PROSPECT – Link learning and social commitment for future citizens growth Erasmus Project

Project Title

PROSPECT – Link learning and social commitment for future citizens growth

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

The PROSPECT proposal intends to develop and test and education model addressed to all school level, starting from kindergarten to secondary junior school, focused on service learning, as crucial moment for passing from knowledge (know) to skill (know how to be) and competence (know how to do). This process will guarantee the training of a citizens able to act with critical thing and to face the new challenge of the global society.

At the present moment, service learning is used in secondary schools and in adult training centers through specific activities developed according to model of Dewey and Freire. Freire (1970) believed education was a process of empowerment. Rather than view education as a ‘banking’ process which views students as empty accounts waiting to be filled, Freire viewed the teacher-learner relationship as a reciprocal relationship. Teachers teach but are also learners; learners learn but also teach. Ideally, service-learning is a process of empowerment for students, faculty and community members alike as together they are co-learners and co-teachers in creating better communities. Like Freire, Dewey rejected the notion that education was an accumulation of knowledge and instead argued that education was more about developing student judgment, a skill necessary for participatory democracy.
So service learning is a teaching methodology which combines theoretical study, happening inside the school with the commitment in favor of local community. For defining a methodology service learning, this link shouldn’t be casual or occasional, but it is necessary that the study is effectively finalized to give a contribution to the solution of a real problem of the local community.
This contribution has a theoretical side – the deepening of the problem – and a practical side, including concrete activities of social service. Another key aspect of this method is related to the fact that the social service activities are not added to the normal curricular work, but they are integrated in it. In other words, service learning is not a way to make extracurricular alternative activities in addition to those in the morning, but a different way of teaching and learning at school. Finally, a fundamental element of service learning is the students protagonism, they actively participate in defining the project from the initial phase of problem identification through to its conclusion, which consists of an activity in favor of the community. Therefore, it is possible to define service learning as the set of activities that allow students to gain knowledge and skills to actively engage in and try to solve a real problem in the community.

The implementation of a new educational model which include service learning in kindergarten and in primary and secondary junior schools study programmes, will create learning experience based on a holistic approach, aimed at developing curricular and interdisciplinary competences together with global citizenship ones. The proposed educational model will support and promote the development of global citizenship skills in students, by strengthening and putting into practice the UNESCO recommendations (2015) and the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

The project activities will be developed with reference to all levels of compulsory education and will see as main result the development of a proposal for the creation of a global education model that include debate and service learning in school programmes through experimental learning units, which allow the accreditation and evaluation in educational content.
The following main activities will be realized in order to achieve the project objectives:
– Collection and analysis of interesting practices in at least six European member states about the strengthening of global citizenship skills in curricular activities, for the monitoring of their impact on pupils’ competences.
– participatory design, testing and impact evaluation of a global educational model that incorporates global citizenship skills, service learning and debate in the curricula for formal education;
– Design and implementation of peer learning experiences for teachers and trainers to share and acquire the skills for the implementation and validation of the model in their classroom settings.

The project action will be carried out at European level in 6 countries in different national contexts, characterised by different educational policies and needs so to design a global educational model incorporating service learning methodologies and activities in school curricula. The proposal of educational model will be asked also to support and improve in students the development of global citizenship competences, transversal to the different subjects. This purposes require to be developed in a European framework and provide a more systematic cooperation across a range of actors and policies at EU and Member State level.

Project Website

https://prospect.aeva.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 284000,4 Eur

Project Coordinator

OSENGO & Country: FR

Project Partners

• INSTITUT ZA PODGOTOVKA NA SLUJITELIV MEJDUNARODNI ORGANIZACII ZDRUZHENIE
• TIBER UMBRIA COMETT EDUCATION PROGRAMME
• REGIONAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION – PERNIK
• Direzione Didattica III Circolo Perugia
• AEVA – ASSOCIACAO PARA A EDUCACAO E VALORIZACAO DA REGIAO DE AVEIRO
• ASOCIACION CULTURAL EUROACCION MURCIA
• DIREZIONE DIDATTICA SECONDO CIRCOLO PG