Representatives of the Department of Education of the Faculty of Arts and Education of Kauno kolegija Higher Education Institution (HEI) Edita Dulkinienė, Edita Ivinkina, Jolanta Stūronaitė, Jurgita Paulauskaitė and Asta Jakimavičienė together with national and international partners from 31^st May until 30^th November implements the project Overcoming Societal Stereotypes by Enhancing the Professional Identity of Education Students financed by the State Studies Foundation.

The project aims to develop critical thinking, which helps to objectively assess the content of professional identity; to help future educators construct and accumulate professional experience, gradually realising what it means to be a teacher; to reduce the stereotypical assessment of the teaching profession and to develop the awareness of future teachers.

During the implementation of the project, different activities were organised, in which more than fifty students of the Pre-School and Pre-Primary Education study programme as well as students from Panevėžys, Klaipėda Higher Education Institutions, Klaipėda University, and foreign institutions have participated. By carrying out scientific research on possible strategies for overcoming societal stereotypes and strengthening their professional identity, future specialists develop the competencies of constructive communication and cooperation with institutions, collegial learning, knowledge creation, operational research methods and the integration of new experience into previous experience.