Time Banking 2.0
Start date: Sep 1, 2015,
End date: Aug 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
INS La Miquela, a state secondary school in Spain, and SintLucas, a pre-vocational school in the Netherlands have decided to formalise a Strategic Partnership into the shape of a two-year Erasmus+ project called Time Banking 2.0. The need for such a project raises from three facts: first, to find a way for fighting against social exclusion and preventing early school leaving as part of their School Educative Project; second, a way for recognizing and validating volunteering at local and European level and third, a way for learning beyond school and countries borders and from other European peers.
The rationale behind Time Banking 2.0 project is exploiting the benefits from peer-to-peer learning methodology, a type of collaborative learning that involves students from a similar age group, background, culture and/or social status working in pairs or small groups in order to share basic and transversal knowledge. The prime behind that type of collaborative learning is that everyone can provide a peer with some worthy knowledge and learn something meaningful from another peer regardless of the intelligence, popularity, personality, social status, origin, and so on.
This project seeks for the following aims: to integrate and assimilate basic and transversal contents, to promote ITC and languages competences, to increase pupils’ initiative, autonomy , entrepreneurship, motivation and self-confidence, to strengthen the feeling to belong to a group, to enhance positive social interactions in meaningful situations, to facilitate interpersonal relationships, to fight against social exclusion and early school leaving, to foster equity, intergenerational and intercultural cooperation and to promote active participation in society.
Time Banking 2.0 is addressed at 360 pupils aged 12-14. Such number of students from both participating schools will get directly and indirectly involved in the project activities.
Both schools will work cooperatively and collaboratively in order to set up the Time Banking Association and all the tools necessary. To do that, some tasks will be carried out by both schools and a kind of competition will be established to elect one and some tasks will be distributed in order to strengthen the transnational cooperation of the project.
Being an innovative learning mode, the first ability/knowledge exchanges will take place in mentor lessons in both schools so that students could get used to the philosophy and mechanism of peer learning; however, this collaborative methodology will be extended to the rest of school community, parents and external stakeholders in the second year of the project.
Furthermore, four short-term mobilities, involving 100 students, and two long- term mobilities, involving 4 pupils, are scheduled along the two years to broaden the skills transaction, give a European Dimension to the project and raise motivation. Finally, two three-day seminars will be held in each school to exchange knowledge on ICT- knowledge and examples of good practices, and improve teachers’ digital competences
At the end of the project, these are the following expected results: a running School Time Banking Association completely organized; a multilingual website (Catalan, Spanish, English and Dutch) to provide information and examples of good practices, with self-enrolment, members' account, a rich section of tutorials and a large offer of workshops; more active participation and involvement in students' learning process and society; an improvement in students' academic results; a raise of motivation and awareness in the learning process; eradication of social exclusion and decreasing of early school leaving; contribution to community cohesion, cooperation and contribution; improvement in intergenerational and intercultural relationships; an internationalisation of the school and more ICT-skilful teachers from both schools.
Taking part in the Time Banking 2.0 will lead pupils to gain awareness of their own knowledge, to foster entrepreneurship and initiative by gaining ICT knowledge , having an improvement in their English level and their academic results as a final goal. Moreover, they will learn to work in equity and intergenerational, intercultural and transnational cooperation . Furthermore, working side by side in a common project will lead to a greater personal development of all the staff involved and will push them to share good practices, learn from each other and enrich themselves beyond the borders of their own country. Finally, the involvement of local stakeholders will strengthen the ties to the local community and its needs.
The project is based on the idea that goes beyond the project period. It plans to achieve a multiplier effect and sustainable impact as its results will be integrated in the pedagogical framework of both schools. Hence, the project website is planned to last after the project ends.