The 4Cs: Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Cooperation Erasmus Project

Project Title

The 4Cs: Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Cooperation

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Creativity and culture; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Our project, the aptly named “The 4Cs (Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity, Cooperation)” aims to promote an activity that is becoming increasingly rare among our secondary school students: extensive reading. We feel passionate about the power of novels and would like to introduce our students to the joys of being immersed in the world of the characters, who may live very different lives from us yet think and feel just like we do. By understanding the complex issues raised in the novels we hope our students will learn a lot about themselves and the world that surrounds us. Throughout the project we are planning to broaden their minds, shape their personality, and develop their critical thinking skills and creativity through a series of on- and offline activities ranging from creative writing and book cover design to trailers and drama. Our aim is to give our students the opportunity to understand, discuss, analyse, evaluate and create while learning about themselves and each other. With the careful selection of the novels to be read (“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” by Mark Haddon and possibly “Eleanor and Park” by Rainbow Rowell) we are planning to provide our students with enough food for thought regarding prejudices, otherness and acceptance. We would like them to understand that there are more things that unite than separate us.
We have other objectives as well. The participating countries in the proposed project can be found in very different parts of Europe. Hungary (Pécsi Tudományegyetem Gyakorló Általános Iskola, Gimnázium és Óvoda, Pécs – the coordinator organisation) , Latvia (Daugavpils Tehnoloģiju vidusskola-licejs, Daugavpils) Spain (Colegio Pureza De María, Ontinyent) and Sweden (Malmö Borgarskola, Malmö) may be far away from each other, yet our students belong to the same digital generation for whom online communication is the accepted way of keeping in touch. We are intending to rely on their digital literacy but would also very much like to foster their interpersonal and (offline) communication skills during our short term exchanges of groups of students. We will be using English as the language of interaction, which is a foreign language for all participants, and we are hoping to make the best use of this opportunity to develop their foreign language skills as well.
During the school-year we are intending to work together on TwinSpace. Each participating country will have a weekly student meeting with live international collaboration at least once a month. We find student cooperation especially important, so we are planning our activities based on team work. We are hoping to foster student involvement in designing the actual activities; teachers will be helpers and advisors rather than leaders or instructors. During short term exchanges (both teacher and student) we intend to fine-tune and finalize the work started through online communication. But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, as the saying goes, so we are also planning to have some fun through games and activities designed to foster friendship and understanding among the participating students. These occasions will also provide an opportunity for cultural enrichment, and we are planning to give our students every chance to get first-hand experience about the heritage and customs of the participating countries.
Each project year is going to end with a festival in which the participating students can show the results of their collaboration to parents, other students and teachers through presentations, discussions, exhibitions and a stage performance. Throughout the year they are also going to work on a collection of student-made tasks which can be used in the future as a task bank for further reading projects of the participating schools. But most important of all, we are hoping to have an impact on all students involved in the project in terms of the way they view the world.
But the project is not only about students. It is also about the teachers who are working hard to make this international cooperation come true. We, the teachers, can have an impact on the school communities that we are part of. We are hoping to benefit from the project in terms of new methodology learnt from each other through lesson observations, a new perspective gained through cooperation with our fellow colleagues from the partner countries, and also the international spirit that comes with an Erasmus project. We are planning to pass on all of these to our own colleagues in our home countries and also to all the other students that we come in contact with.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 129502 Eur

Project Coordinator

Pécsi Tudományegyetem Gyakorló Általános Iskola, Gimnázium és Óvoda & Country: HU

Project Partners

• Daugavpils Tehnoloģiju vidusskola-licejs
• COLEGIO PUREZA DE MARÍA
• Malmö Borgarskola