The project aims that the participants realize differences and similarities between their own and each other's cultures, overcome their prejudices, and acquire a sense of European citizenship. Europe is gradually becoming more and more multicultural; however, most people have prejudices to go beyond the borders and see different or similar cultures of the other countries. In this project, the pupils will have the opportunity to research and realize the diversities and similarities between their own and the others’ cultures. As the pupils research and realize the differences and similarities, they will perceive multiculturalism and adopt a common identity under the European citizenship. The teachers will mainly plan and apply the cultural activities to provide the pupils with necessary studies and knowledge so as to know their own and each other’s cultures better. The pupils will also be provided with the opportunities to make friends with each other, and learn collaboratively. In this project, our priority is inclusive education, which is vital for an all-embracing high quality learning and teaching that embraces all pupils from diverse communities or various culture. One of the key factors of overcoming prejudices is to know each other better, and to discover the diversities of other cultures, which requires mutual communication and being tolerant to each other’s way of life, beliefs and values. To succeed these goals, this project is reinforced with enjoyable practices and performances, learning teaching activities, and exchange of pupils in cross-cultural activities. While choosing the cultural elements as a theme to this project, we have been motivated by the multicultural diversities of Europe, multiculturalism in other words, which is an important motivating force for the pupils to learn about each other’s differences and similarities within the project. By means of this project, we aim that the pupils will perceive the cultural diversities and see the differences as a cultural richness, improve a positive view of European citizenship, become familiar with different cultures, respect other people from different cultures and traditions, become free of prejudice and fear of communication, be more tolerant to the others from different cultures, acquire a common identity under the European citizenship, understand the importance of learning a foreign language, improve their competence of speaking English, learn other European languages in basic level, learn about the significance of cooperation as they work together, make new friends and share their friendship with their peers, develop the competence of ICT, have a chance to participate in cultural activities, see the daily life in other countries. To achieve these aims and objectives, we will perform several project assignments and produce some joint materials such as introduction of historical places (presentations or videos), preparing a joint practical dictionary in five languages of the partners, an activity "What do you know about European countries?" (interviews or questionnaires), a joint booklet of people we are proud of, a joint booklet of traditional games and sports, a joint booklet of tale and legendary characters, and a joint cookbook of five countries' cuisines. During the mobilities, each hosting school will organize several activities or events in a constructive way such as sample lessons or class observations in real learning environment at school, introducing the educational system or innovative methods of teaching and classroom technology, several workshops for traditional or popular handicrafts in which the participating pupils will be involved and develop their artistic skills, introduction of traditional or popular sports in a constructive way based on a cultural and actual setting, introduction of folk dances or musical activities, introduction of national or local dishes (cuisine), lifestyle in the country with cultural trips or sightseeing, learning activities to get information about the history of the countries by the means of historical places and museum visits etc. During the mobilities, we will keep a special notebook in which the participants will write what they observe and experience. The project notebook will travel five participating countries, and finally be exhibited in Turkey.In this project, our methodology is primarily based on pragmatism and constructivism. As a part of our methodology, the project is based on student-centered learning. We aim that the project activities are mainly planned and prepared in regard to the active involvement of the pupils, and actual benefits. We also follow the constructivist principle initiating that teachers are guide and the students are explorers. In this regard, all participant teachers are responsible for providing necessary and convenient environment.
In this project, our priority was inclusive education, which was vital for an all-embracing high quality learning and teaching that embraces all pupils from diverse communities or various culture. One of the key factors of overcoming prejudices is to know each other better, and to discover the diversities of other cultures, which requires mutual communication and being tolerant to each other’s way of life, beliefs and values. Our methodology was primarily based on pragmatism and constructivism. As a part of our methodology, the project was based on student-centered learning. We aimed that the project activities were mainly planned and prepared in regard to the active involvement of the pupils, and actual benefits. We also followed the constructivist principle initiating that teachers were guide and the students were explorers. In this regard, all participant teachers were responsible for providing necessary and convenient environment. And our main objective was that the participants would realize differences and similarities between their own and each other's cultures, overcome their prejudices, and acquire a sense of European citizenship.To succeed these goals, the project was reinforced with enjoyable practices and performances, learning teaching activities, and exchange of pupils in cross-cultural activities. While choosing the cultural elements as a theme to this project, we were motivated by the multicultural diversities of Europe, multiculturalism in other words, which was an important motivating force for the pupils to learn about each other’s differences and similarities within the project. We started the project as 6 partner schools. Each school has a different background. For example ,the two schools from Turkey are in Zile. Zile is a district and it is not a popular one. Zile Fevzi Çakmak Ortaokulu has the best academic success amond the secondary schools in Zile. Zile Hüseyin Gazi Ortaokulu's pupils is located in disadvantaged neighbourhood.The Hungarian school is In Budapest, the capital city and it also has a different educational system called "Waldorf". The Romanian school is in Sibiu. It is was the European capital city of culture. The Polish school is in the countyside, but has many opportunities for students. The Portuguese school is in the district, too. That way we intended to manage inclusive education in our project. By means of this project, the pupils perceived the cultural diversities and saw the differences as a cultural richness, improved a positive view of European citizenship, become familiar with different cultures, respected other people from different cultures and traditions, became free of prejudice and fear of communication and more tolerant to the others from different cultures, acquired a common identity under the European citizenship, understood the importance of learning a foreign language, improve their competence of speaking English, learned other European languages in basic level, learned about the significance of cooperation as they worked together, made new friends and shared their friendship with their peers, developed the competence of ICT, had a chance to participate in cultural activities, saw the daily life in other countries.The pupils were also provided with the opportunities to make friends with each other, and learn collaboratively. To reach this results, we performed several project assignments and produced some joint materials such as introduction of historical places (presentations or videos), preparing a joint practical dictionary in five languages of the partners, an activity "What do you know about European countries?" (interviews or questionnaires), a joint booklet of people we are proud of, a joint booklet of traditional games and sports, a joint booklet of tale and legendary characters, and a joint cookbook of five countries' cuisines. During the mobilities, each hosting school organized several activities or events in a constructive way such as sample lessons or class observations in real learning environment at school, introducing the educational system or innovative methods of teaching and classroom technology, several workshops for traditional or popular handicrafts in which the participating pupils were involved and develop their artistic skills, introduction of traditional or popular sports in a constructive way based on a cultural and actual setting, introduction of folk dances or musical activities, introduction of national or local dishes (cuisine), lifestyle in the country with cultural trips or sightseeing, learning activities to get information about the history of the countries by the means of historical places and museum visits etc. During the mobilities, we kept a special notebook in which the participants wrote about their feelings, what they observe and experience. The project notebook travelled five participating countries, and finally was exhibited in Turkey.