NEW APPROACHES ON TEACHING METHODS

ContextSchools play a decisive role in developing individuals who will integrate into society, access a job market in continuous transformation and become responsible citizens of tomorrow’s world. In light of this, we have set out on this common European journey to connect to each other, to learn from each other and to help our students attain this goal in the process. In order to prepare students for the future, we need to have in mind that it is imperative to equip them with a series of skills and competences which lie beyond their specialization and are required in any field. These refer to language skills, ICT skills, interpersonal skills, as well as their curiosity, risk-taking and critical thinking.At the same time, it is well known that not all students learn the same things, at the same time, in the same way. This is why we believe that putting emphasis on their learning styles will bring about success in achieving these goals in the short-term and long-term. Therefore, our project is developed around the aim of providing students with the necessary multicultural environment in which they can develop the above-mentioned skills, based on their individual learning styles.Objectives:1. To identify students’ learning styles and work on teaching strategies in accordance with them2. To share different teaching methods based on learning styles with other EU teachers3. To develop students’ language, ICT, communication, interpersonal skills4. To develop creativity, problem solving and critical thinking5. To promote and attain professional development of teachers6. To produce and collect materials for the development of a summer camp for underachieving students7. To develop participants’ intercultural competence and promote values like tolerance, non-discrimination, acceptance of alterity8. To develop participants’ motivation, self-confidence and self-esteem and to increase their performance as a resultActivitiesC1 – visual learning style, games for visual learners – science teaching (BG)C2 – aural learning style, games and activities for aural learners - maths teaching (PT)C3 – verbal learning style and English teaching (RO)C4 – physical learning style and geography teaching (TR)C5 – social learning style and history teaching (IT)In each of these exchanges, the host countries will prepare games, design formal and non-formal activities for the participants. The activities will take into account the learning style assigned for each exchange. All the activities will be included in a support material and distributed to the partners, so that they can use them in their schools as well.ParticipantsWe plan to involve students first and foremost. The students in our target group are aged 16-17, boys and girls, some of them coming from challenged backgrounds (social challenges, migration, minority, poor economic condition). Teachers will accompany students in exchanges and contribute to the good implementation of the exchange. They will assist students, coordinate their activity and cater for their needs, so as to ensure their comfort. Also, they will participate in the activities so that they learn new methods from their peers and they will also conduct the same activities with students from their schools after exchanges.Results We intend to create a number of results in the process: a collaborative questionnaire on learning styles which will be applied online at the beginning of the project, the results obtained after its application, at least 100 students and 40 teachers directly impacted (improved motivation and school results), at least 300 students and 40 teachers indirectly impacted, a set of materials and activities for different learning styles, presentations made by students, presentations of teachers, workshop materials, 1 summer school programme developed collaborativelyImpactBy developing a summer school programme, we will ensure sustainability of the project. We will apply the programme in our school after the end of the project. We will identify low achieving students who most need extra support and include them in the programme. We will evaluate the success of the programme and all partners will share results in order to analyse strengths and weaknesses and be able to adapt it. We will also initiate local partnerships for this purpose and promote our programme to other schools in the areas of our schools.At the level of the partnership, all institutions will increase their Erasmus+ expertise and be more prepared to apply for new projects in the future. We will strengthen European cooperation and we will become more visible and more attractive in our local communities.