A cup of creativity in educational process Erasmus Project

Project Title

A cup of creativity in educational process

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

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

Project Summary

The project A Cup of Creativity in Educational Process brought together schools of secondary education from four European countries: Slovenia, Italy, Greece and Portugal. All the schools observed the need to include creativity as a competence, intercultural, linguistic and digital competences in educational process. All partner countries have developed diverse social habits connected with drinking coffee, tea and milk, which served as the basis for researching and creating. The objectives of the project were: inclusion of creativity in learning and teaching, development of social and intercultural competences and the change of teacher’s as well as students’ perception of creativity and its evaluation.
The core project teams at each school consisted of four teachers and six students. In order to achieve the goals, there were national and four international learning activities in the time period of 24 months. In each initial activity, the students researched their local environment. The preparatory activities were followed by international learning activities, where the findings were presented in international groups. What is more, they served as the starting point for cooperative creative activities – the research of characteristics, habits, culture and economy of each country, and presenting them as a lesson plan, a video or a visual presentation to be used educational process.
Each international activity focused on a topic that was agreed upon by all partners as the most suitable for their environment: the meeting in Ptuj focused on languages and cultural awareness, introducing the participants to the period of the Middle Ages and Baroque. Kavala hosted the second meeting, whose topic was history and art. Torino provided the participants with the environment where science and entrepreneurship can flourish. Caldas da Rainha focused on multimedia and the activities connected with it. The teachers exchanged examples of good practice and included creative approaches in teaching. Thus the methodology followed the pattern: researching/learning – creating – presenting/use of results.
During the project, the website was being created, which now comprises the tangible project results: an online resource pack of creative material for classroom use, created by the participants, which comprises creative lessons for English, History, History or Art, Literature, Mathematics and Geography; a collection of guidelines for assessment of creative activity, created by the teachers, the findings of the international research of beverages drunk from a cup, and a gallery of posters, drawings, paintings, design produced by the participants. The website also represents an exhaustive diary of all project activities, including tools for monitoring and evaluation, dissemination activities and use of results.
The activities and the impact were evaluated with tools created during the project. Thus, at the project’s completion, all four participating institutions observed an increased awareness of their creative potential among participating students, the positive change in their perception of partner countries as well as the novel perception of their homecountry’s ingenuity, attractions and heritage, improved interpersonal skills and the ability to actively contribute to the work of (an international) group, improved presentational skills and self-confidence, and new pursuits in the field of ICT, particularly in the field of video-presentation projects. The teachers began including creative material in their lessons, either the project results by created students or their own creations. The new approach to creative teaching was the inclusion of creative projects as homework activity. In each partner country, the most remarkable impact of project activities was observed on school, local and regional levels. Teachers at partner schools and at primary/secondary schools in the region were willing to try out the project results as soon as they were disseminated, already in the duration of the project. Local cultural organisations, craftsmen and entrepreneurs were actively involved in the project activities, in turn, their activity was presented to the international audience.
Creative activities did not end at the project completion: the website remains active and is upgraded into an online collection of examples of creative approaches in education. Schools to which the project results have been disseminated use the material and/or add their own creations. An e-mail address was created, allowing all interested teachers to comment on the results or their use of results and approaches. The cooperation between the participating schools and the local institutions involved in the project activities continues in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 105425 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gimnazija Ptuj & Country: SI

Project Partners

• AGRUPAMENTO D ESCOLAS RAFAEL BORDALO PINHEIRO
• 6 GEL KAVALAS
• IIS GOBETTI MARCHESINI-CASALE – ARDUINO