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The project aims at showing a cooperative and playful dimension to teaching as a means to facilitating maths learning in primary schools. The project strives to be high-performing, demonstrating best practices by way of video materials created by the school teachers themselves.
These practices will be displayed on internet pages and will be available to other teachers, especially those who are not involved in the project Good practices will be selected by the teachers following certain criteria : pertinence, relevance, originality, comprehensibility, transferability, sustainability. There are 6 schools involved in the project (Italy, Greece, Spain, Romania, Turkey and Poland) all of which are strongly committed to innovative learning.
The project further foresees 3 study visits to school personnel in general, aimed at showing innovative and efficient teaching methodologies.
Schools included in the project
ITALIAN SCHOOL:
Our school was founded after WWII by the Swiss Worker Aid when Rimini was a city in ruins. From the very outset it was a school with a different perspective : the academic programme was to run parallel with the main goal of promoting self-confidence, respect, and community work among the children. Ceis didn’t develop a methodology of its own, but always referred to progressive pedagogic methods and, in particular, to the Active Pedagogy of Freinet, Cousinet, Fröebel, Laporta, Borghi, De Bartolomeis.
Ceis was built using wooden barracks, which still stand on the premises, in a beautiful garden, within reach of public transport and close to the town centre. The children and staff call Ceis "il Villaggio" (the Village), for it does indeed have the aspect of a small-scale village, with many gravel paths as tiny lanes and a main meeting place for the whole community, known as the "piazzetta" (or ‘small square’). CEIS has always been noted for its policy of acceptance towards disadvantaged children. Today physically and mentally disabled children are integrated into mainstream classes in both the nursery and primary schools, whilst more severely disabled children can take advantage of a specific SEN Room. Ceis’ community greatly values each
contribution to common well-being. Everybody knows and trusts each other: the teachers, the carpenter, the gardener, the cooks, the cleaners, the office staff. The same interest is expressed for the numerous and various guests who come for a visit, or for a period of voluntary work. Ceis has many international links with various organisations, including FICE (Federation Internationale Communautés Educatives), Friends’ Central School, Philadelphia, U.S.A., Simin Han School, Tuzla, Bosnia Herzegovina, Escuela Especial La Amistad, Matagalpa, Nicaragua. We currently have 283 students and 79 teachers.
GREEK SCHOOL:
Our school is located at the north-eastern part of Crete and has 80 pupils. We’re experienced in many national projects and have a fully-equipped pc room. We are open to new proposals and ideas. We have only a few immigrants (5 pupils).
SPANISH SCHOOL:
We are a primary school in an urban area. We work as bilingual English-Spanish in inclusive education. Being in a very active school environment, we are involved in many projects: intercultural projects, bilingual projects, social skills projects, etc. We are greatly involved in the local community as well and we work with educational authorities, parent groups, cultural associations, etc. 20% of our students are emigrant-immigrant students, mainly coming form Eastern Europe and South America)
POLISH SCHOOL:
Our school is located in an urban area. It has certificates in various fields : environment, recycling, non-violence, health promotion. The students take part in innumerable projects (historical –concerning the local uprising, collecting money for charity, virtual mini-enterprises). The students are successful in sport (2nd place in Poland in rugby), history (countrywide competition). Both thestudents and the teachers are spontaneous, open to new experiences and challenges. The school is situated in a disadvantaged area. This is a working-class district in which many families live in difficult financial situations due to unemployment. Consequently there are dysfunctional and even pathologic families. In each class there are a few students with special educational needs (aggression, hyperactivity, learning problems).
TURKISH SCHOOL:
Our school is close to the centre in a suburban area. We are very close to the highway, the airport and some industrial areas. Our school has two buildings in the same garden. Our school is located in a disadvantaged area and most of the student’s parents migrate from the east of Turkey because of unemployment and economical problems. We have some students at risk of marginalization and a few special needs students.
The ages of our pupils is from 6 years to 14 years. Our teachers are young and very ambitious.
ROMANIAN SCHOOL:
Constantin Brancusi,” a school from Cluj-Napoca, is a public primary and secondary school in an urban area. The age of our pupils is from 8 to 15. We have 38 teachers and 545 pupils. We are working with pupils who derive from all social levels. There are also integrated minorities, such as Hungarians (8 %), who are taught in their native tongue. Some of the pupils come from disrupted families, orphans and families with a very low income. Thanks to its teachers, our school has very good results. In 2008 it was awarded the Title and Diploma "EUROPEAN SCHOOL" by the Ministry
of Education and Research.
In order to give an opportunity to a Croatian school to participate in the project as a silent partner, the project is also in contact with a school in Croatia via the call of next March by their National Agency.
Objectives of the partnership
THE PROBLEMS addressed by the project are as follows :
- the low results attained in maths and maths-related subjects by most European students throughout their schooling;
- the lack of maths-based concepts in an overly high percentage of adults
- the diffused way of continuing to teach maths with a personal, competitive hint
- even if evidence-based studies have shown that this is not the best way;
- the common consideration of maths on the part of students as a difficult and boring subject APPROACH: The project, being a low budget one, will be simple but very focused and efficient. It will be drafted by teachers, for teachers: for ourselves and for other European teachers who perhaps work in/out of our context, are maybe at the start of their career, maybe adults who are not as creative as we are. It will be a project highlighting visual strategies rather than a written/theory approach with contents and tools which are efficient, effective and at the same time easy to understand, easy to reply to and easy to apply in schools THE CONCRETE RESULTS the partnership wishes to achieve are as follows :
1) to show that a cooperative and playful dimension in teaching is a means to facilitating maths learning in primary schools
2) to show that maths is not a boring subject but is able to involve students and to capture their attention THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PARTNERSHIP will be specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic and timelined (SMART).
We wish to:
1) build up a European school network
2) share school expertise, know-how and past experience in the related field (via specifically-dedicated sessions during transnational meetings)
3) realise a collection of practices demonstrating the hows and the whys of a playful dimension to teaching in its facilitation of Maths learning. This collection is tailored to teachers, intended for content replicability and transferability (passing on know-how). This collection will include a short
video (much like YouTube), coupled with a one-page written module for each practice illustrated.
4) realise a collection intended as an Internet tool, to appear in already existing web pages (those of the various schools involved) although it will also be a downloadable ready-for-print publication
5) put into practise a good monitoring and evaluation system.
As OUTPUTS, therefore, the project foresees :
1) an efficient network of schools
2) a collection of practices made up of a written form and a video
3) internet pages dedicated to the project and containing the collection of practices, even as a
downloadable publication
4) a monitoring and evaluation plan
5) a communication plan.
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