TELLaSTORY – Storytelling as a basis of inspiring teaching and effective learning. Preparing teachers for new challenges in education. Erasmus Project

Project Title

TELLaSTORY – Storytelling as a basis of inspiring teaching and effective learning. Preparing teachers for new challenges in 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 : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Pedagogy and didactics

Project Summary

The role and function of a teacher in the modern educational systems is suffering a crisis. The upbringing, educating function of school is diminishing, revealing the shortcomings of its organization, didactic processes, but also the shortcomings of a teacher as an individual (OECD, Education 2030).
Primary education shapes views and attitudes of students, that will pay off in the future. The quality of education is linked to teaching standards, which are related to the demands placed upon teachers, the training they receive, the roles they are asked to fill and the resources that are made available for them to carry out their tasks. Therefore consortium proposes a holistic approach, introducing storytelling into teaching and learning practice, through comprehensive TELLaSTORY Program for schools, engaging whole school environment, including teachers educators.

Project aim is to create conditions, by August 2023, for implementation of the comprehensive TELLaSTORY Program for primary schools, based on the Story Seekers® method, incorporating storytelling into teaching and learning practice, in order to make both teaching and learning more competence-oriented, attractive and effective.
Specific goals:
1. Define potential for systemic implementation of TELLaSTORY Program in primary schools
2. Increase capacity of partner organizations through development of comprehensive TELLaSTORY Train the Trainer scheme and preparation of 16 teachers educators for the role of ambassadors of the method,
3. Support 45 teachers in continuous professional development, through offering them TELLaSTORY trainings and work-based learning, supporting materials and tools (TELLaSTORY Toolkit)
4. Reinforce teachers in delivery of competence-based teaching and promoting creative and innovative learning through elaboration of scenarios of lessons and delivery of TELLaSTORY workshops for school kids, with use of game-based learning.
5. Shape among students basic social skills like verbal communication, collaboration, empathy, self-presentation skills and learning to learn competence,
6. Create conditions for widespread dissemination and introducing ICT to the TELLaSTORY Program through creation of the TELLaSTORY Crowd sourcing portal and TELLaSTORY Network of teachers etc.
Innovation of the project is reflected in:
– the consistent and whole-school approach to teaching storytelling, involving cascaded system of training starting from teacher trainers, through teachers and students
– applied methods: Mike Bosworth’s Story Seekers® method and Trust Model, competence-based learning, game based teaching and learning, ICT in teaching, crowd sourcing and networking of teachers and teacher trainers.
These methods were combined to form the whole-school TELLaSTORY Program for implementation of storytelling in primary schools.

The following target groups will be involved directly:
1. Project partners staff, incl.teacher trainers – 16 persons
2. Teachers at primary school level and principals – 45
3. school kids in primary schools – 72
4. schools – as an institution will be the target group for implementation the TELLaSTORY Program
5. key actors – teacher educators, teachers, principals, education policy makers, school education authorities (multiplier events and conference) – 195

During the project partners will create a TELLaSTORY brand, defining various project’s outputs.
Project envisages:
1. Investigate perspectives of implementation of the storytelling as a teaching and learning method (IO1)
2. TELLaSTORY toolkit for teachers (Handbook, scenarios of lessons applying storytelling, podcasts, story board card game)-IO2
3. Elaborate and pilot TELLaSTORY scenarios of school workshops for kids – IO3
4.Elaborate and pilot TELLaSTORY Train the Trainer Scheme, including Train the trainer program for teacher trainers and program of trainings for teaches.
5. TELLaSTORY crowdsourcing portal and network of teachers
Activities have been arranged in 7 work packages (WPs), out of which WP1-WP5 are related to intellectual outputs and WP6 (dissemination), WP7 (management) are horizontal activities implemented throughout the project.

The partnership is formed by the mix of public and private organizations related to education. The project will have impact on teachers, who will develop competences and be able build more open and creative environment for learning based on trust and empathy, teacher trainers who will form a network of experts in teaching storytelling and students developing emotional intelligence through learning. Headmasters and policymakers will be a target of raising awareness campaign and lobby to enable further introduction of storytelling to the core curriculum. The project has potential for transferability in terms of geographic scope, school levels and sectors. It brings business practices to school education. It seeks to reduce the gap of commences between school edu in Central Europe and more advanced Western EU courntries.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 320262 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stowarzyszenie MANKO & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Powiatowy Ośrodek Edukacji Nauczycieli w Jaśle
• CENTER ZA IZOBRAZEVANJE IN KULTURO TREBNJE JAVNI ZAVOD
• Zakladni skola J. Gutha-Jarkovskeho