Lifelong Learning Trails In Alternative Environments

1. Project to the GrundtvigProgramme Lifelong Learning Trails In Alternative Environments • School Centre for Scientific Researches and Experiments • to the Maths&Science School “Nancho Popovch", • Shumen,Bulgaria

2. ProgrammeGrundtvig • The non-profit organization “School Centre for Scientific Researches and Experiments to the Maths&Science School “NanchoPopovch“ – Shumen” participates in the Programme "Grundtvig“, a part of "Lifelong Learning Programme“ /Lifelong Learning Programme-LLP / of the European Commission. The title of the project is: • “Lifelong learning pathwaysin alternative environments”. • The program "Grundtvig" is open to all adults / over 16 age/ wanting to develop their skills and qualifications. It offers participation in European educational projects through individual and group mobility. • The purpose of this program is to meet the challenges of an aging population in Europe to education and to provide adult learners possibilities to enhance their knowledge and competencies.

3. Coordinator and partners of the project • Coordinator: • “ASOPRIN” –  Innovative Teachers Association of Valencian Community /de Profesores Innovadores de la Comunidad Valenciana / • Partners: 1. School Centre for Scientific Researches and Experiments to the Maths&Science School “NanchoPopovch“ – Shumen”. 2. Innovation Institute Foundation – Warsaw, Poland. 3. Tarsus ŞoförlerveOtomobilcilerOdası , a room connected to Turkey Federation of Drivers - Tarsus, Turkey.

4. Project Summary • The project concentrates on the study and enhancement of the "learning trail” technique as one of the best methods for raising the level of knowledge, skills and competences among the adult population simultaneously strengthening social inclusion (Lisbon strategy of the EU). • Members from each organization will be trained in this technique, so that it can be implemented and adapted to the needs of different target groups. • We understand “trail” as itinerary, a sequence of actions arranged in a particular order. • Type of trail: cultural, educational (Maths, Environment, Culture)... • Tools used: computer, audio guide, drama, arts. • Resources: games, stories,.... • Materials: maps, photos.

5. Aims of the project • To design thematic trails not only related with curriculum areas such as Biology, Mathematics or History, but, mainly, related to aspects of our European identity in the social sphere, culture, religion, traditions, etc.., appraising both what we have in common and what makes us different, and thus contribute to improve our European awareness. • "Learning pathways aids learners to access information and tools by which they can construct personalized transitions between the information to be accessed and their own cognitive structures. Learning pathways also reveal the learning trails while learners may interact with the environment. Since learners have unique knowledge structures based upon their experiences and abilities, the ways that they choose to access, interact, and interrelate messages in interactive courseware also vary. Studies on pathways help us to explore and explain human behaviour during learning processes" (Jih 1996).

6. Aims of the project • To increase the self-motivation and self-confidence of learners through innovative pedagogical methodologies and raise learners´ awareness of the European community. • To raise the level of knowledge, skills and competences among our target groups while strengthening social inclusion • To develop the skills of tutors to deliver training in “learning trails, by exchanging ideas about learning and teaching techniques

7. Basic terms used in the project • Learning pathway. • Components of the educational triad: • Formal learning; • Informal learning / self-learning /; • Informal learning. • Adult educators/ trainers.

8. What is the learning pathway? • Learning pathway is a way to manage your personal training, skills development and life experience through education and training, both in the community and personal life. • There are many paths of learning as an approach to the occupation of certain jobs and positions and each one is unique. • During your career development the choice that you make between different jobs, courses, roles and positions which you occupy in your professional environment guide you in your learning paths. • In determining your choice you are interested in:       - The type of available training opportunities;        - Where will the training;       - How to connect different types of training.

9. What is the learning pathway? • The concept learning path or trail training almost always involves the expansion of educational opportunities for students beyond the traditional training. • It is most often used in the training of students in the upper level, which takes place outside the school and classroom, and includes participation in projects, internships, online courses, travel and more. • Although many schools create and include alternative learning opportunities for education the traditional subjects and programs are the base of the fundamental educational experience of students.

10. What is the learning pathway?Society becomes a classroom • More than a century believed that the traditional classroom is the only place where students learn. But a classroom with a blackboard is not the best environment for studying marine life, history, business and other sciences such as when the sea, museums, archaeological sites or companies if they are on the street. • When the school embrace the idea that learning can happen outside the classroom walls, the whole society becomes the classroom.

11. What is the learning pathway? Learning can be done at any time and any place • Why learning should be restricted to certain hours spent by students in class every week? • New online training programs, for example, allow students to catch up and deal with difficult lessons to earn academic credits in some educational systems, using weekends and holidays. • School structure and school programs are not the only option for learning.

12. What is learning? Formal Learning • Learning is purposeful and orderly process for acquiring social experience in its generalized and systematized form, retains its essential feature leading to progressive and relatively permanent changes. • Formal learning is learning that takes place in an organized and structured environment that is specifically designed for learning, and usually leads to the award of qualifications, in most cases in the form of a certificate or diploma; it includes systems for general education, initial vocational training and higher education.

13. What is learning? Non-formal Learning • Non-formal learning is learning that takes place through planned activities (in terms of learning objectives and teaching time) in the presence of some form of support for the learning process (eg the relationship between learner and trainer); • It may include: • - programs to acquire professional skills, adult literacy and basic education for early school leavers; informal learning often takes the form of in-house training to update and improve the skills of workers (eg ICT skillsI); - structured online training (eg through the use of educational resources with free access) and courses organized by civil society organizations for their members, their target groups or for the general public. ;

14. What is learning? • If you remember what you learned in the past year while working, raising children, working in the garden, working on the computer or mobile phone, you will probably find that you have learned many things without having to go to school or attend a seminar. •  Experts estimate that we get 70% of our knowledge and skills outside educational institutions, while we are with our family, shopping, conversation with neighbors, surfing the internet, contacting colleague or elsewhere. • Often we do not even notice it, which means that it just happens more or less on the move. This type of learning is typically summarized as informal learning.

15. What is learning?Informal Learning Informal learningmeans learning that is a result from daily activities related to work, family or leisure. It is not organized or structured in terms of objectives, teaching time or support of the learning process. • Informal learning may be unintentionally from the point of view of the learner; example of the results of the self / informal learning are the skills acquired through life and work experience, skills for project management and ICT skills acquired at work, mastery of languages ​​and intercultural skills acquired during a stay in another country, skills in ICT acquired outside the workplace, skills acquired by volunteering, of cultural and sporting activities for youth work and activities at home (eg, child care).

16. Informal Learning • Reasonable assumption the that most of our learning takes place away from formal education institutions reveals previously undiscovered places and situations in which to learn.For example:• In the supermarket;• Work place;• In a service car repair;• In front of the doctor's office;• When visiting a state body or institution;• On the market;• In the museum or library;• Bus stops;• Airports and stations.The idea is to identify areas of potential learning situations in everyday life andthey to be used in a targeted way, or to create learning situations in these places andactively develop.Moreover, learning can occur spontaneously by the practical situation. Thenit is usually associated with fun and joy of learning.

17. Informal Learning • The methods of problem solving and how to obtain the information must be consciously developed in such a way that the training opportunities related to them are as possible bigger. In practice this means that the skills acquired (knowledge, skills, experience) for individual life situations remain and can be used by the person to solve other problems or to find answers to other questions, in other words, the total acquired skills can be applied to other situations. • It is important to provide opportunities for on-site training directly. This could be, for example, in the form of informational materials, events, information and informal meetings with other people, conducting experiments and measurements outdoors. • In any case, the issues and needs of learners should serve as a starting point.

18. Informal learning • Informal education / learning is a system term of the "educational triad"- formal, non-formal and informal education in line with the European terminology. The importance of informal learning is in its widest prevalence - the throughout your life anywhere, anytime. It is your unique life experience. • Valuable is the knowledge, skills and competences that are acquired through informal learning (for example, through the exercise of your hobbies, leisure activities, the additional skills of your work place and everything you do in your daily life) will be recognized by European validation procedure. This will help you to get a new educational or professional qualifications to take a higher position to receive attractive salary. • http://iii-bg.org/blog/?page_id=432

19. What is the learning pathway? Summary • The learning pathway is the learning experience of each individual. It consists of training core and choice of options / variants /which learner chooses with information support and guidance. • The students select with support and guidance, options that suit their interests, abilities and learning styles, and which will provide opportunities to realize their potential. • The learning pathway can be used in the classroom or other learning environments to provide a structured sequence of activities and relevant content. • They can also be used in forums and learning paths to be available to the general public.

20. What is a learning pathway? • The learning pathway provides a structured sequence of activities and content, expressed as: • Practice + Guidance / Coaching / + Experience = Learning Pathway • Structure + Communication = Motivation

21. Adult Educators/Trainers - role/ function The trainersshould be aware of his role and his functioning as a trainer of adults, not only as a teacher;• his motivation should be associated with supporting and facilitating the learning process;• to create and handle learning situations;• to understand the educational needs of learners for example customers and visitors in relevant institutions;• to possess the technical and practical skills for organizing training and creating learning situations;The focusing on the learning process to be:- on learners and how they learn. Now the question of formal, non-formal and informal learning is more connected with:• whether learners begin learning with a clear purpose or is it random?• whether the learner understands that he is at the center of the learning process?The diversity of learning now is summed up in the term "education throughoutthe breadth of life ". • In conclusion:Give impulses, "provide learning situations" that go beyond school hours. 

22. Trainers to the project • 1. Prof. Ivo Mihaylov /Lecture at the Shumen University/ – Conic Sections in Architecture. • 2. PepaSmyadovska / School Centre for Scientific Researches and Experiments to the Maths&Science School /- The Horses of the Kabiuk Stud, Games in English Language of Adults. • 3. AnetaMarinova / Foreign Language School/ – Starry Sky in August. • 4. Violeta Petrova / Maths&Science School/ - Health is Our Wealth. • 5. Maria Yordanova / Maths&Science School/ – Survival in Extreme Situations. • 6. Gergana Nikolova, Nadezhdatsocheva, VioletaPetrova/ Maths&Science School/ – Learning pathway in literature - In the Steps of the Heroes of the Bulgarian Novelist Emilian Stanev". • 7. Ivaylo Sakelariev / Student at the Shumen University/ – Digital Technologies in Everyday Life. • 8. Hubanka Hubanova / Maths&Science School/-Historical Path in English Teaching –Discover Shumen. • 9. Rumyana Nedeva / Maths&Science School/ - Learning pathway in mathematics- What we know about Pi and the Method of Archimedes. • 10. Irena Petrova / Maths&Science School/- Project Team Wor.k • 11. Silvina Simeonova / School Centre for Scientific Researches and Experiments to the Maths&Science Schol/ – Learning pathway in science for the National Historical and Archaeological Reserve “Madara.

23. Used sources • http://www.projecteasy.eu/content/e1811/EASY_Handbook_BG.pdf • http://www.president.bg/pdf/NDP-Strategy-20120227.pdf • http://www.learnit-ict.eu/files/LearnIT-Newsletter-July2009_BG.pdf • Jih, H. J. (1996). "The impact of learners pathways on learning performance in multimedia Computer Aided Learning". Journal of Network and Computer Applications 19 (4). • http://iii-bg.org/blog/?page_id=432 • http://www.icvl.eu/2011/disc/icvl/documente/pdf/met/ICVL_ModelsAndMethodologies_paper19.pdf • http://www.policonomics.com/what-is-a-learning-path/ • http://www.joomlalms.com/lms-help/teacher-documentation/learning-paths.html • http://www.joomlalms.com/lms-help/teacher-documentation/learning-paths.html • http://www.ilpathways.com/Pages/Stem_Manufacturing.aspx • Done by • Silvina Simeonova - School Centre for Scientific Researches and Experiments to the Maths&Science School, Shumen, Bulgaria