Since 2008 in all European Educational Systems there is the trend and explicit work to introduce, implement and support LEARNING OUTCOMES approach. Adopting a learning outcomes approach when developing curricula, valuing what a learner knows, understands and is able to do on completion of a learning process – irrespective of how, when and where this learning takes place – is seen by many European countries as an effective way to avoid potential mismatches and promote active learning and inclusive teaching. However, so far the focus was and still is on the VET and HE to make this fundamental change. For VET providers and employers, outcome-oriented curricula can offer a valuable platform for bridging the worlds of education, training and work, providing a common language between competences acquired in learning and the needs of occupations and the labour market. For teachers, a curriculum built on knowledge, skills and competences that learners can acquire through an interdisciplinary approach, is more challenging than traditional approaches but also more flexible in designing learning programmes tailored to the needs of learners and applying innovative pedagogies and assessment procedures. For learners, an outcome-based curriculum is potentially user-friendly, allowing them to clarify the purpose of learning and giving them more opportunities for active learning, progression in education and training or integration in the labour market. With our 2SMILE initiative we aim to bring this mind-set, described above, into the world of compulsory education, targeting all youth that is at high risk of abandoning education (or already abandoned), not fitting in, having violent incidents or risky behaviours, youth involved within juvenile justice or social protection systems, of migrant and immigrant families, etc. They are the youngsters that need the most to be in schools but are the least, they are the voices that need to be head when looking at policy reform and the ones that teachers need to work with the most. Above all, the disadvantaged at-risk youth needs educational experience the same quality as all the rest of their peers. This can be attained by focusing on “student – centred - education”, and a first step is looking at how compulsory education delivers in terms of “learning outcomes”. Our final aim is to start an European exploratory conversation, at local community, practitioners and public policy level on how can we use compulsory education as an alternative narrative for youth – at – risk, by using “learning outcomes” and “youth centred learning”. 2SMILE, as a pioneer initiative, aims to: - assist policy makers in designing sound strategies and approaches for assuring high quality education to youth at risk of drop out, radicalization, violent behaviour, etc. High quality education that uses youth centred education will become a counter-narrative for these young and a way for the community to make them dialogue partners. - increase the capacity of youth and teacher’s organisations to be active partners in the materialisation of the paradigm shift. - provide a comprehensive insight into the necessary tools and already encountered challenges and success stories in Europe, as a fundamental basis for moving towards lifelong learning with this particular target group of youth, once they grow up, in opposition with community disengagement, violent extremism and radicalization. - provide concrete policy input during and beyond its lifetime, to ongoing discussions as to the future of the EU Education & Training Programme and the next phase of the Paris Declaration. Our general objective aims to make a fundamental change in all European Educatonal System: promote active learning and inclusive teaching by focusing on the Student Centered Based Learning approach. Our project will work directly with disadvantaged learners that are (or should be) in compulsory education in Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Romania, UK, Greece and Finland. The disadvantaged learners from each country have a different profile but common needs, thus allowing us to experiment solutions that will be viable in different European contexts: children that are second or third generation of immigrants, children that are first generation of immigrants, children in severe poverty and exposed to violent behaviours, children of national ethnic minorities.
The journey of 2SMILE started 3 years ago, in London, and spread trough Europe within a partnership composed by 8 partners from 7 countries. By then, all of us were far from imagining the huge transformations that would come about through the project life cycle and the unimaginable obstacles that the road ahead would pose. No one would ever expect to build and develop a project amidst a pandemic - almost 2 of the project years were spent on it, and none would dare to imagine the difficulties and challenges imposed by it to the education systems, or that, in a certain way, this would make our proposals more meaningful given our focus in a student-centred approach. Trough its deployment, we’ve worked with teachers and educators, and through them, their schools, the organizations within our partnership and the local communities, we have reached through 508 participants, being these, other teachers and educators, stakeholders and learners within the ages from 11 to 16, many with a migrant background, some with SEBD and a great part with disadvantaged socio economic backgrounds. At the start, and at the core of our proposal, the perception that education dropout is a multifactorial phenomenon, a complex process that requires a strong cooperation between different stakeholders across the school, the family, and the community, stood at the centre of our idea on how a proposal like 2SMILE should go about to tackle some of the issues raised by the aforementioned. The still high dropout rates mean that all the interventions, programmes and policies have failed during the years. The 2SMILE project proposes a change in the way of thinking of the learning process and the role of each actor in that process. A decrease in education dropouts implies a whole-school approach where all stakeholders are involved in the education process in a holistic way of thinking and where the learner is the heart of the learning process. To achieve this, we’ve set out to exploit, within the project development, a set of ideas and concepts, and to validate them through a piloting process. The pilot implementation of our student-centred learning approach was, therefore, an important step towards the reaffirmation that group work is necessary, to reach a holistic understanding of the student and the school. Students, parents, teachers, communities - especially among more vulnerable groups, as students with mental disorders, migrants, or communities as the Roma students – should be listening to each other's needs, to find more ideal solutions. As a result, we have delivered the IO4 Framework Implementation Guide where the reports, activities and the results reached in outputs 1, 2 and 3 were compiled with the aim of disseminate and advocate for a change in educational national systems; whilst the issue of dropping out of school may never be solved, it could be contrasted with a student-centred learning approach. Students could then feel that their needs, their interests, their voices are considered and listened to, thus increasing their motivation and attainment. The student-centred learning approach emphasises the importance and the meaning of relationships among students, teachers and parents and, as referred, on our proposal within 2SMILE, if we consider this last year and the challenges that emerged from Covid-19, cleary shows its meaningfulness as an approach to overcome situations where standard approaches to the learning process are unsatisfactory. With the involvement of all parts towards shared goals, the possibilities for success in the Educational Systems are enhanced: for schools, teachers and families but, above all, for learners. The commitment from teachers, Learners and parents (or legal guardians) and other community members with the learning process allows them to develop a sense of ownership, a sense of belonging and a sense of identification with all the processes and with the outcomes established. In this way, a strong motivational justification grows from all the parties and this will positively impact students’ behaviours, scholarly achievements and well-being. The positive engagement of students is still related to a reduction of risky behaviours, early school leaving and low attainment, which has a direct positive impact on the school environment and in the school experience as a healthy experience for each learner. The “whole school approach” is not only about school. It is about the relationships, the confidence, the motivation and the engagement and commitment of students, teachers, families, communities and policy makers in the learning process. We aimed 2SMILE and we did it, and now, that the travel ended, we deeply believe that all those who took part in it, as the project outcomes spread and take root, will surely continue 2SMILE ensuring that we all, together, persist in the search for more inclusive and successful educational practices within the European education systems. With all and for all 2SMILE!