The project aims to develop an environmental education programme called One World Learning (OWL) to promote diversity, citizenship , language learning, integrated science, team work and critical thinking in an environmental context for children, youths and adults. The overall aim is to trigger behavioural changes that will lead to inquisitive, empowered, socially inclusive and environmentally responsible individuals and communities. The project will address the urgent need for encouraging active citizenship, critical thinking and intercultural exchange across communities in Europe as recognised in the Lisbon Treaty. Through learning and understanding that everyone has a role to play in protecting our environment and empowering children and adults to do so we encourage participants to be active citizens, to think critically about how they can improve their local environments and learn and share knowledge and experiences from other individuals and communities across cultures and countries. OWL will combine best practice, innovation, research and experience from five environmental NGO’s to develop One World Learning into a project which has potential to be relevant on a European level. The following objectives will be achieved through transnational cooperation and exchange between education and training providers and other stakeholders: 1. To strengthen partnerships and networks between European countries in the field of environmental education. 2. To develop an international environmental education programme based on best practice and European standards. 3. To promote positive environmental behaviours, citizenship, critical thinking and innovation in children and youths. 4. To strengthen teacher and leader professional development in the field of environmental education. 5. To promote diversity and intercultural exchange through language learning for children 6. To promote new interests in science learning through opportunities for practical outdoor activities 7. Promote international awareness of the educational and health benefits of learning in the natural environment using both local and international research findings. 8. To demonstrate the connections between outdoor learning and social inclusion The project will also address national priorities for the year 2017 in the fields: 1. Foreign Language teaching and/or learning 2. Life Skills for Children 3. Applied Learning 4. Science and Technology 5. Alternative Learning programme and initiatives Project activities will involve 4,700 people, including 4,000 children and 700 teaching professionals. The project will be delivered through an innovative partnership between five countries: Birdlife Malta (Lead partner); Maltese Ministry for Education and Employment; Birdlife Europe; OTOP (Polish Society for the Protection of Birds); SPEA (Portugese Society for the Study of Birds; and Learning Through Landscapes (UK). By working together we can share best practice and learn from each other to create a model environmental education programme that will have longer term relevance and reach through the Birdlife Europe network. Year 1 will involve two transnational meetings, an introductory meeting at the start of the project and a progress meeting at the end of the year. During this year each partner will develop and research their organisations intellectual output in collaboration with all partners. Expertise, experience and knowledge will be shared between partners. Each intellectual output forms a section of One World Learning Europe, therefore this collaboration is key. A learning, teaching and training activity will take place, run by Learning through Landscapes, to build the capacity of each organisation to deliver teacher training relevant to their country, to aid dissemination of their intellectual outputs. Year 2 will involve the continued collaboration of work on the intellectual outputs with the completion of intellectual outputs set for month 21. At the end of year 2 there will be a transnational meeting to bring these intellectual outputs together and plan the dissemination of these outputs. Year 3 will involve dissemination through multiplier events and implementation of the intellectual outputs from Netherlands, Portugal, Malta, Poland and the U.K., whilst maintaining research investigations to have the final programme output to be shared based on best practice, innovation and the latest research. During year 3, development of OWL Europe will also take place, combining all the intellectual outputs created in one programme to be disseminated in a series of multiplier events and one learning, teaching and training activities at the end of the project, shared through the BirdLife Europe network to ensure a long lasting, sustainable impact across Europe.
The project developed an environmental education programme called One World Learning (OWL) in which we promoted diversity, citizenship , language learning, integrated science, team work and critical thinking in an environmental context for children, youths and adults. The overall aim was to trigger behavioural changes that will lead to inquisitive, empowered, socially inclusive and environmentally responsible individuals and communities. The project addressed the urgent need for encouraging active citizenship, critical thinking and intercultural exchange across communities in Europe as recognised in the Lisbon Treaty. The resources and events delivered encouraged participants to be active citizens, to think critically about how they can improve their local environments and learn and share knowledge and experiences from other individuals and communities across cultures and countries. OWL has combined best practice, innovation, research and experience from five environmental NGO’s to develop One World Learning into a project which is relevant on a European level and beyond. Through transnational cooperation and exchange between education and training providers and other stakeholders we managed to achieve the following objectives: 1. To strengthen partnerships and networks between European countries in the field of environmental education. 2. To develop an international environmental education programme based on best practice and European standards. 3. To promote positive environmental behaviours, citizenship, critical thinking and innovation in children and youths. 4. To strengthen teacher and leader professional development in the field of environmental education. 5. To promote diversity and intercultural exchange through language learning for children 6. To promote new interests in science learning through opportunities for practical outdoor activities 7. Promote international awareness of the educational and health benefits of learning in the natural environment using both local and international research findings. 8. To connect outdoor learning and social inclusion The project also addressed national priorities for the year 2017 in the fields: 1. Foreign Language teaching and/or learning 2. Life Skills for Children 3. Applied Learning 4. Science and Technology 5. Alternative Learning programme and initiatives Project activities impacted 950 people, including 500 children and 450 teaching professionals. After the project has ended it has the potential to impact tens of thousands of children- In Malta for example- we work with around 18,000 children per year who participate in the schools programme which was developed through this project. The network developed is expanding and continuing to influence environmental and educational organisations around the world, impacting children in turn. The partnership consisted of: Birdlife Malta (Lead partner); Maltese Ministry for Education and Employment; Birdlife Europe; OTOP (Polish Society for the Protection of Birds); SPEA (Portugese Society for the Study of Birds; and Learning Through Landscapes (UK). By working together we shared best practice and learnt from each other to create an environmental education network that will have longer term relevance and reach through Birdlife International. Year 1 consisted of three transnational meetings. The core themes that were covered included: Introduction, team building, planning and risk management (T1- Malta), communications, branding and engagement planning (T2- Belgium), Intellectual Outputs and defining One World Learning Europe (T3- Poland). This year was mainly focused on development of intellectual outputs 01-05. There was also a learning, teaching, training activity (C1), in which the partnership came together for teacher training in the U.K. Year 2 focused on the development of digital outputs (06) and the final One World Learning programme (07), all the dissemination events took place this year and there was a final learning, teaching, training event hosted by BirdLife Europe and Central Asia. There were two transnational meetings, one was in the UK and the other took place in Portugal.