducing the gap between the definition of innovative policies and their effective implementation.