PROJECT DESCRIPTION
SHARED RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Coordinator school (UK)/Northern Ireland) will be responsible for;
– the coordination of the whole project
– ensuring the communication between the partner schools
– hosting training events and a transnational project meeting
– producing a manual about the good practice
- manage the project`s etwinning site and coordinate the National- and European Quality Label application yearly
The Turkish school will be responsible for;
– setting-up more global dissemination activities
– arranging an educational seminar given by professionals for parents and students
– collecting results of A5 activity as detailed in the application form.
– hosting a transnational project meeting
– producing a manual about the good practice
The Belgium school will be responsible for;
– collecting results of A2 activity as detailed in the application form.
– arranging an educational seminar given by professionals for parents and students
– hosting a transnational project meeting
– create and manage our Facebook/Twitter account
– producing a manual about the good practice
The Portuguese school will be responsible for;
– providing its experience on the field of study "Games in Extracurricular Activities"
– setting- up and looking after a project website
– collecting results of A3 activity as detailed in the application form.
– hosting a transnational project meeting
– producing a manual about the good practice
The Italian school will be responsible for;
– providing its experience on the field of study "Fun Learning Games and Activities"
– arranging an educational seminar given by professionals for parents and students
– collecting results of A1 activity as detailed in the application form.
– hosting a transnational project meeting
– producing a manual about the good practice
The UK/Northern Ireland school will be responsible for;
– providing its experience on the field of study "How Family Games Make Kids into Better Students "
– arranging an educational seminar given by professionals for school principals and local decision makers
– collecting results of A4 activity as detailed in the application form.
– hosting a training event and a transnational project meeting
– producing a manual about the good practice
The Lead School will take responsibility for the delegation of appropriate tasks to each of the partner schools. A designated co-ordinator will be assigned for each partner school to ensure that tasks are undertaken and deadlines kept to within each of the schools. They will report back to the lead school on a regular basis using email, WebEx, twinspace and skype as well as reporting at the TPM events as scheduled per application.
EXPECTED RESULTS
Expected results
1 Enable teachers to lead and facilitate more progressive approaches to Maths lessons to allow for more playful, creative and hands-on learning,
2 Embed opportunities for hands-on learning throughout the curriculum to ensure that students of all abilities have the chance to learn by doing,
3 Creativity should not be regarded as a ‘nice to have’ and restricted to arts subjects, but as fundamental to successful teaching and learning in Maths subject,
4 Ensure that non-subject-specific skills for the future such as communication, problem solving and critical thinking are integrated throughout the curriculum,
5 Creative approaches towards teaching and learning should be given more credit than they are given now when inspecting and evaluating school performance.
The motivation of making the Multiple Intelligence methods more attractive to students and teachers in schools is to contribute to the headline education target of the Europe 2020 Strategy, namely to reduce the school-drop-out rates. Related to this, as a more specific approach, the present project is focused on the fact that the level of employability, competitiveness and wealth of our society will depend on the ideas and skills of its population. These have always been the EU’s most important assets.
Several researches show that there is a strong correlation between learning through games and better academic achievements in schools. Therefore, throughout the span of the programme, we have activities to increase students` knowledge and abilities in reading, maths and business studies with the most popular being in a group environment and teaching Maths creatively. Our own pre-research shows an average of 16% increase Quality of Attention in only 10 weeks structured study of Maths through MI-based learning in schools. We would like to carry on with testing and monitoring our children`s academic progress and eventually be able to measure by how many points our children can do better on different tests done in schools compare to other children who is not involved with our project at all.
Accordingly, to a recent research done in in the UK, 58% of students fail to achieve GCSE at grade A-C in Maths and to the PISA test findings: There is a lack of confidence and anxiety of Maths among students of 40%. We therefore wish to get at least 1600 children involved with this project, and by carefully structured programme plan and teaching method, we are confident to produce a positive increase of confidence in Maths among primary school age children. We are particularly keen to see the impact our Erasmus+ project brings to children on the fields of Maths, ICT and Business Studies.
Our children need strong ICT skills to be able to fulfil the so rapidly changing world of technology. Several modules are devoted to this topic itself within our programme plan to develop skills that our pupils need for the future. We are going to work closely with all the ICT coordinators to make sure that our programme provides the best possible outcome for both the teachers and pupils. By the end of this project we expect to see that all our children are able to use their ICT skills in real life environment and that this programme do make them more competent and better achiever on national tests to their counter parts, who do not take part in this project.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The views of staff and pupils from each school have been sought out in the development of this project. Each partner school will establish a project team of students. Project teams will be involved in the planning by meeting with their project teachers to lead the project in their school. They'll work closely with the coordinating school and the other Project teams to ensure a successful partnership. They will be responsible for the initial consultation and the interim and end survey of the project. They will meet regularly with their peers to elicit views about the process of the project and its direction. Partnership will be thoroughly integrated across the schools' curricula in art, design technology, music, literacy, ICT, mathematics. Children off all age groups and special needs will be involved in the project at levels and activities appropriate to their ability.
Involvement of pupils and parents in school activities, workshops is highly valued. The active participation of pupils in the school community increases their engagement and motivation and facilitates school effectiveness. They will have the opportunity to voice their opinions and be involved in decisions running the project. Active involvement of parents in the school is essential to ensure conducive and supportive learning environments especially in preventing early school leave and addressing it early.
Student teachers, parents, seniors, disadvantaged groups will be involved in the implementation of the project activities. Frequent and varied communication between children, project teams and the school councils will ensure that children are not working in isolation in each school. All products will include the work of children of all levels of ability and ethnicity. Each school will display project information in a public area of the school. The senior managers in each school have a strong commitment to the success of this project and are keen that it has maximum positive impact on all staff and children and community.
– Experts on the field, parents, school staff and students will take part in educational seminars
– Seminars will be given in schools in the neighbourhood to share our experiences.
– School administration and teachers will join video conference among partner schools.
Within each of the six schools participating in this Erasmus+ project we aim to work with different classes in each year, allowing us to involve a minimum of 540 children (6 school x 30 children x 3 years).
Each school is asked to approach and involve at least another 3 local schools with this project, who would voluntarily participate via eTwinnning. This would bring another 1620 children/2160 in total to our project. Also via our eTwinning project, on which platform there are currently more than 350000 registered teachers/users, we are confident that the 5000 participants can be realistically achieved. By using both, our eTwinning project and local school contacts, we can confidently promise to deliver the number listed above.
With regards the activities, all these schools working with us throughout the duration of this Erasmus+ project, will be given the opportunity to use our resources, attend our competitions (both online and locally), and to become a valued member of our Game-Based Learning project. They will attend our online meetings, through Skype, WebEx and eTwinning/Twinspace where our children can safely interact and deliver team work.
ACTIVITIES EXPLAINED
The primary challenge of project methodology is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honouring the preconceived constraints. We follow the Traditional Approach to project management, which identifies a sequence of steps to be completed, such as initiation, planning, execution, monitoring & controlling and completion.
***Please note that each activity is tagged for the purpose of Timetable. ***
*Understanding Multiple Intelligence Theory and Implement it into our school curricula. It is important to have a deeper understanding of Gardner’s point of view to prepare integrated activities for children. Therefore, we will discuss the traditional point of view about intelligence and we discuss Gardner’s ideas on intelligences. (A1)
*Several researches show that there is a strong correlation between teaching Maths creatively and better academic achievements in schools. Therefore, throughout the span of the programme, we have activities to increase students` knowledge and abilities in reading, maths and business studies with the most popular being in a group environment and through games. There is a significant drop in the recent PISA Maths and Science scores for all partner schools that needs to be addressed. Using Mathematical games as an aid to teaching Mathematics as a vehicle for improving children`s scholastic abilities proved to be an excellent way to aid in their education. (A2)
*Discovering Own Ideas on Intelligence & Integrated Activities: We propose to create a curriculum for Teaching Creatively in schools where the multiple intelligences and logical thinking skills give learners the ability to understand what they have read or been shown, and also to build upon that knowledge without incremental guidance reassured us with their full support throughout the program span and beyond. We do invite students to consider the implications of multiple intelligence theory in a school setting themselves. (A3)
*Supporting Multiple Intelligence in one Activity (A4): All students learn each day’s lesson in seven ways. They build models, dance, make collaborative decisions, create songs, solve deductive reasoning problems, read, write, and illustrate all in one school day. This is the CORE element of our project, hence will run throughout the year.
- In the Personal Work Center (Intrapersonal Intelligence), students explore the present area of study through research, reflection, or individual projects.
- In the Working Together Center (Interpersonal Intelligence), they develop cooperative learning skills as they solve problems, answer questions, create learning games, brainstorm ideas and discuss that day’s topic collaboratively.
- In the Music Center (Musical Intelligence), students compose and sing songs about the subject matter, make their own instruments, and learn in rhythmical ways.
- In the Art Center (Spatial Intelligence), they explore a subject area using diverse art media, manipulables, puzzles, charts, and pictures.
- In the Building Center (Kinesthetic Intelligence), they build models, dramatize events, and dance, all in ways that relate to the content of that day’s subject matter.
- In the Reading Center (Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence), students read, write, and learn in many traditional modes. They analyze and organize information in written form.
- In the Math & Science Center (Logical/ Mathematical Intelligence), they work with math games, manipulatives, mathematical concepts, science experiments, deductive reasoning, and problem solving.
*To promote international cooperation between schools, our pupils are encouraged to solve different tasks together with children from other schools. These assignments will help them not only to develop an adequate level of English for each, but encourage them to work closely with children from other countries and learn how to work in teams too. (A5)
The project activities that we will carry out beyond the support of the grant requested under the item "Project Management and Implementation" are as follow:
Transnational Project Meeting:
Project meetings are regularly spaced throughout the two years. Agendas for project meetings will be sent to each country in advance and minutes with action points will be distributed afterwards by the coordinating school. Time management and budget of the project will be checked. A balance between work and social activities at the project meetings will ensure that strong relationships are developed and are maintained. Partnerships will be established between particular groups of students from the partner schools to continue over the two year period, thus ensuring that all children are individually involved.
We aim to host 6 transnational trainings where we discuss our progress, challenges as well as good practices. We seek for recommendations from partner countries where teaching through games is part of their curriculum and to learn how they have achieved that.
IMPACT
The desired impact of the project at the local level is to see our children being taught through games in many local schools as well as to see improved academic scores as a result of learning creatively.
The project will result in participants, both adults and children, regarding themselves as citizens of Europe with a common outlook. The project aims collaborative work, care of environment, active citizenship. The opportunities for staff and children to travel and meet people from other countries will reinforce this. Having built-up a European network, schools aim to continue to communicate and learn from each other, not only as schools but also as children and teachers as individuals. The project will be enhanced by cooperation between countries and the activities will be more meaningful when shared with partner schools. Children will be able to compare and contrast ways of life across Europe and consider what is the common European dimension.
Each partner schools of this project are keen to build connections with other schools locally and nationally with the help of this project and using that for future programmes for the benefit of their pupils.
For those partner schools where games as an aid to teaching a wide range of subjects has not been yet introduced to their National Curriculum, we hope this project can help to convince the decision makers and as a result of that, to see Multiple Intelligences approach being used openly in schools.
Another impact we aim for is to expand the students' / teachers` point of views towards Mathematics and the recognition of Multiple Intelligences with the help of logical thinking games, while they become more aware of different implementations used in different countries in Europe.
We also expect to see higher publicity in local papers and TV, which will raise awareness of the positive impact Using Multiple Intelligences To Teach Mathematics has got on children's` improved academic performance.