This Erasmus+ KA2 project on cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices is a strategic partnership for schools only. It involves 8 schools from Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Wales (UK), Ireland, Bulgaria, Romania and Czech Republic. The main priority of this partnership is supporting schools to address all students from the lowest to the highest end of academic spectrum, to maximize the learning and teaching potential in each of our schools and to deal with issues of underachievement in basic skills. The teachers, in close collaboration with the educational community (researchers, parents, students and other members) are going to learn and develop new teaching methods: Visual Literacy (VL) and/in Differentiated instruction (DI). In the media age, children face reading literacy and VL challenges even at their early primary school age. The development of broad literacy skills, which go far beyond a purely text-based approach (e.g. critical and competent use of visual material, coding and decoding of pictures), would therefore appear necessary. This project primarily addresses our need as teachers to adopt and share innovative methods in order to enhance and develop our teaching work in societies where cultural changes (multiculturalism, financial crises, immigrants) happen so fast that and formal, traditional educational systems fail to follow. It is crucial then to develop this project in diverse teaching contexts and environments so we would be able to come with positive lines of investigation in the new ways that education is adopting. Our innovative project is guided by the general principles of differentiation, which are respectful tasks, tiered lessons, flexible grouping and ongoing assessment. The methodology we intend to apply to work on incorporates a lot of the characteristics inherent in language teaching and looks into the potential of the Visual Literacy approach as a viable practice for Differentiated Instruction. Our aims: - To utilise the pedagogical teaching methods behind the theories of DI and VL in order to customise learning experiences, to adapt and differentiate teaching procedures and tasks according to the unique needs and learning styles of the students - Raise awareness among children and adults of the cultural elements around them and how these relate to their daily lives - Sensitise children to collective processes necessary for decision-making and to foster the spirit of collective work and trust in the product of group work - Use tasks as “research tools” for cultural comparisons on a longitudinal basis and between communities of a different cultural, economic, social profile - to address our students’ individual needs in terms of better understanding the learning process, the curriculum topics and contribute to the improvement of their school attainment and inclusion Our VL and DI project is less perceived as an isolated school subject and more as the combined outcome of educational activities incorporating other areas of knowledge (languages, art, music, drama, ICT, social studies etc) The results expected during the project are the final productions of activities along with a final physical book with all our Project activities in different languages, the resources from teachers' co-training activities and a final guide about the whole project. The project is expected to have impact on the school as a “whole” as it affects students, teachers, parents, local community by supporting the overall improvement of the quality of the school and the cooperation in many levels and by disseminating the project practices and results (using various tools) to multiple target groups (local, regional, national, transnational level). Finally, the sustainability in this project is ensured as all partners are committed to building a network of stable relationships that can lead to future expansion and development of the project.
This Erasmus+ KA2 project on cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices is a strategic partnership for schools only. It involves 7 schools from Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Wales (UK), Bulgaria, Romania and Czech Republic. The main priority of the partnership was to support schools to address all students from the lowest to the highest end of academic spectrum, to maximize the learning and teaching potential in each of our schools and to deal with issues of underachievement in basic skills. The teachers, in close collaboration with the educational community (researchers, parents, students and other members)have learnt and developed new teaching methods: Visual Literacy (VL) and/in Differentiated instruction (DI). In the media age, children face reading literacy and VL challenges even at their early primary school age. The children began developing broad literacy skills, which go far beyond a purely text-based approach (e.g. critical and competent use of visual material, coding and decoding of pictures), This project primarily addressed our needs as teachers to adopt and share innovative methods. As a consequence this enhanced and developed our teaching work in societies where cultural changes (multiculturalism, financial crises, immigrants) happen so fast that formal traditional educational systems fails to follow. This project was developed to encourage diverse teaching contexts and environments so we were able to discover some positive lines of investigation and new ways of adapting education. Our innovative project was guided by the general principles of differentiation, which included tasks, differentiated lessons, flexible grouping and ongoing assessment. The methodology that we applied to work incorporated a lot of the characteristics inherent in language teaching and looked at the potential of the Visual Literacy approach as a viable practice. Our aims were: - To utilise the pedagogical teaching methods behind the theories of DI and VL in order to customise learning experiences, to adapt and differentiate teaching procedures and tasks according to the unique needs and learning styles of the students - Raise awareness among children and adults of the cultural elements around them and how these relate to their daily lives - Sensitise children to collective processes necessary for decision-making and to foster the spirit of collective work and trust in the product of group work - Use tasks as “research tools” for cultural comparisons on a longitudinal basis and between communities of a different cultural, economic, social profile - to address our students’ individual needs in terms of better understanding the learning process, the curriculum topics and contribute to the improvement of their school attainment and inclusion Our intention was to include VL and DI in the project and to integrate them school subject and combined the outcomes of educational activities which incorporated other areas of knowledge (e.g languages, art, music, drama, ICT, social studies etc) As a result of the project the final productions of activities along with the digital book on our twinspace showing all Project activities in different languages, the resources received from teachers. The project had an impact on the whole school as it was embedded in students, teachers, parents, local community by supporting the overall improvement and the quality of the school. We disseminated the project practices and results (using various tools) to target multiple groups (local, regional, national, transnational level). Finally, the sustainability in this project was ensured as all partners were committed to building a network of stable relationships that will lead to future expansion and development of the project.