Critical Democracy: Using Critical Thinking as an Educational Tool to Build a More Democratic, Inclusive and Sustainable Society. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Critical Democracy: Using Critical Thinking as an Educational Tool to Build a More Democratic, Inclusive and Sustainable Society.

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

CONTEXT AND NEEDS
León’s “Decreta” [es] of the year 1188 were recognised by UNESCO as the most ancient reference to a European parliamentary system. These documents ensured the participation of the common people in general decision making and, therefore, DeCRIT project (“Critical Democracy: Using Critical Thinking as a Tool to Build a More Democratic, Inclusive and Sustainable Society”) is intended to pay tribute to this piece of European heritage by placing CRITICAL THINKING skills at the heart of innovative competence-based educational methodologies.

Present-day challenges for European democracy make it crucial for citizens to develop specific COMPETENCES in order to think and act in a more critical way. This need was attested by DeCRIT members in the coordinating institution (IES Legio VII, León), who performed a needs analysis (questionnaires for around 300 students and 40 teachers) showing that there is a profound lack of reasoning, debating and interpersonal skills among our secondary students. DeCRIT is based on this need to encourage Critical Thinking as a nuclear strategy or meta-competence required to promote personal development, foster SOCIAL INCLUSION and enhance DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENT.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
DeCRIT involves two specific GOALS and target groups:
1) providing TEACHERS and educators with the appropriate skills to innovatively use critical thinking as a cross-curricular training strategy.
2) providing STUDENTS and young people with the appropriate skills to use critical thinking as an essential life competence within the framework of INNOVATIVE LEARNING METHODS.
With respect to this two-fold action, the specific OBJECTIVES addressed through DeCRIT can be summarised as follows:
– to develop democratic attitudes within the context of civil society, promoting social inclusion in all aspects of life.
– to actively use critical thinking in decision-making processes, analysing contrasting views in order to form one’s own opinion.
– to show empathy, tolerance and respect towards other people’s views, avoiding discrimination and segregation.
– to raise awareness on the need to use innovative teaching-learning methods to foster students’ acquisition of competences, motivation and social integration.

NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS
This Strategic Partnership is made up of a diverse consortium of 6 ORGANISATIONS:
– three High Schools (Spain, Lithuania, Turkey), responsible for the pedagocial implementation and piloting of outputs;
– one Private University (Poland), responsible for coordinating IO1 and project monitoring;
– one Vocational Training Centre (Portugal), responsible for coordinating IO2 and the digital creation of contents;
– one NGO (Italy), in charge of creating the Dissemination Plan and supporting output creation in terms of inclusion and diversity.
– Around 20 trainers and researches will work as project developers, and some 1000 Students and 50 teachers will be involved as target participants in the pedagogical implementation of contents and in pilot stages.

ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY
The activities leading to the achievement of objectives and the attainment of results will be divided into different stages: 1) Preparation: Research and Needs Analysis; Administrative Documents and Information; Search for Stakeholders and Synergies; 2) Implementation: Teaching-learning content creation by partners; four TRANSNATIONAL MEETINGS to agree on steps and monitor progress; two LEARNING TEACHING TRAINING mobilties to train project participants about DeCRIT’s TRAINING CURRICULUM and creation of E-LEARNING COURSES; local piloting of outputs with students and teachers; feedback provision; 3) Dissemination: Multiplier Events, Local Activities, exploitation in social media and collaboration with stakeholders.
– Accordingly, DeCRIT methodology is based on active engagement of participants, high-quality educational content, evidence-based implementation, cooperative
development of outputs and wide dissemination of results.

RESULTS
DeCRIT will focus on the development of TWO INTELLECTUAL OUPUTS, considered as DeCRIT’s specific TANGIBLE RESULTS:
– IO1 – an innovative TRAINING CURRICULUM which helps teachers foster critical democracy in educational contexts, divided into 5 Content Modules.
– IO2 – an E-LEARNING “MOOC” PLATFORM to show and implement critical thinking skills in teaching-learning processes.

IMPACT AND LONG-TERM BENEFITS
Thanks to the nature of its tangible results, as well as its exploitation and dissemination plan, DeCRIT’s impact is envisaged as follows:
– Long-term involvement of a huge number of beneficiaries (around 5000 students / 200 teachers) in Critical Teaching-Learning Methodologies.
– Significant acquisition of intrapersonal and interpersonal competences.
– Widespread practice of democratic values and active citizenship through critical thinking.
– Creation of permanent transnational networks to foster the exchange of knowledge on EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 181141 Eur

Project Coordinator

IES Legio VII & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Pasvalio Levens pagrindine mokykla
• Szczecinska Szkola Wyzsza Collegium Balticum
• Peyami Safa Ortaokulu
• N.E.T. (NETWORKING EDUCATION AND TRAINING) ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE
• Giz – we can train you, LDA