Using Games as a Focus Erasmus Project

Project Title

Using Games as a Focus

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: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Pedagogy and didactics; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

International Links Global, acting as coordinators, together with its partners: Kokoro in Portugal and University College Lillebaelt in Denmark and Norway, have created an association for a three year KA2 project focused on the creation and implementation of Game Based Learning (GBL) materials for students using GBL (including the development of a Board Game), Project-Based Learning and Digital Competence tools as a focus in order to teach a number of subjects, although focusing on the Climate Emergency as a cross-curricular element.

The main objective has been creating and experiencing materials to provide teaching training materials, resources and content for Primary education where pupils work on projects in the areas of Language, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and English, among others, encouraging critical thinking, teamwork and the development of creativity. The material can be used as part of their curriculum as a complement for the basic subjects mentioned. As a cross curricular element in the materials 21st Century Skills will be used widely. The final product will be made available for the wider teaching community, and a Good Practice Guideline will be also compiled and published in order to multiply the effect of the project.

These cross curricular materials, as a primary output of the project, are based on a learner-centred approach to empower learners to help developing a game that would be used by many more pupils, to conduct research, integrate theory and practice, and apply knowledge and skills to develop a viable solution to a defined problem. We want to integrate learning in a wide range of subjects and areas, create a collaborative and democratic environment and involve learners in self-directed learning. At the same time other results are expected as an outcome in pupils learning such as motivation and engagement in the activities, self-assessment, progress measurement, and last but not least, GBL as a pedagogical base of the curriculum.

All materials created will be translated into English, and into the partners’ mother tongue to ensure a higher interest from primary teachers in those countries, so two goals can be fulfilled at the same time. On one hand, materials can be used for all the students in their mother tongue and on the other for bilingual (CLIL) education which is one of the objectives in the countries involved. It is important to mention that the European Linguistic Policy under the Horizon 2020 programme is to launch measures and resources to allow 50% of the population under 15 to reach a B1 level in a second language.

The number and profile of partners ensure a distribution of roles that involve all educational stakeholders have a say in the project, primarily teachers and schools, but also the country coordinators involved and the educational authorities that define the priorities in the curriculum in the countries involved. All resources will be made available online in order to guarantee dissemination to a potential audience that includes teachers of students of other regions in the association. Directly involved are 5 Welsh schools, 3 Danish schools, 1 Norwegian school and a group of 3 Portuguese schools that are linked to Kokoro in Portugal. One educational authority per country will be coordinating those groups of schools, and responsible of the delivery of the project objectives and dissemination of its results.

For this end, a range of activities and outputs have been proposed: training in GBL methodology and 21st Century Skills (including PBL, Digital Competency, Robotics/Coding and Problem-Solving Based Education), development of a Board Game in order to tackle the Climate Emergency, job shadowing in each of the countries of the association, a pupil Exchange in each of the countries of the Association, an eTwinning Project Twinspace as main platform to share resources, and a number of Transnational Project Meetings to allow correct management and coordination, plus Multiplier events in each of the countries involved.

The impact of these outputs and the activities along the three years of the association are several: materials that are updated and easy to implement, training in cutting edge methodologies and lesson plans and tools that are the most sustainable outcome of the project and the methodology it is inspired on.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 371926 Eur

Project Coordinator

International Links (Global) Ltd & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Ysgol Bryn Hedydd
• Spurvelundskolen
• Longyearbyen
• Ysgol Y Castell
• Christchurch CP School
• Ysgol Llywelyn
• Næsby Skole