Ευρωπαϊκή πυξίδα
Start date: Jun 1, 2015,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
Kythira High School was founded on early 20th century and has been operating continuously ever since. During the school year (2015-2016), 109 students studied in the High School.
Kythira is an island of less than 3000 residents, with very difficult access, which constitutes a major obstacle in the training of school teachers as they have to deal with the difficult and costly travel required for every educational possibility.
Nonetheless, because the teachers of Kythira High School understand their key role in promoting educational change and the effectiveness of the pedagogical act and despite the above mentioned objective difficulties, they try to participate in trainings and activities that contribute to their personal, academic and professional development.
The educational needs of the school, which were identified in our European Development Plan and covered by its implementation are:
- Upgrading of pedagogical work: skills and competences in new pedagogical and teaching methods in order to meet the learning needs of the 21st century and to help the development of students at multiple levels, with an emphasis on learning to learn (critical thinking, being a citizen)
- School management: skills and competences in school management with an emphasis on total quality management, management of multiculturality, learning difficulties and inspirational leadership and strategy.
- European dimension: skills and competences in European projects management, design of program planning and teaching materials with a European dimension
- Developing partnerships: acquaintance with schools from other countries and development of cooperation within the European context and e-twinning,
Based on the above mentioned needs of our school and taking into account the real data of the school year 2015-2016, we chose three different training programs, which were attended by five teachers from our school.
School development came to a satisfactory extend, through personal and professional development of the teachers who participated in the project, who then were responsible to transfer the skills and abilities to the remaining colleagues and implement innovations that are sustainable and will benefit the school in the long-term.This will continue through the next school year 2016-2017
The trainings and the timetable of implementation are presented below:
March 2016: Structured study visits to Schools/ Institutes & Training Seminar (Malaga, 7 days)
Number of participants: 2
The program included educational lectures in conjunction with organised visits to classrooms, where participants had the opportunity to see up close the educational methods used by the Spanish schools, talk with administrators and teachers in the Spanish educational system and see how their schools respond to the challenges of the 21st century.
April 2016: Education for Tomorrow (Ljubljana, 6 days)
Number of participants: 2
The program covers two key skills for the management of schools: inspirational leadership and strategy. During the training, participants worked on leadership for the future European orientation of the school through lectures and group work.
May 2016: Meta Learning and Thinking Skills (Reykjavik, 5 days)
Number of participants: 3
The program focused on learning to learn skills for deep and effective learning in education and life. It provided different frameworks for thinking, such as the taxonomy of Bloom, structured thinking of De Bono, critical thinking, the growth mindset, philosophy, meta-learning and other frameworks of thought.
The impact of the project was:
At participants level
- Upgrading of skills and competences
- Acquaintance with teachers from abroad and development of joint initiatives
At school level
- Upgrading of the educational provision of the school, by introducing new innovative programs to cultivate students' metacognitive skills.
- Paradigm shift in the management of the school with an emphasis on total quality management and effective sustainable management that addresses the current challenges
- Developing European cooperation through e-twinning platform and implementation of projects in cooperation with schools abroad, with a view to developing partnerships within the Erasmus+ program.
The project also had an impact on the local community, as our High School is the only high school in the island and the main pole of development of the population through the education of the young generation. Through the participation of our school in European partnerships, the local community will be actively involved in cooperation with foreign agencies, opening up new prospects for development, lifelong learning and employment.