EUROPEAN CLASSES PROJECT: A CO-EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO CURRICULUM INNOVATIONCONFERENCE PROMOTING INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY : Schools Response to the Challenges of Future Societies

Katja Pavli kerjanc, Brdo8 -10 April 2008

EUROPEAN CLASSES PROJECT

pilot project in upper-secondary general education (gimnazija: 4-year program, students aged 15-19):set up to supplement the program with new program elements and innovative approaches to teaching and learning,designed by the National Education Institute of Slovenia,approved by the National Council of Experts for General Education,launched in 2004/05 by the Minister of Education and Sport (to be evaluated in 2008/09), implemented in 16 schools (out of eligible 54).

Purpose and aims of ECP to meet both deficiency and growth needs:personalise the curriculum: increase its openness, ie. scope and number of options for schools and individual students (core elective optional modular structure);make the curriculum more authentic for the students: provide meaningful contexts bring the real world into the classroom (and vice versa);integrate the curriculum: increase its flexibility to overcome fragmentation of knowledge (set up curricular connections, eg. tranversal competences as cross-curricular goals);to provide convincing proofs of concepts and ideas and, finally, a fully functioning prototype

KEY CONCEPTSAUTHENTICITY OF LEARNINGgoalscontentactivitiesassessmentenvironmentEuropean and global dimension intercultural communication: crosscultural (intra- in inter-cultural) encounters and cooperation integrative curriculum: multidisciplinarity- interdisciplinarity - transdisciplinarity collaborative teaching (many forms, including team work and pair teaching) inquiry-based learning and project approach to teaching and learningdiverse learning tools (ICT and others)information/digital/media literacy)

Gimnazija program adaptation E UROPEAN CLASSES

Co-evolutionary approach to curriculum innovationPilot projects are designed and implemented with three complementary goals in mind:

by aiming to improve the curricula as well as the teaching and learning process they address students,at the same time motivating and supporting teachers in their continuous professional development and capacity building and providing project managers (national education authorities and reasearch & development agencies) with pragmatic knowledge and skills of the teachers and headteachers (ie. aligning beliefs about the potential for effective action with the lessons of past and present experience).

Different roles of teachers in ECPTeachers participating in the project are expected to assume different roles:

teachers,change agents, course designers, materials providers, researchers,evaluators.Teachers as reflective practitioners

Schools as learning organisations

National Education Institute PROJECT TEAMProject ManagerCore & Extended PG

PROJECT STRUCTURE

Working Groups (WG)School Project Teams

external collaborators(teachers from participating schools) Gimnazija program adaptation E UROPEAN CLASSES

Project structure and communicationclose links and interdependence between the NEI project team and participating schools/project partners;communication at and between all levels is constant and intense, both direct and indirect (via e-mail), aiming to secure not only an uninterrupted information flow on the progress of the project, but also ongoing exchanges - as well as evaluation - of project products (lesson plans, teaching materials, etc.) and examples of practice of all kinds considered illustrative and supportive: best (tried and tested out several times by more teachers), good (tried at least twice by one teacher) and promising (still in the planning phase).

EUROPEAN CLASSES PROJECT

The overarching goal is the search for new organisational solutions and innovative implementation approaches at all levels,

from the structure of the program, the placement and role of both subject areas as well as individual subjects within the program to the lay-out of subject syllabi, which in the case of the new electives faithfully follows a competence-based approach and differentiated levels of autonomy, as well asthe learning and teaching approaches and methods.

Subject modulesModular aproach:

openness and flexibilitycoreelectiveoptional

increasing level of teacher autonomyincreasing level of flexibility

Innovations on the level of SUBJECTS can be observed in:

a changed identity of the elective subjects, which are transdisciplinary in nature and based on discovery learning, requiring active methods of instruction, primarily the task-based, project-based and inquiry-based approach; European studies, e.g., are such a subject, in the context of which students gain knowledge anddevelop skills to critically evaluate European integration processes, human and civil rights issues, the role and the activities of European institutions, as well as other relevant social and cultural issues in Europe and the nature of European inclusion into world currents; the differentiation of the learning goals of foreign languages by means of and within different subject modules (refer to the next chapter):the emphasised role of mother tongue (refer to the next chapter).

Le sole risposte utili sono quelle che propongono nuove domande. Vittorio Foa

The only useful answers are those that pose new questions.

EUROPEAN CLASSES PROJECTINTRODUCING CHANGES

IMPORTANT CHANGES INTRODUCED INTO

goals of the gimnazija curriculumstructure of the curriculumsubjects (structure, aims & objectives)didactics

INTRODUCING CHANGESINTO CURRICULUM GOALS

European and global dimension from Slovenias point of viewintercultural education / communication by involving native speakers and/or teachers from other countries/cultures synthetic thinking - holistic knowledge through integrated curriculum

INTRODUCING CHANGES INTO CURRICULUM STRUCTURE

integrated curriculumchanged role of the flexible (elective) partintegration of elective subjects - linking theiraims and objectives contentinstruction

INTRODUCING CHANGESINTO SUBJECTS

new electives - ECP specificmultidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approachintegrating traditionally separate disciplines into new subjectsupgrading the taxonomy of FLL goalsCBLL content-based language learning FLAC foreign language across the curriculum

INTRODUCING CHANGES NEW ELECTIVES (ECP specific)Foreign Language in Focus: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish.RussianFL: Slovenia in the World FL: Culture and CivilizationSloveneSocial Roles of SloveneSlovene Literature in TranslationsEuropean Studiescitizenship & human rights education, environmental issues etc.

INTRODUCING CHANGES INTO THE DIDACTICS

collaborative teachingauthentic learning & assessmentactive learninginquiry-based learningproblem-based learningcollaborative learningproject approach

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