The project " Pimp up your brain – brain-friendly teaching and learning in integration courses for adults" is a partner project to exchange good practices. Increasing immigration to Europe since 2015 has resulted in challenges in the European Union. Talks with EU partners made made clear that there is a different approach to integration in almost every European country and this has led to very different results. These talks made clear that the acquired knowledge and insights cannot be transferred to all the languages taught in the respective European countries. So it was decided to look closer at integration in the German speaking countries. The Association of Adult Education Colleges Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. talked to respective colleges in Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein and learnt that teachers in integration courses tend to reach their limits. Due to a lack of time and personnel resources not all countries can join the project. However, they are very much interested in the results and later cooperation. VHS-Bildungsinstitut VoG Eupen, Belgium and the BhW Niederösterreich GmbH Atzenbrugg, Austria together with the Association of Adult Education Colleges Sachsen-Anhalt e.V., Germany will actively share their experiences to verify the quality of integration courses in Europe. The following questions will be basis of this audit: 1. How do learners in integration courses value the success of the welcoming culture in their target countries, their respective adult education colleges. How do they value their personal gain of competences in the courses, the teaching methods. What do they miss in the courses and what is not appropriately dealt with? 2. Which political and legal regulations influence the integration process? (Structures, objectives, financing, group sizes (e.g. in Germany 12-25 students per class / in Austria 6 per group - Which similarities, differences and effects result from these conditions?) 3. How is teacher and further training done in these three countries? (professional and linguistic requirements for teachers, content, implementation, financing, materials) The results of the project, apart from strengthening the competences of teachers and raising the quality of courses, will give evidence of the current quality of integration courses and will allow conclusions about further steps, such as requirements to increase quality and how cooperation in a European context can be of assistance. 100 teachers will take part in the survey and 68 will be taking part in the three learning activities during the exchange. They will participate in competence building workshops and will pass on their knowledge and skills to teachers in regional workshops. The indirect target group will be learners. They will be integrated into the implementation of the acquired knowledge and insights. Apart from this 300 learners will take part in a survey to assess the quality of integration courses. Three learning activities were designed for the partaking teachers. They will contribute to exchange and raising their competences. Every meeting will focus on a particular theme or topic: C1. Intercultural competence as stress competence, enhancing teaching competences C2. Strengthening enjoyment of learning and motivation of learners, brain-friendly teaching, developing a range of methods C3. Dealing with traumatized participants, raising awareness among the teachers and strengthening their competences Fort he implementation of the project a common project management method was chosen: Introduction, planning, implementation, checking and evaluation. To ensure administrative planning and evaluation there will be transnational meetings at the beginning and end as well as accompanying sessions. To support the work of the transnational meetings monthly video meetings will be held. Apart from the expected strengthening of the teachers and the improvement of course quality written surveys will be carried out asking the questions mentioned above. The resulting data will be condensed and evaluated, they will provide information about the actual state and will allow conclusions on follow-up steps. e.g. requirements for raising course quality and how European cooperation can contribute to this. The aim of the cooperation is raising the quality of the courses to improve the chances of successful integration work in Europe through brain-friendly processing of teaching and learning stuff and strengthening of intercultural competences. To reach this goal the project partners will regularly inform their local, regional and national providers of German as a foreign language courses and integration courses as well as respective organisations in the German speaking regions about the progress of the project and its results and invite them to attend regional exchange workshops and further training seminars. On EPALE the results will be provided and further exchange of experiences will be encouraged.
The project "Pimp up your brain - brain-friendly teaching and learning in integration courses for adults" was a strategic partner project for the exchange of good practice. The initial situation was that the increased immigration of people from other countries of origin confronts the European Union with numerous challenges. Discussions with EU partners have shown that integration processes are approached differently in all countries and sometimes lead to very different results. The Landesverband der VHS Saxonia-Anhalt e.V. went with the VHS education institute VoG. Eupen - Belgium and the BhW Niederösterreich GmbH St. Pölten, into the active exchange, in order to examine the quality of DaZ and integration courses in the European context. The discussion was based on the following questions, among others: 1) How successful do learners in integration courses judge the welcome culture in the target country or in the institution? How successful do they judge their personal development? What do they feel is missing? 2) Which political and legal requirements influence integration processes in the individual partner countries? (e.g. structures, goals, financing, group sizes, e.g. in Germany 12-25 participants / in Austria 6 participants per group). 3) How is the training and further education of teachers for integration courses organized in the three partner countries (e.g. professional and linguistic requirements, contents, implementation, financing, materials)? Three surveys were conducted, targeting adult education organizations, education staff and participants in integration process courses. An interesting finding was that brain-friendly teaching materials are almost exclusively created by educational staff. Here the actual causes would have to be clarified. There were three learning activities with the following main topics: C1. Intercultural competence as a stress competence - strengthening of teachers' competences C2. Strengthening the joy of learning and motivation of the learners - brain-friendly teaching - developing a variety of methods C3. Dealing with traumatized participants in integration courses - sensitizing and strengthening the teaching staff These activities served the exchange and the expansion of competences. In the three learning activities, more than 85 teachers participated in the exchange activities and competence strengthening workshops. They shared their knowledge with their colleagues in regional workshops. Indirect target group were learners in the integration process accompanying courses. They were involved by their teachers in the implementation and reflection of what they have learned. For the implementation of the project a common project management method was chosen - initiation, planning, execution, control and evaluation. In order to ensure the management and evaluation of the project as well as the dissemination of the results, a transnational meeting was held at the beginning, at the end and in the margins of each of the three learning activities. Regular video conferences of the project working group complemented this process and enabled a timely correction and adjustment of intermediate steps. All participants emerged from the project with strengthened competencies. The exchange and the workshops offered led to an increase in course quality. In some cases, concepts were revised and adapted; in others, new concepts were developed. The aim of the cooperation was to improve the quality of the courses by strengthening intercultural competencies among the educational staff and raising awareness for a more brain-friendly preparation of learning material, thus increasing the chances of successful integration work for the European community. In order to achieve this goal at the EU level, local, regional and national providers of German as a foreign language and integration courses as well as corresponding organizations were regularly informed about the progress of the project and the results and invited to further training. At EPALE there are links to reports and to the collection of materials on the project website. The materials can be downloaded free of charge.