„Strengthening Thinking and Learning Skills" is a collective project of 7 participating organisations with the common mission to reduce disparities in learning outcomes affecting disadvantaged learners, underachievers or children with learning impairment through introduction of more effective teaching methods. The participating organizations work with a wide range of clients from children coming from marginalized Roma communities (ETP Slovakia) to children with special needs (The Feuerstein Centre of the Netherlands, Inclusive School Cluj) to underachieving children in mainstream schools (Charlie-Karlín, Czech Republic, ) as well as talented underachievers (National Centre for Special Needs Education and Psychology, Lithuania) and ordinary schools (Czech Republic, Lithuania). The motivation to start this project is based on observation that besides financial or political obstacles, many children who have functional and/or learning difficulties, who are culturally different or come from poor socio-economic background very often experience barriers to learning originating in attitudes or (lack of) competences of teachers, peers, parents, (lack of) assistance, etc. A practical problem emerges each time the teacher enters a cognitively heterogeneous classroom with the aim of providing students with skills necessary for successful formal education - with cognitive development, not only development of knowledge and academic skills. These are secondary to the development of more transverse cognitive skills or executive functions, such as: the ability of sustained attention, to refrain from impulsive behaviour, to expand working memory, to compare and to use an enriched language.The project wants to develop course materials and training courses for teachers to implement those approaches in their work that are focused on developing transversal cognitive skills and thus to help children to adopt better thinking strategies.The project also wants to make links between content free FIE programme and content rich situations in the classroom and between psychological assessment and school assessment enriched by dynamic principles. It wants to advocate an environmental perspective and promote activities shaping cognitively complex environments and coaching the school context towards accommodating and teaching all children, including the ones with difficulties.To that purpose, the project will organise a series of expert meetings, trainings and workshops where research results will be exchanged, new approaches taught, international experience collected and disseminated. Training course will be developed, tried out and publications - articles, reports, a book & DVD - will be produced, in order to disseminate knowledge about these innovative approaches.The project´s aim is to demonstrate that learners with difficulties can be integrated into mainstream schools and society when national curricula of mainstream schooling are complemented by innovative MLE approach that seeks to correct deficiencies of disadvantaged learners in an appropriate manner.
„Strengthening Thinking and Learning Skills" is a collective project of seven participating organizations from five European countries with the common mission to reduce disparities in learning outcomes affecting disadvantaged learners, underachievers or children with learning impairment through introduction of more effective teaching methods. The general motive for this project was to create suitable conditions for successful learning, effective teaching in classrooms of children with many and different obstacles. We devoted our attention to applications based on Feuerstein´s theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability and mediated learning: Output 1 - Become a better mediator: the use of the Instrumental Enrichment Program, the cognitive and metacognitive training program - video material for teachers/mediators serving as self-development tool was prepared - 21 units comprising film and commentary. Output 2 - Experience mediation in everyday life: experiencing mediated learning induced by mediating interactions that foster independent thinking and learning - training course comprising 40 lessons in different modalities showing how to transfer the mediated learning experience from the content free FIE program to content rich teaching situations in the classroom and to other situations, such as afternoon-clubs was prepared with the focus on key aspects of mediated learning experience. Output 3 - Dynamic Approach in Teaching Situations: dynamic approaches in assessing and developing the learning potential - informative material showing the possible use of dynamic approach in assessment in everyday teaching situations was prepared - 20 units of films, articles, analysis, case studies. Output 4 - Shaping the supportive environment: setting up modifying environments in which an individual gains sufficient mediation, of adequate intensity, frequency and duration, within regular context - experience based collection of best practices in implementing mediated learning experience to different settings and environments was prepared - 21 units of mainly written case studies or testimonies. All the material produced in this project is accessible at the website www.bbmediator.com which was created for the project purposes. Films are subtitled to English and the majority of the written material is in English as well, so that the project impacts wider range of teachers and mediators. Shifting teachers´ emphasis from plain curricular content to developing cognitive functions and operations and making sure that these cognitive functions are effectively used in the learning process of their students was the main area of our work. We believe that in the 21st century the teacher´s primary role is that of a mediator whose goal is to extract from every encounter the children have with content materials the maximum learning of generalizable principles and strategies of perceiving the world, of thinking systematically, clearly, and effectively, of learning, and of problem solving. The members of this strategic partnership are successfully working with children with cognitive disorders of all kinds of etiology; strengthening the social, economic, educational and cultural attainments of individuals and socially disadvantaged groups and addressing ethnic issues; and finally, teachers of mainstream schools with integrated children, underachievers and minority members. All the participants are experienced IE mediators working with specific target groups in specific settings; thus, bringing a unique set of experience to the project. With slight changes the international team working on this project consisted of 25 teachers, special pedagogues, psychologists and researchers from all partners. Two transnational project meetings took place in Amsterdam and in Svitavy. Two short-term joint staff meetings took place in Prague and in Cluj-Napoca. Both the meetings and trainings served as the platform for exploring the best ways of producing the supportive material, thinking critically and innovatively and exchanging the expertise each organization has at its disposal. Beyond all these activities, there were workshops and seminars organized locally, along with conferences, so that the message about the project coulda haven been spread and feedback collected. The involved partners appreciate the opportunity to exchange the experience, to practice the use of the method, to get deeper insight to the method, to learn how the daily practice has been organized in a different but very useful way. "The very positive elements of this cooperation is the fact that to know more about other cultures is a beautiful way to develop more respect towards other people and countries, towards problems of others. To see how a group of Feuerstein mediators work so hard in order to give as many children as possible, a chance to develop their thinking processes they need for a more successful participation in school was substantial for all the participants."