This partnership is formed by four secondary education schools, where interculturality and language learning are key issues. There is a lack of motivation and self-esteem in learning, and behavior problems, that can lead to abandon their studies. Our aims are: 1. To engage and motivate them with new methodological approaches based on the positive side-effect that are brought by the integration of other cultures in their curriculum that leads to synergies and to the enrichment of their culture and knowledge. 2. To develop skills (basic and transversal) described skills such as entrepreneurship, digital and language learning skills. 3. To encourage language learning and thus keep learners motivated to study English and make them aware of the importance of learning a foreign language as a mean of communication between persons of different cultures Our target group will not be only the secondary students but also school teachers who will be able to strengthen their profile by: -Making a deep analysis of our educational systems, our teaching/learning methods, its strengths and weaknesses; - Sharing learning and teaching methodologies and pedagogical approaches on language skills, digital skills, and communicative skills. From this dialogue will emerge good practices. In the frame of this Strategic Partnership we will organize two transnational staff meetings which will be devoted among many other things, to agree the working plan of the partnership and eight short-term teaching-training mobilities ( four exchange of pupils and four joint staff trainning event) . Final staff meeting will be via skype. There will be three different types of activities within in each mobility: Cultural activity, teaching/treaning semminar and students workshop. The Strategic Partnership will develop a wide and flexible range of activities that the teachers will develop with their students in their schools and also through the use of eTwinning. Each school will lead one of the management committee, and will be formed by teachers and students , who in turn, will lead this committee in their home school. The roles and tasks in this project have been decided according to the aims of the project and the partners’ strengths . Each partner will have tasks related to the project management and tasks related to the methodological programme The partners will use the eTwinning site to collaborate on developing the project activities, discuss and share resources. Pupils will write a collaborative blog where they post pictures and updates on project activities, as well as opinions and reflections on the topics they are working on. The results developed by this partnership are: a logo , a set of multiple intelligences and type of learning exercises, a blog of the project, videos, teacher seminars, worshops, fair PPTS, etc. In order to give a further practical dimension to our work, the final stage will consist on the composition of a booklet on methods for lifelong learning. This booklet that will be developed with methodological and training material for lifelong learning will be based on the seminars and training workshops made by students and teachers along the project. The activities developed by the partnership will have a relevant impact on students and teachers, and to some extent, on school community and in cultural organizations, as well as on local and regional educational associations. The project has been planned and will use a systematic approach closely aligned with the dissemination and valorization strategy to ensure that the impact of project results and findings continue to have a contributing effect long after project funding conclude.
This partnership was formed by four secondary schools with a large international projection, where interculturality and language learning are key issues, which is a factor for competitiveness, employability and mobility of young people. Each school has provided different methodological approaches and learning and teaching skills; and all of them have been equally involved in all stages of the project development. The roles and tasks in this project were decided according to the aims of the project and the partners’ strengths.(See 5. Implementation) We all have tried to achieve the Europe 2020’s target for education by engaging and motivating students with new methodological approaches based on the positive side-effect that are brought by the integration of different cultures in their curriculum that lead to synergies and to the enrichment of their culture and knowledge. Students have learnt through cultural engagement with young people from diverse countries and cultural origin. We have developed skills (basic and traversal) such as entrepreneurship, digital and language learning skills, since they will allow us, students and teachers, to move towards a more competence based teaching and learning approach. Every culture presented what key issues they were best for in their curriculum compared to others. Then we shared these strengths with our partners to produce positive synergetic effects lying within our cultural, pedagogical and methodological differences. The teachers rethought their education system and moved towards a more competence-based teaching and learning approach. Thus, the project leads to the achievement of basic skills and gave transversal key competences a more prominent part within our school curriculum. Besides the students, we also had a second target group, we, the teachers and tried to rethink our school curriculum and adapt it to our modern pedagogical and methodological needs, following the guides given in the document “Rethinking Education” by the European Commission. We have made a deep analysis of our cultural, national, and methodological strengths and weaknesses, and then we exchanged methodological approaches that will be applicable to our students and will allow us to use the synergetic effects of this European partnership to fill the gaps we may have. By doing this we enriched our teachers profile and management, as well as our students’ curricula. In the work-shops, seminars and debates organised during the mobilities they used their learning to learn competences as well as their social and civic competence and had the opportunity to develop their digital competence, these tools will give them motivation, autonomy and responsibility for their future life. The Quality Assessment Plan of the project has allowed us to keep track on whether the partnership was doing the right thing in the right way and has contributed to a better understanding of what needs to be achieved, how they can be achieved and how the partnership is progressing. And, in a small way, we contributed to the improvement of education by producing a PEDAGOGICAL HANDBOOK to work with. The articles in the booklet are based on the training activities and presentations that were part of the staff meetings and students’ workshops in the mobilities. Our all creative potential was stimulated by the triangle “culture-education-learning” and will have transformative long-term effects and a strong impact on our students, the teachers and the schools as a whole. It is important to emphasize that students have acquired key competences that will be developed throughout their lifetime among other benefits of this project . The results of this active and vivid exchanges on behalf of both, the students and the teachers, can be found on the 50 pages of the Pedagogical Booklet produced at the end of the two-year partnership The partnership has been established following the cooperation in eTwinning and this will allow us to go on working and exchanging experiences, transcending the duration of the project life. We have also made a BLOG that contains all the activities done throughout the project life, and all the documents created for the management of the project. The Participation in this European project has been a factor motivating the development of further links and synergies inside and outside our schools, so we hope that this project will function as a catalyst for change at the school level.