SUSTAINABILITY-Preserving Europe for Future Generations Erasmus Project

Project Title

SUSTAINABILITY-Preserving Europe for Future Generations

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions

Project Summary

Sustainability – Preserving Europe for Future Generations

Europe is one of the most diverse parts of the world. Looking back at a rich, tumultuous history, the high standards of today have been achieved by learning from past developments and conflicts. Europe has developed a responsibility towards its human and natural environment that needs not only to be preserved but strengthened in the minds of future generations. If they do not understand our common past, we cannot pass on our high quality of life, rich culture and know how. Our duty is to raise students’ awareness and understanding of the importance of preserving Europe’s uniqueness and the challenges lying ahead. This englobes the preservation of history and the development of technologies that enable us to deal with our natural and social environment in a sustainable way.

Our future needs an active next generation that realizes Europe’s strengths and contributes to their preservation and further improvement. However, traditional teacher-centred methods often do not meet the needs of students coming from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. The objectives of our project therefore are not only to implement more active and participatory learning and teaching methods, but also to raise awareness for the importance of sustainability and its numerous aspects among our students and their peers. Our project focuses on valuable initiatives to motivate young people to get active themselves.

Moreover, we want to improve intercultural knowledge, language skills, self-esteem, soft skills, ICT skills and a deeper understanding of a common Europe and its values amongst the participants. This project will help to establish international networks and equal opportunities for all participants coming from six schools from Turkey, Austria, Finland, Spain, Hungary and Germany and represent different school systems (private primary and secondary school, public upper and lower secondary school, public vocational school). This ensures to have participants with different backgrounds, ages and fields of expertise. The number of students and teachers directly involved will be approximately 360, and more than 3000 people will benefit indirectly.

The activities used throughout the project can be separated into three main groups, namely activities before, during and after each LTTA. Before the actual meetings, the students familiarize themselves with the different aspects of sustainability through peer teaching and other active learning methods. The hosting students prepare CLIL tasks as an input on the topics and terminology of the next meeting. During the meeting students will put theory into practice by using peer teaching and other participatory methods and document their learning process using videos, photos etc. On the last day and after the meetings these informative materials will be used for peer teaching within and outside project participants and to disseminate our results.

Previous experience has shown that teacher training on the different CLIL and documentation methods as well as in-depth input on the topic itself raises the efficiency of the process and the quality of the produced materials. The separate teacher training meeting in the start of the project will therefore include training sessions that will benefit not only the project, but also the participating schools in the future.

Evaluation will happen before, during and after each meeting by means of online questionnaires and interviews, so that adjustments can be made to ensure a constant and productive workflow including different activities and methods.
Peer teaching, student-centred learning and CLIL are the main methods used in the project. The focus will also be put on practical and intercultural learning as well as on comparative and critical approaches to the topics. Due to the thematic scope, cross-curricular and phenomenon-based learning are also included. The actual results of our project will be the developed products, such as informative video and photo documentations, CLIL materials, a glossary, an online database, video quizzes and questionnaires as well as final comparative national reports.

The further impact of the project includes beneficiaries with higher motivation to acquire and use new knowledge, better language skills and ICT skills, a deeper knowledge of innovative methodology as well as better intercultural understanding and higher European awareness. Finally, networks for the future will be established. To sustain the results, experiences and knowledge gained throughout the project, the material on the website will continue with open access and cooperation will remain between the partners after finalizing the project. In these lasting partnerships, teaching knowledge and experience of active methods will continue to be shared. The insights gained on the different aspects of sustainability will continue to benefit the individual partners and their peers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 194690 Eur

Project Coordinator

Länsipuiston koulu & Country: FI

Project Partners

• Bundesgymnasium, Bundesrealgymnasium u. Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium XX, Brigittenauer Gymnasium, 1200 Wien, Karajangasse 14
• MEV KOLEJI OZEL ANKARA ORTAOKULU
• Berufsbildungszentrum am Nord-Ostsee-Kanal
• Budapesti Müszaki Szakképzési Centrum Újpesti Két Tanítási Nyelvü Müszaki Szakgimnáziuma és Szakközépiskolája
• IES Son Rullan