SOCRATES
GRUNDTVIG
2
LEARNING
PARTNERSHIPS
INFORMATION ON THE PROJECT AND THE PARTNERSHIP
LEARNING
EDUCATORS
Summary of the project
In the project the participating organisations will study
and exchange the best teaching methods of the European
Language Portfolio in different EU countries, get the
feedback how effective the used teaching methods are
through the co-operation with the local language teachers
and educators and their students and to disseminate the
information among the target group of the project, which
are the local community language teachers. The participants
will actively study the use and the spread of the ELP in
all participants´ countries together with deep studies of
their educational systems, they will visit different types
of schools, meet the local educators and teachers, discuss
and exchange the methods of teaching languages.
The participants will prepare a workshop for their local
community teachers after each visit and they will inform
the local teachers about the methods and use of the
Portfolio in different countries.
Between the workshops the local language teachers will use
and evaluate the newly learned methods in their respective
classes with their students and they will prepare the
feedback for the participating organisations.
In this way, through the co-operation and help of the local
teachers and through a brochure and a CD-Rom ´The Useful
Tips about the ELP´ the best teaching methods of the ELP
will be found and disseminated among a great number of
learners and teachers in the participants´ countries.
Project topics:
• the studies how European Language Portfolio methods are
used in EU countries
• workshops for local language educators
• co-operation with and the feedback from the local
language teachers
• best teaching methods for teaching languages in EU
countries
• European Language Portfolio and its use in the classroom
• teaching with the use of the European Language Portfolio
• dissemination of the best teaching methods
Broad subject areas covered by the project
• Basic skills
□ Information technology □ Health
• Active citizenship □ Sustainable development □ The media
• Intercultural issues □ Arts, music, culture □x Education
for parents
• Languages * (see below) □ Consumer education □
Environment
• Learning about European countries / the European Union
The main aims and objectives of the project are:
• - to promote the European dimension and knowledge about
the European Union among adult learners
• - to learn about different methods how the European
Language Portfolio is used in different European countries
• - to share the information with the local language
teachers and educators, who are the target group of the
project
• - to cooperate with local teachers in using and
evaluating different teaching methods from different
countries
• - in cooperation with the local language teachers to
prepare the choice of the best ELP methods
• - to write a brochure and make a CD-Rom ´The Useful Tips
About the ELP´
• - to disseminate the best and most useful tips and
methods how to use the ELP among the language teachers and
educators in the participants´ countries through the
workshops, newspaper articles, the CDs and the brochures.
The coordinating organisation in cooperation with the other
participants will prepare the project and the ways of
cooperation among the participants.
It will divide the tasks, solve the possible problems which
will arise during the project, check the solutions and
answers. It will coordinate the terms of the visits and
communicate with all the participants. It will cooperate
with the local teachers community which is the target group
of the project and it will disseminate the results and new
methods learned during the visits and through the groups of
local teachers. It will coordinate the verification and
evaluation of teaching hypotheses and methods in its
country.
The other participating organisations will check and
optionally correct the ways and methods used in the
project, they will offer the solutions and work on their
part of project. Each participant will share one part of
the project and the final results will be a common work of
all participants. The participants will prepare the visits
in its countries together with the visits of the local
schools and teachers. They will cooperate with local
teachers community which is the target group of the
project. They will disseminate the results and new methods
learned during the visits and through the groups of local
teachers they will coordinate the verification of teaching
hypotheses and methods in their countries.
The effective cooperation will work through the emails and
the Internet and through the website of the contact person
of the coordinating organisation (
www.learning-educators.com ) At the contact seminar all the
participants also agreed on immediate answers to all emails
and messages and on working hard to do all the necessary
work in the time limits.
What impact is the project expected to have
1. The learners and staff directly participating will learn
and compare the methods of teaching and learning the
European Language Portfolio and they will be able to
improve their knowledge about teaching according to the
work with the ELP. Teaching the language will become more
learner-centred and it will focus on actual needs of the
students.
It means:
• Obtaining knowledge in the different ways of teaching
Languages.
• Exchange of experience and good practice between the
project member’s countries.
• Increasing adult learners capacity to play a full and
active role in society and therefore encourage and increase
their self-confidence.
• Increasing staff’s self-confidence.
• Encouragement of adults in-group work during the project
activities.
• Developing in adults an intercultural awareness on topics
concerning the European Language Portfolio.
• The use of new technologies to find information and to
communicate as well.
• Development of the staff’s skills, knowledge and
abilities.
• Motivation for learning and improving foreign languages
in order the adults to be able to communicate among
themselves.
• Adult learners and instructors / staff are invited to
become active participants, somehow actual protagonists, in
what can be regarded as a form of action – research
experience.
2. The institutions participating in the Learning
Partnership as a whole will learn and compare different
teaching methods for the European Language Portfolio in
different European countries and they will be able to
improve their teaching through this research. They will be
able to adapt or change the institution´s curricula and the
teaching methods so that they will better answer the
students and teachers´ needs.
It means:
• Obtaining information about other European organizations
and institutions.
• Exchanging information concerning European programs and
future co-operations.
• Exchange of experience among the institution’s staff.
• Production of new material- European Language Portfolio
and a collection of best teaching methods
• Encouragement to monitor and evaluate the transnational
work and to inter-connect it with the initiatives of the
local community.
• Maximizing the value of the transnational exchange,
promote the circulation of good practice and ensure a wider
impact of results.
3. The impact on the local community teachers is expected
to be enormous. The participants will cooperate with a
group of local language teachers and educators who will
evaluate, check and use the newly learned methods in their
work and give the feedback to the project participants. The
participants together with this group of local teachers
will choose the best methods, they will prepare the
workshops for their colleague teachers and in this way they
will disseminate the knowledge about use and importance of
the ELP methods. In this way the spread of the ELP methods
will be provided and guaranteed.
It means:
• Dissemination of the experience and the good practices to
other adult centers and schools via the process of using
and evaluating the methods at schools and educational
centers and with the brochure and a CD-Rom ´The
useful Tips about the ELP´.
• Dissemination of the developed educational material to
other centers or individuals, especially via the web pages
of each participated organization and the project web page
www.learning-educators.com.
• Dissemination of information concerning European
Languages among adult citizens.
• The project is expected to contribute very much to
teaching/learning the languages in the participants´
countries because using the European Language Portfolio
means using and practising the completely different methods
and approaches to teaching and learning from the methods
commonly used in schools. Through the enthusiasm and work
of the groups of the local teachers and educators the
knowledge and use of the ELP will be disseminated and
slowly spread in the European schools.
• A questionnaire will be given with the topics of the
project to the adult learners in the beginning of the
project.
• A questionnaire will be given to the adult learners in
the end of the seminars and the project activities, to
study if they changed attitudes, opinions.
• Report from the educators for the target groups,
seminars, and project management, educational material.
• Final report from the coordinator.
• A CD-Rom (Software) and a brochure
• Web page in the national language and in English.
We can say that the success will be evaluated gradually
during the project through the co-operation with the local
educators who will use the newly learned methods in their
respective schools with their students. After each study
visit in each participant´s country the local teachers will
meet in a workshop where they will learn about the all
methods, they will discuss differences and similarities in
them and they will evaluate them in their schools. The
local teachers and educators will share their own
experiences and findings from using these new methods at
each workshop or meeting and in this way the spread of the
ELP methods and its use will be ensured and guaranteed.
The dissemination of the results, experience and ´end
products´ will proceed via the Internet and e-mails
messages.
1. Dissemination of the produced information and experience
is to be provided via the project web page – which will be
written in English, in order for all the participating
organizations to reach the information offered. Here all
results, news and information for both the participants and
the local language teachers will be situated.
2. Exchange ideas among the learners as well as the tutors
and staff will be during the development of the outcomes,
presentation of the project and the outcomes at the project
meetings during the year.
3. Twice a year during the study visits where all the steps
will be discussed and the solutions to the possible
problems found by the participants.
The dissemination to other organisations / institutions in
the local community:
1. It will proceed during the regular meetings with the
local language teachers and educators where all the
experience and information gained during the visits will be
shared and explained, the tasks will be formulated and the
feedback from the local teachers will help the participants
to define the results. The local teachers and educators in
different types of schools will then share the information
about the ELP methods with their colleagues and in this way
the use and methods of the ELP will be disseminated.
2. For the dissemination we will also use the project web
page which will be written in English to guarantee
communication to a wider community.
3. Dissemination of the project in the local press and
media – channel via articles about the produced work.
4. Presentation of the final outcomes to the local
community at the end of the year.
The dissemination to the wider lifelong learning community:
1. It will proceed through the ´end product ´= the brochure
and a CD-Rom ´ The Useful Tips About the ELP ´
2. and through the articles in the local newspapers and
professional magazines.
3. Dissemination of the outcomes and the experience earned
during the project to other institutions via meetings and
discussions and the work on the project itself.
The project can be regarded as an action – research type of
adult education. Therefore we hope to encourage adults’
educators to apply for an individual training-work
placement for adult education staff in the frame of
Grundtvig 3 action, helping them to undertake training
courses in a partner participating country.
The educators will gain or improve their teaching abilities
and they will learn a number of new / innovative teaching
methods, study different teaching methods in different
European countries, evaluate these methods and use them in
their schools. And because the teaching methods of the
European Language Portfolio very differ from the
traditional teaching methods used in most schools, it is a
sort of the training of local language teachers and
educators. In this way the project itself contributes to
improve the quality of adult educator training to persons
involved in the adults’ education.
Active participation of the adults is carried out in the
following ways:
- Filling up a questionnaire (to investigate their
educational needs)
• Participating in the seminars actively.
• Corresponding with the partner adults’ with email.
• Participating in completing the European Language Portfolio.
• Participating in culture programs, and maybe visit the project participating countries.
• Motivation for the adult to learn foreign languages and use ICT technologies.
• Participating in workshops.
The active participation of learners will be ensured because using the European Language Portfolio is about the active role of the learners, the learner autonomy, about the self-assessment, the motivation, the learner-centred teaching. The learners themselves choose the interesting topics, work on them and improve their knowledge.
The great advantage of this project is that the European Language Portfolio is based on self-assessment and the learner autonomy. The assessment and self-assessment of the learners participating in the project will be provided by the participating organisations and the learners themselves during the project using the Portfolio, discussing different teaching methods and evaluating them.
The adult learners will be involved in a self – assessment process based on their actual knowledge or experience and skills on foreign Languages .
A questionnaire and the Self-assessment Grid will be the tools for self-assessment. The learners will answer the questionnaire at the beginning of the project and at the end (pre and after test) so that the level of knowledge, abilities and skills to be tested and compared in order to notify the change in their attitude.
Group discussions will also be encouraged at any stage of the project.
All learners in the project will complete their Language Passports as a part of the European Language Portfolio.
On the other hand, accreditation and certification in the project member countries with regards to the specific topic of the project is not the focus. The deep understanding by the learners of the importance and the benefits of learning foreign languages and having the accreditation of the European Language Portfolio is the focus.
Of course, a certification of attendance will be given to the adult learners to encourage them to continue the life long learning.
Although this Grundtvig project targets all adults learners in the broadest sense (of Nafpaktos and western Greece for example), no doubt that special attention will be given to activities relating to persons – adult learners with special educational needs.
Adults also with special needs like persons with a disability or chronic illness or especially (in Greece) will be encouraged to participate in the project in an equal role like the other adults giving them the chance to be integrated in the project and in the society.
Adult learners coming from distant disadvantaged or rural areas (for example from Nafpaktos and Aitoakarnania and the disadvantaged areas of Achaia Greece) or coming from disadvantaged for socio – economic reasons will be specially encouraged and invited to participate in the project and take an active and full part and role in adult learning and adult activities, to develop intercultural awareness and also develop personal qualities – responsibility, respect and cooperation.
During the seminar, the instructors / the staff will use the activity of the adults working in a project or collecting information encouraging all men and women to take equal part in it; taking care to point out and denounce all the potential risks of discrimination between men and women that may occur among non-native speakers and which might be reflected by unequal learning opportunities.
The project will be addressed also to minorities or ethnic groups and it is connected to intercultural education.
In the area of the Greek participant ( Nafpaktos , Achaia/Greece) there are ethnic minorities, Albanians emigrants and Kurds as political refugees Bulgarians and Polands , but it is difficult to approach them.