The project involves two schools of vocational and technical secondary education: the Institut Ilon - Saint-Jacques in Namur in Belgium and the Istituto Statale di istruzione secondaria superiore "A. Damiani" in Marsala in Sicily The project is addressed to teachers and students of reception and catering stream, the number of people involved will be about 200. Students will range between 16-19. This project has lots of objectives. Through a survey on cooking traditions and folklore, students and teachers will find out and experience new cooking methods and techniques. During the implementation of this project, thanks to the exchanges and meetings that will occur, students will enhance their linguistic and ITC competences and also their vocational competences in relation to the course of study they are involved in. Due to the new methods used, the project will enhance students’ interests and motivation above all of those students suffering from drop out problems. Thanks to the transnational mobilities that will be realized, students will have the opportunity of learning and sharing their different cultural traditions. The related activities, during the project, will be : • Students will realize a survey on traditions and folklore linked to the local diet ; the experience will be based on a regional recipe or on a product remarkable for its history or for the tradition it embodies. The survey will consist of two parts : on one hand the explanation of the recipe or the product and on the other hand the explanation of its history ; it might be described in different ways : through videos, personal experience, reports,etc. • In a future transnational meeting some survey selection methods will be decided . On this base students’ surveys will be selected. Moreover the surveys will be translated into different vehicular languages of the project. • The students of each partner country will organize a guided tour among the most important local sights to be visited by their partners. • The Belgian students will visit Sicily in a 12 days staying. During their staying they will attend classes of the hosting school with the object of experience the Italian teaching and learning style ; they will be taken around by the Italian students that will play the role of local guides.In addition the group will take care of the organization of a « cooking live exposition « , in which the guesting partner will present and realize its regional product or recipe to the attending people ( students, teachers and local citizens), explaining the cultural traditions. • The Sicilian students will return their visit going to Namur in a 12 days staying. The visit will involve the same organization as above mentioned. As far as the main applied methods, they will be based on a collaborative/cooperative full immersion learning. The project will be spanned in two years, during this period we hope students will improve the quality of their learning process. Hopefully they might also get a new relationship with the educative institution looking at it in a more friendly way. In the same way from the teachers side they will improve the quality of their teaching taking advantage of the best practices of their foreign partners (mutual teaching). As regards the « cooking live exposition », one of the main concern of the project will be its possible washback effect into the economy of the two regions. The outcome of the project will have a positive effect on the schools, even in the future years, thanks to a web site in which the partners will have the opportunity to keep on exchanging their best practises relevant to the above project.
The project “ Tradialiculture”( Traditions et folklore liès à l’alimentation) , spanned in two years, was addressed to teachers and students of reception and catering stream of two vocational schools : Institut “ Ilon Saint-Jacques” of Namur in Belgium and Istituto Statale di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore “A. Damiani “of Marsala in Scilly. The project had the following objectives: - Find out traditions and folklore of the geographical areas implied and experience new cooking methods and techniques. - Enhance linguistic , ITC and vocational competences in relation to the course of study students were involved in. - Enhance students’ interest and motivation above all of those students suffering from drop out problems. - Learning and sharing different cultural traditions and cooking techniques. The target group of students ranged between 16- 19. At Institut “ Ilon Saint-Jacques” they attended the fifth or sixth year of “Tourisme” and “ Hotellerie” streams. At Istituto Statale di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore “A. Damiani” they attended the fourth or fifth year of “ Enogastronomia”, “ Sala e Vendita”, “ Pasticceria” and “ Accoglienza turistica” streams. The number of students and teachers involved was about 200. The following activities were implemented during the project: - Every student realized a survey on traditions and folklore linked to the local diet. The result of each survey was the creation of a dossier based on a regional recipe or a product remarkable for its history or for the tradition it embodied. The students’ dossiers consisted of two parts: on one hand the explanation of the recipe or the product and on the other hand the explanation of its history and folklore. Students could submit their dossier in different ways and supports. - Dossiers presented at Marsala and Namur “ cooking live expositions” were assessed according to the selection methods decided in a previous transnational meeting. In each school, 17 dossiers were chosen and presented at the “ cooking live exposition”. In order to exchange cooking methods and techniques 17 couples of students were partnered by teachers to work in pairs. The selected students realized the translations of their dossier and of their partner’s dossier in the second foreign language studied at school ( French- Italian and Italian- French for the Sicilian students; French- English or Dutch for the Belgian students). On the website you can see every recipe with its translation. - A programme of visit and stay was organized in each country on occasion of partners arrival. - At first Belgian students visited Sicily on a 10 days staying, 7 of which financed by Europe Erasmus Projects. During the stay, 4 days were dedicated at the organization of the “ cooking live exposition “ showing people, who took part, the 17 selected recipes with their history and folklore. - In order to do that students worked in pairs cooperating ( exchange of good practices ) . During the stay they also had the opportunity to discover the region and to live a couple of days in host families ( that is their partner’s family ) - Subsequently, 17 Sicilian students went to Namur and stayed there 10 days (7 of which financed by Europe) with a similar organisation. The most used methodologies were based on a participatory, cooperative learning in full immersion. At the end of this two-years project: - Every participating student passed successfully the school year - Every participating teacher contributed doing the best for its organization - The two “ cooking live exposition” aroused a lot of interest in the two countries ( See the media report). - The website " http://www.comenius-marsala-namur.com/index%201.html " and a Facebook page " https://www.facebook.com/Erasmus.Tradi.Ali.Culture/ " were created at the beginning of the project to spread and share the related activities and results. - The most of participating students are still keeping in touch with their partners. Long term, all recipes in French and Italian, as well as all project data, can be viewed on the e-books published on the website. The project realization and implementation results have aroused other teachers’ desire to get involved in new Erasmus projects. In the coordinating school, an Italian language course will be provided for students of Tourism stream