Innovative assessment methodologies for cooperative learning at primary schools Erasmus Project

Project Title

Innovative assessment methodologies for cooperative learning at primary schools

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

Over the last decades, the way schools understand educational outcomes has changed dramatically, witnessing the integration of new learning methods in their curricula, responding better to the social and personal needs generated by communication society: a tighter relationship between education and labour market as collaborative and communicative skills and competencies are acquired and ICT is integrated in all the aspects of life. Furthermore, schools need to deal with the challenge of inclusion and face the diverse cultural and learning needs.

One of the methods proven to be successful is cooperative learning: it improves skills and competencies, such as solving problems, communicating ideas and information, planning and organizing. Furthermore, it gives a major social dimension to the learning process, allowing group members to negotiate common goals and give each other feedback, increasing students’ motivation and enhancing social cohesion. Cooperative learning is a transversal approach to knowledge and competence acquisition, widely used through different methodologies and at different educational levels, with a particularly strong rooting in primary schools, possibly the level most open to innovation.

Unfortunately, assessment is still the Achilles’ heel of cooperative learning and teachers are insecure about how to use/combine different evaluation methods. Assessment of cooperative learning cannot be understood simply as the sum of the individual assessments, given that in cooperative learning each member of the group is responsible for both his/her own learning and that of the rest of the group.

UPGRADE will elaborate and pilot an innovative methodology for the assessment of cooperative learning at primary schools. It will combine teachers’ evaluation, self-evaluation and peer-review, with the use of an eportfolio. Peer learning offers a major potential: it gives students more practice than traditional methods, students take responsibility for their own learning and regulate their learning process. It is, therefore, an important addition to the teachers’ evaluation and self-evaluation. An additional novelty in UPGRADE is the transnational peer-review: students from other countries can evaluate other students’ work, give their feedback, increase their language skills and critical thinking, and international understanding of different cultures of learning.

The eportfolio, far from being just a technological tool, is a methodology for continuous formative evaluation closely linked to the acquisition of competences; and it provides support to the self-regulation of the learning process, both individual and group. The eportfolio facilitates the assessment while stimulating and visualizing the learning process, and students are able to recollect and show the evidence of their learning through their entire educational life. It also facilitates interdisciplinary cooperation among teachers, allows schools to work together with foreign schools, and allows for different voices and understandings to enter into dialogue as experiences are shared.

Five organizations from four EU countries have joined forces to create synergies for a common goal, well aligned with the ET 2020 priorities: promoting new assessment tools and innovative pedagogical practice:
Escola Gravi and Novalis Open School are two schools highly committed with pedagogical innovation and cooperative learning; MyDocumenta is an SME specialized in education; INN is our high-level academic partner specialised in assessment methodologies, and RIICM represents local administration in an emerging society.

Together they will produce an ICT-based methodology for the assessment of cooperative learning. The outcomes will be validated in a pilot in 6 primary schools in Spain, Latvia, Norway and Italy, most of which public and with socio-economic diversity. The final results will be published in the UPGRADE Handbook.

UPGRADE is expected to have a positive impact on all stakeholders:
• Primary school’s pupils in Spain, Norway, Italy and Latvia improve their transversal and social skills and visualize their learning progress.
• Students and teachers will connect with other EU schools, get feedback on their work, and give feedback to others while practising their language skills
• Teachers will get support in adapting their assessment methods, and in implementing inquiry-based and intradisciplinary learning.
• Schools and teachers will learn about new assessment methods and the use of ICT
• Policy makers will get guidelines about how to implement and deploy the UPGRADE methodology and use the tool and ensure sustainability beyond the project lifespan.
• Parents will obtain more, and different, information about the learning progress of their children and be able to let them enjoy an international experience in a safe environment.

And, above all, we hope that UPGRADE will make teachers and students feel more motivated, more involved, and more connected

Project Website

http://upgradeproject.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 166022,46 Eur

Project Coordinator

DOCUMENTA CREACIONES MULTIMEDIA AVANZADAS SL & Country: ES

Project Partners

• HOGSKOLEN I INNLANDET
• Rigas Izglitibas un informativi metodiskais centrs
• ESCOLA GRAVI SCCL
• NOVALIS OPEN SCHOOL IMPRESA SOCIALE SRL