Accepting the 1960 Nobel prize for literature, the French Poet Saint-John Perse made an inspiring speech inviting everyone no longer to consider artist and scientist as hostile brothers because “they are exploring the same abyss and it is only in their modes of investigation that they differ”. As he pointed out “In truth, every creation of the mind is first of all «poetic» in the proper sense of the word; and inasmuch as there exists an equivalence between the modes of sensibility and intellect, it is the same function that is exercised initially in the enterprises of the poet and the scientist”. Nowadays, creative thinking is defined as the thinking that enables students to apply their imagination to generate ideas, questions and hypothesis, experimenting with alternatives and to evaluate their own and their peers’ ideas, final product and processes and creativity is a recognized transversal skill for both ART and STEM disciplines, as well as a fundamental driver for innovation. However, there is still a lack of holistic pedagogical approaches that, focusing on creativity, are able to strictly connect ART and STEM education. For this reason, our PERSE project aims at developing and formalizing a creativity-oriented pedagogical approach that overcomes the dualism among non-formal/informal education for ART and STEM merging together art-based learning with inquiry science-based learning and technology-based learning in order to fully sustain the development of STE(A)M key competences in youth. As the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the life of millions of people around the world imposing a profound in rethinking the way social interactions take place, we do think that only a new alliance among education, cultural and creativity sectors across Europe will be able to tackle up the challenge of providing up to date quality educational opportunities for youth. Therefore, the objectives of PERSE project will be: - to foster skill-building and competencies to reinforce creativity as well as to boost quality and innovation through original approaches that support the creative potential of youth by promoting cross-sectoral cooperation - to develop innovative learning tools, resources, and training modules to equip youth workers with skills and competences to create experiential learning activities to be used to foster the development of creativity in youth as a key competence - to build a European Hub of Ideas by engaging organizations and crucial players in the fields of formal, informal, and non-formal education and creative and cultural sectors to stimulate European awareness, to empower people of current and future generations To do so, the project consortium will: - define and innovative PERSE creativity-oriented pedagogical approach based on the integration of different non-formal/informal methodologies from Art-Based learning (ABL) with Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) and Technology-based Learning aims at sparking creativity and stimulating innovative ways to inquire into the surrounding world. - Create and test a training course for creative leader on PERSE creativity-oriented pedagogical approach - Create a PERSE toolbox containing material and immaterial items essential for creating a suitable PERSE educational environment and deliver PERSE activities for young people - create a set of short term laboratories for young people that will figure the combination of multiple ART+STEM disciplines (e.g. DANCE+BIOLOGY) to inquire a defined topic (e.g. LIFE ON EARTH) - Create a PERSE European Creative Hub of Ideas as online environment enclosed on the official website of the project which will support the online networking room of discussion, online transnational roundtables alongside with a Hackathon event Therefore, from a wider perspective, PERSE project aims to: - to improved youth workers’ competences in design multidisciplinary educational activities for youth integrating different methodologies thanks to the application of PERSE creativity-oriented pedagogical approach changing how STEAM activities are delivered to young people that will result in improved capabilities of youth workers in scaffolding young people creativity. - change the way young people inquiry of the world around them and open their mind to different approaches while scaffolding their creative thinking. This also allows them to look through the connections among ART and STEM and bring them closer to the cultural and creative institutions related to STE(A)M disciplines - sustain the creation of new educational alliance among different key cultural/creative/educational stakeholders across Europe to promote the development of innovative solutions to tackle COVID-19 challenges for the involved sectors
1) Foster skill-building and competencies to reinforce creativity as well as to boost quality and innovation through original approaches that support the creative potential of youth by promoting cross-sectoral cooperation 2) Develop innovative learning tools, resources, and training modules to equip youth workers with skills and competencies to create experiential learning activities to be used to foster the development of creativity in youth as a key competence 3) Build a European Hub of Ideas by engaging organizations and crucial players in the fields of formal, informal, and non-formal education and creative and cultural sectors to stimulate European awareness, to empower people of current and future generations
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the life of millions of people around the world, imposing a profound rethinking in the way social interactions take place. In this scenario, those who suffered the most from the norms of social distancing were the sectors related to culture and education that are still challenging to experiment with innovation and methodologies to provide equal fruition opportunities among people of different backgrounds. The difficulty of access to quality cultural and educational offers threatens to severely compromise the development of key competencies, especially in young people, acting as a factor in the growth of social inequalities. Creativity as the ability to "act with flexibility, intelligence and novelty in everyday creating something new that has originality and meaningfulness" represents the key to ensuring proficient recovery as much for creative/educational organizations as for young people themselves. In this way, a new alliance among informal and non-formal organizations is needed to promote a relevant change in education systems moving away from a rather fragmented approach to teaching creativity, to a much more holistic and integrated approach among different disciplines.