“Bridging the gap – from theory to practice” Erasmus Project

Project Title

“Bridging the gap – from theory to practice”

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: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

“Bridging the gap – from theory to practice” is a project that aims to bridge the gap between the theoretical acquisition of exact sciences at school and practical knowledge and skills needed in the real life, preparing students for a conscious choice of the future profession and successful studies at university. Both partner schools have engineering programmes and are highly interested in improving the teaching methodology and quality of education, especially focusing on such exact sciences as Mathematics, Physics and Geography. In addition, both partner schools are UNESCO ASP schools and will also focus on learning about cultural heritage, architectural monuments and UNESCO protected objects in the countries. Undoubtedly, Graditeljsko-geodetska tehnicka skola (GGTS) is an expert in teaching engineering subjects, providing specialisation in such professions as: 1) architectural technician; 2) geodesy and geoinformation technician; 3) construction technician, and cooperation with such an experienced partner would be a great benefit for Rigas Klasiska gimnazija (RKG) that would be able to learn a lot about the organisation of education for future engineers. At the same time, RKG has great experience in CLIL methodology and project work and would be able to share its knowledge, experience and materials with GGTS. Moreover, in the nearest couple of years a new scientific corpus with labs and new technologies will be build next to the RKG school building and we need to be prepared for the new challenges offering highly qualitative education in the field of exact sciences.
The project aims to meet both a) intangible objectives such as: increased students and teachers’ motivation, better understanding of different approaches to education in different European countries, gaining practical knowledge and communication on an international level; and b) tangible objectives such as:
1) Improvement of exact subjects teaching methodology switching the focus from theoretical to practical and real-life task-based learning;
2) Development of a new educational programme “English for engineers”
3) Development of a series of task-based and problem solving CLIL lessons and micro-projects;
4) Development of CLIL lessons focusing on cultural heritage and investigating local architecture;
5) Compilation of a multilingual glossary for engineers (ENG-CR-LV);
6) Development of a project on eTwinning platform;
7) Investigation and comparison of professional profiles and education and job requirements for future engineers and architects in both countries;
8) Development of a guidelines or recommendations concerning teaching exact subjects more practically with hands-on tasks and experiences.
The project participants will be selected from the students of the engineering programmes – these will be 15-19 years old, 10th-12th form students. Each partner school will participate with 10 students and 3 teachers – all in all 20 students and 6 teachers from both countries. The most motivated and active students will be selected for the project, taking into account their achievements in studies and social life, as well as motivation letters and participation in an interview. The project will be organised and supported by teachers of engineering and exact sciences such as: Mathematics, Physics and Geography as well as teachers of English and History.
The project will be organised on the basis of eTwinning project that will be created for exchange of ideas and practices. Activities of the project will be based on the development of problem-solving and task-based micro-projects aimed at acquisition of exact subjects through practical and close to real life situations learning. During the project students and teachers will collect materials, discuss and make drafts of possible educational activities, lesson plans and micro-projects, that will be developed and improved later, using eTwinning. During the visits new activities and lesson plans will be piloted and improved using CLIIL method; moreover, a multilingual glossary (ENG-LV-CR) will be developed. Thus, the main methods used in the project are CLIL, problem solving, task-based and project-based learning.
This project will allow both partner schools to improve the quality of education by switching from theoretical knowledge acquisition to practical, project-based and task-based learning and teaching of exact sciences. Parallel participation in UNESCO project and learning about cultural heritage and UNESCO protected objects will help our students to broaden the horizons and become better professionals in future. Moreover, it could also to influence the way exact subjects are taught in our countries, focusing on career education and preparing our students for a conscious and reasonable choice of the future profession.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 34130 Eur

Project Coordinator

Rigas Klasiska gimnazija & Country: LV

Project Partners

• Graditeljsko-geodetska tehnicka skola