The educational culture in many European countries is still tightly connected to traditional principles and methods. So that transmitting knowledge is often still considered the main function for schools to perform and frontal teaching is usually still seen by far as the best among all didactical methods. On the contrary, we are convinced that school should guide people along a learning path student-centered, based on their ability to raise questions, on problem-solving, on the progressive development of skills, cooperative work, authentic and meaningful experiences. This project wants to focus on Service Learning (SL), as an innovative approach to education, learning, citizenship. Relaunching John Dewey's legacy, resuming Paulo Freire's reflections, it tries to bring school outside the classrooms into the town, the social community, the surrounding territory. SL is a kind of activity student-centered, problem-based, socially engaging, motivating, cooperative, collaborative. We want to promote and spread throughout Europe this approach, able to combine several key components: the knowledge and skills developed through the school curriculum; the desire to act as a protagonist typical of the young people; the connection to real needs existing in the local community; the strength and depth of an experience that is meaningful, motivating, authentic. The European context can be seen as an added value since it will allow comparing different perspectives and sharing good practice. SE.LE.N.E. is a project conceived by a network of five European schools from different countries with diversified cultural background, geographical situation, economic conditions. They operate in Alatri (Italy), Löningen (Germany), Koknese (Latvia), Vila Real (Spain), Kalamata (Greece). All schools are general education institutions including secondary level programs. The target group for SE.LE.N.E. activities will be 15-19 years old students. All partner schools share a strong desire to experiment with SL and the commitment to do it in a European context. Yet so far their SL experience is not equally wide, deep, and rich. In fact, among the 5 participating countries, there is Spain, where many schools over the years have acquired a relevant experience with SL activities. I.E.S. Francesc Tarrega, Vila-Real, is one of them. We are eager to exchange experiences and learn from schools with expertise in SL, in order to improve our approach and introduce new ideas in our educational work. As for the project activities, SE.LE.N.E. proposes five educational experiences to be developed and implemented in different European countries. Each one features a strong connection to the school curriculum, correspondence with some real needs from the local community, focus on students' motivation to act as protagonists in changing the world for the better. Transnational groups of students and teachers will organize and implement the 5 SL experiences, working with values, key-concepts, methods, techniques, skills belonging to different spheres of civic action such as artistic expression and creativity, environmental sustainability, preservation of cultural heritage, social inclusiveness and care for disadvantaged people. Before each transnational LTT activity, participants will perform preparatory activities, communicating with European partners through widely used ICT tools, such as LMS, video conferencing, and the eTwinning platform. Each of the 5 transnational LTT activity will be developed in a 7 days time (arrival day+5 days+departure day). Traveling students will be guests at host students families. During each meeting, students and teachers will work in mixed nationality workgroups. The work of the groups will end with the achievement of concrete results such as: - maintaining a nature trail; - designing and planting a small green area; - activities with migrant children/students; - design and realization of wall paintings in school classrooms and/or furnishing equipment for a learning environment; - design and realization of graffiti painting in an urban space/park; - activities with children with learning difficulties. The project is charged with a strong pedagogical inspiration and has the ambition to clearly show in Europe the potential of an activist, motivating and student-centered educational approach. It also arises from the awareness by the participating schools to have to constantly act in a network context. A network among schools that are committed to sharing conception, implementation, monitoring. Networks which every school has to prepare and weave in its local context with groups, associations, institutions, municipalities. This necessary, intense network work sets the ideal conditions for publicizing and dissemination of results. Thus the fallout of the project could really be relevant and the practice of Service Learning could be significantly increased within the school systems of all participant countries.
The educational culture in many European countries is still tightly connected to traditional principles and methods. So that transmitting knowledge is often still considered the main function for schools to perform and frontal teaching is usually still seen by far as the best among all teaching methods. On the contrary, we are convinced that school should guide people along a learning path student-centered, based on their ability to raise questions, on problem-solving, on the progressive development of skills, cooperative work, authentic and meaningful experiences. This project wanted to focus on Service Learning (SL), as an innovative approach to education, learning, citizenship, because it is a kind of activity student-centered, problem-based, socially engaging, motivating, cooperative, collaborative. Relaunching John Dewey's legacy, resuming Paulo Freire's reflections, it tried to bring school outside the classrooms into the town, the social community, the surrounding territory. We would like to promote and spread throughout Europe this approach, able to combine several key components: the knowledge and skills developed through the school curriculum; the desire to act as a protagonist typical of the young people; the connection to real needs existing in the local community; the strength and depth of an experience that is meaningful, motivating, authentic. The European context can be seen as an added value since it allows comparing different perspectives and sharing good practice. SE.LE.N.E. is a project conceived by a network of five European schools from different countries with diversified cultural background, geographical situation, economic conditions. They operate in Alatri (Italy), Löningen (Germany), Koknese (Latvia), Vila Real (Spain), Kalamata (Greece). All schools are general education institutions including secondary level programs. The target group for SE.LE.N.E. activities will be 15-19 years old students. All partner schools shared a strong desire to experiment with SL and the commitment to do it in a European context. As for the project activities, SE.LE.N.E. proposed five educational experiences to be developed and implemented in different European countries featuring a strong connection to the school curriculum, correspondence with some real needs from the local community, focus on students' motivation to act as protagonists in changing the world for the better. Unfortunately, only the first of these activities was possible, due to the SARS-COV2 pandemic and so we were unable to conclude our project and appreciate the results. However, transnational groups of students and teachers organized and participated in an inspiring experience, working with values, key-concepts, methods, techniques, skills belonging to different spheres of civic action and based on social inclusiveness and care for disadvantaged people in Germany. Before the transnational LTT activity, participants performed preparatory activities, communicating with European partners through widely used ICT tools. The LTT activity was developed in a 7 days time (arrival day+5 days+departure day). Traveling students were hosted by students families in Löningen. During the meeting, students and teachers worked in four mixed nationality workgroups including arts, bakery, music and theater in order to produce posters,flyers, tips, ethnic food, songs and plays whose aim was to foster the inclusion of migrating people. Pupils and teachers had a chance to get into contact with migrants also in cooperation with neighboring schools. Cooperative and collaborative learning as well as authentic tasks for students' activities were promoted during the mobility week. The project results were shown at school and in other public places such as the town hall. Videos of the theater plays, accompanied by a song about hospitality, whose lyrics were written by the participants during the sessions,was widespread by the local tourist office and a cookbook, paintings and colored and engaging buttons have been made, too, to promote Löningen as an open-minded community. We had the ambition to clearly show in Europe the potential of an activist, motivating and student-centered educational approach. We firmly believe that the impact of the project could have been really relevant and that the practice of Service Learning could have significantly increased within the school systems of all participating countries.