With schools being closed by the pandemic, vulnerable students risk falling further behind, also when distance learning is provided. With distance teaching, in fact, the risk of an increase in the rates of early school leaving and in the level of students disengagement is very high, especially in countries where the level of access to the internet by households is lower and in disadvantaged and rural areas. Digital divide and the lack of ICT devices in poor families will increase the risk of early school leaving and of disengagement also for students that can have good performances in presence. Educators should be aware of and look for the signs of this disengagement and act to maximize engagement and to provide the best support for at-risk students. Often, when schools loose all contacts with early leavers, the last available resources are the relationships with peers, the chats with friends and other social networks. The E-TEAMS proposal aims at providing schools with an innovative approach of “digital e-guidance and co-careering” based on: • The European framework of Career Management Skills (CMS), a set of skills to enable individuals in lifelong career management. • the best gamification techniques and a set of digital open badges to award the peer to peer engagement of all students. • An education program for preventing early school leaving, organized online by E-TEAMS of students to foster co-careering activities and peer-to-peer e-learning • An open e-learning platform for improving CMS and a web App for promote access to the E-TEAMS game and e-tutorship also by smartphones. Furthermore, the E-TEAMS project aims at providing teachers with digital and pedagogical skills to support students active engagement in presence and in lock down times, using an innovative platform, gamification and peer-to-peer learning. The project will produce 4 main Intellectual Outputs: IO1 - MY CAREER PLAN - Check list. Identify career education needs: the check list for students. This output will be a simple tool to identify signs of school disengagement, risks of dropping out and needs of career support and tutorship. IO2 - The E-TEAMS Game. Co-careering: a social bridge to the Future. This output includes a co-careering programme based on peer-to-peer e-activities and a digital badges award system to encourage all students to help each other, to play an active role in preventing early school leaving of their peers and to learn Career Management Skills (CMS) for achieving their personal goals. IO3 - The E-TEAMS web portal and web app. The project will design, test and develop an innovative web portal for peer-to-peer groups, e-guidance, with career guidance tools and CMS resources. The web portal and the game will also be accessible by smartphone, through an educational web app. IO4 - Training for E-tutors. The project consortium will investigate the training needs of teachers in this innovative fields of digital tutorship of peer learning teams and it will design a set of training modules and online resources for e-tutors (teachers, career guidance practitioners, peer students). The project consortium will be led by the University of Camerino (Italy) and includes qualified partners form different regional contexts, rural and urban areas in West, South and East Europe. The main target groups of this project are: - 200 teachers from - 80 schools in 5 Countries (Italy, Romania, Spain, Portugal and Belgium) and - 400 students involved in pilot actions to test and spread the IOs of the project; - 120 local and national stakeholders and decision makers in the field of education and career guidance. The E-TEAMS digital system to prevent early school leaving will be open online and accessible for all schools. It will have a relevant impact on the quality of education and on the reduction of early school leaving rates.
The project provided evidence on the relevance of implementing approaches based on career education, digital and peer-to-peer activities to prevent school dropouts and improve students’ engagement. Increasing attainment levels and reducing early leaving in School depend on the capability of the EU Education System to motivate students in daily practice with the aim to let them be self-reflective and engaged in their future choice and studies. Developing and testing IOs, the Consortium aimed to help students develop and experiment the skills to successfully manage their career. It also created a set of open education resources and online tools to enable educators and teachers to better support students’ engagement. While doing so, the Consortium aimed at: - bridging the gap between traditional career guidance provision and new communication and social engagement techniques; - providing teachers and practitioners with the skills and tools to use innovative, creative and interactive educational and training materials, based on the best technical solutions and contents available into the market; - exploiting the great potential of digital tools and methods for active engagement, such as gamification, badges and awards, e-tutoring; etc
After COVID-19, the entire school system across Europe faced the challenge to re-engage students in the educational process while fighting early school leaving. The pandemic increased inequalities and exacerbated students’ difficulties in the class. The link between the learning experience and the world outside school was challenged. An effective use of digital technologies also represented a major challenge for teachers and schools who were in need to develop skills and attitudes to be able to benefit from the potential of digital tools in a moment where in-presence interactions were impossible. In this complex and delicate scenario, relationships with peers were known to play a pivotal role as a protective factor for students’ engagement and wellbeing. Limited during the pandemic, preserving their precious nature of peer interactions and promoting safe contexts for peer-to-peer support represented another important need. Peers, in fact, represent the last available resource once students are disengaged from schools. Hence, the Consortium decided to develop new tools and methodologies to support students’ engagement with the promotion of an innovative approach of digital e-guidance and co-careering.