Knowledge for all
Start date: Jun 1, 2016,
End date: May 31, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
Bilingual secondary school Lendava is the only bilingual secondary school in Slovenia. Instruction is carried out in two languages: Slovenian and Hungarian. Both languages are used during all classes. In addition to these two languages, the school also offers English and German as foreign languages and in general secondary school also Spanish. Because of our specific status, the school offers a wide selection of programs: general secondary school, secondary technical or professional programs and secondary vocational programs.We have been aiming to upgrade the bilingual model into a multilingual one for some years. This is an important goal, a part of our vision in all programs. For this purpose, we need to develop foreign language competencies of teachers and students not only in a general but also in a professional setting. To make teachers and students more skilled at communicating and teaching professional languages, it is important for teachers to educate themselves, to acquire new vocabulary and exchange knowledge in this respect. Additional education in a foreign language environment would benefit all.Based on past experiences and positive effects of Leonardo Da Vinci project, which was completed last year, we would like to upgrade our practice by including even more students and teachers. We would like to enable students to experience practical work in a foreign country, help them at acquiring key competencies and skills abroad, connect theory with practice, develop their professional and linguistic competencies, multilingualism and social skills, to overcome stereotypes, expand their cultural horizon and with it also better equip them for the job market. The goals of teachers at this mobility are to learn about technological procedures and processes, acquire professional terminology in all languages and develop their multilingual skills as well as preparation of multilingual teaching materials. It is important for all to have at their disposal suitable professional literature and courseware in both languages of instruction and in foreign languages (in two or more languages). There is not a lot of such literature available, so teachers would create it themselves, share it and later also add to it and upgrade it. Our mobility would be a two-year project in Milan and Budapest for 20 students in programs Mechanical/Mechatronics technician, Economic and Chemical technician and for 5 teachers teaching the professional modules, Hungarian language and foreign language in these programs.In the programs Mechanical and Mechatronics technician we would like to develop in the field of robotics. We would like to get an insight into robotics, how robots are made and programmed, so that they can later build a robot or an automated machine.Our Economical technicians would like to be able to cooperate more closely with the local municipality and tourist organizations here. This demands a broader practical knowledge in the field, especially from an international environment. Our challenge is to upgrade an existing local tourist event with new ideas.Our Chemical technicians will be able to grow herbs in school’s ecological garden and extract oils from them. Due to a shortage in equipment at school, especially for instrumental analysis such as spectrophotometry, they cannot perform very important analyses here. This shortage would be overcome during mobility.We expect all students to use and upgrade their knowledge at production stage and project work, in the course of their studies and at workplace, be more self-confident in communication and use professional terminology and thus have more skills at the job market.Teachers will be able to use new methods and vocabulary to enhance the quality of their teaching. It will enable them to follow new developments in specific fields and implement new topics. Teaching materials created will be available to all. The mobility will enable exchange of professional competencies and skills in each profession, which will be useful for the educational institutions and firms and they will be able to use the product or project work as their internal material. The school will use it for further development and promotion. Based on project results we expect better cooperation with local firms and more possibilities for participation of students in form of projects or competitions. Firms will get fresh technological solutions, workers with modern knowledge and new business partnerships for future markets. By participating in Erasmus+ we wish to bring new ideas into our environment and enable a more appealing vocational and technical education and offer new possibilities for employment locally or abroad.In this way we will also be able to make true our initial plan to reach out from the narrowness of our geographical marginality into a wider European space, to be part of European projects and enrich our work, our school and local environment with international experience.