There are several factors that can interfere negatively or positively in the student's learning process, from economic, social, affective, psychological, family related, to physical and mental factors. Likewise, another factor that can be determinant to hinder or facilitate students' learning is related to the teaching performance. When teachers plan differentiated teaching strategies for the development of programmatic contents, aiming to motivate and arouse the interest of the student, they are encouraging the positive attitude and the concentration of students in the classroom, valuing their relationship with knowledge. The teaching work is very complex, it begins within the classroom, but goes much beyond it. In this regard, we establish the following priorities for our project "THE INNER CLASSROOM RELOADED: Motivation and concentration through non-formal learning." Firstly, we include non-formal practices in schools which allow simultaneously the development of the students’ capacity of focus and attention, the capacity for emotional regulation, compassion and empathy, as well as the capacity for relaxation and well-being. This will be achieved through the introduction of Mindfulness in the school's culture. Secondly, we use new technologies to make eLearning/digitalization an integral part of teaching/learning methods, since they have a growing and fascinating impact on young people. Participating schools will pass on their experience of ICT tools with the aim of motivating students and boosting concentration, social interaction and the schools' atmosphere which again will lead to better educational achievement. Last but not least this project promotes the European dimension through cultural heritage like art, music and language. It is imperative that our students become aware of cultural diversity and of the importance of understanding distinct cultural realities. It's the schools' responsibility to open students' minds towards different-minded and to educate them in tolerance and civic coexistence; Three schools from Austria, Spain and Portugal will participate in this project. During the project, six transnational meetings will be organized. Three of these meetings will be short-term staff training events, while the others will be short-term students' exchanges. Ten pupils of each school will attend each exchange, which is a total of 60 pupils. Two teachers per school will participate in each short term staff event. Participants will be selected taking into account their profile and involvement in the project. The short-term staff training events will focus on the three major priorities of the project, which are Mindfulness and Positive discipline, eTwinning and ICT tools in order to pass on the expertise of each school to teachers of partner schools.Teachers will have the opportunity of job-shadowing in order to share best practices, get objective feedback on activities developed, and to implement best practice examples in their own teaching. At each students' short-term exchange, pupils experience each schools' non-formal teaching and learning activities. Daily practices of non-formal learning methods (mindfulness, positive discipline, eLearning) will be implemented by both the visitors and the local students. Likewise, visitors will participate in workshops in art, music and culinary and will get to know aspects of cultural heritage of each country. Along with this school activities and also in the sense of promoting our cultural heritage, we will carry out guided study visits to the surrounding areas of the school. Since cultural heritage forms the background of the project, it is essential that all students work together in multicultural teams using methods of non-formal education in order to achieve the objectives established for the implementation of the project. All the teachers involved in the project will learn to include new practices of concentration, inverted teaching and the use of digital media in their teaching activity, to cooperate and to share good practices, with the aim of having a positive impact on schools, which will become an added value for all members of the educational community. Throughout the project, teachers create booklets with methods in non-formal teaching which will be shared as teaching tools. Non-formal teaching methods will create a positive study environment which positively affects the students' concentration. This guarantees better skills and competences for the students' careers and lowers early drop-out rates. At last, members of the exchange will be qualified to better handle and manage future changes with the help of experiences and resources gained during the project cycle.
The project “THE INNER CLASSROOM RELOADED: Motivation and concentration through non-formal learning.” is based on the scientific studies that mindfulness strategies and positive discipline become more important for students and teachers to foster concentration, motivation and personal development. Besides economic, social, psychological, family related and mental factors, the teaching performance can be determinant to hinder or facilitate students’ learning progress. The non-formal practice of mindfulness in schools increases students’ capacity of focus and attention, the capacity for emotional regulation, compassion and empathy, as well as the capacity for relaxation and well-being. Ideally, mindfulness becomes an integral part of every day life and goes beyond lessons and school. Digitalization and eLearning as another non-formal education activity, have a fascinating impact on young people and offer useful tools, which fosters students’ motivation and concentration in the classroom. Digitalization and eLearning also offer creative and easy ways for students and teachers to communicate across boarders and work on projects simultaneously. Positive discipline is a necessary complement to non-formal education. It offers teachers good alternatives to deal with misbehaviour and challenging situations and is the ideal alternative to punishment, which no longer has room in schools. Last but not least this project promotes the European dimension through cultural heritage like art, music and language. It is imperative that our students become aware of cultural diversity and of the importance of understanding distinct cultural realities. It's the schools' responsibility to open students' minds towards different-minded and to educate them in tolerance and civic coexistence. Three schools from Austria, Spain and Portugal participated in this project. During the project, six transnational meetings were organized. Three of these meetings were short-term staff training events, while the others were short-term students' exchanges. 60 students and 14 teachers of the three schools were involved in the exchanges. The short-term staff training events focused on the three major priorities of the project, which were Mindfulness, Positive discipline, eTwinning and ICT tools in order to pass on the expertise of each school to teachers of partner schools. Teachers had the opportunity of job-shadowing in order to share best practices, got objective feedback on activities developed, and implemented best practice examples in their own teaching. At each students' short-term exchange, pupils experienced each school's non-formal teaching and learning activities. Daily practices of non-formal learning methods (mindfulness, positive discipline, eLearning) were implemented by both the visitors and the local students. Likewise, visitors participated in workshops in art, music and culinary and got to know aspects of cultural heritage of each country. Along with these school activities and also in the sense of promoting our cultural heritage, we carried out guided study visits to the surrounding areas of the school. It was essential that all students worked together in multicultural teams using methods of non-formal education in order to achieve the objectives established for the implementation of the project. The goal of the project was that practices of concentration, the use of digital media and other non-formal teaching methods like open-learning lessons and flipped classrooms become an integral part of every day school life. At the end of the project the participating schools are equipped with tools and materials to implement the three pillars of the inner classroom (digitalization, mindfulness and positive discipline) into their lessons and every day school life. Besides using mindfulness techniques as a way to increase motivation and concentration, the main goal for students was to reinforce their open-mindedness towards Europe and the common European identity through learning about cultural heritage. Furthermore, it was important to increase students’ self-confidence so that they could overcome their initial inhibition of communicating in foreign languages. The Erasmus+ project also had a positive impact on the schools’ reputation because it led not only to an international cooperation with other European schools but also increased the support and involvement of staff, parents and the local community. The positive impact of this interdisciplinary cooperation increases the schools’ quality.