Cooperative Europe Looking for Learning: stronger together. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Cooperative Europe Looking for Learning: stronger together.

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: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Pedagogy and didactics; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

The “CELL” project arose from the initiative proposed by the three partner countries (Spain, Slovenia and Poland) to know more and to learn about cooperative work in other places and cultures in Europe. Cooperating, discussing in an orderly manner, knowing how to negotiate and solving problems according to all opinions have been fundamental points that we have developed with the methodology of cooperative learning, which has allowed us to train future critical and constructive adults in these two years of project.
C.E.L.L. has not been just one more project for us, it has been the wishful thinking of three schools and their teachers that, through their hard work and dedication, have developed new ways of working the cooperative learning.
The main objective of the CELL project has been to use cooperative learning as an educational tool, thus transforming the student’s role as a knowledge manager. We tried to remove the consciences of our students and to fight against disadvantaged situations that could appear in the classroom. From this perspective, we have humbly tried and managed to change the social reality that surrounds us in Europe of which we are all part.
With this project we have managed to encourage our teachers and students to discover new teaching-learning methodologies and tools in order to continue improving the quality of education.
We have also managed to improve the interest of the students of the different schools through the joint work of the new cooperative methodologies, to establish strong and sustainable ties with the associated schools, to improve the ability in linguistic and communicative competence in another language (English) of students and teachers, to promote the understanding of the European dimension within the framework of teaching – learning and to deepen the approach of the school to the concept of Europe, to improve school results and contribute to the development of Key Competencies and also to create sustainable ties between the partners beyond the life of CELL.
The countries participating in this European project have been the “Osnovna sola Dramlje” school, a small rural school of about 250 students in the Slovenian town of Dramlje (Slovenia), the Szkola Podstawowa school nr 368 im. “Polskich Olimpijczyków”, a school of more than 1000 students in a large European capital such as Warsaw (Poland) and the Escuelas Parroquiales del Sagrado Corazón from Olivenza (Spain) a school of about 700 students with a medium-low socio-economic level next to the border with Portugal in a municipality that can be considered a perfect example of the mixture of Portuguese Hispanic cultures.
In addition to the students and teachers participating in the mobilities and transnational meetings of the project, our project has been aimed at involving other types of participants such as: the rest of the students of each school and their families, all their teachers, the inhabitants of the localities / neighborhoods in which each school is located, the inhabitants of the environment close to the localities and the general population of the European Union (especially through the dissemination of CELL).
During the two years of the CELL project, our students and teachers have carried out the following mobilities:
– 1st Transnational Coordinators Meeting: Dramlje (Slovenia), October 2017
– 1st Short-term student exchange: Dramlje (Slovenia), May 2018
– 2nd Transnational Coordinators Meeting: Warsaw (Poland), October 2018.
– 2nd Exchange of short duration of students: Warsaw (Poland), October 2018.
– 3rd Transnational Coordinators Meeting: Olivenza (Spain), May 2019.
– 3rd Exchange of short duration of students: Olivenza (Spain), May 2019
The activities developed in CELL, complying with the application form, have been the following:
A1.- Stronger together: starting the project
A2.- Stronger together: let us introduce ourselves
A3.- Stronger together: creating our identity
A4.-Stronger together: C.E.L.L. thematic week.
A5.- Stronger together: cooperative acting.
A6.- Stronger together: physical education through cooperative methodology.
A7.- Stronger together: cooperative choreography
A.8- Stronger together: Cooperative international fairy tales
A9.- Stronger together: C.E.L.L newspaper.
A10.- Stronger together: CELL anthem
A11.- Stronger together: Modern Virus
A12.- Stronger together: group investigation CELL.
A13.- Stronger together: cooperatives student ONGS.
A14.- Stronger together: cooperative work in the classrooms of C.E.L.L
A15.- Stronger together: route cooperative european “ROUTE CELL”.
A16.- Stronger together: Chain experiment
A17.- Stronger together: creation of an international photo data base of the project.

The results obtained in these activities have been really high quality, exceeding our expectations. In this link you can consult all of them ( https://n9.cl/1e19 )
To measure the impact of the CELL project, we have used an eclectic methodology that combined different types of quantitative and qualitative techniques. Quantitatively, after the development of each activity, we have extracted a series of performance indicators such as the number of students involved, the institutions, the percentages of attendance, the media involved, impact on social networks, etc. Qualitatively we have measured the impact of our project with questionnaires, interviews, observations and evaluations of different target groups of the activities carried out.
CELL have managed to apply this methodology among students and teachers from different countries, from different schools and from different cultures. Thanks to the support of the new technologies, the assigned roles have been coordinated, and we have been able to obtain incredible results and over the expectations raised at the beginning of the project. CELL has shown that new technologies offer us great possibilities, and their use enriches teaching and learning, in the research of an improvement in the quality of education.
CELL’s methodological proposal has been based on a cooperative approach, understanding cooperation as a partnership between people seeking a common goal. In a multicultural context it is necessary to talk about cooperation and participation among students who will became european citizens. Our project with cooperative work has undoubtedly contributed to allowing students to unite, support each other, have greater attitude, being aware that the individual efforts articulated in a cooperative group gain more strength.
As examples that clearly define the philosophy and achievements that CELL has achieved beyond the expected expectations, we can present the participation of our project in the “Talk about Europe” event in Olivenza: students from different schools in the region asked politicians about his concerns of the future of Europe: the Director of the Representation of the European Commission in Spain Mr. Francisco Fonseca Morillo, the Director General of External Action of the Junta de Extremadura, Rosa Balas; or the Mayor of Olivenza and president of Aderco, Manuel José González Andrade participated in the event. We connected with our Slovenian partners through a videoconference with more than 200 assistants; the CELL coordinator and the Principal of the Osnonva sola Dramlje school participated in the debate in live and launch their questions to the politicians.
In the same way we have achieved that politicians of the highest level know and talk about CELL. Thus, the Slovenian Ambassador to Spain, Mrs Renata Cvelvar Bek, personally congratulated us through a video on our website ( www.cellerasmus.com ). Also in Warsaw the Polish school got us to do a prime time interview on TVP3 Warszawa, a public channel with an average audience of more than 6 million viewers. Are these not really examples of the ties between cultures and international cooperation? Are these not examples of real approach of classrooms between countries? We believe so.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 54350 Eur

Project Coordinator

Escuelas Parroquiales del Sagrado Corazon & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Szkola Podstawowa nr 368 im. “Polskich Olimpijczykow”
• Osnovna sola Dramlje