The EFFEct Project

The Horizon EU EFFEct project kick-off in Leuven took place on the 29-30 January 2024. The core IPA team, Bert-Jan Kollmer and Eszter Salamon participated in the lively discussion that set up the framework for the work of the coming 4 years. The team will do something that not many other projects dare to accomplish: look into the effectiveness as well as the cost effectiveness of interventions education policy promotes.

The EFFEct project kick-off in Leuven meeting started with an engaging team-building activity providing an opportunity for the team to get to know each other better before diving into the work programme. A very efficient full day followed that made it possible for all participants to dive into the various research elements and to have a detailed discussion on a key element of the project: research ethics.

IPA’s role

In this project, the various work packages – apart from management and communication – are going to be operated quite independently from each other and this first meeting also offered an opportunity to look into potential synergies and cross-pollination. As usual, IPA has a transversal role as the parental engagement element is prevalent in all the work that will be done.

Some of the topics that the various research studies will cover will surely support our advocacy work and also feed into our training offer:

• Successful strategies in schools with a mainly disadvantaged student population
• The role of religious schools in school success and equity
• Exploring if “elite” schools actually lead to better learning outcomes and life success or not
• The relevance of extra tuition, e.g. “summer schools” for disadvantaged students
• The role of the digital environment in learning
• The relevance of computer-assisted learning for school children
• School-university transition and digitalisation
• Measuring the impact of various teacher training programmes on children’s learning
• Guiding school transitions, especially from primary to secondary
• Cross-national studies on the efficiency of school systems

WRAPPING UP THE EFFECT PROJECT KICK-OFF IN LEUVEN

For the time being, we are sharing our relevant previous research, especially the EEPN studies, the research behind the New Education Deal initiative, the SAILS and CoMap projects, and the research on active citizenship education. The EFFEct project kick-off in Leuven closes on a high note.