The increasing number of students declining in their school performance is an important challenge currently being faced be educational systems in many European countries. Many students leave school with only a minor or even with no exam at all. It's a loss for our society that we are unable to solve these problems and support the students to obtain the best results possible.This development is the result of multiple factors, for instance undetected learning difficulties or submission to inappropriate educational activities, lack of basic skills etc. Apart from this the increasing number of pupils concerned leads us to consider other factors as well, such as self-awareness, socio-cultural background and self-expectations. Quite often we see the students caught between conflicting sets of expectations. They seem to be trapped in in their (personal, social and / or cultural) boundaries and unable to overcome these. The standard school system is not adapted to deal with these problems. This is the starting point for our project. There are several central concerns that we intend to work on, some predominantly focusing on the students, the others focusing on the institutions, i.e. the school. Our main aims are the following. a) Understanding the dynamics that lead to the failure, i.e. the factors that prevent the students from being successfull and fulfil the educational expectations. b) Developing strategies and tools that help the students to recognize and overcome their blocades and to rework the tools during the project after having gained initial experiences. c) Developing strategies and tools for the future, that will help other teachers to become aware of these problems and provide them with adequate means to deal with them. Central topics of the project in all phases will be “groups” and “boundaries”. With regard to a) we will especially explore the the cultural and social setup that a pupil grows up in. The participating student will be made to understand that society consists of numerous groups and that every of these groups defines a a catalogue of behavioral rules to be respected by its members. They are then made to realize to how many groups they belong and that they have to decide by themselves which rules the want to follow. The focus of b) will be to jointly (i.e. pupils, social worker, teachers) develop strategies that will allow the students first to find a way out of the actual situation and second to attain a self-determined life. That is the preliminary prerequisite for acquiring basic skills and prevent school failure. Concerning c) the intention is to draw long-term profit from this project by developing a compendium for the collegues to work with underachieving students. The four partner organisations will work with groups of circa 20 students aged 14-16 years, because this obviously is the age, when the students start to have problems with conflicting rules of conduct set up by schools, friends and parents. The schools represent different parts of Europe that are in close contact to each other. We therefore have a lot of students, growing up between these cultures. Each school will built a team of students that can represent the students being in danger to underachieve their school performance. The teams working in the schools will be greater than the ones, that partake in the mobilities. The project will proceed in four steps: The first step consists in a meeting of the project leaders to come to a common understanding of the concept of society. Additionally the social workers at the German school will explain the teachers their concepts to work with the students to make them recognize their unconscious boundaries and make them decide, which one to shift. This provides the teachers with the basis to develop their own conception, respecting the groupsize and the possibilities at the partner schools. The following mobilities will focus on the students. The second mobility is intended to become familiar with each other and the societies they live in. Taking into account their cultural background and the hopes of the students for their future, the group will begin to design a society and its rules, that allow everyone to develop his abilities without the need of marginalization. They learn which rules help them to fulfill their aims. During the third mobility they will enact their possible personal future including ways to shift obstructive boundaries and false claims. The last step will lead to the understanding of another kind of boundary, by looking at the history of modern state borders and the situation of refugees as victims of these. Our last point will be a discussion of the opportunities they offer to the receiving societies. The results of this project, the presentations of the students and their societies and a catalogue of methods for teachers to work with this kind of students will be compiled in a manual for future use at the respective schools.
The project, which aims to help students overcome their limitations and avoid school failure, was planned in the early days of the COVID 19 pandemic. During prolonged periods of home schooling, the project gained momentum. More and more students were experiencing learning difficulties due to factors such as the home environment, psychological stress, lack of basic skills, etc. In addition, factors such as self-confidence, socio-cultural background and self-imposed expectations often led to overexertion and resistance during the period of isolated learning at home. Greater parental involvement in their children's education reinforced the impact of conflicting expectations on academic achievement. The usual school system is not designed for these problems, even though individual measures have been developed in the context of school openings. The central concerns of the project focused mainly on working with the pupils: (a) understanding the dynamics that lead to failure, i.e. the factors that prevent students from succeeding and meeting educational expectations. (b) Developing strategies and tools to help students identify and overcome their obstacles and revising the tools during the project after they have gained initial experience. c) Developing strategies and tools for the future that will make other teachers aware of these issues and give them the tools to address them effectively. Central themes of the project in all phases were "groups" and "boundaries". In relation to a), we particularly looked at the cultural and social environment in which the pupils grow up. The participating pupils have understood that society is made up of many groups and that each of these groups has a set of rules of behaviour that must be followed by its members. They have recognised and discussed among themselves how many groups they belong to and that they have to decide for themselves which rules to follow. For areas a) and b), close cooperation with the German school social workers was necessary, who presented their methodology so that applicable tools could be selected or developed together within the framework of the pupil-teacher relationship, which enabled the pupils firstly to find a way out of the current situation and secondly to achieve a more self-determined life. This is the prerequisite for the acquisition of basic competences and the prevention of school failure. During the production of the explanatory film for the other groups, this cooperation was intensified again. Regarding c): It is intended to draw long-term benefit from this project by creating a compendium for colleagues' work with low-performing pupils. First steps have been taken here with a compilation of methods uploaded in Twinspace and the explanatory video. Due to the long homeschooling periods, it has not always been possible to recruit large groups of pupils for Erasmus+. In the German group, it can be considered a success that a constant ten pupils have participated, with a hard core having been there for three years. Due to the different school systems, there were age differences in the group, which could be meaningfully integrated by consistently mixing the groups during the mobilities. The project is carried out in four steps: The first step consists of a meeting of the project leaders to come to a common understanding of the society concept. In addition, the social workers from the German school explain their concepts to the teachers in order to work with the students so that they recognise their unconscious boundaries and decide which ones they want to push. On this basis, the teachers develop their own concept, taking into account the group size and the possibilities at the partner schools. The second mobility was about getting to know each other and the society they live in. Taking into account their cultural background and the students' aspirations, the students worked out ways to include everyone in a group. They learned what rules help them to do this, this experience was then reflected on in the national groups. In the third mobility phase, they designed their possible personal future and considered how to overcome obstructive boundaries and false hopes. The last step led to the understanding of another kind of border, as we looked at the history of modern state borders and the situation of refugees as victims of these borders. Finally, we discussed the opportunities that migrants represent for host societies.