Inclusive cooperation training system Erasmus Project

Project Title

Inclusive cooperation training system

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 : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

European societies are currently going through a major crisis of values. This crisis, whose main effect is ” inward-looking “, makes it essential to develop cooperative practices from the earliest age in order to encourage openness and inclusion of the younger generations. The first ambition of the “Inclusive Cooperation Devices” (DICO+) project is to help teachers – in initial and in-service training – to develop innovative cooperative practices in their classrooms, aiming at a greater social inclusion, which can contribute to the reduction of school drop-out.

International surveys, as well as the results of the survey carried out by the consortium prior to the project among the teachers in their network, have clearly highlighted the need for training and resources on cooperative practices. Working together on a European scale allowed for a comparison of current approaches and practices in different school systems in Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe. This exchange of practices has enabled the consortium members to develop tools and resources, as universal as possible, which support the development of training in cooperative practices in initial and in-service teacher training.

The target audience for DICO+ was trainee teachers and experienced teachers. The aim was to support new teachers in acquiring the skills they need to implement cooperative practices in their classrooms and to promote cooperative practices through in-service and lifelong training for teachers. Dico+ thus aims at the widest possible dissemination of these practices, which support children’s development of the 21st century skills promoted by the European Union.

The three main activities of the DICO+ project were:
– the development of resources for training of teachers on cooperative practices (IO3)
– the production of reference situations, based on experiments/observations in classrooms at national level and also during two European seminars synthesising these observations (IO2)
– the construction of a public platform hosting the resources produced, in the different languages of the partner countries (IO1). To access the platform: http://pod.dicoplus.eu/

These activities have been carried out by a strong consortium that includes universities, education institutes, inspectorates-rectorates, a private company, located in 7 countries. The consortium is a product of two robust European networks (ELOS and ELICIT+). INSPE de Bretagne (France) was the project coordinator, with the following partners: Inspectoratul Scolar Judetean Botosani (Romania), Aosta Valley Autonomous Region, Assessorato di Educazione e Cultura (Italy), CEDIN-Interprimair (The Netherlands), Neumann Janos Egyetem (Hungary), Lietuvos Edukologijos Universitetas (Lithuania), INSPE de Normandie (France), and Universidad de Cordoba (Spain).

The project, which lasted 36 months, was based on an experimental fieldwork consisting of about twenty schools (primary and secondary), with approximately thirty teachers involved. The pupils concerned by the cooperative activities analysed were aged between 8 and 13. This age group is indeed particularly receptive to innovative pedagogical practices, and especially to peer-to-peer work.

Dissemination activities were of various kinds: training modules, conferences and scientific articles in international journals, dissemination in national and international education networks. The wide communication of DICO+ results to local, regional and national authorities in the partner countries has ensured the wide dissemination of the project. The first vector of dissemination of the resources developed in this project is the free and perennial access of the platform DICOpod.
The main long-term benefits of this project are threefold: the development of didactic skills of student-teachers and more experienced teachers; the integration of the Lesson Study methodology in initial and in-service teacher training; the development of pupils’ interpersonal skills fostered by cooperative learning situations leading to better inclusion of pupils with special needs.

Project Website

http://www.dicoplus.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 299998,7 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE BRETAGNE OCCIDENTALE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• UNIVERSIDAD DE CORDOBA
• LIETUVOS EDUKOLOGIJOS UNIVERSITETAS
• REGIONE AUTONOMA VALLE D’AOSTA
• Interprimair
• Neumann János Egyetem
• Inspectoratul Scolar Judetean Botosani
• UNIVERSITE DE CAEN NORMANDIE