As highlighted by the EU low levels of literacy and numeracy among the existing and the future workforce are likely to be a major barrier to labour market integration and future growth while one in five 15-year-olds are not achieving baseline standards in reading, literacy and mathematics. 2014 PISA results showed that over 22% of European students were low achievers in maths, over 17% in reading and over 16% in science. Back to Nature project aims at dealing with these challenges in a complex way while developing an innovative, experiential pedagogy allowing us to motivate both teachers and pupils to implement and participate in new teaching methodologies which foster the acquisition of key competences. Having recognised the need for increased environmental awareness-skills of the future labour market, we intend to foster these skills already in primary education through a multidisciplinary approach. During the entire lifetime of Back to Nature project, we intend to reach and involve over 800 stakeholders including primary school teachers enrolled in study programmes addressing pupils aged between 9 and 11 and specialised in one of the following fields of education: i) social and ii) natural sciences, iii) arts and iv) IT and technology. Furthermore, we also foresee organising numerous learning events to be held on local and transnational levels whether in the form of indoor or outdoor activities where we plan to involve at least 100 pupils from each country.The project will run during 24 months and partners have already agreed main responsibilities according to the expertise and profile of each partner organisation. Each activity will be coordinated by an elected Activity Leader who will be in charge of coordinating work carried out by partners participating in each activity. To reach objectives set by project partners, below activities are foreseen:- Elaboration of review analysis on current practices of experiential learning for improving the above-listed key competences of primary school children aged from 9 to 11 - Development of the experiential, nature-close innovative pedagogy for primary schools - Implementation of the designed pedagogy with testing purposes including • Five-day joint staff training event to prepare teachers from participating schools on the new pedagogy • Five-day international summer school for children from the involved primary schools to foster both joint learning activities implemented in accordance with the elaborated methodology and the interaction between children from different countriesAs for desired results, successful implementation of the project will:- establish an exemplary cooperation mechanism between educational institutions and other sectors committed with education and environmental matters in order to elaborate and promote an innovative environmental educational methodology for improving basic and transversal skills of primary school pupils- ensure that the innovative pedagogy is flexible, easily adaptable and accessible allowing any teacher and/or educational institution active in the field of environmental education to carry out interactive, entertaining and experiential learning activities with their pupils in a real-world and nature-close environment- raise awareness on current practices and challenges in terms of experiential learning applied through environmental education from the perspective of the acquisition of key competences- equip at least 4 teachers from each partner school with all necessary skills and knowledge to be able to apply the newly developed experiential, nature-close pedagogy in their daily teaching practices- improve participating pupils key competences with special focus on intercultural and foreign language skillsThrough implementing the project, we intend to reach the following long-term impacts at regional, national and European levels:- Improved international cooperation and exchange of best practices in the field of environmental education and experiential learning among educational institutions and other organisations- Primary school teachers equipped with new skills and knowledge in the field of environmental education and able to design interactive, inspiring and entertaining indoor and outdoor learning activities where children will be able to new skills and knowledge while understanding interlinkage between the different school subjects and our “real world- Stakeholders (mainly primary schools) aware on the new environmental, experiential pedagogy reach thanks to well-targeted promotional activities- Back to Nature recognised as a showcase and schools from other countries motivated to use, adapt and/or modify our learning activities- new cooperation opportunities for extending the project identified and exploited- relevant policy makers aware on the importance of taking measures for promoting environmental education and flexible learning pathways in primary schools from a multidisciplinary perspective
The purpose of the creation of the project was that a new cooperation mechanism should be produced in Europe, where the primary school children are motivated for learning, while obtaining key competences by applying the methods used in the education of sustainability and environmental protection. The main purpose of the project is the elaboration, testing and applying of a new experiential, nature-close pedagogy in elementary educational institutions so as to improve the students’ basic and transversal competences. The schools integrate the environmental education elements in their daily teaching practice by a multidisciplinary approach, where 9-11-year old pupils will be able to understand the relation among the different educational fields: i) Natural Sciences, ii) Social Sciences, iii) Art, iv) I.T. 6 partners participated the project: 3 elementary educational institutions, 1 upper-level educational institution, 2 non-profit organisations. The most important products and activities of the project: 1 The making of the document titled „Review analysis of experiential learning practices in primary education in the participating countries” – as an important project result (a base for making the intellectual output of the project) The analysis contains both secondary and primary research. The primary research was made up of the making of the surveys and deep-interviews, which were carried out by the target group members living in the partner countries (9-11-year-old pupils and teachers).The survey consisted of two parts: a general section, which measured the pupils’ environment and an institutional environment section, which examined how the pupils see their schools and their lessons because the aim was to make the lessons more interactive and give more emphasis on sustainability. 2 „Environmental pedagogy for improving primary school teacher’s competences in transmitting knowledge in an experiential way through environmental education” – the intellectual output of the project The teaching material, which was elaborated, consists of the following parts: - Basic concepts of environmental education and learning based on experiences - The second part of the teaching material presents teaching methods - The third module is a practice-oriented part that contains suggestions of scenarios (lesson plans). 3 A five-day teacher training The five-day training was carried out in Nagykanizsa in the period between the 5th and the 9th February 2018. The purpose of the training was to present and teach the prepared methodology to the participants, who could obtain those new skills and knowledge, which are necessary to build the pedagogy of Back to Nature project in their everyday teaching practice. The training was held by the experts of the partners, who had taken part in the elaboration of the methodology previously. Before the training an open call was promoted in the partner institutions and the participants were chosen from the applicants. The training was about the following topics: the basics of environmental education, basic principles of sustainability, environmentally-conscious behaviour, project-based methods, teamwork at school, everyday aspects of life in a built environment, healthy lifestyles– main focus is on human beings, biodiversity, environmental education from a global aspect. Altogether 18 people took part in the training and the event was broadcast live via webstreaming at the same time. Every day there was a possibility for professional discussions and feedbacks about the passed-off programmes between the participants and the trainers. 4 A five-day summer camp The five-day international summer camp was organised in Romania between the 23rd and the 27th August 2018 and 9-11-year-old pupils and their accompanying teachers took part in it, altogether 45 pupils and 9 teachers. The purpose of the event was the practical testing of the previously elaborated methodical teaching material. In order to do this outdoor learning activities were prepared and carried out, which served the improvement of the pupils’ key competences. This event ensured the teachers, who had taken part in the previous teacher training, to test the obtained competences and new knowledge in practice, in the forms of informal, out-of-school activities. 5 Final conference The final conference of the project was held in Nagykanizsa, on the 23rd November 2018. In the first part of the event the intellectual outputs created in the project and the implemented activities were presented. In the second half of the event there were lectures about the roles of primary schools, universities and civil organisations in environmental education. As the result of the project, an innovative, flexible, easily adaptable, practice-oriented and nature-close pedagogy was developed for primary school teachers dealing with students aged 9-11.