Competencies for democratic culture

Living together as equals

Teaching SEC with etwinning

If young people learn to value human dignity andhuman rights, cultural diversity and democracy,then these values will be used as the foundationfor all of their choices and actions,and they willwillingly pursue their lives in a manner thatrespects the dignity and human rights of otherpeople and the principles of democracy.

Our Concern

• Valuing differences

• Our changing Europe (different Europes)

• Discrimination and racism

• People on the move

• Our reactions to the changes

• Need of new responses to new situations

Our Context: Umbria

Which competencies : SEC

CompetenceBehaviour

Behaviours are not separate competences in themselves,but are instead a meansto assess whether or not individual competencies have been acquired.

• Behaviours themselves are the external outcomes of applyingcompetencies to meet the demands, challenges and opportunitiespresented by specific situations.

• Every competence has behavioural expressions, and all competentbehaviours are a product of deploying one or more underlyingcompetencies.

COMPETENCEKNOWLEDGE

andCRITICAL

THINKING

ATTITUDESVALUES

SKILLS

• Valuing human dignity and human rights

• Valuing cultural diversity

• Valuing democracy, justice, fairness, equality

VALUES

ATTITUDES• Openness to cultural otherness and to other beliefs, world views and practices

• Respect

• Civic-mindedness

• Responsibility

• Self-efficacy

• Tolerance of ambiguity

“Dear friends, we are all astonished and spellbound for whathappened in Paris!we are all mourning this weekend!So, since our project is focused on tolerance, acceptance andinclusion, we risk that episodes like this inspire oppositefeelings in our students and in European people in general. Ithink we should let our students speak up their minds andorganize a chat or a Twitter marathon among them, where theycan compare their feelings and emotions”

Give voice and choice

SKILLS

• analytical and critical skills, analysing, evaluating materials (texts, issues, events,experiences) weighing up the pros and cons of the available options

• listening and observing, paying close attention to the behaviour ofother people

• Empathy , seeing the world from other people’s perspective

• flexibility and adaptability, overcoming anxieties, worries and insecurities about meeting and interacting with other people who are perceived to be different

• linguistic, communicative skills, expressing opinions, explaining and clarifying ideas, discussing, debating, persuading and negotiating

• co-operation and conflict resolution skills, taking action together withothers in a reciprocal and co-ordinated manner

KNOWLEDGE• knowledge of the self and cultural basis

• knowledge of communicationand language

• knowledge and criticalunderstanding of humanrights,cultures,religion,history, sustainability

Positive aspects

multi-purpose: usable for the full variety of purposes (curriculum design, matching competences to levels of education )

flexible: adaptable for use in different educational contexts

open: capable of further extension and changes

dynamic: capable of being modified

non-dogmatic: not exclusively attached to any educational or social-scientific theory

user-friendly: presented in a form that is readily understandable and usable by those to whom it is addressed

Problems and difficulties

make all these competences teacheable (especially as far as the values and attitudes are concerned)

make all these competences learnable (always referring to values and attitudes)

balance the time for the curriculum and the time for the project

have colleagues’ support in the PBL approach

have Headteacher’s support

monitor group work outside of the classroom

assess group work

assess the competence in terms of attitudes and values