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 recognize the arts cross subject boundaries and are very powerful in affecting people - whether through visual art, performance arts or a combination of all. In the coming year we hope to focus on the issues we identified last few years. 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!

A major purpose of education is to develop the intellectual capacity of students. This is essential to the development and presentation of democracy. Studentengagement in all educational settings is greatly influenced by the religious and cultural values that students brings to the classroom.These influence relationships among students, teachers and their interaction with school and the curricula.

This group will focus upon these issues as they influence curriculum design, instructional delivery and assessment

The Democracy, Relgion and cultural TIG values an open exchange of theoretical and practical ideas about pedagogy and teacher education.

This TIG aims at promoting a greater understanding of the role and application of educational technology in learning and instructing. The TIG distributes current research-based information about the potential and challenges of the use of ICT in schools, in higher education, and in learning communities. The TIG also encourages European and cross-Atlantic research collaboration around ICT in education. Wide spectrum of topics is and will be discussed, like information society and cultural change, net-based collaborative learning, multimedia, technology based pedagogical innovations, ubiquitous computing, educational games, computer addiction, digital storytelling, pod casting, animation, staff and student training...

As educators we truly believe that the concept of internationalisation can deliver a valuable contribution in future education. But how can we improve the quality of education by introducing the international dimension? This is the challenge we are facing to prepare the newly internationally qualified educator.

Therefore the TIG-internationalisation has a focus on sharing and exploring ideas, concepts, strategies and expertise within Internationalisation in education, both in schools and in Higher Education. The TIG also promotes the cooperation between the members of the ETEN-Network. There are three sub-interest groups within the TIG:

• Internationalisation in curricula and policies
• International courses and Study Abroad Administration
• Comparative education

The participants of the TIG Internationalisation has agreed on a limited number of contributions/workshops on the first half day of the conference. The presentations should be interactive. During the other sessions (Friday pm and Saturday am) the TIG will have a focus on items of the 3 sub interest groups.

The members of the mathematics education TIG think that sharing experiences and ideas among mathematics teacher educators from different countries can contribute to a better understanding of the problems facing mathematics education. Hopefully through presentations, discussions and workshops we can work towards the development of a better mathematics teacher education for all of our students whether they are in schools, colleges or universities.

The objectives of the Mathematics Education Thematic Interest Group are:

• to present and discuss particular realities of mathematics education in schools;
• to share and develop our own thinking about mathematics education;to discuss research or intervention projects on mathematics education;
• to promote joint research and collaborative projects between its members.

The vision of this TIG is the general promotion of teaching and learning of movement activities, health, and outdoor education in kindergartens, schools and Institutions of Higher Education, underlining the importance of movement on the whole person of the child or human development.
Topics for discussion are related to Physical Education, Human Development, outdoor activities, play, learning through movement, and lifestyle
The main intentions of the TIG :

• To share and analyse purposes, practices and experiences related to of movement activities, health, and outdoor learning in kindergartens, schools, Institutions of Higher Education and other area's such as home, playgrounds...
• 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 TIG welcomes interested and committed participants.

In the "MYTHS & FAIRY TALES"-TIG we focus on the huge and widespread variety of uses for all kinds of Stories and Narratives in Education. The vision is hereby to disseminate an insight and understanding of the meaning and importance of "Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends in Education " in particular, but also storytelling and use of narratives in general.

Papers and other presentations or contributions in relation to the specific TIG Conference Theme, changing from year to year, are especially invited, but please note that also any other contributions and presentations within the field of: "The Use of Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends in Education" will be considered! As in previous ETEN-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, Presentations, Power Points, Workshops, Videos, Slide Shows, Reports, Story-Telling, Drama, Exercises, etc. are warmly welcomed in the "Myths & Fairy Tales"-TIG!

The vision of the Reflective Practice Thematic Interest Group is the promotion of reflective practices and reflective learning in the teaching, social educator and 'educare' professions. We believe strongly that continuous learning and improvement in these areas can be brought about by systematic and rigorous reflection upon the teacher's or learner's own actions, thoughts, concerns and values in the workplace. A wide variety of reflective practices is needed to meet the differences in learning styles, educational backgrounds and learning aims of oncoming practitioners in these areas.

The last meetings of the Reflective Practice TIG have centered on the presentation of interactive workshops and practice related papers by participants from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Finland, The Netherlands, UK and Switzerland. The workshops tend to last around 45 minutes to one hour each and range from issues considering the stimulation of critical reflective learning to fine-tuning reflective learning to various learning styles.

In recent years the group has focussed on 'alternative and creative' forms of reflective learning like implementing arts as a stimulus for reflective learning. Last year we had a series of interesting presentations on action research, action learning, Ofman's core qualities, a three question log for deeper learning, metacognitive approaches, and the self in professional education.

As a group we want to go on exploring possibilities of

• opening new ways into reflection in order to cater to different learning styles,
• using creativity to stimulate or explicate reflection,
• improving or finding means to come to deeper reflection,
• reflecting collaboratively,
• evaluating / assessing reflective learning,
• helping relationships in reflective learning,
• using diversity as a trigger or enhancer in reflective practice,
• helping teachers and learners deal with profound change through reflective practices

This TIG is set up to get teacher educators in touch with different ways of science teaching 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 teaching about science.
3. Produce a result that we can publish.
4. Discover new researching areas in science education.
5. 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 and the usage of daily life situations in science subjects inside and outside the 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 science (knowledge, skills and attitude).

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 results of research, articles and reports of activities
• To share examples of good practice in connection with students with special needs and their families

Short presentations (30 minutes and at least 10 min discussion) and workshops with active participation will outline the programme of the TIG seminars. Presentation on special topics will be planned and Saturday morning presentations on all topics in the field of SEN will be planned. Besides the presentations, a school visit will be planned on Friday morning.

Schools in Europe and in the US take different approaches to the (school) subject Technology. In some countries theoretical and practical design, making things in the classroom is the major core, in others the industrial production instead is more central. Despite these different approaches the common technology education objective seems to be technological literacy. Therefore, it should be of major importance that the knowledge students develop prepares them for understanding, managing and evaluating technology and its impact on society. Including using, developing, making things with own hands, and also perceiving, understanding and evaluating technology.

A technology crisis facing today's western society is the apparent lack of the young generation's engagement in technology and in science in general. To better stress the link between technology and individuals/the society, contextualised in students' everyday life, may be a way to stimulate engagement and commitment - essential also for technological literacy.

The objectives of the Teaching and Learning Technology Thematic Interest Group are:

• to present and discuss technology education in schools
• to discuss technology education in respect to technological literacy
• to share and develop our own thinking about technology education; to discuss research or intervention projects in technology education.
• to promote joint research and collaborative projects.

Urban Education refers to a wide range of issues related to the education of students living in inner cities and, in more recent years, geographic areas in proximity to cities. Important issues in Urban Education include the education of students who are ethnically and culturally diverse, who live in poverty, and who are not speakers of the dominant language in the society; as well as the education of teachers who have the dispositions, knowledge, and talents to respond pedagogically.

The Urban Education TIG values an open exchange of theoretical and practical ideas about pedagogy and teacher education. It is for this reason that the number of papers, discussion topics, and workshops are limited.