Erasmus+ KA229: Dynamic Citizens of Europe
About the project
As the world is constantly and rapidly changing, education is becoming a problem in different countries. As a result, the teaching process needs to be re-adjusted by investing the students with expertise which can help them adapt fast to changes and integrate the society. Independent thinking, values, team work and social awareness should be taught to students nowadays. Social inclusion was identified by the project coordinator as the initial point in developing these delicate and flexible skills.
The EU approach has focused their interest to decrease social exclusion by building a more inclusive society. The Eurostat statistics concerning early drop outs in education and training reveal that in 2016 the percentage in Greece was 6.2%, in Italy , in Turkey 34.3% Turkey and in Romania 2.8%.
The present project brings together 4 schools from Greece, Italy, Turkey, and Romania. The cooperation between us started with the analysis and comparison of the data from the SWOT and PEST analyses of our own institutions. Almost every year our schools confront with recent policies and innovations within their educational systems at the same time with the phenomenon of decreasing demographic rates of all the involved communities, the parental background which negatively influences children’s behaviour and perspective towards learning. With these facts in the background, each school develops recreational areas for their students. In accordance with each institution development plan, each partner school has their priorities in developing programmes which emphasize the students’ potential creativity, their skills to foster diversity, integration and social acceptance. Another common issue is the fact all partners work with special needs students which face less opportunities, refugees and immigrants. Some of the partners, namely Greece and Italy have noted that within international school projects students have increased their learning motivation and they are willing to be involved in cooperation with other nations. Some partners do not have experience with international projects as it is the case with Spain,Turkey and Romania, but in spite of this, they have become aware of the opportunities offered by the Erasmus + community programme.
The present project supports the values of the EU as they are mentioned in Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union at an international level and the ET 2020 objectives by promoting equity, active citizenship, social cohesion and enhancing creativity and innovation.
Objectives
The project was designed using a cross-curricular approach so as the students should be able to discover on their own that by being active citizens makes them be architects of a better community for them to live in. The interaction with various cultures will help the participants in extending their social networks, acquire new expertise and appreciate their talents. The needs schools have incommon as they were identified are as follows:
-low interest in students to get involved in community life
-students’ demotivation to learn and their tendency to give up school
-students’ bias to believe they have no responsibilities but only rights
-schools’ necessity to establish stronger and meaningful links with families and the educational background of the area.
By means of this project we intend to make students grasp the idea that active citizenship represents the cement of the society which keeps it united.
The objectives of the present project are as follows:
-raising awareness about active citizenship for 200 students in 4 European schools during a two-year project
-developing 200 students’ insight, perspective and abilities needed to serve as active citizens within local community
-strengthening the concept of lifestyle active citizenship within the students from 4 European schools from 4 European countries
-creating an e-toolkit for schools with examples of good practices to promote active citizenship.
The expected concrete results from our cooperation are:
-Erasmus+ panels
-questionnaires
-project logo
-4 presentations “My school, city, country!”
– garden Erasmus+
-4 videos: “Cultural values in my country”
-souvenirs and handicrafts
-1 e-magazine
-comics exhibition
-4 seminars (having a special guest to talk about civic sense and promote volunteering importance)
-4 multimedia presentations “What is active citizenship?”
-4 multimedia presentations “Active citizens and environment”
-project T-shirts
– e-toolkit “Active Citizenship” with examples of good practices (20 lesson plans)
-photo album
-common site of the project
-promotional materials: brochures, notebooks, flyers,
-DVD of the project
For the project success to be assured, Social and Emotional Learning will be used, which will foster emotional intelligence and development of character. The entire project supports the concept of social inclusion and the European cultural heritage helping students become informed of their ancestry and understand the necessity to behave like active citizens.
Planned activities
There have been planned a set of activities by which the project objectives will be achieved using a strategy of social and emotional learning to help students involve in the development of the project. Different strategies such as role play, group discussion, debates, simulations, multimedia presentations, invited speakers will be applied to boost perception of active citizenship. These activities will result in 4 different multimedia presentations on the topic “What is active citizenship?”, 4 videos: “Cultural values in my country”, 4 seminars held by an invited special guest, a speaker representative of an NGO who will give a talk on civic values and will promote the importance of volunteering and they will be held by each member country in the project.
By the development of activities which use SEL (Social and Emotional Learning), namely group activities, comics, team building games and stories, our intention is to foster the students’ abilities, approach and insight into the active citizenship matter of their community.
The following concrete products will be created within the project with the aim of enhancing the social awareness, self-consciousness, self-management and decision making of the students: 5 multimedia presentations on the topic “Active citizens and environment”, comics’ exhibition, magazine with students’ stories, 5 presentations “My school, city, country” and a common garden named Erasmus+.
There will be created 4 Active Citizens Clubs for the students, in each of the 4 partner schools. These clubs intend to increase motivation and involvement of the students in what regards civic responsibilities for a long time period. The student members of the club will have a common T-shirt designed. One type of the club activity will be the handicraft of souvenirs for their project partners.
Teachers’ work will also include the devising of 20 lesson projects with the help of an interdisciplinary approach afterwards integrated in the e-toolkit for Active Citizenship which promotes active citizenship. Social and Emotional Learning will be used for the participants to achieve skills, attitude and knowledge to interpret and master their emotions and feelings, establish personal objectives, build positive relations and increase their empathy consciousness.
