EUROPEAN CLASSES PROJECT: A CO-EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO CURRICULUM

INNOVATION

CONFERENCE PROMOTING INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY :

Schools’ Response to the Challenges of Future Societies

Katja Pavlič Škerjanc, Brdo 8 -10 April 2008

EUROPEAN CLASSES PROJECT

• pilot project in upper-secondary general education (gimnazija: 4-year program, students aged 15-19):

– set up to supplement the program with new program elements and innovative approaches to teaching and learning,

– designed by the National Education Institute of Slovenia,– approved by the National Council of Experts for General

Education,– launched in 2004/05 by the Minister of Education and

Sport (to be evaluated in 2008/09), – implemented in 16 schools (out of eligible 54).

Purpose and aims of ECP

• to meet both deficiency and growth needs:– personalise the curriculum: increase its openness, ie.

scope and number of options for schools and individual students (core – elective – optional → modular structure);

– make the curriculum more authentic for the students: provide meaningful contexts – bring the real world into the classroom (and vice versa);

– integrate the curriculum: increase its flexibility to overcome fragmentation of knowledge (set up curricular connections, eg. tranversal competences as cross-curricular goals);

• to provide convincing proofs of concepts and ideas and, finally, a fully functioning prototype

KEY CONCEPTSAUTHENTICITY OF

LEARNING• goals• content• activities• assessment• environment

• European and global dimension • intercultural communication:

crosscultural (intra- in inter-cultural) encounters and cooperation

• integrative curriculum: multidisciplinarity- interdisciplinarity - transdisciplinarity

• collaborative teaching (many forms, including team work and pair teaching)

• inquiry-based learning and project approach to teaching and learning

• diverse learning tools (ICT and others)

• information/digital/media literacy)

Gimnazija program adaptation E UROPEAN CLASSES

Co-evolutionary approach to curriculum innovation

• Pilot projects are designed and implemented with three complementary goals in mind:

– by aiming to improve the curricula as well as the teaching and learning process they address students,

– at the same time motivating and supporting teachers in their continuous professional development and capacity building

– and providing project managers (national education

authorities and reasearch & development agencies) with pragmatic knowledge and skills of the teachers and headteachers (ie. aligning beliefs about the potential for effective action with the lessons of past and present experience).

Different roles of teachers in ECP

Teachers participating in the project are expected to assume different roles:

• teachers,• change agents, • course designers, • materials providers, • researchers,• evaluators.

• Teachers as reflective practitioners

• Schools as learning organisations

PTJesenice

PTBrežice

PTKoper

PTNova

Gorica

PT Kočevje

PTLj

Poljane

PT Ljutomer

PTLj

Bežigrad

PT Kamnik

PTMb

I. gimn.

PTPtuj

PT Slovenj Gradec

PT Celje

PTMb

II. gimn.

English WG

Slovene language WG

Intercultural Education WG

European Studies WG

German language WG

French WGProject Team

coordinators

National Education Institute PROJECT TEAM

Project ManagerCore & Extended PG

PROJECT STRUCTURE

Working Groups (WG)

School Project Teams

◄ external collaborator

s(teachers from

participating schools)

Gimnazija program adaptation E UROPEAN CLASSES

Project structure and communication

• close links and interdependence between the NEI project team and participating schools/project partners;

• communication at and between all levels is constant and intense, both direct and indirect (via e-mail), aiming to secure not only an uninterrupted information flow on the progress of the project, but also ongoing exchanges - as well as evaluation - of project products (lesson plans, teaching materials, etc.) and examples of practice of all kinds considered illustrative and supportive: – best (tried and tested out several times by more teachers), – good (tried at least twice by one teacher) and – promising (still in the planning phase).

EUROPEAN CLASSES PROJECT

• The overarching goal is the search for new organisational solutions and innovative implementation approaches at all levels,

– from the structure of the program, – the placement and role of both subject areas as

well as individual subjects within the program – to the lay-out of subject syllabi, which in the case of the

new electives faithfully follows a competence-based approach and differentiated levels of autonomy, as well as

– the learning and teaching approaches and methods.

Subject modulesModular aproach:

• openness and flexibility

1. core2. elective3. optional

• increasing level of teacher autonomy– increasing level of

flexibility

Innovations on the level of SUBJECTS can be observed in:

• a changed identity of the elective subjects, which are transdisciplinary in nature and based on discovery learning, requiring active methods of instruction, primarily the task-based, project-based and inquiry-based approach; – European studies, e.g., are such a subject, in the context of

which students gain knowledge anddevelop skills to critically evaluate European integration processes, human and civil rights issues, the role and the activities of European institutions, as well as other relevant social and cultural issues in Europe and the nature of European inclusion into world currents;

• the differentiation of the learning goals of foreign languages by means of and within different subject modules (refer to the next chapter):

• the emphasised role of mother tongue (refer to the next chapter).

Le sole risposte utili sono quelle che propongono nuove

domande. Vittorio Foa

The only useful answers are those

that pose new questions.

EUROPEAN CLASSES PROJECTINTRODUCING CHANGES

IMPORTANT CHANGES INTRODUCED INTO

– goals of the gimnazija curriculum– structure of the curriculum– subjects (structure, aims & objectives)

– didactics

INTRODUCING CHANGES

INTO CURRICULUM GOALS

European and global dimension

from Slovenia’s point of view

intercultural education / communication

by involving native speakers and/or

teachers from other countries/cultures

synthetic thinking - holistic knowledge

through integrated curriculum

INTRODUCING CHANGES

INTO CURRICULUM STRUCTURE

integrated curriculum changed role of the flexible (elective) part

integration of elective subjects

- linking their aims and objectives content instruction

INTRODUCING CHANGES

INTO SUBJECTS

new electives - ECP specific

multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach integrating traditionally separate disciplines into new

subjects

upgrading the taxonomy of FLL goals CBLL content-based language learning FLAC foreign language across the curriculum

INTRODUCING CHANGES

NEW ELECTIVES (ECP specific)

Foreign Language in Focus: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish.Russian

FL: Slovenia in the World FL: Culture and Civilization

Slovene Social Roles of Slovene Slovene Literature in Translations

European Studies citizenship & human rights education, environmental

issues etc.

INTRODUCING CHANGES

INTO THE DIDACTICS

• collaborative teaching• authentic learning & assessment

• active learning• inquiry-based learning• problem-based learning• collaborative learning• project approach