Six countries are involved in our project. Each country is experienced in international projects and has profound expertise in art. As for interdisciplinary learning and teaching, experiences differ. By working together in this project we hope to learn from each other and spread our experiences gained in our school to be used to on a wider scale. From September 2017 to September 2019 we will exchange best practises in interdisciplinary learning/teaching in which Art plays a central role in connection with the Sciences. These activities, to be implemented in a European context, will be able to effectively synthesize many competences (awareness of meaningful connections between disciplines, creative and critical thinking, communication in foreign languages, digital competence, learning to learn, interpersonal and intercultural competence, sense of initiative, cultural awareness and expression). During the two years of the project 16/17 mobilities per country will benefit from the grant and therefore can be involved in a meeting abroad. However some countries will try to increase the number of mobilities by encouraging students to be creative in raising money for the project. At home, in each country many more students will be involved. Students work between and during the meetings on the different activities. At home students do research on the topic for the next meeting. During the meeting teachers will monitor the group activities but students take initiative and devide tasks, using the PDCA method (plan-do-check-act). Each group will have to prepare a presentation on the result of their work for a large audiance. Students are free to choose how they want to present their product. Taking part in an international project influences the student' s life in different ways: from choosing for an international study, increased language skills, improved understanding of different cultures and more open minded towards people to developing cooperative skills, taking initiative and doing research. As for the teachers, we expect an impact of great importance. Exchanging interdisciplinary teaching / learning and the employ of action-research in the teaching practice are aimed at the design of a new profile for the teaching profession. Teachers, as well as students, will acquire new skills, new methods, internalize new operating processes. The experience gained during the project will allow the involved teachers to act like "baker's yeast", key-persons, multipliers in the process of disseminating and transferring methods and practices within the educational contexts of each partner-school. Cooperation with foreign teachers will diminish prejudices. They will experience a multi national event and the differences in teaching methods. It will encourage teachers to look from a wider perspective. Teachers can exchange didactical approaches, increase their personnel development of educational skills, but also exchange f.e. problems in education in a specific country (financial problems, amount of drop-outs, ICT problems, minority groups, broken families).It will make teachers/staff aware of the necessity that we have to implement national projects in our curriculum, as it is our duty to prepare our students for a life in an international context. At school we can develop their international sense and scope. Materials/products/reports will be uploaded on the websites of participating schools and on School education Gateway platform so products will be available for other schools, eager to work on the same or similar theme and applying the proposed methodology.
Context of the project: In this project 6 schools from Spain, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany and Latvia were involved. Each country experienced in international projects and having profound expertise in art. As for interdisciplinary learning and teaching, some partners had little experience. By working together we learned from each other and now spread our experiences in and outside our schools. Art played a central role (in connection with the Sciences and Social Studies) in interdisciplinary learning. Objectives: Acquisition of new skills and competences for both teachers and students. It was our goal to focus on interdisciplinary teaching and learning in connection with Art. The activities developed by each partner to prepare the groups before the meeting and during the exchange meetings, implemented in a European context, synthesized many competences (awareness of meaningful connections between disciplines, creative and critical thinking, communication in foreign languages, digital competence, learning to learn, interpersonal and intercultural competence, sense of initiative, cultural awareness and expression). Number and type of participants. We can divide this in different groups that took part. Teachers, at least 100, directly or indirectly involved in the project. Developing teaching material, coaching the students, accompanying them during the exchange, discussing school related issues when joining colleagues from abroad for lunch or in the stafroom. Hosting colleagues and giving workshops. Students: We travelled with a lot more students than the maximum amount of 100 mobilities. Only Germany and Sweden travelled with 3 students to most countries. All the other countries travelled between 6 and 10 students. The total amount of mobilities is therefore around 150. During the exchanges around120 extra students were involved to take part in the activities or for hosting. Parents: During each exchange at least 25 to 45 families were involved in the project as host families, and for activities like joined buffet for all participants, presentations of final products and evaluation. Experts: Around 20. Some countries organized workshops in and/or outside the school for which experts were hired (Spain, Latvia). Some countries had organized guided tours in museums. (Latvia, Germany, Netherlands, Spain) Description of undertaken activities: Each partner had to develop assignments on interdisciplinary learning in connection with art and send them to the other partner schools prior to the exchange meeting as preparation for the meeting. Students then had to give a presentation on the work prepared at school. Teaching material was also made by the hosting school to work on the topics in mixed groups coached by teachers. Each country had chosen a specific school subject in connection with art. Excursions were always part of the program. Related to the topic dealt with and one cultural activity. Results and impact attained on different levels: For students: Knowledge: Understanding that school subjects are not independent disciplines but are intertwined. New knowledge in various disciplines, Increased language skills (English), Being able to develop research questions Attitude: Personal growth, Being more open-minded towards people of different cultures Becoming aware of different economical, political and social problems, Motivating for international study and working possibilities in Europe. Improve relationships among youngsters of different origin at home and abroad. Becoming more self-assured in speaking foreign languages, taking initiative and public speaking Students were given questions (learner report) to reflect on their gained experiences. Students from Germany, Netherlands, Italy travelled on their own to their host family during the summer holidays. Skills: Improved performance skills (in English) with PP presentations, improving ICT skills , More creative/critical thinking, For parents after evaluation: Better cooperation between parents, school, language skills, Stimulating children to become involved in international contacts ( for study and employment in the futur). Results for local community and institutions: Increased involvement/communication between school, local authorities and institutions. For teachers: Improved language skills and improved intercultural skills, More international experiences (also to be used for internationalisation ' at home'), Exchange of best practises/learning interdisciplinary teaching, in short widening their horizon in teaching methods,increasing skills in groupwork and cooperative learning; increasing skills in "content and language integrated learning" (CLIL) Long term benefits: international projects influence students in different ways: from choosing for an international study, increased language skill to improved understanding of different cultures. In this specific project students learned to see that topics are always linked and never limited.n