Exploring Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Exploring Europe

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The situation of the EU is currently characterized by severe challenges like “Brexit”, various national conflicts and general insecurity. The recent refugee crisis has shown that the principle of solidarity is not always the primary aim of all member states. Moreover, there is an increasing tendency of populist anti-European movements to gain seats in the Parliament during the European elections in May 2019 with the aim of destabilizing the European idea. Since understanding Europe in its complexity and diversity cannot be grasped easily, cultural differences and the EU as an organization are often quickly viewed critically without reflection.
The aim of this project is to reveal that the EU as a unique, precious and voluntary union of countries with great potential is actually all of us in our cultural and language diversity and at the same time with many similarities and joint aims and objectives. In this project we will deal with Europe in a way that youths have a chance to comprehend its complexity.At the same time they will establish personal contacts and become aware of their own cultural heritage as well as that of other nations, thereby discovering many parallels.Our overall objective is therefore to create a new vision of European identity/citizenship and an awareness of the importance of Europe’s cultural heritage through innovative cross-curricular teaching methods, personal experiences and comprehensive language learning, which will strengthen the participants’ self-reliance while at the same time increasing their appreciation of democracy, respect and diplomacy and raising awareness of the need for civic engagement, responsible citizenship and the advantages of a united Europe.
In each school, Erasmus+ classes and/or courses consisting of 25-40 15-17 year-old students are established who work with teachers of various subjects(History,Modern Languages,Politics and Economics,Social Studies,Biology, Maths,Art,Ethics/Religion, Rhetorics) on activities which foster interdisciplinary cooperation(regular team meetings,development of bilingual and inter-curricular teaching modules,team-teaching), intercultural discourse, critical thinking and creativity(on eTwinning/in hands-on workshops and in discussions during the learning meetings)as well as active civic participation(in cooperation with various external partners).The acquired basic skills and key competences are documented in Europasses.The students and teachers will work as European embassadors,informing the school community and wider public regularly about project activities and results.
On the basis of the students’ interests, “Exploring Europe” has been divided into six phases with different topics(systemic and economic aspects,gender issues,digital media,nationalism and populism,environmental issues and forms of participation)and an outlook into the future(EU-quo vadis?).Depending on the topic,not every school subject is involved equally.The working language is English.One of the learning meetings is planned in Brussels to learn more about how and where European politics are made.
During the staff training meeting, the teachers are taught to use digital and innovative teaching methods.As multipliers they will introduce these to their colleagues ensuring a smooth running of the project at their schools.
In the preliminary phase of each topic, all students and teachers work in their national teams. Information exchange on eTwinning will encourage the students to be active and to feel responsible for their work.The six student learning activities are dedicated to presenting, analysing and comparing national information and, subsequently,creating a European view or result. In all parts of the project, cognitive as well as creative activities are offered in order to promote different approaches of the topic for all students.The products will include mini-exhibitions, panel discussions, interviews and a best-of travelling exhibition that can be sent to other schools.The working process and all results/products will be regularly evaluated and documented for use in the exhibition at the end of the project.
On the whole, the project activities will have a great impact on the students’ skills: personal(creativity,self-empowerment), social(teamwork,communication), methodological(project management, problem solving), language(vocabulary,intercultural discourse), digital(preliminary activities,documenting results),cognitive(reflection, critical thinking).On the completion of the project, the students will have a better understanding of the complexity and diversity of Europe and feel more empowered to take part in democratic processes.
The longer term benefits will be that innovative educational material(bilingual and cross-curricular teaching modules on Europe) will have been created and all of the five partner schools will have experienced considerable teacher collaboration and will have encorporated ICT skills in language learning and teaching.

Project Website

https://exploreeuropenow.weebly.com

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 23275,2 Eur

Project Coordinator

Wilhelmsgymnasium & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Midleton CBS
• 11th General Lyceum of Patras
• Pielaveden Yhtenäiskoulu, Pielavesi
• SU za HNI “Konstantin Preslavski”