What kind of Europe do young people want? - Perceiving, thinking and shaping Europe -

4. Zusammenfassung des Projekts: ENGLISCH Project: What kind of Europe do young people want? - Perceiving, thinking and shaping Europe - 1. context/background of the project The project idea arose from the refugee crisis and the resulting European East-South-North attitudes. It is therefore important to bring young people into contact/communication in order to look at the topic from a country perspective. The project theme corresponded to the framework directive 'Working and living in Europe' and was coordinated with the legal framework of the project countries, so that the topic offered an equal and active learning approach for the school partnerships. The development took place in the subjects: politics, history, geography, language, computer science, mathematics, physics, art etc., with which a historical-present EU diversity of life could be represented. This made it possible to actively reflect on European history and to recognize the high value of the democratic EU in order to develop a vision of the future. 2. objective(s) of the project: The project work aimed at an unprejudiced as well as inter- and socio-cultural understanding by strengthening the guiding idea of the European vision for a peaceful, equal and appreciative life in Europe. This lead to a reflected and superordinate view of the young people, so that they developed their own desires, ideas of life and future in a common Europe. These included, for example - the emphasis of the importance of the EU for their own professional/private lives through intercultural exchange as an acquisition of 'cultural awareness' in their worldview. - the qcquisition of self-competence as 'civic competence' in the European Community - the clarification of the exchange of different social perceptions on issues in the EU (North-South-East) - an unprejudiced, inter- and socio-cultural understanding by strengthening the guiding idea of the European vision for a peaceful, equal and respectful life in Europe School/country specific Acquiring the EU key competences helped learners to think for themselves about possibilities of participation and to bring their own visions of life into the European (world) construction. Interrelations between the subjects of instruction became clear in the reconstruction of knowledge on the basis of regularities/(non-)regularities/(mis)understandings etc., especially through interdisciplinary learning. This learning is extended by the transnational project method, so that topics of the EU were opened up and reflected from different perspectives. In this European form of learning, pupils closed knowledge gaps and at the same time discovered new European interests through intercultural exchange. Cross-border The methodology offered the heterogeneous learning community freedom and creativity to design knowledge as a product of action, so that manual, digital and subject-specific competences were acquired/strengthened as common (basic) competences across countries. Each (learning) phase (perceiving, thinking and shaping) enabled different perspectives on knowledge. The resulting decisions allowed for a country-specific/European perspective. This enabled the pupils to transfer their knowledge acquisition to their own social/professional life. The thoughtful learning behaviour enabled them to take responsibility for their own lives and to contribute as citizens of the world. The (project) added value enabled them to recognize the EU guidelines in intercultural dialogue for (world) construction as democratic/participatory action. 3. number and profile of participants: The project involved about 20 interested underage and/or adult pupils from secondary education and 9 teachers from Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic. After the Corona pandemic and the exit of the Czech school, Italy and Germany met up in video conferences and worked out an exchange for Italy in Germany and the final exchange for German students to Italy. 4. description of the activities: Historical, socio-political, economic/ecological topics were explored at real learning locations as a common (country) task as well as reading, writing, photographing, researching, comparing, documenting, presenting, reporting, evaluating activites. During the first visit of teachers in Germany, the program included political and also historical sights in Hanover’s parliament as well as in Berlin. The Brandenburg Gate was visited as well as the Reichtstag and discussions with politicians at the “Paul-Löbe-Haus” were possible. Besides exploring the eastern part of Berlin and going to “Erlebnis Europa” some memorials were also visited. In Wolfenbüttel the German students met the European teachers and were able to discuss aspects of the project. During the visit of the Italian group in Berlin new friendships were made and the students helped each other visiting a typical German beer garden. They also went to the Reichstag and explored the typical Berlin sights near the Brandenburg Gate, Friedrichsstraße and Checkpoint Charly. In Braunschweig they have had a city tour, in Wolfenbüttel they met the German students, presented their results of Europe and what their expectation are and had some time to explore the “Autostadt” in Wolfsburg. 5. methodology for the implementation of the project: The (project) learning phases "Perceiving, Thinking and Shaping" consecutively built onthe acquisition of knowledge of each other and link country-specific with cross-national findings in the context of the EU guidelines. 6. (Short) description of the results/potential/long-term benefits Didactic-methodical results - EU reader/working material – power point presentations/picture book as complete presentation - videos of the exchanges placed on school’s website - (Travel) Diary, notebook - Evaluation as an overall project Potential/long-term benefits - mutual (country) understanding - Establishment of a lasting school partnership - friendships between students as basis for future reunions