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Fifth Transnational Meeting Gdansk, Poland
Our Fifth Transnational Meeting took place from Sept. 29th to Oct. 3rd 2019. The venue was our partner school in Gdansk, the Szepół Szkół Sportowych I Ogólnokształcących. The purpose of this meeting was to continue our exchange of new teaching methods and to report about our experiences with the tryouts of methods that had been presented in former Transnational Meetings.
The structure of our meeting was therefore
- Our presentations of the concepts introduced in Finland and tried out in all partner schools in the time since that meeting: „Education on the Move“ and „Phenomenon-based Learning“
- Presentation of new teaching concepts (to be tried out by all partner schools up until the next meeting) by our hosting collegues from Gdansk: „Europass, European Language Passport, E-Twinning“ AND „Integration Through Sport“
This was interspersed with an interesting exchange of opinions, lesson observations, getting to know the hosting school and some sightseeing. On the last day, administrative details concerning the project were discussed and settled (see program below).
The outcome of presentations:
Lessons on the Move
The reaction of our colleagues in all partner schools to the teching concept of „Movement in Lessons“ was very positive. Everybody appreciated the tryouts and had very positive feedback, in spite of the fact that these methods are well known and sometimes also practised – just not to the extent that one would wish for, given the academic load of schools in our time. Positive feedback included observations like „it was fun“, „students were very enthusiastic “, „especially good for younger students“, „good for those types who cannot sit still“, „makes students more peaceful for the rest of the lesson“, „improves communication“, etc.
What was also observed is that such activities cost lesson time (obviously) and more traditional teachers felt that it disrupted teaching. Students did not seem to be used to this kind of class activity and tended to get carried away. With a more regular application of these methods, students should get used to movement in class and might then handle it more reponsibly (and be more grateful). Also, teachers should be better trained in such activities (maybe learn from free time instructors) and take time to prepare these activities properly.
Here are the presentations that give feedback about the tryouts of the concept „Lessons on the Move“:
Lessons on the Move-Poland.ppt
Lessons on the Move-Portugal.ppt
Lessons on the Move-Sweden.ppt
Lessons on the Move-Austria.ppt
Phenomenon-based Learning
Feedback about this type of teaching method was specially interesting because it turned out that similar kinds of teaching have been practised in many partner schools (project-oriented teaching). In one case (Italy) this type of teaching is actully currently being introduced to prepare students for a new type of final exam in which they have to discuss a given phenomenon from various angles – which is exactly the definition of this method.
The selection of topics ranged from „The Trade War between the US and China“ to the analysis of the phenomenon of metamorphosis from Latin literature to modern Biology. In all cases, teachers and students found this type of approach extremely interesting and motivating, with students more active and more creative than in traditional teaching. On the other side, it was described as a very time-consuming workstyle, and extremely difficult to organize, especially when work had to be done outside of school. Often there was not enough time for the things that could or should have been done, and not enough time to coordinate all the subjects that should have been involved.
Here are the presentations that give feedback about the tryouts of the concept „Phenomenon-Based Learning“:
Phenomenon-Based Learning Italy.ppt
Phenomenon-Based Learning Poland.ppt
Phenomenon-Based Learning Portugal.ppt
Phenomenon-Based Learning Spain.ppt
Phenomenon-Based Learning Sweden.ppt
Phenomenon-Based Learnig Austria.ppt
For the next part of the project, our Polish colleagues presented two new teaching concepts: „The Europass Documents and E-Twinning“ and „Integration through Sport“. These concepts were introduced by means of the presentations to be found below („Integration through Sport“ is a video), were discussed briefly and will be tried out and tested by all participating schools until our next Transnational Meeting in Barcelona in March 2020:
NewTeachingConcept EU_Documents.ppt
NewTeachingConcept eTwInning.ppt
NewTeachingConcept IntegrationThroughSport.ppt
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