Adversity is a fact of life. Everyone, sooner or later, will have to face difficult situations or failure and will have to accept things outside his control. This can be particularly challenging for adolescents, which are experiencing a period of significant physical, emotional and psychological change due to the transition from childhood to young adulthood. During these years, adolescents are faced with numerous social, emotional and moral challenges, which they often find hard to negotiate, given that they are still learning how to manage strong emotions and their brains are in a period of significant development. The aim of MusE is to provide to teenagers the necessary skills and tools to overcome the hardships life puts them through, making them develop resilience. Adolescence is a time in which substantial physiological changes are occurring in parallel with changing environments and opportunities. These changes can not only affect healthy development but also impact the individual’s psychosocial development. As a result, adolescence is the transition period that offers an unique opportunity to influence health-related behaviours in youth, that’s why teenagers have been chosen as target group of the project. Resilience can be enhanced by understanding which aspects of our life we can control, modify and grow with, and is affected by the quality of interactions within the family, school, and other social environments. The project foresees the use of an innovative methodology, based on the use of music as a support to the development of resilience, due to its ability to evoke, identify and process emotions and due to the fact that it is a common phenomenon that crosses all borders of nationality, race and culture. OBJECTIVES The aim of the project is to promote the development of some of the factors that make a person resilient, such as positive attitude, optimism, the ability to regulate emotions, and the ability to see failure as a form of helpful feedback. More specifically, the teenagers involved in the project will develop the following traits: - emotional awareness and the ability to regulate their emotions - control over their impulses - an optimistic mindset - flexible and accurate thinking - empathy towards others - self-efficacy - a willingness to seek help when needed. The students will experience a different learning method, that will focus on personal understanding and sharing through music. The MusE project, in fact, has its main output in the production of a Pop Symphonic Poem on the topic of adolescence, in which the lyrics will be composed by the students themselves. They will be involved in engaging and stimulating activities that will give them the opportunity to get in touch with people coming from different countries. ACTIVITIES The participants will be engaged in activities based on collaboration and mutual help, as a way of enhancing all the skills and competences resilience consist in. The classroom will become an inclusive environment in which everyone is invited to participate and share his feelings and experiences. Brainstorming sessions will be organised to make them reflect on the topic of resilience. The project envisages the use of a Web App to enhance communication and exchange between the students of the different countries. They will have to answer to the surveys submitted through the App and their collaboration will result in the creation of a lyrical poem that addresses the topic of resilience from a transnational perspective. PARTICIPANTS The project will engage all the adolescent students of the partners schools. Special attention will be given to vulnerable individuals, for example the ones who are experiencing economic hardship or that have behavioural, emotional, family or socialisation problems, the ones that are facing more serious challenges like family breakdown, family illness or death, or bullying, as well as the ones that have learning difficulties or disabilities, or simply more anxious personalities. METHODOLOGY The methodology will be based on the use of music to promote activities aimed at developing resilience. In particular it will use some approaches and strategies like: - cooperative learning - classroom discussion - brainstorming activities - use of technology to promote transcultural and transnational communication. IMPACT AND LONG TERM BENEFIT The project will have an impact on the educational system, because it will allow the participation of schools in Erasmus+ projects that otherwise would not have had the opportunity. The project will also establish a long-term collaboration between the partnership members and, furthermore, other countries can benefit from and use its tools and methodologies, so it can be a useful contribution that can be implemented in different contexts and fields of study.
The MusE project focused on cooperation and innovative methodologies to achieve common goals, and it’s main objective was to help and guide adolescents during a vulnerable stage of life, providing them the tools to overcome problems and difficulties and promoting socialisation and inclusion. Each project partner strongly influenced the achievement of the objectives because of the "operational" skills deployed, and by creating a network of relations that guaranteed the project’s success thanks to the use of combined skills and resources. In fact, it should be taken into account that the experimentation and creation of innovative methods require a higher level of expertise in different fields, and that couldn’t be carried out by a single institution. This aspect has been a key element of the project.
The aim of the MusE project was to use music to connect adolescents from different cultural backgrounds and make them develop the ability of resilience, benefiting from each other's experiences and reflecting on the aspects of life that can be controlled. It mainly involved schools because, having the consortium involved many researchers in the field of education, we know that they play an important role in the development and growth of people. In addition, innovative methodologies were used to reduce early school leaving and to increase students' motivation and involvement in school activities. The students experienced a different learning method, which focused on personal understanding and sharing through music. The ultimate goal of the project was to create a lyric poem on resilience that summarised the contributions of all partner schools. The target groups were represented by young people who are vulnerable and not yet able to face life's difficulties, therefore where they are learning how to take on more responsibility, how to make decisions and resolve problems, such as developing life values and in which they are forming their own identity: a very delicate phase that needs guidance and support.