Project CIVICO Fostering Civic Competence Amongst Student No 510496 –LLP – 1 -2010 –IT – COMENIUS - CMP

© Paideia Foundation This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

1

CIVICO: FOSTERING CIVIC COMPETENCE AMONGST STUDENTS

PRESS RELEASE № 4 It is nowadays clear that civic education is basic for democratic cultures and that schools are one of the best channels for development of civic competence among young people. Therefore EU countries make significant efforts to incorporate civic competence development in their schools’ curricula. Тo foster the trend to develop civic competences at school is also the main purpose of the CIVICO project. The members of the consortium managed to produce a Guide on developing civic competence in students aged 14 – 19 based on active didactics.

The Guide contains 42 lesson plans on civic education that have already been piloted in 8 schools in the four countries of the consortium. Thanks to the specially designed questionaires for teachers and students feedback on the didactic materials has been collected from all partners' schools and summarized from the main partners. Having this data at their disposal the CIVICO partners revised and improved the Guide on developing civic competence in students and now it is available to download it for free from the project web site.

The CIVICO consortium offers: The CIVICO partners offer to schools the chance not only to have the Guide at their disposal but also to participate in workshops dedicated to the use of the didactic materials. The Workshops for teachers dedicated to the use of the Guide on civic education will take place in each partnering country in October 2012. You are welcome to contact the partners in your country if you want to participate!

Project CIVICO Fostering Civic Competence Amongst Student No 510496 –LLP – 1 -2010 –IT – COMENIUS - CMP

© Paideia Foundation This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

2

Next to the proposed lesson scenarios the Guide also offers definitions of the terms civic education and civic competence. If you are interested you could also find some information about the context and the manner of teaching civic competence in the four countries partnering in the CIVICO project – Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Poland. So far, the Guide is available in English but partners are doing the translations now and within a month it will also be available in nine more European languages (BG, DE, DK, ES, FR, IT, PL, PT, SE). If you are interested in the Guide on civic education addressed, please, visit our web site. You will also find some instruction on how to use it. For any further questions do not hesitate to write to one of the partners. The project web site www.civicoproject.eu has also been improved in the last months and it is now available in 10 European languages altogether. Two important sections have been developed and improved thanks to the main project partners. These sections are the FAQ section and the Virtual resource centre. The content in these two sections is available in 5 languages (BG, DK, EN, IT, PL). The FAQ section threats mainly the Guide and its use. The VRC offers its visitors useful links to on-line publications dedicated to civic education itself but also projects, organizations and publications dealing with it.

Upcoming project events: The last CIVICO project meeting is going to take place in November 2012. Partners are going to discuss the last phase of their common work and the post project exploitation plan. They will have to decide which are the most effective possible ways to reach as much audience as possible to use their products. The project and its outcomes will be promoted at National conferences in December 2012. These will be organized by the main partners in their countries. Please, check our web site for further information.

Visit the project website www.civicoproject.eu for more information and contacts.