The Olive project’s workshop was held on 1-3 February. During the workshop, the attendees discussed the development needs for Palestinian STEM teacher education from various perspectives. The Finnish partners presented pedagogical approaches that can be used to support and develop teacher education whereas the Palestinian partners offered insights on the current challenges in the field, for example, the lack of STEM resources at the universities. The participants also discussed ideas how to review and renew curricula in teacher education. The workshop was facilitated by digital tools (Jamboard, Kialo, Flinga and Kahoot), that gave the participants possibilities to voice their opinions on the different areas to work on during the project.
The workshop was also visited by the previous Palestinian Minister for Education Dr. Nai’m Abu Hommus and participants from Teachers Without Borders and Finn Church Aid who introduced an ongoing online in-service teacher mentoring programme in Ramallah. Principals Tapio Lahtero and Marja Martikainen from the Teacher Training Schools of the University of Helsinki gave the workshop and the participants a video tour in the training school. The workshop program also included a Kahoot quiz, virtual ice-swimming, virtual snow walking in the Finnish forest and a virtual walk at Birzeit university campus.
The workshop provided a nice opportunity for the project members to get to know each better and openly communicate their wishes for the future activities within the project.