Environment protection is a priority of the contemporary world, retraced in the Lisbon Strategy and then continued in the 2020 EU Strategy through the EU Environment Action Programme to 2020. In accordance with EU educational policies, the eight schools focus on finding the most efficient and attractive strategies of approaching the field of ecology at formal/non-formal level, and the joint creation of “transnational” teaching materials that can be used in any European country, justifies the necessity of this partnership. The aim of this project is to develop by multinational cooperation (exchange of good practices, use of innovative practices based on collaborative learning, critical thinking, ICT strategic use) instruments/methodologies/strategies to facilitate teaching/learning within the long-standing education context especially for the environment. We have the following goals: 1) Improvement of ecological knowledge, abilities and work competencies formally/non-formally for the 115 teachers of the nine partner schools with the purpose of developing a responsible attitude towards the environment within the educational/local communities of their origin. 2) Development of competencies of 375 students in identifying environmental needs and problems in the communities they belong to and in initiating, implementing projects with the purpose of improving environment quality. 3) Development of the capacity of the 8 schools to develop an eco-civic behaviour within students by cooperating with the community and the exchange of good and innovative practices. In the project activities there will be directly involved: - students with ages between 10-19 who will develop their competencies in identifying/investigating environmental issues, in writing/implementing environmental projects - teachers open towards an inter-institutitonal and international collaborative culture, interested in their own environmental professional development at European level - management teams of the 8 schools A teacher training curriculum will be designed on environmental issues, which will be tested at partnership level and implemented in the eight schools. Teachers who will benefit from joint training activities (on environmental issues and ICT) will become training/information providers in their originating schools. Participant meetings (teachers and students) with local partners involved in environment protection will take place in order to identify, investigate local environmental problems. Teachers will jointly elaborate projects for formal curriculum integrated activities in different subjects, non-formal activities which will be tested at school level, adapted and improved. Students, supported by teachers, will design/implement school/local community environmental projects to solve the identified environmental problems. All activities will have as results: ecology and ICT training of 35 teachers who will become training/information providers for a minimum of 95 teachers within the 8 schools, finding solutions for local environmental problems together with local environment partners, training of students/teachers in project management, student environmental projects, exchange of good practices, a Methodological Guide for Formal/Non-formal Ecological Education and Environmental Projects, a Teacher Training Curriculum on Environmental Issues, collection of ICT instruments integrated in ecological education, institutional development in the environmental education policy of the eight partner schools. We expect a positive student, teacher, school,community impact: shaping and developing a responsible attitude towards the environment, of a student environmentally aware behaviour, developing teacher work competencies and abilities in terms of environmental education, developing digital competencies and of communication in English language, increase of institutional capacity of approaching long-standing development education, development of inter-institutional cooperation relationships, completion of school-community-parents triad by attracting parents into activities, stimulation of student desire to carry on learning preventing risk of early school leaving. Training of teachers at European standards , elaborated work instruments/strategies, exchange of good practices, opening of teachers and schools towards national/inter-sectorial/international cooperation will bring long-term benefits of partner institutions. Application of new environmental educational strategies, elaborated through joint effort, will induce positive attitudinal and behavioural effects in participants who will be able to act to maintain and improve environment quality in order to prevent future environmental problems.
Since environment protection is a priority of the contemporary world, retraced in the Lisbon Strategy and then continued in the 2020 EU Strategy through the EU Environment Action Program up to 2020 and in compliance with EU educational policies, the eight schools aimed at finding the best strategies of approaching the field of environment protection at formal/non-formal level, and the joint creation of “transnational” teaching materials that could be used in any European country and that justified the necessity of this partnership. The objective of this project was to develop by multinational cooperation (exchange of good practices, use of innovative practices based on collaborative learning, critical thinking, ICT strategic use) instruments/methodologies/strategies able to facilitate teaching/learning within the long-standing education context specifically for the environment. We had these goals: 1) Enhancement of ecological knowledge, abilities and formal/non-formal work competencies for 115 teachers of the nine partner schools with an aim at shaping a responsible attitude towards the environment within the educational/local communities of their origin. 2) Enhancement of competencies of 375 students in identifying environmental needs and problems in the communities they belonged to and in initiating, implementing projects with the purpose of improving environment quality. 3) Development of the capacity of the 8 schools to develop an eco-civic behavior among students by cooperating with the community and the exchange of good and innovative practices. The project activities directly involved: - students with ages between 10-19 who developed their competencies in identifying/investigating environmental issues, in writing/implementing environmental projects - teachers opened towards an inter-institutional and international collaborative culture, interested in their own European environmental professional development at level - management teams of the 8 schools A teacher training curriculum, designed on environmental issues, was tested at partnership level and implemented in the eight schools. Teachers who benefited from joint training activities (on environmental issues and ICT)became training/information providers in their schools of origin. Participant meetings (teachers and students) with local partners involved in environment protection took place in order to identify, investigate local environmental problems. Teachers jointly elaborated projects for formal, non-formal integrated curriculum activities tested, adapted and improved at school level. Students, supported by teachers, designed/implemented school/local community environmental projects to solve the identified environmental problems. All activities had as results: ecology and ICT training of 35 teachers who became training/information providers for a minimum of 95 teachers within the 8 schools, finding solutions for local environmental problems together with local environment partners, training of students/teachers in project management, student environmental projects, exchange of good practices, a Methodological Guide for Formal/Non-formal Ecological Education and Environmental Projects, a Teacher Training Curriculum on Environmental Issues, a collection of ICT instruments integrated in ecological education, institutional development in the environmental education policy of the eight partner schools. There was a definite positive impact on students, teachers, schools, communities: a responsible attitude towards the environment was shaped and developed as well as a student environmentally aware behavior, teachers developed work competencies and abilities in terms of environmental education, digital competencies and of communication in English language were formed and refined, an improvement of institutional capacity of approaching long-standing development education and a development of inter-institutional cooperation relationships, a completion of the school-community-parents triad by involving parents into activities, stimulation of student desire to carry on learning thus preventing risk of early school leaving. Training of teachers at European standards , elaborated work instruments/strategies, exchange of good practices, opening of teachers and schools towards national/inter-sectorial/international cooperation announcing long-term benefits for partner institutions. Application of new environmental educational strategies, elaborated through joint effort, induced positive attitudinal and behavioral effects in participants who were able to act to maintain and improve environment quality in order to prevent future environmental problems.