Ready for innovative teaching? "If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn": This quote from Ignacio Estrada motivated us to think about the topic. Developing basic skills and new methodologies is currently a great discussion among teachers. New curricula have been established but there is no magic recipe how to use more effective teaching methods.. Comparing needs, learning by doing and experiencing teaching methods with teachers from different countries all over Europe and across various subjects will help to discover innovative methods and also to broaden the cultural horizon. We want to find out more about the students needs to create a better learning environment. Traditional classroom environments are often not the most appropriate context for the effective learning and development of key competences. The main recommended approach to teaching key competences is through the provision of interactive learning environments in which learners can engage in practical, inquiry-based tasks, which present open-ended problems to be solved through debate, experimentation, exploration and creativity. The performance of students in school has been decreasing over the last decades, especially boys’ results. Therefore it is obvious that in order to keep up the motivation and improve the efficiency of learning, we have to adapt to the new situation. With this project, we want to find out what has to be changed to enhance learning results. Most teachers agree that it is difficult to keep the motivation for teaching up, especially due to the severe changes in society and media consumption of pupils. We all know that teaching and learning should be as technologically innovative as possible. Involving the pedagogical use of ICT and mobile technology can maybe enhance students' digital competence. Six partners from Lithuania, Madeira, Spain, Sweden, Germany and Belgium are involved in this project. This means that we have a large range of needs, curricula and teaching methods. All schools are secondary schools with general education. We will work with pupils from the age of 15-16 years. According to the aims of the project, we will first examine students' needs and expectations and the status quo in our classrooms, compare them to the situation in our partner schools and exchange ideas of innovative teaching methods. We will try out and evaluate the ideas gathered in order to check how effective they are. During the 6 meetings with pupils and teaches, one in each country, we will get information about the host school's everyday life. We will assist lessons in every school with innovative teaching methods in different subjects. We will organize workshops for students and teachers, debate methodology in classroom, and in every meeting we will film the activities and model lessons in order to make a DVD as final product of the project. During the first meeting in Lithuania, students will have work shops on working out a lesson plan on their own, based on students' expectations. They will have information on how to prepare the logo contest. We also will plan the projects homepage. In our second meeting in Madeira we will have some outdoor lessons, mainly oriented by pupils, playing the tourist guides. We will choose the winner Logo for the project and construct the homepage too. Our third meeting in Barcelona will be based on students developing a series of activities around Antoni Gaudi's works. We also will have a conference on ICT with a local expert. During our fourth meeting in Germany we will have model lessons on physical education with outdoor games and model lessons in language classes. Our fifth meeting will be in Sweden. We will have model lessons and workshops lead by students about the most inspiring, motivating and efficient ways of learning. We also will discuss and find out, why the Scandinavian countries are so successful in Pisa survey. During the final meeting in Belgium, we will focus on innovative methods in science and language classes, present the final product and evaluate the outcomes of the project. There will also be a big party at the end with teachers, students and parents. To evaluate and disseminate the project (at half time and at the end), we'll have 2 coordinators' meetings . Tangible project results will be: 1. Research survey report about a current situation in LT, BE, GER, ES, PT, SV 2. Collection of ideas of innovative teaching methods 3. Testing and evaluating the ideas collected 4. Setting up a website as a tool for communication, dissemination, project promotion and teaching/learning tool Intangible project results will be: 1. Improved professional skills of teachers 2. Increased cross-cultural awareness and communication abilities 3. Better language skills 4. Higher motivation of both, students and teachers 5. Development of key competences And, are we now ready for innovative teaching?
Ready for innovative teaching? "If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn": This quote from Ignacio Estrada motivated us to think about the topic. Developing basic skills and new methodologies is currently a great discussion among teachers. New curricula have been established but there is no magic recipe how to use more effective teaching methods. Comparing needs, learning by doing and experiencing teaching methods with teachers from different countries all over Europe and across various subjects has helped to discover innovative methods and also to broaden the cultural horizon. We wanted to find out more about the students' needs to create a better learning environment. Traditional classroom environments are often not the most appropriate context for the effective learning and development of key competences. The main recommended approach to teaching key competences is through the provision of interactive learning environments in which learners can engage in practical, inquiry-based tasks, which present open-ended problems to be solved through debate, experimentation, exploration and creativity. The performance of students in school has been decreasing over the last decades, especially boys’ results. Therefore, it is obvious that in order to keep up the motivation and improve the efficiency of learning, we have to adapt to the new situation. With this project, we wanted to find out what had to be changed to enhance learning results. Most teachers agree that it is difficult to keep the motivation for teaching up, especially due to the severe changes in society and media consumption of pupils. We all know that teaching and learning should be as technologically innovative as possible. Involving the pedagogical use of ICT and mobile technology can maybe enhance students' digital competence. Six partners from Lithuania, Madeira, Spain, Sweden, Germany and Belgium were involved in this project. This meant that we had a broad range of needs, curricula and teaching methods. As all schools are secondary schools with general education, we have worked with pupils from the age of 14-18 years. According to the aims of the project, we first examined students' needs and expectations and the status quo in our classrooms, compared them to the situation in our partner schools and exchanged ideas of innovative teaching methods. We tried out and evaluated the ideas gathered in order to check how effective they were. During the 6 meetings with pupils and teachers, one in each country, we got information about the host school's everyday life. We assisted and participated in lessons in every school with innovative teaching methods in different subjects. We organized workshops for students and teachers, debated methodology in classroom, and in every meeting we either filmed or kept a lesson plan record of the activities/model lessons in order to share the ideas and outcomes in our project website. During the first meeting in Lithuania, students tried out debate and video-telling methodologies. They had information on how to prepare the logo contest. We also planned and started the project homepage. In our meeting in Portugal we had indoor and outdoor lessons led by pupils and teachers: - volunteer planting activity in the mountains of Madeira island as a way to have a more human, not technological, connection, - outdoor lesson (mainly oriented by pupils) on the theme: it took a whole day and included a visit to the Whale Museum and a 2-hour sail trip - transversal outdoor lessons: visiting Europe’s highest sea cliff, not far from the school, among other sites; the sea surrounding Madeira island, by watching conserved species, by use of sustainable fishing and also whale/dolphin watching. All countries presented their logos and we chose the winning logo for the project. Our meeting in Spain was based on students developing a series of researching activities around Antoni Gaudi's works. We also had a conference on this school's project and language portfolio. During our meeting in Germany, we had a interdisciplinary model lesson on Physical Education in English and workshops in foreign language learning and teaching. Our fifth meeting took place in Sweden. We had workshops and indoor/outdoor activities to promote team building with the goal of learning about culture and the environment, led and planned by pupils, parents and teachers to develop a trust in everyone's own physical ability through an afternoon/evening excursion, downhill skiing, skating, cross country skiing, sledding and dancing. We also had lectures on the Pisa results as well as entrepreneurship. During the meeting in Belgium, we focused on innovative methods and tools in science, ICT and language classes, we had workshops on creativity in teaching and the students presented the outcomes of the previous meetings. All participants visited and learned about the European and DG Parliament.