Heritage in Europe – Appreciation, Respect, Tolerance Erasmus Project

Project Title

Heritage in Europe – Appreciation, Respect, Tolerance

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: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

The project “HEART : Heritage in Europe – appreciation, respect, tolerance” was initiated after an investigation about knowledge of and interest in European Cultural Heritage at our schools showed that our students had little or no knowledge of and interest in it. We had the idea for this investigation because of the launch of the Year of European Cultural Heritage (ECH).
So we decided to create a project about that topic raising the interest of our students, gaining knowledge about ECH and changing attitudes: making our students perceive the value of ECH, initiating openness, tolerance and respect, interest in their own heritage and that of other countries and creating a lifelong- interest in ECH and preserving it. We wanted them to develop a sense of belonging to their community but also a disposition to integrate others into their communities or themselves into new communities if need be. By understanding that cultural heritage always is subject to change and is frequently influenced by other cultures (and also by foreign people migrating) their fear of migration was minimized.Now, they are more inclined to encounter strangers openly and reduce their prejudices.
As our students frequently perceived ECH as boring we were looking for methods to arouse their interest. We promoted open, autonomous learning where students became protagonists of their work, took own decisions, and worked in teams interactively and evaluated their work also through peer feedback which was highly motivating for our students. They were actively involved, finding answers and solving problems by themselves. We introduced our students to new Apps especially those available as OER to work on the project. Our students use digital devices frequently we showed them ways of using for educational purposes (for example Action Bound, Flipgrid, Powerdirector,etc.)
Both open learning and innovative ICT practices enriched our project work and motivated students, but also prepared them for the labour market.
Another focus of HEART was on the focus of skills and competences (linguistic, social, civic, digital).
Six schools form six European countries took part in the project: Finland, France, Latvia, Greece, Germany and Spain. Students taking part were aged 13 – 17 and attended different kinds of secondary schools with different academic levels. Teachers involved were experts in different fields like languages, science, history, arts, music, vocational studies. At every LTTA we hosted 12 – 20 students and 10 teachers, so including students who hosted and others who were actively involved in project work the number of participants exceeded some hundred.
Activities of the project were mostly about exploring and sharing ECH, at our schools between LTTAs and in international teams at LTTAs, e.g. we explored monuments and towns, learned folk dances and songs, wore traditional costumes and prepared traditional food. For presenting and researching we used several new apps (s. timetable) and put students in charge of organising their work, teachers being guides only. Research work involved contacting external stakeholders but also talking to older people in our communities to learn about our heritage which made our programme not only an intercultural project but also an intergenerational one.
Results are on the one hand “real” products like educational units, video tutorials, booklets, stories, interactive maps. On the other hand we worked on changing attitudes and improving skills and turned our students into tolerant, respectful, open-minded Europeans who appreciate their heritage and have a strong interest in it and who, for their attitude and knowledge. are not at risk of social exclusion. Teachers learned innovative methods and were more motivated by their visits. They also disseminated their knowledge to colleagues at home.
“Real” products are available on our twinspace and on the Erasmus+ results platform after the project so that European teachers can use them and be inspired by them so that EU money for our project is spent in the most effective and sustainable way. They are also used at our schools. But there are more long term benefits of our project: through innovative teaching methods we strengthened our students’ intrinsic motivation, their self-confidence and independence, their key-competences and ICT and language skills and the development of a more positive view towards school and life-long learning. Also the attitudes they developed outlast the project and make them tolerant young Europeans.

To sum it up the acronym of our project is HEART and apart from the knowledge and skills the participants acquired taking part in the project, for them it was a precious and unique experience which makes a difference in their life and also influenced emotions, attitudes and in someway also touched their heart.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 151106,02 Eur

Project Coordinator

Mittelschule Holderhecke Bergrheinfeld & Country: DE

Project Partners

• OGEC Saint Louis-Jeanne d’Arc
• IES MARQUÉS DE CASARIEGO
• GENIKO LYKEIO KYPARISSIAS
• Lauritsalan koulu
• Rujienas vidusskola