Open Doors – Open Minds to the Future Erasmus Project

Project Title

Open Doors – Open Minds to the Future

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Pedagogy and didactics; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

The world today presents new demands to the school and the educational environment as a whole. An urgent problem today is the forming the universal educational skills and activities of the students which define a persons’s altitude to education, acquisition of knowledge, collaboration. Also, an important role is played the ability and skill of mastering and, in future,of changing the worlxx do around us. This way, we are talking about the upbringing of a competent individual who is able to act in any situation including a non-standard on, on the basis of wholesome perception of the world.
It is very important that every student is involved in the active education activities, and that every student feels comfortable during the educational process.
This is why a very important moment is the educational environment surrounding the child. And in the modern world, where everything around us, one way or the other, is infused with a huge amount of information, a very important skill is the ability to efficiently navigate in this sea of information, the ability to acquire it, to structure and use the received/studied information in the real life.
Our task within the framework of the project activities was to expand the educational space: to show that education does not only happen in the confines of a regular classroom, while sitting at thd desk, but also outside the classroom, the school. This way, to show the students that the process of education does not begin and end with a bell, but that education/acquiring of knowledge of something new is happening everywhere at all times, and the school space can be interesting, educational.
The task of the school today is not to simply arm the students with a fixed set of knowledge, skills and abilities, but to form their ability to learn, to work in a team, the ability of self-change and self-development.
We were able do develop methods of organising the educational activities in an informal setting: at the school yard, in the streets of the city, at the various informational centres.
It is only necessary to learn to use all the possible sources of information around us for education. And also to create the conditions for the students for conducting the educational process in an informal setting. I.e. it is important to drop the educational stereotypes which, in turn, will ease the students’ tension related to the education itself. What is happening is the reimagining and re-allocation of the teacher-student roles. The teacher is no longer the sole source of information, the student is no longer a passive participant of the educational process. It is important to create the conditions in which the student will always have an active role, will to some degree become the conductor of the process of solving the task set in front of him/her. The teacher will only be guiding the student and helping if there is need. And the organisation of the education in an informal setting – outside the walls of the classroom – only supports that.
This way, every student had an opportunity to become an active participant of the educational process. Education is becoming more and more practical, the interdisciplinary connections and conducting the lessons in an informal setting are occurring more and more often. Where better to study the animal world if not at the zoo, and the world of plants – at a forest? A course in astronomy? – we are going to an observatory! We are studying the alternative sources of energy – we are building the wind turbines! It was the practical orientation that specifically helped the student to become an active participant of the educational process, to become a partner of the teacher in creating ye educational materials, in conducting the lessons and developing a new image of school.
This, we were able to form a group o teachers at schools, who are ready for collaboration, to look for new active methods of work.
And, as a result, we were able to create a number of lesson materials for organising lessons: in the city space – project module Home City as a classroom,, in the nature – Nature as classroom, at the museums and educational centres – Museum as a classroom, and also how the school space and school walls can be used for educational activities- project module Educational and active school breaks. Also, at each school were formed the principles of organising lessons of these types, which allows us in future to continue the development of this theme also after the end of the project. Which, in general, is happening at the moment.
Considering the fact that during the project 4 international meetings of the students (Short-teram Exchange of students) took place: 3 meetings in contact and 1 in a digital format, in which at least 80 students and 30 teachers took part in total, in the meetings themselves. While various project activities during the entire project included about 200 students and 40 teachers. This, the project work and the activities within the framework of the project allowed us to involve the students to be more active in organising the educational work (module Educational and active school breaks), to give feedback to the teachers in a more open way, to suggest their ideas and possible places to visit within the framework of studying particular topics (module Home city as classroom, Nature as classroom).
At 3 schools (schools of Greece, Lithuania, and Estonia), conferences were held to exchange the experience with the teachers from the local schools. During these conferences, there were discussions within the framework of the project themes and the developed materials, the project results were presented, so we can say that the ideas of the project have reached a wider audience. The approach to education that is touched upon by the project is relevant in the modern world of education.

Project Website

http://sites.google.com/mhum.tln.edu.ee/opendoorsopenminds/information-about-project?authuser=0

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 106097,19 Eur

Project Coordinator

Tallinna Mustamae Humanitaargumnaasium & Country: EE

Project Partners

• 1_GYMNASIO_PYRGOU
• Agrupamento de Escolas Piscinas – Olivais
• INSTITUTO DE ENSEÑANZA SECUNDARIA JOSÉ MARÍN
• Taurages r. Batakiu pagrindine mokykla