Cultural heritage in a European context Erasmus Project

Project Title

Cultural heritage in a European context

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

Our Cultural Heritage in a European Context project was created by four secondary schools from Hungary (coordinator), Finland, Iceland and Spain. The four schools have already worked together in different projects and possess varying degrees of experience regarding international cooperation in the Erasmus + framework. The partnership would like to offer pupils with the opportunity to work together in international teams on cultural topics, honing their foreign language and IT skills as well as their communicative and interpersonal competences.
Among the objectives of the project, the most important ones are: raising the number of pupils participating in international cooperation, teaching and learning about culture in informal and non-formal ways, making pupils better understand the importance of cultural heritage, strengthening their attitudes towards European citizenship, improving their English language skills, strengthening the international networks of the partner schools, developing creative thinking and promoting the use of IT tools in education.
The participants of the project are the pupils of the four participating schools, the actual number of pupils participating in mobility is 64, 60 pupils would participate in short-term exchanges of groups and pupils and 4 pupils will participate in long-term study mobility of pupils. The participants of the project are secondary school pupils aged 14 to 20. Local participants of the project will add to the number of pupils participating in the exchanges. Also, during the project activities we will involve all the pupils of the partner schools in activities such as ‘Culture Days.’
To begin with, we will organize a teachers’ meeting in order to discuss the components of the project with the participating teachers. We are also planning four short-term exchanges of groups of pupils, one in each participating country. In the preparatory phase, the host school’s pupils will create videos and online quizzes for the guests to be published on the eTwinning space of the project. During the meetings, host schools will organize cultural activities for the guests and the local pupils. The pupils will have to work together on international teams during the meetings and gather as much information about the culture of the host country/region as possible. After the meeting the pupils will continue to work in international teams and create online magazines summarizing their experiences. The magazines will be published in English and will be available on the participating schools’ websites as well as on the eTwinning platform. Teachers will create lesson plans using the materials devised by the pupils. With these lesson plans, the participating schools will organize ‘Hungarian / Finnish / Icelandic / Spanish Culture Days’ in their schools. Between the meetings project work will be continuous, both pupils and teachers will publish blog entries, the teachers will select the participating pupils, teachers will prepare pupils for the meetings and the work, participating schools will organise culture days and exhibitions and dissemination activities. We are also planning long-term mobility: pupils participating in the long-term mobility will be immersed in another culture for a period of 2 months, they will learn about a foreign culture in great depth and use English as a language of communication.
During the project’s lifetime we will use a variety of methods, in the preparatory phase we will concentrate on the use of IT tools, such as creating videos and online quizzes, and during the meetings we will make sure that the participating pupils engage in communication with their international peers. It is essential for us to create situations where pupils from different countries can work together and use English as a language of communication. After the meetings, pupils will continue to improve their IT and language skills when they prepare their magazines. On culture days, pupils will have the opportunity to join interactive activities focusing on the given country’s culture.
We expect the improvement of pupils’ language, IT and interpersonal skills. We wish to raise cultural awareness through the planned activities, and an improvement in participants’ motivation. We foresee growing numbers of language exams and better results in school subject such as English and History/Cultural History. We are planning to create videos, quizzes, magazines, blog entries, newsletters on schools’ websites, Facebook articles, Instagram stories as results of the project. With culture days we are planning to reach all the pupils of the partner schools.
Among long term benefits we await the enhancement of the participating schools’ internationalization activities. The visible results of the project will draw focus to cultural studies and make the schools more popular with primary school pupils. The project will make international cooperation smoother and more fruitful.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 119447 Eur

Project Coordinator

Andrássy György Katolikus Közgazdasági Szakgimnázium, Gimnázium és Kollégium & Country: HU

Project Partners

• Fjölbrautaskóli Suðurnesja
• INSTITUTO DE EDUCACION SECUNDARIA GABRIEL MIRÓ
• LANSIRANNIKON KOULUTUS OY