European Programs: A Driving Force in Curriculum Reform

1. European Programs:A driving force in the Reformation of the Curriculum Mobility Programs Menie Kourou Eleni Ioannidou

2. Introduction • School units involved in European Programs, were seeking to achieve objectives of the Curriculum such as: • Balanced development of students’ body, soul and mental power • Understanding of the value of teamwork and inspiring co-operation • Development of practical skills, exploratory thinking and creative fantasy • Achievement of learning objectives of the Curriculum • Improvement of the quality of education and schools • Extending students’ and teachers’ horizon through interacting with various schools in Greece and Europe • Implementation of European dimension in education - basic priority of the education policies in the European Union.

3. Mobility Programs • Framework of the Operational Program for Education and Initial Vocational Training of the Second Community Support Framework (1996 – 2000) • Students exchanges, short-term in-service training for teachers, and co-operation programs between schools • Modernization of the educational system and its synchronization with those in more developed member-states • Overthrow, in practice by day-to-day work, the widely accepted and dominating notion on student - teacher relationship

4. Professional Development via Mobility Programs • Quality school-based teacher professional training anddevelopment • Teachers achieved own professional upgrading • Personal commitment • Acted as mentors • Collaborated with one another in curricular and instructional development • Evaluated themselves and fellow teachers within the co-operation framework • Evaluated final products

5. Teaching Methods RESEARCH • interviews • observation • diary • project material gathering • field research • material evaluation • statistical analysis and processing • bibliography use

6. Teaching Methods ICT • computer use • internet use • videotaping • photographing • taping • video-projecting • slides-projecting

7. Teaching Methods EDUCATIONAL VISITS • museum visits • factory visit • visits to community facilities • environmental center visits • scientific places visits

8. Teaching Methods MOBILITY SCHOOL SOCIETY CO-OPERATION • common activities • students exchanges • seminars • school visits • cooperation with organizations • partners cooperation

9. Teaching Methods OTHER • team working • project presenting • lab-exercise • project • practical exercise • program assessment • book-leaflet printing

10. Teaching Methods

11. Teaching Methods used are not always recognized as such resulting to limited appreciation of the teacher’s own achievements in the framework of continuous training

12. Anticipated Gain

13. Anticipated Gain • Teachers: Opportunity to gain an understanding of the theory underlying the knowledge and skills being learned • Schools:Use of sources external to the school to provide necessary resources and new perspectives • Educational System: Association to a comprehensive change process focused on improving student learning

14. Internal Evaluation • Acknowledged practices of evaluation of the process were mainly spontaneous and limit future exploitation. Discussions amongst teachers and between teachers and students were a prominent favored way of evaluation.

15. Internal Evaluation

16. External Evaluation Pedagogical Institute has evaluated all Multilateral School Partnership Programs on grounds of: • Flexibility: i.e. inherent ability of the product to be modified or reformed by the user • Potentials for incorporating final product into the Curriculum • Ways of dissemination of the program’s results

17. Accumulative ranking based on the three aforementioned components

18. Ways of dissemination Dissemination is accomplished by • Incorporating the final products -through adaptation to suit the needs of different schools- in the educational system. • Introducing, illustrating, indoctrinating the program’s core beliefs and values. • Directly and indirectly cultivate a new «philosophy» i.e. beliefs about teaching and learning held by participating teachers, which, in turn, plays a crucial part in the teachers’ Professional Development.

19. Ways of dissemination

20. Traditional Team Games • fifteen schools and educational organizations research traditional team games in Greece • present children’s team games enjoyed for at least three generations • innovative educational activities plus curriculum orientation (History, Physical Education, Music and Language)

21. Traditional Team Games Flexibility:High Final Product:Publication Potential Usage:Good Dissemination:Fair Quality: Good Self evaluation: on 5 elements Dissemination: includes 5 ways

22. «Ulysses»: Physics Experiments at school • Oriented to a Curriculum subject (Sciences) • Five schools and institution co-operated to create new teaching tools for Science Lab. • Seminars for students and teachers • Know-how Exchange

23. «Ulysses»: Physics Experiments at school Flexibility:High Final Product:Publication-CD-Videotape Potential Usage:Good Dissemination:High Quality: Very Good Self evaluation: on 3 elements Dissemination: includes 4 ways

24. Educational Tour Guide • orientated towards developing a teaching method • 27 schools co-operated • compiled their educational visits’ experiences mainly in the area of Attica • created a functional tool for any school that wished to visit the presented spots

25. Educational Tour Guide Flexibility:High Final Product:Publication Potential Usage:Good Dissemination:Fair Quality: Good Self evaluation: on 3 elements Dissemination: includes 1 way

26. Conclusions • Practices and methodologies of E.P.s can be used at school and contribute decisively to make the schools more “effective” working environments • Today, it is partially attainable to instill teachers who have not been involved in E.Ps and thus provide them with in-service training and continuous professional development • An assessment framework for E.Ps is required in order to promote a modus operandi, for teachers’ professional development which will consequently enable them to participate in the reformation of the curriculum in the near future • Professional development should focus on what students are to learn ( = curriculum) and how to address the different problems students may have in learning the material

27. The future • Attempts to improve student learning should be • based on analyses of the differences between • (a) actual student performance and • (b) goals and standards for student learning • involve teachers in the identification of what they need to learn and in the development of the learning experiences in which they will be involved • primarily school-based and built into the day-to-day work of teaching • continuous and ongoing, involving follow-up and support for further learning • incorporate evaluation of multiple sources of information