THE RESULTS OF THE TWO PRELIMINARY AND FINAL SURVEYS TO BE FILLED IN BY THE STUDENTS

  • The Excel-chart of the "Skills-survey"( Different countries are marked with different colours): 

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14rXR8GJO5ACLMPR9NWitdg9KqNH6hppaX01-5SvGqbA/edit?

    The results of the Skills-survey. Please click the link Results / Vastaukset at the top of the page and wait a second:

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1dwVozOMVV53c5LYk7F0e181CuAhKe0FxfLHF_cbIuX4/edit?usp=sharing

    The excel-table of all the answers of "Lessons-survey" (Again different colours for different countries): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BgKSgB40g_OKXQLm2oH2H1FdK4a02NJ_JZbHmeah34k/edit?usp=sharing

    The results of "Lessons-survey". Please click the Results-box and wait a moment for them to upload: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LfSUrCbmaeNHlp1C2RMKN035fOlKPq1y8g3gz5dkWcE/edit?usp=sharing

    Italian Answers to Preliminary Open Questions

     

    AFTER THE PROJECT:

    Required skills: 
     
    Required skills spreadsheet: 
     
    Lessons survey: 
     
    Lessons survey spreadsheet: 
     
    ANALYSES OF THE SURVEYS:

    LESSON SURVEY & REQUIRED SKILLS SURVEY

    Preliminary and end-of-the-project  answers compared – LAS “Modigliani”, Padua

    Lessons Survey

    The survey contains many interesting questions  useful to  assess the quality of school life and of  school learning and its relationships with the world of work, and to improve those aspects which are revealed as critical.

    In both the preliminary and the final “Lessons Survey”, for instance, Italian students seem to be a little unsatisfied with :

    - The activities in class build up our transferable skills (like problem solving or teamwork)

    although most of them answer a following question saying  “During the lessons we improve our critical thinking”

    - The teachers keep us active during the lessons

    - The teachers try new methods/strategies

    - The teachers use humour to motivate us

    - The teacher helps me to plan my studies and learn how be responsible for my schoolwork

    - The teacher gives me opportunity to practice doing presentations, stating my opinion, making comments and argumentations

    - The teacher gives me by opportunity to work according to my interests and motivations

    - We use ICT/computers a lot.

    As regards more general aspects of the school, students are also unsatisfied with the grading system, the condition of the classrooms and the technological equipment.

    On the  positive side, instead,  it might be noted that Italian students are quite satisfied with cooperative learning, skills practice in language lessons, internships, work-related programmes, student exchanges,  digital books, intercultural differences, the number of students in the class  and the time to learn.

    There is, in fact, very little difference between the answers to the preliminary  and the end-of-the-project  survey.

    Although very interesting at the beginning of the project, the questions have not apparently been able to put  into light  and  to assess end-of-the-project  results and effects.

    This may partly be due to the fact that the students who gave the answer could not, for a number of reasons, be  exactly the same.

    It might also depend on the timing (beginning of March),  because dissemination  activities are still being proposed and most of them will take place in the months of April and May so that effects will probably be registered at the end of the school year

    It must also be noted that some of the questions concern aspects which are outside the reach of the project, such as the conditions of the classrooms,  the national grading system or the number of students per class.

    One question which may instead  be  relavant to assess the effects of working in the project is: “We can’t see any relation between school subjects and job opportunities”. Before the beginning of the project the majority of students agreed with the statement. At the conclusion of the project the majority instead disagreed and thought  they could see connections between what they were doing at school and their future working life – competences.

    Required Sills Survey

    The answers to the preliminary and the end-of-the-project surveys are very similar. Only very little changes can be found.

    On the whole, students’s answers to the preliminary survey were very interesting.

    In the final survey students added  “organizational and ICT skills” not mentioned in the preliminary survey; or in the skills an employer would look for in a job candidate, students also mentioned “desire to learn”, but there was not much that could be really changed or added.

    Even the two questions “What are the advantages of being an entrepreneur” and “What are the disadvantages of being an entrepreneur”, which we might expect to be different because many workshops, activities and visits during the project had focused on this aspect, were almost identical.

    - Reasons holding students back from studying abroad: Mostly family and friends, but also money

    - reasons encouraging students to study abroad: First of all learning the language. Also important knowing different cultures and lifestyles, and quality of academic education

    - advantages of studying abroad: Again learning a language. Knowing cultures makes you more openminded. Also more independent and self confident.

    - study abroad opportunities offered in your country: Erasmus, study abroad programmes of organisations like Intercultura/Youabroad, etc; United World College; school exchanges.

    - Have you ever considered studying abroad: 80% say yes, in the USA mainly, then in the UK, Scandinavian countries, or “where art is important”

    -  reasons holding you back from working abroad: mainly family and friends, and expenses; also great change and noone helping you.

    -  resons encouraging work abroad: jobs and cultural opportunities

    -  problems cultural differences could cause in workplace: mainly discrimination, and communication problems.

    -  employers find it important that employees are able to connect… how do you show: showing flexibility and readiness to adapt, and to work in teams, besides general receptiveness and good manners.

    -  if you were an employer, what skills … in a candidate: seriousness, motivation, social skills.

    -  your strengths when applying for a job: motovation, social skills, desire to learn.

    -  skills you still need to develop: languages, social skills, teamwork.

    -   what problems do you expect to need help with: language, housing, money, friends.

    -   do you think team work/collaboration is necessary, why: more opinions, faster work, fewer mistakes

    -   what do you think learning to learn means: be more open minded, continue to learn, learning not in school but in life.

    -  why would you need learning to learn skills: more adaptability

    -  challenges of working abroad: applications,  getting and keeping a job, making new friends, having a different lifestyle.