The Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) invites and encourages anyone working in astronomy education together with their National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) to submit proposals for financial support of up to 2000 Euros for an astronomy teacher training and professional development workshop to be scheduled in 2024.

This dedicated grant requires collaboration between one NAEC team member, a local teacher, and, if possible, an astronomer (see below for more details) to develop a workshop on a topic of their choice. An important part of the IAU’s Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) mission is to support regional and local teacher training workshops that leverage astronomy for formal primary and secondary education. Therefore, the OAE developed the Teacher Training Program (TTP) to support the ideas and initiatives of the NAECs for teacher training and professional development workshops. In supporting this teacher training and development workshop, we hope it will serve as proof of concept, NAECs as well as the ministries in your countries, to carry out these workshops with local funding.

Teacher Training Program 2024 poster (PDF file 1.15 MB)

Note the application deadline has been extended to the 19th of April

The goal of the TTP is to promote astronomy in the school curriculum by broadening teachers’ knowledge of astronomy. In previous studies in Astronomy Education Research (AER) and Physics Education Research (PER), which involved teachers, many of them said that they avoid teaching astronomy due to their lack of knowledge in astronomy. TTP aims to mitigate this by providing funding for the NAECs, teachers, and astronomers, helping the teachers gain content and the confidence they need to teach astronomy and using the skills in other related subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Geography, etc.

The condition that the workshop is developed in collaboration with a NAEC team member and submitted by this NAEC team member is strict. Applications submitted by others will not be considered. If you are a teacher interested in running such a workshop, please contact a NAEC in your country (for example, a member of the NAEC team for The United States of America (USA)) to see if they wish to collaborate. The OAE currently has NAECs in over 120 countries or territories worldwide.

For the purposes of this call, up to two TTPs proposed from India will be eligible for funding from the OAE Center India. The Associate NAECs Regional Astronomy Education Coordinators (RAECs) in India will be treated on par with the NAECs.

Please note that the focus of the OAE is on teaching and learning at the school level (not university) and it is not outreach. Please see our sister offices OAO (Office of Astronomy for Outreach) and OAD (Office of Astronomy for Development) for support in other astronomy activities beyond the local school system.

The application deadline has been extended to the: is 19th of April 2024. We will notify you of the outcome by 1st of June 2024. You can find a link to the application form at the bottom of this page.

All information and eligibility criteria as well as rules are listed in this text and the FAQ in this link. The FAQ also contains advice on how to fill out the application form, please read it thoroughly. Don’t hesitate to contact us at ttp​atastro4edu.org if you have any questions.

         

Linked Documents

•  Teacher Training Program proposal template 2024 (Word file 298.72 kB)