THINK CRITICALLY, LIVE RATIONALLY AND EMPATHICALLY

Through this project, we wanted to offer our students the chance to discover themselves as young citizens who are capable of thinking creatively and critically, who know their role and possibilities in the democratic processes they are affected by. We wanted them to know that they are in charge of their own future and they should not let themselves be manipulated by others. We created the Active Citizen forum on the eTwinning platform, where the students continued the discussions started during the mobility.The students discussed and expressed their opinions on the forum also in the context of current events and situations. The teachers monitored the students' activity. During the mobility, students referred to current events in the world. They analysed the issues, wondered what their effects would be, how to solve the problems that arose. Participation in the project turned out to be an opportunity to raise the qualifications of teachers and improve their skills in the field of teaching critical thinking, but also to improve the quality of work of schools. It has allowed for closer ties with local authorities, NGOs and parents. We engaged a target group of 400 students of different specialisations in our schools, mainstream students and students belonging to disadvantaged groups, who were 13-18 years old. They were at the core of the activities, as we intended to make a long-lasting impact on them. The project also involved 35 teachers in our schools, who turned the project results into long-term practices at local levels, coordinated students' activities, guided them and monitored them. They also acted as a source of information and inspired students to analyse and draw conclusions, to compare them with the results of others. The objectives of the project were:to develop students' critical thinking, leadership, communication and social skills; to make student gets more involved in the community life;to lay the basis for students' autonomy in thinking and action; to promote European values - tolerance, respect, democracy, active citizenship; to promote intercultural learning; to facilitate the exchange of ideas and the cooperation between European students. Main activities outlined in the submitted project: The project will include four exchanges during which students will interact, communicate, exchange ideas, put forwards arguments and counterarguments based on statistical data, assess the situations comparatively, participate in role-plays, simulations, interviews. Each team of students will do research on the topic of the exchange, so that the meeting will be productive and a qualitative exchange of information is facilitated. The project was to include a teachers' meeting on the role of a teacher in critical thinking, an exchange of applied practice in the taught subjects, student motivation, as well as four student exchanges. As a result of an incorrect entry at the application stage, the summary provided the wrong names for the mobilities. The following topics of the meetings were planned in the application: C1 – Teaching thinking but critically (teachers’ meeting);C2 - Immigration - statistics, problems caused by it, solutions, documentary films;C3 - Democracy - Principles, democratic values, human rights; infringement of human rights – case studies ;C4 - Discrimination - forms and types of discrimination, effects, case studies;C5- Civic involvement - identification of local problems from all partner countries. Due to the resignation of the Greek school from participation in the project, it was planned that the topic of C5 mobility, which was to be implemented in Greece, was combined with the topic of C3 meeting, and the mobility objectives were achieved during the stay in Italy. Because of the epidemiological situation caused by the Covid-19 virus, the last meeting, which dealt with discrimination, was held online. During the meetings, students communicated, exchanged ideas, presented arguments and counter-arguments based on the collected information and statistical data, compared situations and collected data in individual countries, participated in role plays, simulations, exercises, interviews, analysed case studies and participated in debates. Before the exchange, each team of students conducted research on the topic of the exchange, took part in the preparation classes, thanks to which the meeting was successful, analysis and discussions were facilitatedangible results included recordings of debates, presentations on the topic discussed, research results, interviews, survey results, a film summarizing the project's topic, a guide for teachers on the role of a teacher in the critical thinking process with suggestions for exercises and ideas useful during the implementation of projects, a proposal for a city game, videos promoting mobilities, a forum for students to express their opinions and observations on the topic covered, a guide on how to create an association.