Context Critical thinking represents a self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically and consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, empathically. Through this project, we want to offer our students the chance to discover themselves as young citizens who are capable of thinking creatively, critically, who know their role and possibilities in the democratic processes they are affected by. We want them to know that they are in charge of their own future and they should not let themselves be manipulated by others. They will create their own network of Active citizens and will communicate about the pressing issues of the world today on their own forum. We are addressing a target group of 300 students of different specialisations in our schools, boys and girls, mainstream students or students belonging to disadvantaged groups, who are 16-17 years old. They will be at the core of the activities, as we intend to make a long-lasting impact on them. The project also addresses 35 teachers in our schools, who will turn the project results into long-term practices at local levels, will coordinate students' activity and guide them, monitor them and act as a resource. Objectives The objectives of the project are: - to develop students' critical thinking, leadership, communication and social skills - to make student gets more involved in the community life - to lay the basis for students' autonomy in thinking and action - to promote European values - tolerance, respect, democracy, active citizenship - to promote intercultural learning - to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the cooperation between European students Main activities The project will include four exchanges during which students will interact, communicate, exchange ideas, put forwards arguments and counterarguments based on statistical data, assess the situations comparatively, participate in role-plays, simulations, interviews. Each team of students will do research on the topic of the exchange, so that the meeting will be productive and a qualitative exchange of information is facilitated. There are 4 exchanges with the following topics: C1 - Immigration C2 - Democracy - human rights C3 - Discrimination C4 - Civic involvement Methodology Before the exchanges, students will work intensively on the topic of the exchange and will collect data at local level in order to provide an informed presentation of the situattion during the exchange. To do this, they will do research, apply surveys, take interviews, contact NGOs active in that field, collect data, analyse, assess and draw conclusions. During the exchanges, they will present their research work, analyse the data from other countries comparatively, participate in debates, in engaging activties which are meant to improve their critical thinking skills, meet local authorities and discuss the issues to see the opinion of a politician on those matters. Results and impact Students will develop autonomy and critical thinking, be more aware of their rights, duties and their power to decide for themselves, get involved in the community life, develop professional, personal, interpersonal skills and intercultural competence. They will acquire European values, such as tolerance, respect, active citizenship. Tangible results include the recordings of debates, presentations, research work, the collection of activities for developing critical thinking skills (for teachers), the platform for students. The project is expected to have a wide impact through the students' platform, dissemination activities and materials published on a variety of online spaces. Besides students, there will be teachers, parents, institutions and local communities who benefit from the project results in one way or another. Teachers will diversify their teaching materials and improve their communication, organisational and team work skills. Schools will improve their human resources, attain more cohesion, gain a positive image and will strengthen the relations with local authorities and NGOs, parents will become more involved in the school life and will appreciate the role of the school in the shaping of their children's individuality.
CONTEXT Critical thinking represents a self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically and consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, empathically. Through this project, we wanted to offer our students the chance to discover themselves as young citizens who are capable of thinking creatively, critically, who know their role and possibilities in the democratic processes they are affected by. We wanted them to know that they are in charge of their own future and they should not let themselves be manipulated by others. They have created their own network of Active citizens and have communicated about the pressing issues of the world today on their own forum. OBJECTIVES The objectives were: - to develop students' critical thinking, leadership, communication and social skills - to make student get more involved in the community life - to lay the basis for students' autonomy in thinking and action - to promote European values - tolerance, respect, democracy, active citizenship - to promote intercultural learning - to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the cooperation between European students NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS We have addressed a target group of 513 students of different specialisations in our schools, boys and girls, mainstream students and students belonging to disadvantaged groups, who are 16-17 years old. Most of them have been at the core of the activities, as we intended to make a long-lasting impact on them. The project also addressed 52 teachers in our schools, who are turning the project results into long-term practices at local levels, have coordinated students' activities and guided them, monitored them and acted as a resource. Main activities undertaken The project included four exchanges during which students interacted, communicated, exchanged ideas, put forwards arguments and counterarguments based on statistical data, assessed the situations comparatively, participated in role-plays, simulations, interviews. Each team of students did research on the topic of the exchange, so that the meetings were productive and a qualitative exchange of information was facilitated. There were 4 exchanges with the following topics: C1 - Immigration C2 - Democracy - human rights C3 - Discrimination C4 - Civic involvement METHODOLOGY Before the exchanges, students worked intensively on the topic of each exchange and collected data at local level in order to provide an informed presentation of the situation during the exchange. To do this, they did research, applied surveys, took interviews, contacted NGOs active in that field, collected data, analysed, assessed and drew conclusions. During the exchanges, they presented their research work, analysed the data from other countries comparatively, participated in debates, in engaging activities which improved their critical thinking skills, met local authorities and discussed the issues to see the opinion of a politician on those matters. RESULTS AND IMPACT Students developed autonomy and critical thinking, became more aware of their rights, duties and their power to decide for themselves, they got involved in the community life, developed professional, personal, interpersonal skills and intercultural competence. They acquired European values, such as tolerance, respect, active citizenship. Tangible results include the recordings of debates, presentations, research work, the collection of activities for developing critical thinking skills (for teachers), the platform for students. The project had a wide impact through the students' platform, dissemination activities and materials published on a variety of online spaces. Besides students, teachers, parents, institutions and local communities benefited from the project results in one way or another. Teachers diversified their teaching materials and improved their communication, organisational and team work skills. Schools improved their human resources, attained more cohesion, gained a positive image and strengthened the relations with local authorities and NGOs, parents became more involved in the school life and appreciated the role of the school in the shaping of their children's individuality. LONGER-TERM BENEFITS In addition to the results already attained, we want to turn into reality some of the young associations students have created. During the dissemination events the presentation of these associations obtained a great success among the audience who liked the students' engagement in social issues and above all the hard work of sensitization towards the importance of young people's vote in political elections. This is fundamental for becoming active citizens. An additional long-term objective consists in bringing the results of this project into a much more ambitious European project inside the area of "Europe for citizens" whose priorities well match our attained results.