Approaching Social Issues By Films Erasmus Project

Project Title

Approaching Social Issues By Films

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Teachers of 5 EU schools from Germany, Poland, Turkey, Latvia and Italy united their effort in creating a project targeting high school students aged 13-18 years old.
The common needs identified among all partner schools were: the need to develop students’ interest towards social issues, to boost students’ employability skills and to strengthen their feeling as European citizens. Therefore, our project comprises 3 dimensions – educational, professional and cultural. The activities were designed so as students aged 13-18 developed their creativity and competitiveness, key factors needed for the European growth.
Working together helped the participants to reduce stereotypes, racism, xenophobia and combat prejudices, discovering the cultural features, and understanding different EU lifestyles. The participants were united in diversity and they promoted the European identity, especially that our project ensured the geographical diversity.
The aim of “Approaching Social Issues By Film“ was to develop the digital skills of students from 5 European countries and encouraging them to reflect about social issues during a two years project.
Therefore our objectives were:
– To build up communication and interpersonal skills
– To develop ICT skills and digital competence
– To expand creativity and critical thinking skills
– To encourage students to approach social issues actively
– To develop practical skills related to film-making
– To boost interdisciplinary thinking linking different elements
– To raise awareness about cultural features, similarities and differences
– To improve English skills and get exposed to other EU languages
A total of 80 students and 40 teachers directly were involved in the project activities. The participants improved their competences in using film-making applications, tools, and techniques; related to communication, language, ICT, digital and problem-solving skills; their awareness about the EU diversity and of the necessity of active citizens promoting mutual respect, tolerance and peace. The students also developed team working skills as most of the activities require group work.
The activities were designed to boost participants’ film editing skills and knowledge in their attempt to create more appealing teaching materials. The project was linked to the priority we had selected in the way that students identified social issues, reflected about them, exchanged opinions about their causes and effects, suggesting solutions, learned practical skills needed to accomplish practical tasks. Therefore, the students’ motivation for learning and cooperating were stimulated.
The project responded to the current needs to develop ICT and digital competence for all students at the EU level. Focusing on social issues complemented the school work of civic education, social science, religious education, philosophy that teaches moral values like tolerance and mutual respect from a pedagogical perspective. The project took these values to the next level, the level of practice and real life experience.
The interdisciplinary approach in designing the project activities led to achievement of the project’s objectives. Using films as key element to address social issues developed social empathy and awareness, as well as digital skills in the learning by doing process stimulated the students’ interest. The students shared their visions about short films with an impact that addressed social issues; they saw their EU peers’ vision and exchanged opinions about topics of their interest. Then, they learned the steps to make their own films, and gradually became proficient in understanding the technical aspects of film making.
All activities promoted the freedom of expression, social cohesion, active citizenship, creative and critical thinking.
The participants interiorized values like tolerance, mutual respect and acceptance in diverse life situations, being exposed to issues like the sense of belonging to a group, racism, different social backgrounds, disability, gender inequalities, homophobia, xenophobia, etc.
The project offered participants the opportunity to learn determining a growth mindset helping them to respond with constructive thoughts, feelings and behaviors to life challenges or setbacks. Such mindsets boosted the participants’ intelligence for academic tenacity and performance.
As students and teachers worked closely to reach common objectives, on the long run it helped the teachers to be more aware of their students’ needs, to consider carefully the students’ interest and aspirations and to understand how they can be best supported.
The schools strengthened their cooperation with other EU institutions and acquired more experience in implementing Erasmus+ projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 135018 Eur

Project Coordinator

Friedrich-Ebert-Schule Giessen & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Szkola Podstawowa nr 25 z Oddzialami Integracyjnymi, Zespol Szkol nr 19
• ISMA vidusskola Premjers
• OZEL OGUZHAN OZKAYA FEN LISESI
• I.I.S.S. GIOVANNI CABOTO