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School-based interventions to promote students’ social and emotional competences are more likely to be effective if they are organised as part of a systemic, whole-school approach. This framework implies intentional and coherent interventions embedded in the school context, where teachers play a key role as they are the primary delivery agents of social and emotional education. As research shows, the success of such interventions is directly linked to the teachers` training and their confidence to deliver relevant learning experiences that support the development of children’s social and emotional competences. Under the Erasmus+ project SEEVAL we investigated the Romanian teachers` needs and experiences related to the social and emotional interventions in the school environment, in order to better understand their needs and therefore to tailor a training programme and protocols of action for a whole-school social and emotional education approach. Within this article we will present the main results of the needs analysis in Romania (764 teachers/school counsellors and 3,667 students) and elements of the subsequent training programme which has been piloted with 41 teachers from 6 Romanian schools. Conclusions are drawn and reflections are made towards ways of improvement in relation to the implementation of a whole school approach to social and emotional education in Romanian schools.

In Romania, the latest results in PISA as well as national exams show a decrease in the interest of students in studying sciences, whilst the results are much below the OECD average. The present study has been carried out at national level by a research team from the University of Bucharest within the framework of the international Horizon 2020 project Scientix, coordinated by European SchoolNet. The study addresses the beliefs and attitudes of STEM teachers in the pre-university education on current practices, evolution and trends in the science-related skills of students. Two investigative techniques have been used: document analysis and an online standardized questionnaire-based survey. The questionnaire was developed by Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, NC State University. So far, the quantitative data was collected from 259 STEM teachers. The survey invited teachers to express their opinions related to their attitudes, values and beliefs on their teaching efficacy, development of the 21st Century skills, educational leadership, as well as some other themes such as the extent to which teaching and teachers affect student learning, the amount and quality of use of ICT for learning in STEM classes, the frequency of using certain STEM instructional practices, awareness of STEM careers. This article’s focus is on one out of the seven constructs – the use of technology in STEM classes. The construct is operationalised in eight sub-items. The discussion on the each of the constructs as well as on the relations between them is quite relevant in the light of the relationship between beliefs and practices, while the results are quite striking, with impact on tailored professional development approached.

1.IntroductionThe most recent Unesco, report "Education for All 2015 National Review Report Romania" shows that equity and equal educational opportunities represent critical issues in the public agenda nowadays. On the one hand, previous years have shown that the quality of education has worsened in Romania. According to the Eurostat report from March 2016, the country had the third-highest dropout rate in the EU last year, exceeded only by Spain and Malta. Eurydice (2015) Education and Training monitor and EUROSTAT (2016) data on Romania illustrate increased dropout rate from 17.3% in 2013 to 18.1% in 2014, and 19.1% in 2015. On the other hand, PISA 2012 shows negative results about Romanian education and quality of school life, including attitude towards learning and quality of relationships between teachers and students (OECD, 2014). The OECD Study (2014) showed that the 14 and 15 year old students do not have a sense of belonging to their school. Compared to international data, Romanian students' perceptions about school are critical. Poor relationships between students and teachers place Romania in the 66th place, among 68 countries. Similar very low levels are reflected by the fact that students do not care about their academic outcomes. The attitude about the content of learning places Romanian students in the last place in the international ranking. Briefly, the students seem to value neither academic outcomes nor what they learn in schools. Romanian teenagers appear to have very low motivation and they do not feel connected to their teachers and school, as a desirable community. It is expected that negative emotions about school or feeling disconnected to one's own learning process will strongly impact in the long term on individuals' studies in the future and their professional paths.IRIS - Adoption And Impact Of Video Technologies In Education And Local Administration represents an interdisciplinary project implemented in Romania since December 2014. The project aims at using telepresence video technology to provide distance education services in three communities isolated from a geographical point of view and at assessing the impact at the community level. Built on a strong interdisciplinary platform, the project connects technology of information and communication, psychology, education sciences and behavior economics. More specifically, the project enhances the initial educational activities for 7th and 8th grade students and offers life long learning services for adults in the community (including in-service teacher training for schools and local administration staff).The use of telepresence was smoothly adopted by students and teachers from the three schools involved in the project. The analysis of the preliminary data on the implementation of the telepresence system raised major questions about the quality of teaching, learning and social interactions between individuals. Researchers switched their main focus from the use of technology to the analysis of interactions between students and teachers in order to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. From the methodological point of view, visual data represents the key element of the study. Researchers used video-recorded materials, as naturally occurring data produced by regular teaching and learning activities in telepresence contexts in June 2016.2.Problem statementIn the Education and Training Monitor (2015), digital skills represent one of the key competencies in EU countries. Wastiau et al. (2013) and Livingstone (2012) launch challenging questions about ICT as a tool for enhancing learning, which need a different pedagogy at the classroom level. Fu (2013) pointed out the importance of teachers' attitudes, perceptions, and confidence in using ICT and the school culture while Ellis & Loveless (2013) demonstrated the need to tailor the curriculum, pedagogy and technologies in order to set up effective learning environments. …

The chapter analyzes the links between the higher education system and the design and implementation of smart specialization strategies in north-east Romania, with the aim of providing actionable steps for policymakers, higher education institutions (HEIs), and other stakeholders. This case study allows reflecting on the potential of smart specialization in a region recognized as a higher-education hub in Romania and characterized by a very proactive regional development agency (RDA), but in which universities display limited engagement with the territory and where public administration is highly centralized. The findings identify actions that HEIs and the RDA can undertake to enhance universities' roles within RIS3. These revolve around (1) improving collaborations among HEIs within the region; (2) accessing international collaboration networks for research, teaching, and innovation; and (3) finding avenues of interaction with local actors.

With the emergence of the Internet and new technologies, eLearning has become the promising solution for the Universities which are currently in an environment of intense change. Considering students’ perception toward eLearning technologies, their expertise in the field is important for successful development of the academic programs, since the attitude of the end user towards application of information technology is one of the most effective factors. The objectives of the research are: a) identification of students’ perception regarding e-learning; b) identification of e-learning practices employed by students in different contexts; c) identification of e-learning practices used in HE.

The present article focuses on presenting a study case and the related qualitative methodology research of an in-service teacher training based on a task-based learning approach within JOBS Project - Job Orientation training in businesses and schools. The project has been developed in joint co-operation by the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, the National Centre for the Development of Technical and Vocational Education, the Centre for International Projects in Education of Zurich University of Teacher Education and the University of Bucharest. Its implementation started in 2012 and will end in June 2017 and covers 4 regions at national level. In recent years some of the debates in the instructional field focused on which approaches to structuring, planning and implementing lessons are more effective. Some responses focused on TBL offering specific advantages of the approach: a natural context developed from the learner’s experiences that is personalized and relevant to them as well as problems that lead to something useful and meaningful. This premise tested first on students, was further extended to teachers’ training program with promising perspectives.

The present article focuses on presenting some facts related to the policies aiming at attracting prospect teachers based on a research led by the European Network on Teacher Education Policies (ENTEP). This translates into an expert overlook at 17 countries - Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and French Community of Belgium and based on the analysis and interpreting the data in formulating a set of conclusions and possible recommendations for future developments in the field.

The POS-DRU project “Continuous training by means of ‘blended learning’ for higher education teachers” implemented by University of Bucharest in partnership with University Babes-Bolyai from Cluj-Napoca, West University of Timisoara and Softwin company offers to higher education academic staff (HETs) the opportunity to develop a set of complex competencies in order to answer to the challenges addressed by contemporary society and the main beneficiaries of higher education – the students. The general goal of the project aims at offering the opportunity and increasing the participation of HETs to continuous training programs in the following areas: quality assurance; higher education pedagogy (student-centred learning); students’ professional practice, by means of an integrated training program articulated around a blended learning methodology. Blended learning is on the rise in higher education area. Well-grounded researches clearly demonstrate how the blended learning approach embraces the traditional values of face-to-face teaching and integrates the best practices of online learning. Face to face time can be used to engage learners in advanced interactive experiences. Meanwhile, the online sequence of the course can provide learners with multimedia-rich content at any time of day, anywhere they have internet access. This allows for an increase in scheduling flexibility for learners. In addition to flexibility and convenience for learners, studies show early evidence that a blended instructional approach can result in learning outcome gains and increased enrolment retention. Also, this approach has proven to both enhance and expand the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and learning in higher education across disciplines. These are just a few of the considerations taken into account by the promoters of the project when designing the program dedicated to higher education teachers. As such, the project aimed to answer to a set of clearly expressed needs by HETs that haven’t been given a solution yet, while it develops flexible structures of learning which support lifelong learning and a modern, quality higher education. From the logic of this project, there can be mentioned three major stages of development: (1) analysis of the specific training needs of the persons belonging to the target groups; (2) designing the training modules and courses; (3) delivering / implementing the training activities with the beneficiaries. Between January and April 2010 the training needs’ analysis (TNA) was implemented unfolded by each of the three partner universities. It was based on a complex methodological set of tools consisting of investigation using questionnaires and focus-groups. To this investigation participated more than 700 HETs belonging to the target groups established in the project (managers, internal auditors and members of quality assurance committees, novice HETs and senior HETs, respectively coordinators of professional practice) and covered three regions of economic development (Bucharest, North-Western region and Western region). In the present paper we will focus on the second specific goal Analysis of HETs’ perception regarding the participation to training programs and regarding the desirable strategies for training and/or development and the subsequent items in order to demonstrate the role and value of blended learning for higher education training programs. The questionnaires contained two specific questions relevant to our present interest: Q4. Which of the training methods presented below do you consider to be best suited to your objectives related to the continuous professional training? Q5. How do you appreciate your expertise as a higher education teacher in the field of: a) e-learning; b) blended learning. These two questions and the subsequent answers were considered relevant as they proved that blended learning is perceived as an effective way to design specific programs for the development of higher education teachers, while their expertise in the field is still scarce. These ideas were truly relevant for the proponents in order to build both the content of training as well as the manner of its delivery, while acknowledging the fact that besides the specific competencies aimed by the program at its core, there will be developed the IT competences as well as the lifelong learning competences in enhanced technological environments. The second stage in the project development (May 2010 – October 2011) consisted in the development of the training content and the learning platform. We relied on the rich expertise of our technical partner in developing educational tools for supporting learning in technology enhanced learning environments as well as on the analysis of some other learning platform developed in Romania and dedicated to the continuous training of different professional categories. In the paper we will present some of the main features of the learning platform which promote it as a professional instrument of competence development. Since November 2011 the training courses have started using a face to face approach, also a videoconference system which allows direct communications with trainers from the other university centres and an effective use of resources, while the platform is being used by more than 350 professional both trainers and learners. In the paper we will present some of the opinions of the participants to the training regarding the impact of this particular learning environment.

The teachers literacy in the field of e-learning represents a current challenge within the framework of knowledge based society. The use of new technologies in education tackles the very core of teaching and learning, the issue of knowledge and skills transfer from teachers to learners. In this context it is truly important to design and implement specific strategies for the in-service teacher training which should encompass their competitiveness in the field of e-learning. In Romania, this area of teacher training is expanding, while the tools that support this development are multiplying. In fact, many projects are financed through the European Social Fund (especially Operational Program Human Resources Development) to provide teachers with opportunities for continuing professional development, and many of these projects are offering blended learning programs. Our paper focuses on identifying the delivery methods proposed by these programs (face to face, self-paced e-learning through multimedia content, synchronous and asynchronous collaborative activities, etc.), as well as the tools used (forums, webinars, etc.), and analyze their correlation with characteristics of the target group (level: pre-school primary, secondary, domain, etc). The methodology approach is that of an exploratory analysis of project websites, leading to an inventory of learning tools and a mapping of characteristics which allowed us to draw up correlations between different variables. The conclusion of the paper presents some of the vulnerabilities of the current developments (such as lack of coverage in specific areas). The main result of the investigation is sketching a map of the present state of the art in the field of teachers’ professional development and inferring some of the implications in the years to come.