The „refugee crisis“ has become a crisis of the EU. There is still no agreement among the EU Member States what will happen to the immigrants who enter the EU every day, the so called ‘refugee deal’ between the EU and Turkey is highly criticized. On the one hand EU citizens are welcoming and supportive, on the other hand they perceive refugees as a threat to internal security. An increase of votes for right-wing parties throughout Europe is visible (Law and Justice in Poland, UKIP in UK, AfD in Germany etc.) and violence against refugees and people who allegedly look ‘different’, is also increasing. Against this background universities are needed in order to enable students to take a differentiated stand. On the part of the EU Commission, an active and informed European citizenship is the key: “Education and training are crucial to prevent and tackle poverty and social exclusion and discrimination, and to build a foundation on which active citizenship rests” [“New priorities for education and training (ET2020)”, p.2]. The REFLECT LAB project intends to support universities, more specifically lecturers, to implement the currently discussed implementation of inquiry based learning. For this socio-scientific teaching/learning laboratories - REFLECT LABs - will be developed and tested. The objective is to establish an innovative course structure which fosters self-directed learning at Higher Education Institutions (HEI). Students do autonomous research in REFLECT LABs with socio-scientific methods towards pressing political and socially issues. Lecturers accompany and support this process and the critical discussion. As such the project sets a counterpoint to the widely criticized reduction of learning in HEI to sole knowledge transfer. TARGET GROUPS and RESULTS of the REFLECT LAB-Project:a) Lecturers at universitiesThey will be familiarized with the concept of inquiry based learning in the form of teaching/learning laboratories: By testing the REFLECT LABs at national level and by running the international professional development course. An IT-platform, which is accessible for all interested persons, serves for exchange, information and mutual support.b) StudentsLecturers will be trained so that their seminars will be structured in a more inquiry based way. The competence of differentiation, historical competence, competence of justice and reflection competence of students will be fostered adequately.c) PupilsFuture teachers are able to create inquiry based learning settings for their pupils, also at the extra-curricular learning environment university. As such the project contributes to offer a pre-university education at school.Further results:- A movie which gives concrete insights into a REFLECT-LAB, it documents the procedures and challenges of a teaching/learning lab, accessible at youtube.- Didactic-methodic guidelines for setting up and implement a REFLECT LAB, attractively designed with graphic novel drawingsThe project sets a specific socio-scientific accent, as topic like the so called refugee crisis will be in the focus of discussion and research. Thus cross-section competences will be generated, which are essential for all addressed target groups.The consortium consists of the applicant Leibniz University of Hannover (Institute of Civic Education), the University La Laguna (Spain), the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi (Romania), the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun (Poland) and the Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). REFLECT-LAB has a duration of 30 months, November 2016 until April 2019.
In the EU (and further afield) the growth of right-wing populism and tides of anti-democratic feelings are being observed. Depending on the national context, refugees, migrants or other minority members serve as a target and justification for violent and misanthropic arguments and assaults. This is also reflected in an increase in the electorate of EU-hostile and right-wing populist parties such as the PiS in Poland, UKIP in the UK, AfD in Germany amongst others. Simultaneously, deficits in the education system are becoming visible and there is an increase in the criticisms made of pedagogical university structures and curricula. In light of these challenges, the goals of the project are: 1) To empower students to take a differentiated position and critically question current events. 2) Enable students to become part of an active and informed citizenship. 3) To assist teachers with the implementation of research-based learning during the delivery of their subject. 4) Appropriate socio-scientifically inspired teaching/learning laboratories developed in conjunction with ICT-based methods. 5) and therefore combining a didactically innovative seminar structure with the concept of student research-based learning. With these goals in mind, five Universities have co-operated: 1) The Institute for Didactics of Democracy of the Leibniz University, Hannover, which specialises in teaching political education in formal and non-formal educational contexts; they lead the project. 2) The Department of Psychology and Educational Science of the Alexandria University Ionana Cuza Din Iaşi. Iaşi, Romania, was the first university in Romania to introduce research-centred teaching with the introduction of the Bologna Process. 3) The Faculty of Political Sciences and International Studies of the Universytet Mikolaja Kopernica in Torun, Poland, an important centre for political education and research in northern Poland with a focus on learning in heterogeneous groups. 4) From Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, the Faculty of Education and the Centre for Teaching and Learning have participated in this project. The university has experience in innovative teaching of challenging topics such as racism and violence. 5) The Faculty of Education of the Universidad de la Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, which develops innovative courses and degrees for future teachers, as well as the Institute for Didáctica e Investigación Educativa. The central activities of the project include: 1) The development of six outputs (IOs); 2) the implementation of a training course for teachers; 3) Events with stakeholders, ensuring the project’s results are communicated to the decision-makers in the field of education; 4) Activities to disseminate the project’s findings and the products as well as 5) a sustainability strategy. Die IOs include a needs analysis in the participating countries (IO1), the development of webinars and a manual for teachers (IO2), the selection of appropriate stimuli material, a guide to their selection and development, and a guide/handout for students (IO3), the conceptual design and implementation of blended-learning courses (IO4) and the development of a platform for teachers (IO5) as well as Easy-to-Implement Kits (IO6). Teachers from all participating universities participated in a training course at the Institute for Didactics of Democracy, Hannover, which was documented with a video, along with other forms of documentation. The joint implementation of these activities was supported by transnational partner meetings, online conferences, an internal internet platform and additional communication via e-mail and Skype. The results and impact of the project include 1) The six developed outputs. All manuals are available in the languages of the project partners; webinars and videos have been developed in English and are available online. 2) Teacher’s Professional Development: All teachers who took part were able to expand and deepen the methods they used in their teaching. Depending on the university culture, this meant a different degree of innovation or extension of teaching topics. The feedback from the teachers was extremely positive. 3) Great Interest and Progress in Learning from the Students: The teachers involved in the project used their newly-acquired knowledge in university courses and also exchanged information regularly. The students benefitted from this the most. The longer-term benefit of the project is a positive teaching and learning experience that serves as a role model and inspiration for further implementation. The website for the project and the project’s platform – and thus all project outcomes – will be online and maintained for at least five years. The Reflect Lab Project began in November 2016 und ended in April 2019.