Innovate to Create 2: Creating a toolkit of teaching and learning approaches in and between music and English language education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Innovate to Create 2: Creating a toolkit of teaching and learning approaches in and between music and English language education

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: Creativity and culture; Pedagogy and didactics; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

‘Innovate to Create 2: Creating a toolkit of teaching and learning approaches in and between music and English language education’ focused on the exploration, sharing and formalising of pedagogical approaches in and between music and English language teaching and learning, including examination of where these disciplines intersect, such as in spoken word and performance poetry. An action research methodology was enacted to frame this exploration and to provide the conditions necessary for an effective investigation to take place across a number of stages and settings. Drawing on existing partnership with cultural organisations, the research also explored the approaches deployed in formal and non-formal settings in order that educators in these different settings are able to draw on each other’s practices to provide powerful learning opportunities for students. The partnership has disseminated its findings in the form of an online toolkit for use by formal, non-formal and other educators across Europe.

Our partnership of five schools is experienced and successful in music and English language teaching, and in working with external partner organisations, and this project has enabled us to better interrogate and understand the practice each country has developed in these two disciplines, while also examining where the subject areas meet. The outcomes of this work are being shared with the broader community of music and English language educators across Europe. The excellent relationships we individually have with external organisations and practitioners have contributed a vital added perspective to the exploration of pedagogical approaches in these disciplines such that the project has sought to understand the contribution these and similar organisations and practitioners can make to students’ learning and to the broader development of pedagogies in music and English language; this, we believe, is an under-researched area that has significant potential positive impact on both learners and educators. This approach has provided opportunities for qualified teachers and school educators to work with cultural education practitioners to share practices and approaches in the development of our toolkit of formal and non-formal teaching and learning approaches in and between music and English language. The project has examined synergies between these two subject areas – such as through spoken word and rhythm and the development of effective questioning strategies – to establish shared approaches that support students’ engagement and learning, as well as providing young people with an insight into what is possible for their future learning and work.

‘Innovate to Create 2′ has continued the successful work undertaken by the partnership in previous Comenius and Erasmus+ partnerships and across the range of cultural education disciplines. The addition of a school in Sweden has provided us with a new perspective on our research and practice, helping to explore, challenge and test ideas and theories as the resulting toolkit was developed, tested and launched. Our project has supported us to champion the vitality, necessity and creativity of cultural education subjects in our school curricula and beyond, when schools in some of our jurisdictions are considering the value of including these disciplines in their repertoire of subjects. Our toolkit website – www.innovatetocreate.org.uk – will continue to support, inspire and champion the teaching of these subjects, providing colleagues across the continent with ways to reflect on and develop their pedagogy, while also giving confidence to those who want to better develop relationships with local cultural – and other – organisations and practitioners. We hope, too, that our approach inspires other practitioners to adopt the mantle of action researcher to interrogate their own and others’ practice, so that the learning we provide to our young people is current, challenging and considered.

Project Website

http://www.innovatetocreate.org.uk

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 139421,6 Eur

Project Coordinator

Regent High School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Integrierte Gesamtschule Bertha-von-Suttner Kaiserslautern
• Almby skola
• Kodolanyi Janos Gimnazium
• IES MOSSÈN ALCOVER