Children Tell the HiStory

"A school community survey and the local project ""Little Landlords"" proved that poor interest in European history coincided with the lack of learning motivation. Teachers also acknowledged having little practice applying innovative and active methods while teaching history. They also claimed that there was a poor choice of educational resources which addressed the topic of Lithuania's common historical heritage with other European countries and were suitable to apply at any educational level from primary to secondary. The project applicant school had always been focused on creating better learning opportunities for pupils and improving quality of education. Filling the knowledge, learning motivation and methodology gap was the main cause to start a new project. The title of the project ""Children Tell the HiStory"" implied its main idea, i.e. that pupils took an active part in the learning and teaching process: they learned from their own research (experiential learning), creative writing and through empathy (role-play), and taught each other using their unique teaching approach (child-to-child teaching). Two European schools – Rokiskis school-kindergarten ""Azuoliukas"" (Lithuania) and Istituto Tecnico Commerciale e per Geometri ""A.Oriani"" (Faenza, Italy), together with their social partner from Poland - Prywatna Szkola Podstawowa Academos – were involved with more than a hundred active participants, including teaching experts and historians, a great number of beneficiaries at the participating schools, primary teachers and history teachers, and local communities in participating cities. The project aimed to enhance awareness of history as it is known that an interest in the subject was the best motivation to study it at school. Parents involvement in the projects ensured that this motivation would be family driven in the future. It introduced an innovative approach in the participating schools, which was to study history in an authentic environment, just where it happened so to speak, to understand the facts through developing empathy while role-playing, and to communicate the knowledge to peers. Moreover, this project reconnected three countries through their common historical background and so promoted and strengthened the awareness of European oneness. Teachers participating in the project improved their skills to apply innovative methods and assess their effectiveness. The project combined 4 educational methods: experiential learning, creative writing, role-play and child-to-child teaching.The intellectual output, i.e. the educational script ""Awaked by History. With the Jagiellons, Radziwills, and Sforzas"" in 3 official EU languages has been provided in the European project dissemination platform VALOR, available on request via the eTwinning platform and on participating schools' websites. The output may increase the quality of general education in participating schools and in schools which will make use of them in history teaching. Public exhibitions of informational stands and historical stage costumes produced during the project attracted around 900 visitors in Faenza central library and same number in Rokiškis Regional Museum and evoked their interest in history, as well as could increase the awareness of European oneness. Project results were also introduced to public during Rokiškis town festivals. Project participants took part in 2 transnational meetings with 6 foreign and 20 local participants, 2 training sessions of 60 working hours in 10 days with more than 80 pupils and 7 accompanying people, two online meetings with 8 participants each, community meetings in each school with estimated number of 150 participants in each event, and the final conference with 8 foreign and 32 local participants. All participants improved their English skills and multicultural competence. Their social communication skills, tolerance and flexibility had been developed while working in teams whose members will be of different nationality and age (early school age children, teenagers, adults). High quality of 2 training sessions and the intellectual output were ensured by careful selection of project team members. The project's results' dissemination happened through numerous channels such as local, regional and national newspapers, schools' websites, and those of social partners'. The estimated number of indirect benefitors such as local communities, teachers, users of social media, users of European projects' results dissemination platforms estimated to have been more than five thousands in Lithuania, Italy, Poland. The long lasting effect manifested itself through: higher learning motivation among pupils and increased interest in history among adult participants; methodical and social cooperation among participating schools; full incorporation of innovative teaching methods into curriculum and their wider application than merely in history teaching; school events such as public performances."