Report on Learning/Teaching/Training activities from Turkey and the output after LTT

  • The first Learning / Teaching / Training activity took place in Turkey, Burdur, at the Vocational High School from Burdur, from 19.11 to 23.11.2018, with 6 pupils from the partners from Lithuania, Romania and Turkey and 5 pupils from Italy. An Italian student could not participate for well-founded health reasons. Also, the Italian group arrived a day later than the planned schedule, but the activities that the Italian team had to carry out on the first day were done on the other days (presenting the specifics of their high school, their town, their country and they also filled in questionnaires to establish the initial level). The host pupils in the host country, Turkey, participated in all the activities carried out within the framework of mobility. Each group of pupils within the strategic partnership was accompanied by 2 teachers and the Romanian teachers by 3 teachers.

    The preparation for participation in mobility consisted of:

    • a video conference with partners, in October 2018, for setting the date of mobility;
    • selecting pupils according to their involvement in the project activities;
    • signing Commitments between students participating in mobility, their parents and school, for information on the necessary documents, the obligations of the parties and the grant offered;
    • Issuing notarial powers of attorney for minors participating in mobility;
    • obtaining the criminal record for accompanying teachers (where it was imposed);
    • informing the School Inspectorates in the jurisdiction of the partner schools about the LTT's activities in Turkey;
    • preparation of the electronic portfolio with the presentations and materials necessary for the implementation of LTT activities in Turkey;
    • preparing the participating pupils in order to improve their communication skills in English;
    • the purchase of airline tickets and accommodation reservations as well as the transfer to and from airports.
    • the validation of Europass certificates by the Europass National Center.

    The purpose of LTT mobility in Turkey was to develop communication, socialization, teamwork and projecting skills, critical thinking and problem solving by learning STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. To obtain these results, the Turkish partner proposed the Scratch programming language and the https://scratch.mit.edu/ platform, where students learned to encode by making simple animations.

    On the first day of mobility, pupils from the four countries designed PPT presentations on the specifics of the school, the locality, the country and socialized, thus improving their interpersonal, communication, English, social and cultural awareness skills.

    An on-line questionnaire was applied to establish the initial level of knowledge of the participating students.

    The workshops were held in the high school's computer lab: Burdur Vocational High School, from 900 to 1600, with related breaks.

    The topics addressed in the visual programming language teaching were: creating simple animations, using basic programming tools, rationalizing digital numbers, arithmetic operations.

    In order to put into practice the acquired knowledge, a contest was organized with the participation of teams of 1 student from each partner country. Scratch projects have been developed and presented, promoting the spirit of competition.

    The teaching strategies used to initiate the programming language with Scratch were student-centered, interdisciplinary, project learning, and problem-solving.

    Scratch programming lessons aimed at developing communication skills, teamwork, problem solving, and critical thinking

    The topics tackled in the visual programming language teaching were: creating simple animations with visual programming, using basic programming tools, rationalizing digital numbers, arithmetic operations and creating animations and games.

    Another activity was the study visit at Burduk MAKU University, Department of Computer Education and Technologies for Advanced Coding, where university lecturers presented initiation presentations in programming languages like Arduino, mBlock, Fritzing, S4A, Turtle.

    All participating students completed Reflective Journals.

    In order to evaluate the knowledge gained in the mobility activities, students completed an on-line questionnaire.

    To measure the degree of satisfaction with the quality of the activities carried out, the pupils responded to an online feedback questionnaire.

    By participating in leisure activities, the competencies covered by the project were obtained, especially in the activities outside the program organized in the Turkish high school: dance, paintball, yoga, chess, visits to the historical museum in Burdur, at the site archaeological site of Sagalossos.

    The results of the LTT activity in Turkey were:

    • Certification of competences acquired in mobility through the Europass Certificates and participation certificates
    • 3 PPT presentations
    • 4 projects made in Scratch
    • diversification of teaching and learning methods, extracurricular activities
    • transfer of knowledge and experience
    • developing digital competences and communication in English
    • developing positive attitudes of life
    • developing the skills of orientation in a foreign country
    • developing social and civic competences
    • increasing the prestige of the school and its internationalization.

     

    The dissemination of the results of the mobility activity in Turkey was as follows:

    • publishing an article in the local press in each partner country in the project
    • publishing on-line and local and national television in Turkey, interviews and films to promote the project.
    • publishing the project results on the facebook page of the project, in the eTwinning virtual space and on the project website, made by the Turkish partner
    • organizing the dissemination workshop within the Teaching Council after returning from mobility
    • organizing the dissemination workshop with students in the target group
    • publishing in the on-line environment the documentary film and PPT presentation with the mobility activities, carried out by each team of students from the strategic partnership.

     

    The assessment of the LTT's results in Turkey was made by:

    • Mobility Activity Report
    • Analysis report of students' reflexive journals
    • feedback queries, initial and summative
    • questionnaires to measure the achievement of the project objectives.

    The exploitation of the project results was achieved through the organization of workshops where the students of the target group, together with teachers from the disciplines of the sciences: mathematics and physics, have developed teaching materials on the Scratch platform, materials that will be part of the educational resources database open, thus achieving the three objectives of the project.

    A demonstration lesson on mathematics, with the theme "Solving the equations" at the Dacia Technological High School in Pitesti, Romania, was supported during the normal teaching-learning-evaluation program, in which the math knowledge was applied with applicability in real life, making a project on the Scratch platform.

    In conclusion, all the activities carried out in Turkey's mobility have been carried out according to the agenda drawn up by the Turkish partner, all the objectives set in the approved project have been achieved and tangible and intangible results have been obtained.

     

    Written by the project coordinator,

     

    Prof. Iuliana Ionita