Our project involves eight schools on primary and lower secondary level and targets students of age 10-13. It is based on the idea of integration of arts in the process of learning and teaching of other subjects. Children love all activities involving artistic expression and creativity. Experiencing arts and participating in them positively affects all aspects of learning: it helps develop mathematics, science, language and social skills. Arts also encourage children to communicate ideas, feelings, problems and solutions in both verbal and non-verbal ways. Exposure to master creations of arts leads to awareness and better understanding of children's own and other cultures. We propose integrating arts in lessons of maths, science and foreign language. We strongly believe that such integration will prove beneficial both for the process of teaching and learning of those subjects and for the intercultural awareness of our students. Many research studies prove that different artistic activities help develop mathematics and science skills. Illustrating abstract mathematical and scientific concepts through arts facilitates their better understanding, and engaging students in creative activities based on the studied concepts can help internalize and memorize them. Foreign languages are best learned through communication. On the other hand, language is a medium which can be used to carry various contents. We want to engage our students in communicative and collaborative activities that will build a sense of camaraderie among them and show them the cultural variety of Europe as our common treasure. During the project we are going to develop and implement arts-based learning modules on maths and science as well as activities in which children will use foreign language to exchange information about culture of their countries and collaboratively carry out artistic activities. Plans of the learning modules and activities will be published on the common website of the project as public teaching resources, available to be used by all teachers interested in the proposed approach. Our overall goal is exploring new ways of working with students in order to enable them to enjoy learning and achieve success, also in areas causing them problems. As each of the schools participating in our project has different expertise, important part of our project will be exchange of innovative methods and practices, in particular those focused on interdisciplinary approach and related to teaching of maths, science, foreign languages and arts.
The project is based on the idea of integration of arts in the process of learning and teaching of other subjects. Project activities will directly engaged 90 teachers and more than 500 students of the target age group 10-13 in 8 schools. Objectives: 1. Facilitating learning of maths and science and making it more attractive for students. 2. Facilitating learning of foreign language and strengthening students' motivation in this area. 3. Enhancing children's exposure to arts and fostering artistic expression and creativity. 4. Building children’s intercultural awareness and preventing xenophobia. 5. Developing, implementing and sharing learning modules and activities based on the proposed approach. 6. Strengthening teachers' qualifications through exchange of ideas and practices. Experiencing arts and participating in them positively affects all aspects of learning: it helps develop mathematics, science , language and social skills. Arts also encourage children to experiment with the balance of their emotional and intellectual selves and to communicate ideas, feelings, problems and solutions in both verbal and non-verbal ways. Exposure to master creations of arts leads to awareness and better understanding of children's own and other cultures. As in our opinion most students in the target age group have to little contact with arts, we decided to integrate arts in lessons of other subjects: maths, science and foreign language. Maths and science are the subjects perceived by our students as difficult. Results obtained by them in these areas are usually lower than in other subjects. The idea of supporting learning of those subjects by arts is based on the results of many research studies, which prove that participating in artistic activities is benficial for developing mathematics and science skills and engaging students in creative activities based on the studied concepts helps them internalize and memorize Additionally, they make the learning process more attractive. Foreign languages are best learned through communication. Teachers strive to simulate it with communicative exercises, but nothing can replace real communication in motivating and engaging students in the process of language learning. On the other hand, language is a medium which can be used to carry various contents. Building sense of camaraderie among students from different countries and showing them cultural variety of Europe prevents prejudices and xenophobia . For this purpose, we developed and implemened eactivities in which children will use foreign language to exchange information about culture of their countries and communicated to carry out artistic activities. We all realize that teachers may get stuck in a rut or suffer from burn-out, if they do not face new challenges and their chances to share ideas and experience are limited to the same, closed group of people. Therefore, important part of our project was exchange of innovative methods and practices, in particular those focused on interdisciplinary approach and related to teaching of maths, science, foreign languages and arts.