The Arts Education TIG was birthed at the 2005 ETEN conference in Macedonia. We are interested in looking at the arts we teach to pupils in schools, to students in universities and also from within our national cultures. We recognise the arts cross subject boundaries and are very powerful in affecting people - whether through visual art, performance arts or a combination of all. In 2007 we hope to focus on the issues we identified last year. What are the School Arts in practice? Especially in post modern and multi-cultural societies: how can they further enrich and develop the lives and experiences of the pupils? Perhaps you have a view or experience to share? We look forward to meeting you. No one is allowed to simply read a paper to the TIG, so we look forward to interesting presentations, discussions and workshops. If you intend joining us, you must be prepared to sing, create images, acknowledge your emotions and possibly dance!

This TIG is set up to get teacher educators in touch with different types of teaching strategies about the human body in order to:
1. Discover the differences and similarities in science teacher training.
2. Take advantage of each others unique know how in different fields of how we teach about the human body.
3. Get insight in the position of Europe in how we educate becoming teachers about human body.
4. Produce a result that we can publish.
5. Produce new researching areas in this subject.
6. Create a network for teacher trainers/trainees in sciences (biology, chemistry, ...)

Through this TIG teacher educators as well as their students will become more aware of each other's science curriculum, the position of Europe therein and the usage of daily life situations in biological subjects at school. Participants will take the opportunity not only to compare each other's science curricula, but also our science teaching philosophies, our science teaching strategies and our reflections about how students and pupils understand their own body's biological functions. Resulting in the creation of a real European view on science education. This TIG will prepare teachers more about the difficulties we have to handle in teaching about the human body.

The vision of this TIG is the general promotion of the teaching of Democracy in kindergartens, schools and Institutions of Higher Education, liberating the learning and teaching and underlining the importance of values in human/child development.
The main intentions of the Democracy TIG are
To share and analyse purposes, practices and experiences of democracy in kindergartens, schools and Institutions of Higher Education and all sectors of the child's community.
To motivate participants to engage in joint research and collaborative projects.
To publish research findings and reports of activities within the TIG area
To use research findings in our professional work and to disseminate our work.
The Democracy TIG welcomes interested and committed participants.

Seeing the vital importance of ICT/MM in society, it is important that children get acquainted with working with ICT/MM at primary school. Also young children get more acquainted with multi-media/ICT through their participation in early childhood educational settings. To meet this aim, all those who work with young children in such settings need, as an integral component within their study programmes, training in the most effective way to work with young children in relation to new technologies.

This TIG aims at promoting a greater understanding of the role and application of instructional technology in learning. The TIG distributes current research-based information about the potential and challenges of the use of ICT in schools and in higher education. The TIG also encourages European and cross-Atlantic research collaboration around ICT in education. Projects of this source have already been established and new ones are emerging.

Following the interesting TIG conference in Macedonia 2005 it was decided that the theme for the 2006 conference in Leiden should focus upon investigating the competencies for internationalisation in teacher and social educator training. Therefore a call was made for papers about this theme, especially ones which include different approaches and models used in different countries.

PISA results in 2000 and 2003, along with TIMSS results, have shown continuous and persistent problems in mathematics education of young children and adolescents of the United States and across Europe, but with special incidence on the southern countries of Europe. Apparently, as we move south through Europe, results in mathematics get lower. Public opinion in these countries, also expressed on government discourse, tend to place these bad results in mathematics as a matter of great concern. Portugal has been one of these southern countries with bad results and we, as mathematics educators, should also be concerned.
We think that sharing experiences and ideas among northern and southern mathematics teachers educators could contribute for a better understanding of the problem and to the designing of solutions to overcome the problems connected with teacher education.
The TIG 'Mathematics Education' should deal with these issues as follows:
To present particular realities in schools and teacher education schools;
To discuss on-going research or intervention projects of participants;
To engage participants in joint research and collaborative projects;
To encourage teachers and students exchanges;
To apply for appropriate funding to support projects and activities ??Expected Outcomes:
To implement an website;
To share strategies and materials of good practice;
To publish relevant results and materials;
To establish international projects.

Papers and other contributions within the fields of: "The Use of Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends in Education" are invited. As in previous conferences, this is expected to open up for both theoretical discussions and more practical reflections of different kinds of educational and didactical experience. All kinds of Papers, Workshops, Videos, Slide Shows, Reports, Story-Telling, etc. are warmly welcomed.

Topics for discussion will be Projects - current & potential, Exchanges - current & potential, New initiatives and concerns in specific countries related to PE & Sport education, Initial Teacher Training in Outdoor and Adventurous Activities, Different Routes into teaching, Sharing practice - video clips/ CD Rom etc., Scandinavian practices - Children in the Outdoors, Movement Principle 'Everything Everytime' - revisited and taken forwards?, Continuing Professional Development in PE, Inclusive Education - in Physical Education?, 'Motivating Girls', and others.

The vision of this group is the promotion of reflective practices in the teaching, social educator and 'educare' professions. The stance being taken here is that continuous improvement in these areas can be brought about by a systematic and rigorous reflection upon one's own values and actions in the workplace. The fundamental precept underpinning this vision predicates an international educational system that respects all sources of experience and the range of ways through which such experiences can be mediated and interrogated.

The last two meetings of the Reflective Practice TIG have centred on the presentation of Interactive Workshops by participants from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, The Netherlands, The USA and The UK. These workshops lasted around one hour each and have been based on a range of starting points such as:

Teaching Students how to be Critical Reflective Practitioners.
Writing Reflectively.
Reflective Practice and Competence.
Reflecting Collaboratively.
Narratives, Fictions and Reflective Practice.
Learning through Reflective Conversations.
Significant Learning Incidents.

The next meeting will, by popular demand, comprise of such sessions, providing activities and discussions in which all participants may actively engage.

The objectives of the Thematic Interest Group (TIG) Special Needs are:
To discuss and compare different practices and experiences of dealing with special educational needs (SEN), inclusion and diversity in different countries
to share and promote the teaching of SEN in Teacher Training.
To publish research findings, articles and reports of activities.
To share examples of good practice relative to students with special needs and their families.
The TIG is open to all ETEN member institutions.

In our different countries the school subject Technology has different approaches, as defined in our National Curriculas for Schools and for Teacher Training:
Man/Society <=> Technology <=> Nature
Engineering
Science & Technology
Design & Technology
Through sharing and comparing our national experiences we will try to:
Develop a "European/US dimension" on Technology Teaching and Learning.
And stimulate and make young people more interested to study these subject areas. We invite you to join the TIG "Technology Teaching & Learning", we call for your contributions as presentations and outcome of projects, development work, research, etc, in which you/your institution is participating.

Urban Education refers to a wide range of issues related to living and working in urban settings. More specifically it refers to issues concerning the education of children in inner cities. Many children have opportunities while living in such settings, while many others don't. These days, important issues in Urban Education include: the education of ethnic minority children, the education of children living in poverty, the education of children whose are not speakers of the dominant language in the society, and the shortage of teachers in urban settings. A characteristic of this working group is the emphasis on an open exchange of ideas as well as the sharing of practical ideas for teaching in urban settings. It is for this reason that the number of papers presented at the annual conference is limited.