European Schools Cooperation

European Schools Cooperation

Lifelong Learning Programme “The European Commission has integrated its

various educational and training initiatives under a single umbrella, the Lifelong Learning Programme. With a significant budget of nearly €7 billion for 2007 to 2013, the new programme replaces previous education, vocational training and e-Learning programmes, which ended in 2006”.

Intercultural cooperation in education the communication process between the participants

of different cultures the cross-cultural communication - focused on features of the participants, their common and diversifying qualities

Intercultural cooperation in education does not only expand the awareness of other

cultures, but also causes a better understanding of one’s own culture by exploring its implied and explicit sense it also helps to communicate efficiently both verbally and non-verbally and purge the accompanying stress, eliminate or reduce conflicts arising on cultural background and finally, to create a pathway to the selfconsciousness of an individual

Part of the curriculum There are several reasons for the intercultural education to become a part of national curriculum at schools: globalization and global citizenship, increase in problems affecting many nations such as environmental or health issues, more visible existence of earlier not recognised cultures and minorities (Räsänen 58)

Teachers Teachers are seen as enablers and ethics educators,

from whom an example comes, as children build their vision of the world on the behaviour of adults. In schools focused on intercultural education students learn to accept variety in their environment and learn a golden rule „treat others as you would like to be treated yourself” (Räsänen 57, 61)”

Teachers both leaders and participants the initiators of the cooperation their task is to write a project and find a partner and

constantly supervise their students’ work they have to cooperate with the teachers and management personnel from partner schools and work in teams.

eTwinning as a part of Lifelong Learning programme

eTwinning virtual tour  http://www.etwinning.net/shared/data/etwinning/vt/play.cfm?lang=en

Language The basis of the programme is electronic media

cooperation between students and teachers in partner schools across borders, however, the participants must be able to held it in a common language. Lingua franca of eTwinning is English, which illustrates the world’s preference nowadays; English is the most widely taught and known language in Europe. German appears as the second language used in projects. Surprisingly, Polish is on the third position, which indicates its importance among Slavonic languages

The duration of projects and the educational level and the age of learners most of the projects last app. 1-2 school years the partnerships are the most popular among lower

secondary school students (13-16 years old) (Gajek - Kawecka)

Statistics students from 3 – 19/20 years old can take part a statistic young person will spent about 50

thousand hours in front of the computer by the age of 21 (Gajek - Kawecka 83)

Types of cooperation/Tools group work of students individual/pair work letters or emails exchange computers Internet digital or video cameras technologies are not the aim itself, but appear as means

of experiment in the school class - they make the cooperation vivid and bring measurable benefits

Products of using hypermedia PowerPoint Blogs Audio/Video conference Websites Video clips Chats, e –mails MP3

Challanges the increasing number of participants may have a

negative influence on the quality and originality of used ideas the existing prejudices and a fear of “the other” – other culture, other people, other language technical obstacles, lack of sufficient ITC equipment and not adequate ITC knowledge among teachers low trust in online/distance forms of education

Challanges Western countries have never diminishing

popularity, whereas Balkan or Baltic nations are in minor interest. This problem is most likely based on still remaining belief, that “Western means better”, albeit, those less fashionable countries usually offer more original ideas.

Benefits for students Language benefits ITC skills development Personal development Group work/team work Breaking stereotypes and conventional ways of

thinking Changes in attitudes towards “other”, growth of cultural consciousness, openness and tolerance Satisfaction and pleasure from the contact with other students and cultures or friendships that are built

Benefits for teachers Improvement of managing skills Increase in motivation in everyday work (becoming a

part of a greater event) Closer connection with education actions of the EU and therefore, with the idea of a united Europe itself Internal cooperation and teamwork between teachers in the same school (Gajek - Kawecka 86) Professional development and career opportunities Ambassadors Scotland

Conclusions  “After an eTwinning project we learn to love and worry about

someone in other country. I really think it´s important to approach people and that students feel near each other, because younger are our future!” (Fernandes).  “When learning is achieved through cooperation on a regular basis, students can turn from “lonely learners” into “colleagues who learn together”, reaching levels of academic competence both in the group and as members of teams. Groups that learn through cooperation focus on maximizing the academic success of all the group members” (Vasilescu).  “That experience, (…), was a good opportunity for our students to learn how to identify cultural similarities and differences, about new customs and values and how to gain intercultural experience. (…) we think now that Europe is not just a "strange place" but an open gate for making friendships” (Marin).

Useful links http://www.globalgateway.org.uk/ http://blog.eun.org/etwinning/english http://www.etwinning.net

http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/index http://www.britishcouncil.org/etwinning.htm http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm