In recent years, sustainable social and economic development, along with intercultural dialogue, have been sought through efforts to ensure universal access to high quality education (UNESCO, 2013;Europa 2009). In parallel, individual nations, and economic groupings such as the European Union, have been calling for a fundamental transformation of education to develop new competences among their citizens if they are to remain competitive. Educational innovation is a high priority contributing to key targets on adult learning, up-skilling and modernization of training in the Europe 2020 strategy and the European agenda for adult learning (European Commission, 2013; Barroso,2012; Council of the European Union, 2011). The Montessori Method is a rather old but very effective educational method that has been implemented especially for the education of children. It is based on the individual needs of each learner and therefore it can address the learners’ needs in different education fields and training sectors and take into deep consideration the personal attitude, learning time and psychological blocks. According to Ryniker and Shoho (2001), the Montessori approach is based on the idea that learners learn most effectively when information is developmentally appropriate. From this perspective, this approach encourages learners to create an atmosphere in which everybody works cooperatively not competitively. Personal independence, self-discipline and initiative are other important tenets of this approach. Learners decide what to do and when to do freely, there is no interference. They also develop creative and critical thinking abilities with self-corrective activities, thereby enabling them to be autonomous learner. The main objective of the project (Montessori Method in Teaching 2nd Language to Adults (MMTLA) is to define a method for language teaching based on the concept of the Montessori’ methodology which can be adaptive,intuitive, easy to implement, practical and easy way for people of all ages to understand the concept of learning language and improve much better and learn languages. Through this project it is also aimed at introducing the Montessori Method to the field of language learning as for adults and promoting the acquisition of key competencies and skills throughout the education and training system. Partners will work in the following ways: 1) Development of a manual guidebook for the transfer of the Montessori Method in language learning to adults. It will be primarily addressed to language teachers and will describe analytically how to implement the principles of the Montessori Method to adults over 20. 2) Organization of training workshops for language teachers on Montessori method. 3) Development of online training for the language teachers in partner countries and then in all over Europe in the methodology. Language teachers and adult trainers and adult trainees (immigrants,young adults who want to learn target language) are the target group of this project. At the end of this project ; -The language teachers who will be trained will have the chance to experience the Montessori approach in their own teacher training. -Low-skilled adults (over 20) will learn 2nd or 3rd language and can find better jobs to work that can promotion and improve his/her living standards. -Refugees and immigrants who learn native language of the country they live in will integrate with citizens easily. -Immigrants and refugees can realize their daily routines without asking for help. The expected impact on the attractiveness and the efficiency of the training course developed with the methodology studied in the research phase will be measured and documented through the analysis of the results obtained by pre- and post-course tests filled by participants, trainers and observers, to assess the effectiveness of the active/participatory method. All results will be organized in tables and all the possible quantitative elaborations will be performed. The wider impact will be measured through to what extent adult training centers,educational institutions, stakeholders and community collaborators use this method and project outputs or promote at local/regional/national level the results of the project (e.g. to introduce it in an award criteria of public call for proposal). The good practices will ensure the maximum adherence to the European context and could be used as a starting point by who are interested in continuing and refining the Consortium’s work. And the further value is having the opportunity to work with the teachers and authorities facing the similar language learning difficulties and adults with the similar background. We will find solutions to those problems by working with like-minded people that they would otherwise never meet. The project activities will also support the process of local authorities' works for immigrants integration,of chambers that needs qualified workers
With this project we aimed at introducing the Montessori Method to the field of language learning as for adults and promoting the acquisition of key competencies and skills throughout the education and training system. Another objective of the project was to equip the language teachers with an innovative, together with sound pedagogical method in order to develop their skills and acquire new competences and skills. This didn't only allow them to offer language courses to a more extended target group and in different education fields and training sectors but also to increase their career opportunities both in national and international level. Furthermore , the learners were trained on the basis of a sound methodology that consider their individual training needs. At the end of this project ; -The language teachers were trained on Montessori Method,Montessory philosophy and its principles ,and experienced the Montessori approach in teacher training. -Low-skilled adults (over 20) learned foreign languages and had qualification to found better jobs that improve his/her living standards. -Refugees and immigrants who learned the target language integrated with citizens easily. And they realized their daily routines and basic needs without asking for help. -While learning the target language ,learners also discovered the target culture and this led to respect for multilingualism and multiculturalism among people from all ages which is one of the priorities of Erasmus+ Programme.
In recent years, sustainable social and economic development, along with intercultural dialogue, had been sought through efforts to ensure universal access to high quality education (UNESCO, 2013;Europa 2009). In parallel, individual nations, and economic groupings such as the European Union, had been calling for a fundamental transformation of education to develop new competences among their citizens if they were to remain competitive. Educational innovation was a high priority contributing to key targets on adult learning, up-skilling and modernization of training in the Europe 2020 strategy and the European agenda for adult learning (European Commission, 2013; Barroso,2012; Council of the European Union, 2011). The Montessori Method was a rather old but very effective educational method that had been implemented especially for the education of children. It was based on the individual needs of each learner and therefore it could address the learners’ needs in different education fields and training sectors and took into deep consideration the personal attitude, learning time and psychological blocks. According to Ryniker and Shoho (2001), the Montessori approach was based on the idea that learners learn most effectively when information was developmentally appropriate. From this perspective, this approach encouraged learners to create an atmosphere in which everybody worked cooperatively not competitively. Personal independence, self-discipline and initiative were other important tenets of this approach. Learners decided what to do and when to do freely, there was no interference. They also developed creative and critical thinking abilities with self-corrective activities, thereby enabling them to be autonomous learner. The main objective of the project (Montessori Method in Teaching 2nd Language to Adults (MMTLA) was to define a method for language teaching based on the concept of the Montessori’ methodology which could be adaptive, intuitive, easy to implement, practical and easy way for people of all ages to understand the concept of learning language and improve much better and learn languages. Through this project it was also aimed at introducing the Montessori Method to the field of language learning as for adults and promoting the acquisition of key competencies and skills throughout the education and training system. Partners worked in the following ways: 1) Development of a manual guidebook for the transfer of the Montessori Method in language learning to adults. It was primarily addressed to language teachers and described analytically how to implement the principles of the Montessori Method to adults over 20. 2) Organization of training workshops for language teachers on Montessori method. 3) Development of online training for the language teachers in partner countries and then in all over Europe in the methodology. Language teachers and adult trainers and adult trainees (immigrants,young adults who want to learn target language) were the target group of this project. At the end of this project ; -The language teachers who attended at the LTTAs had the chance to experience the Montessori approach in their own teacher training. -Low-skilled adults (over 20) learned 2nd or 3rd language and found better jobs to work that can promotion and improve his/her living standards. -Refugees and immigrants who learned native language of the country they lived in integrated with citizens easily. -Immigrants and refugees realized their daily routines without asking for help. The expected impact on the attractiveness and the efficiency of the training course developed with the methodology studied in the research phase were measured and documented through the analysis of the results obtained by pre- and post-course tests filled by participants, trainers and observers, to assess the effectiveness of the active/participatory method. All results were organized in tables and all the possible quantitative elaborations were performed. The wider impact were measured through to what extent adult training centers,educational institutions, stakeholders and community collaborators used this method and project outputs or promote at local/regional/national level the results of the project (e.g. to introduce it in an award criteria of public call for proposal). The good practices ensured the maximum adherence to the European context and used as a starting point by who were interested in continuing and refining the Consortium’s work. And the further value had the opportunity to work with the teachers and authorities facing the similar language learning difficulties and adults with the similar background. We found solutions to those problems by working with like-minded people that they would otherwise never meet. The project activities also supported the process of local authorities' works for immigrants integration,of chambers that needs qualified workers.