'Practical Skills Matter' is an Erasmus+ project prepared by six secondary schools from NL, IT, RO, PL , GR and TR for students between 12 and 17 years old. The idea is coming from lack of basic skills which are not learned in schools. We are questioning the function of schools as the starting point. Are schools providing enough fulfillment for real life or not? Are schools enough to gain basic skills for professional life or not? Are schools teaching requirements for being successful after school life or not? Do schools develop individuals enough to have self-esteem, self-confidence or not? Do schools teach moral values enough or not? Are schools the place where citizens get education for their specific talents or not? And most importantly; are schools able to provide a real education which transform theoretical knowledge into practical behavior or not? Conclusions: -Schools have lack of activities in term of what we really need in real life. -Theoretical lessons don't improve practical and social skills -Practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge are both important phases of learning. Perfect combination of both practical and theoretical methods is necessary for real learning. Learning in most of our schools is now for a great percentage limited to classrooms. We want to expand learning outside the classroom, outside our schools, outside our cities and beyond the borders of the countries in Europe, in real life situations. Our project is stated on creating/developing practical materials/ activities/real situations for the theoretical knowledge that is given in school curricula. We aim to connect both types of knowledge and provide real learning. Activities to achieve this: 1. Every school chooses lessons from their own curriculum, which they want to change from mostly theoretical lessons to more practical lessons. Per school, that lessons can diverse. For every lesson there will be formulated goals for the student concerning needed skills and competences. Every individual school will develop practical activities. Before starting the project every school has decided already what lessons to improve this way. During the meetings and at the end of the project we can exchange our new lessons by a joint website and the other schools can copy the lessons and try them out during the year with their own students. For that cause we will design a template/sheet during the first meeting with the coordinators. At the end of the project every school will change the curriculum by adding the new lessons and practical activities. The goals of these activities concern skills and competences linked to the curriculum (Maths, English, Biology, Crafts, Languages, Science, Art lessons). 2. We also plan extracurricular activities. These activities are aimed to develop the skills and competences needed in social life and aim to improve independent living and having self-esteem. Every school will work on a selection of the next activities. We implement them on various levels: adapted to each school and in cooperation with the partnerschools. During the project we exchange our experiences and outcomes on the joint website and during the transnational meetings. 1. participating in charity events 2. running a personal budget/ doing own shopping / budgeting activities 3. repairing, fixing and doing other chores in house works 4. planting and grooving vegetables, flowers and herbs 5. taking responsibility for our environment and volunteer in activities to maintain a clean and neat environment 6. visiting elderly people in the neighborhoods or in a house for elderly people and doing activities with them or chores for them. 7. taking responsibilities for animals / pets 8. organizing recycling activities in the neighborhood of the school 9. cooking 10. improving communication and international friendships by e-mail, facebook, etc. with the students from the participating schools. Objectives -Creating an active, happy and fruitful learning environment inside/outside the classes -Providing real learning and changing our curricula by adding more practical education -Preventing lack of basic skills -developing our students self-confidence, independency, social and basic skills and (European) citizenship Working both transnational as interdisciplinair is an added value of this project. Transnationally is also a must as every exchange will be a way of development of the skills and competences aimed in the project. Students will practice on an international level. Besides, teachers will observe good practices in host school and transfer them into their own school curricula. This project makes our activities not only interdisciplinair, but also chross-educational, multi cultural and chross-national wich gives this project an extra and European dimension and broadens mutual understanding and increases the learning effects. Our cooperation will strengthen the quality of our education.
'Practical Skills Matter' is an Erasmus+ project realised by five secondary schools from NL, IT, RO, PL and GR for students between 12 and 17 years old. We are questioning the function of schools as the starting point. Are schools providing enough fulfillment for real life or not? Are schools enough to gain basic skills for professional life or not? Are schools teaching requirements for being successful after school life or not? Do schools develop individuals enough to have self-esteem, self-confidence or not? Do schools teach moral values enough or not? Are schools the place where citizens get education for their specific talents or not? And most importantly; are schools able to provide a real education which transform theoretical knowledge into practical behavior or not? Conclusions: -Schools have lack of activities in term of what we really need in real life. -Theoretical lessons don't improve practical and social skills -Practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge are both important phases of learning. Perfect combination of both practical and theoretical methods is necessary for real learning. Learning in most of our schools is now for a great percentage limited to classrooms. We want to expand learning outside the classroom, outside our schools, outside our cities and beyond the borders of the countries in Europe, in real life situations. Our project focussed on creating/developing practical materials/ activities/real situations for the theoretical knowledge that is given in school curricula. We aimed to connect both types of knowledge and provide real learning. Activities to achieve this: 1. Every school changed lessons from their own curriculum from mostly theoretical lessons to more practical lessons. In some of the schools whole new courses were introduced and implemented. During the meetings and at the end of the project we exchanged our new lessons by a joined website so our partners and others can copy the lessons and use them. 2. We also planned extracurricular activities. 3. We organised three transnational meetings with students. We worked on this objectives: -Creating an active, happy and fruitful learning environment inside/outside the classes -Providing real learning and changing our curricula by adding more practical education -Preventing lack of basic skills -developing our students self-confidence, independence, social and basic skills and (European) citizenship Working both transnational as interdisciplinary was an added value of this project. Transnationality was also a must as every exchange will be a way of development of the skills and competences aimed in the project. Students practiced on an international level. Teachers observed good practices in host schools. This project made our activities not only interdisciplinary, but also cross-educational, multi cultural and cross-national which gave this project an extra European dimension and broadened mutual understanding and increased the learning effects. Our cooperation strengthenen the quality of our education. The results and impact of the project mainly consist all the new developed practical lessons and activities. They are exchanged with the partner schools and any other who is interested through a common website. The long term benefits are the fact that we proceed offering these lessons and courses and activities in our schools to improve the quality of our education and to keep reaching the objectives we have for our current and future students. Besides these results it had also a great impact on students: they developed more practical skills, they developed more self-confidence and social and basic skills for citizenship. Learning by doing created also more fun and pleasure and adventures. Also the skills and motivation amongst teachers improved. Through this project we proved: Practical Skills Matter! In many, many ways!