Skillful Thinking – Active Learning Erasmus Project

Project Title

Skillful Thinking – Active Learning

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: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Skillful thinking is one of the proficient and strategic applications of appropriate thinking skills and productive habits of mind, as required, to develop thoughtful products, such as decision making, arguments, and other analytical, creative, or critical products. Individuals need to think skillfully to be successful in their school life and beyond. 4C skills(creativity, collaboration, communication critical thinking) have come to the front because of the needs of the 21st-century human profile. Nature of the complex problems of the real-life requires the skillful thinkers to be solved. Another face of the problem is to be a skillful thinker, children need skillful teachers who are proficient to teach thinking skilfully.

For this reason, the project aimed to; while strengthening the profiles and developing skills of the teaching professions in the field, we are going to develop the thinking skills of our children to make them active democratic citizens of the EU. Likewise, the project focuses on communication in foreign language, awareness of EU values, discrimination, respect to different cultures and convictions and representing the girls equally in every field of life.

Besides the aims implied above the project will help students to develop the following skills;
-developing writing and reading skills
– stating questions, concerns, and ideas clearly
– contributing others without overpowering them.
-improving thinking with skillful analysis evaluation assessment reconstruction (doesn’t understand )
-building a strong, evidence-based argument
– evaluating arguments critically in terms of the strength of evidence and reasoning
-improving effective communication and problem-solving abilities
-working effectively with others on a common task in a teamwork
-negotiating a win-win solution to achieve the objectives of the team
-utilizing information and digital literacy skill
-boosting creativity by learning new interesting things
-being flexible, adaptable and functioning well with uncertainty
-developing digital and language skills

Because of the aforementioned issues, and to achieve our goals we will organise 3 short-term joint-staff training events (3 workshops) in Spain (C2 and C4) and Turkey (C3) in the first year of the project. We will use the project management budget for course expenses(appox. 600 EU for each teacher). Minimum 3 teachers will attend each partner schools. The same teachers will attend each workshop and after each workshop, they will organise training courses for their teachers.

We will organise 4 short-term groups of pupils exchange with the participation of 96 children and 41 teachers.

C1 – Brain Games: Mindful playing and training will help the mind process information more quickly, and more efficiently, as well as the ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time.

C5 – Thinker Puppets on Stage: Students create puppets to address such diverse topics as the similarities between art and science. The puppets prompt both critical and divergent thinking, helping students prepare for the real world. The activities for this meeting are designed by the problem-based learning approach.

C6 – Thinking Based Drama: The activity designed by project-based learning approach for children to investigate how they can create an imaginary country where they want to live. Students will analyze the EU countries constitutions, daily life, children rights etc. from multiple angles. As a result, students will work collaboratively in a team, critically analyze the scripts of the written drama, creatively design the costumes and set the props based on the script and actively involve in the communication process.

C7 – Skillful Thinking- Active Learning Through Orienteering
Additionally, we will set up courses and organize activities in order to develop our children 4C skills as well as physical skills;
-Media- Literacy Course
-orienteering course
-thinker puppets activities
-thinking based drama course
-crime scene activity
-brain games
-storybook will be written critically by students
-rewritten legends with the perspective of critical writing
-argumentation- socioscientific issues

Qualitative and quantitative assessment methods will be used for evaluation of the project. At the beginning and end of the project, we will conduct surveys, open-ended questions and surveys with students, teachers and parents.
We will create a project management plan tailored for each school and conduct regularly online project management meeting to ensure project effectiveness. Developed lesson plans, presentations, movies, photos will be uploaded on the project website, the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform and eTwinning platform.
The project not only impact some group of students and teachers but also it will impact the whole students in our partner schools because of the developed lessons will be implemented in each classroom. Dissemination plan will be prepared to ensure promote the project results and outcomes.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 125220 Eur

Project Coordinator

Juhan Liivi nim Alatskivi Kool & Country: EE

Project Partners

• Vilniaus Emilijos Pliaterytes progimnazija
• Colegio PioXII-FUNDACIÓN ESCUELA VIVA
• Istituto Comprensivo “Gabriele Rossetti “
• 32 SU s izuchavane na chuzhdi ezici “Sv.Kliment Ohridski”
• Yenikoy Ortaokulu