Basic skills of different degrees of complexity are becoming increasingly important to enable full participation in all aspects of modern life. Such phenomenon has been observed for long time and Berlin&Sum (1988) in their report showed that deficits of in basic skills (reading, math & science) result in dropping out from school of young people and in consequence, their bad situation at the labour market, poverty and social exclusion. Similar results show Rivera-Batiz (1992), Parsons&Bynner (1997, 2005) when studying math skills: individuals with poor numeracy skills have an increased likelihood of being unemployed or have low paid low status jobs with poor promotion prospects and the impact of poor numeracy on employment prospects can be even greater than that of poor literacy. PISA research (2015) showed, that in the UE, on average, 19.7% students achieve low results in reading comprehension, 22.1% in math and 20.5% in science. The highest percentage of deficiency was noted in, i.a. Bulgaria (respectively: 41.5%; 42.1%, 37.9%). Also in Romania these indicators were above the average (38.7%; 39.9%, 38.5%) and in other partners countries some were above (reading: IT:21%, CRO:19.9%; math: CRO:32%, PT: 23.8%, IT:23.3%; science: CRO: 24.6%, IT: 23.2%). These results strongly correlate (adj.R2=0.69) with data relating to drop outs. According to stat. of Int. Labour Organisation, 71 out of 197,1 million of global unemployed are young, while 20-45% of them being drop-outs (depended on country). Situation in partners’ countries (Eurostat 2016): BG:13.4%,RO:18.5%, CRO: 2.8%, PT:13.6%, ES:19.4%, IT:14.1%, PL:5.2%. EU28 is 10.8%. The largest influence in this area have reading and math skills. The EU’s plan for tackling early school leaving aims to reduce the average drop-out rate to below 10% by 2020. Dropping out of school has also other reasons, it is often effect of discouragement, difficulties in learning and thus low achievements; belief that intelligence is fixed (some people have it or don’t); unfriendly atmosphere. These problems occur due to inadequate learning methods. Out of 10 commonly used methods only 2 work well (Dunlosky, 2013). Even if Teachers know that if the right methods are used, the situation can be changed, they don’t use them because of lack of time, resources, knowledge. The problems with the most commonly used methods include: 1) Problems with grading 2) Problems with testing 3) Not enough feedback To change situation, new methods are needed. Innovative ways of teaching that are being used include self/per learning, gamification and flipped learning but they are used separately. An effective method will be developed by project partners which includes combination of these proven teaching methods into one complex Collaborative methodology. It will combine self/peer learning, elements of gamification and flipped learning into one methodology that leads to encouragement and motivation. The aim is to improve basic skills of secondary school students and reduce dropout rate in these countries. The aim will be achieved through: - development of Collaborative methodology and implementing it on-line form as Collaborative Learning e-Tools - development and test of curriculum improving math, science and literacy skills - preparation of Toolkit for Teachers and equipping them with competence of using it - wide dissemination of outputs in order to assure exploitation and sustainability It is expected that 864 persons (Teachers from secondary schools and their students) will participate in the project directly, while the dissemination activities will reach above 20000 people. Intellectual Outputs: O1 - The Toolkit for Teachers with curriculum improving match, science and literacy skills O2 - Collaborative learning e-Tools The project has a potential of impact on all levels, as the dissemination will be conducted using many channels from direct to digital which doesn't have any boarders. The outputs will be created in English and additional 6 European languages and they will be available on-line, from any place.
The EU’s plan for tackling early school leaving aims to reduce the average drop-out rate to below 10% by 2020. To give their contribution to this ambitious goal, 8 organisations (schools and training providers) from 7 EU countries developed the idea for the project “Math & Motivation”. The main aim of the M&M project was to improve basic skills of secondary school students in the sphere of math and sciences and reduce dropout rate in Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. This aim was achieved through: - development and testing of Collaborative methodology and implementing it in an on-line e-platform - development and testing of a Curriculum with lesson plans for improving math, science and literacy skills of school students - improving the competences of teachers into creating and applying innovative teaching methods and tools (including ICT) in their classroom in order to increase the students motivation to be more actively engaged in their learning process and improving their academic results The innovation that M&M project offered was the combination of three innovative teaching methods (self/peer learning, gamification and flipped learning) into one complex Collaborative methodology available in the form of theoretical guidelines as well as a base of an e-learning platform for collaborative learning: an online environment for teachers that supports modern approaches and models in learning. The platform can be used by teachers and students with the strong focus on achieving learning outcomes with the use of peer learning, quizzes and ability to check-mark rather than grade individual students. The direct target groups and beneficiaries of the M&M project were math and science teachers and secondary school students in the partner countries and in Europe (more than 140 teachers and 430 students involved in total). In the course of 2 years (September 2017-August 2019) the project partnership put many efforts and dedication on order to achieve the aims and results drafted in the initial proposal. During the first year was created IО1 – The Toolkit for teachers, consisting of the Collaborative methodology and the Curriculum aiming at increasing math and science skills. It was presented during the LTTA staff training in Italy (March 2018) aiming to provide the participants opportunity to share and exchange knowledge and good practices, learn the new methodology and to create the program and activities for the national cascade trainings. Based on the feedback, suggestions and comments of the participants in the event the Toolkit was improved and finalised before the end of the first year of the project. The national cascade trainings took place at the beginning of school year 2018/2019 in all partner countries. The aim of these events was to acquaint more teachers with the innovative toolkit and engage them in the further testing of the methodology and online platform in real classroom environment. The second project year was dedicated to the work on IO2 – Collaborative learning e-tools platform. All partners worked hard to set up the online learning environment, fill it in with content and test it among the target group – teachers and secondary school students. The piloting of the platform was implemented in the period May-July 2019. The last month of the project (August 2019) was used for finalization of the platform and improvements based on the results of the national testings. All products and results in the frame of Math & Motivation project were widely disseminated on the national multiplier events during the final months of the project implementation. Considering the feedback, interest and comments received during the whole project duration by interested parties at different occasions, it could be concluded that the project and its activities had and will continue to have a very positive impact on the participating organisations as well as on the direct target group – teachers and students, thus providing a positive influence at local and national level. All teachers who participated in the different stages of the project declared with certainty that they will continue to use the e-platform and the toolkit in their future work. They all considered M&M products as an innovative and attractive supplement to the formal school activities that could increase the students’ motivation in their learning and improve their peer to peer connection. The students themselves were very happy to participate in the project and stated that they would like to continue to use the platform during the next school year. The attractiveness and efficiency of the method will help to ensure the sustainability of the project results.