Inovative Ways for Motivating Adults for Learning_guidebook

8/4/2019 Inovative Ways for Motivating Adults for Learning_guidebook

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BASIC SKILLS

FOR GROUP

DISCUSSIONS

STEPPING IN

THE PICTURE

Editors:Ariana-Stanca Vacareu

Maria Kovacs

Authors:

Franjo Steiner

Irmgard Demirol and Franjo SteinerPetra Beck and Margit KreikenbomAlessandro Melillo and Marie MarzloffMaria Kovacs

Simona-Elena BernatInguna Irbite and Sandra KalninaDaiva Penkauskien

Azucena Martnez AsenjoAlica Petrasova and Marcela Maslova

INNOVATIVE WAYSFOR MOTIVATING ADULTS

FOR LEARNING

BIOGRAPHIC

WORK:

COMMUNITY

MAPPING

READING WITH

PREDICTION

FILM AS A TOOL

OF MOTIVATION

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT

IN OSH

COSTS AND BENEFITS

ASSOCIATIVEPICTURECARDS

ONLINE CAFIN LANGUAGE LEARNING


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This publication has been developed in the framework of the project(502374-LLP-1-2009-1-RO-GRUNDTVIG-GMP)

Create-Motivate-Learn

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot beheld responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Silent partner:

Project coordinator:

Partners:

www.iz.or.at

www.ifi.com.eswww.iberika.de

www.cesie.it www.iac.edu.lv

Reading and Writing for Critical ThinkingInternational Consortium, Romania

www.rwctic.org

Interkulturelles Zentrum,Austria

ThringerVolkshochschulverband e.V.,Germany

www.vhs-th.de

Iberika,Germany

Instituto de Formacion Integral S.L.U.,Spain

Centro Studi etInitiative Europeo,Italy

Education Development Center,Latvia

Modern Didactics Center,Lithuania

www.sdcentras.lt

Orava Associationfor Democratic Education,Slovakia

www.zdruzenieorava.sk

ARIADNE Hess, Switzerland


FOR LEARNING


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FOR LEARNING

Editors:Ariana-Stanca Vacareu

Authors:

Franjo Steiner

Irmgard Demirol and Franjo Steiner

Petra Beck and Margit KreikenbomAlessandro Melillo and Marie MarzloffMaria KovacsSimona-Elena BernatInguna Irbite and Sandra KalninaDaiva Penkauskien

Azucena Martnez AsenjoAlica Petrasova and Marcela Maslova

Maria Kovacs

Production & Design:AMM Design

Publisher:Consoriul Internaional Lectura i Scrierea pentru Dezvoltarea Gndirii Critice6/22 Luceafarului St.400343 Cluj-NapocaRomaniawww.rwctic.org

@ 2011 Create-Motivate-Learn Partnership

ISBN: 978-973-8973-34-3


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Content

I. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................51. The Create-Motivate-Learn project ............................................................................................5

1.1 Background and objectives o the CreMoLe project ..................................................51.2 Project work and outcomes ............................................................................................7

2. Create Motivate Learn Project Consortium .........................................................................93. The Guidebook Innovative Ways or Motivating Adults or Learning ..............................11

3.1. Why develop a Guidebook? .......................................................................................113.2. Target group o the Guidebook ..................................................................................123.3. How to use the guidebook ..........................................................................................123.4. Development o this Guidebook ................................................................................13

4. Innovative strategies ..................................................................................................................144.1. What motivates adults to learn?..................................................................................144.2. What do we mean by innovative strategies? ..........................................................14

II. Innovative strategies developed by the project partners ...............................................................165. Developed Innovative strategies .............................................................................................16

5.1. Overview ........................................................................................................................165.2. Biographic work: Associative picture cards (Austria) ...............................................175.3. Online ca in language learning (Germany) ...........................................................235.4. Community mapping (Italy) .........................................................................................285.5. Stepping in the picture (Latvia) ...................................................................................335.6. Reading with prediction (Lithuania) ...........................................................................385.7. Basic skills or group discussions (Romania) .............................................................445.8. Benets and costs (Romania) ......................................................................................505.9. Film as a Tool o Motivation (Slovakia) .......................................................................555.10. Active engagement in learning

Occupational Saety and Health (OHS) (Spain) ......................................................61

6. Annexes.......................................................................................................................................66Annex 1 Text or the Reading with Prediction strategy ..............................................66Annex 2 - Checklist or the Basic skills or group discussions strategy ......................67Annex 3 Feedback orm or the Basic skills or group discussions strategy ...........68Annex 4 Name tag or the Active engagement in learningOccupational Saety and Health (OHS) strategy ............................................................69Annex 5 Dilemma or the Active engagement in learningOccupational Saety and Health (OHS) strategy ............................................................70Annex 6 - Risks / Accidents / Measures or the Active engagement in learningOccupational Saety and Health (OHS) strategy ............................................................71Annex 7 Name tag 2 and dilemma 2 or the Active engagement in learningOccupational Saety and Health (OSH) strategy ............................................................72Annex 8: Outline o the curriculum or the Biographic work strategy .......................74Annex 9 - Piloting and cross-piloting the Online ca in language learningstrategy ..................................................................................................................................76Annex 10 - Screenshot o online ca used within the intensive Spanish course(piloting phase) ....................................................................................................................77Annex 11 - Screenshot o online ca used within the evening course English(cross piloting phase) ..........................................................................................................78

III. Reerences ...........................................................................................................................................79Feedback sheet ........................................................................................................................................81


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I. Introduction

In the last decade, a number o changes have occurred in adult education. Adult learning has be-come one o the important components o lielong learning. The 2006 European Communicationon Adult learning It is never too lateto learn emphasises the key role o

adult learning in developing citizen-ship and competences. The generalobjective o the Action plan on adultlearning It is always a good time tolearn (2007) is the implementation othe ve key messages in the commu-nication It is never too late to learn: (1)to remove barriers to participation; (2)to increase the quality and eciencyo the adult education; (3) to speed upthe process o assessment o skills and

competences and their validation andrecognition; (4) to ensure sucient in-vestment; and (5) to eciently moni-tor the adult education sector.One o the key elements in the imple-mentation o the Action plan on adultlearning is the proessional development o adult educators, trainers, teachers, as they are theleading agents o change. This guidebook will support adult educators in their eorts o remov-ing barriers to participation and o increasing the quality o adult education by better motivatingadults or learning.

1. The Create-Motivate-Learn project

1.1 Background and objectives o the CreMoLe project

In the 21st century, individuals should be able to cope with constant changes. Our rapidly chang-ing world causes a large share o its population to be orced into new and challenging workingenvironments, which call or new skills and attitudes. In many European countries, teaching hasbeen geared towards preparing individuals to become lielong learners by helping them devel-

op learning skills as early as in primaryschool. Some EU member states edu-cational systems are more advancedin implementing an engaging style oteaching and in supporting the devel-opment o learning skills, includingin the case o adult education, whileother systems lag ar behind. The im-plementers o the Create Motivate Learn (CreMoLe) project, a wide part-nership o ten Eastern, Central andWestern European adult education or-ganizations, initiated the project withthe aim to identiy key actors relatedto motivating participation and per-sistence in lielong learning processeso a wide range o adult learners.


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During the projects lietime we worked to accomplish its six objectives:To improve teaching competences or adult-teachers/ tutors

We invited the partner organizations adult educators to put their creativity to work to make a con-tribution to the improvement o teaching competences o the sta o adult education providerinstitutions and organizations, to impact both the content and the delivery mode o adult educa-tion in order to better motivate their adult learners.

To improve the content and delivery o adult

educationWithin the project, we have developed and arepromoting innovative strategies or in-servicetraining o adult educators with a view to enhanc-ing adult learners motivation and active engage-ment in lielong learning.

To provide adult educators with a set o crea-tive and critical thinking strategies to use inadult learning contexts

To do so, wepromote creativity by creating inno-

vative learning strategies. Within the project, wehave developed, tested and shared a set o inno-vative strategies to increase adults intrinsic moti-vation or learning, ensure proound learning andtranser o new acquisitions by means o develop-ing metacognitive skills.

To improve the accessibility o learning opportunities or adultsOur goal is to develop and disseminate strategies to stimulate demand or learning among adultsreluctant to engage in lielong learning.

To enhance the adults motivation or lielong learningWe envisage that as a result o our project, learning will be more attractive and accessible or all

adults, and thereore they will eel more inclined to seek out learning opportunities, and realizethat lielong learning is not only a must i one wants to be a productive and active citizen, but alsoan enjoyable experience.

To provide trainers/ tutors the opportunity to share experiences and practices rom the par-ticipating countries and to work together with European colleagues or improving adult par-ticipation in lielong learning

More specically, we have acilitated the sharing o experiences and practices o adult educatorsand learners rom eight EU member states and Switzerland. The innovative practices will be madewidely known to European networks o adult educators.


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1.2 Project work and outcomes

The main stages o the CreMoLe project implementation as well as the major deliverables o theproject are shown below.

Figure 1: CreMoLe Project implementation plan

What is it that makes some adults want to learn and engage with groups that come together withthe clear purpose o learning? And what is it that makes some others steer clear o anything thatmay even distantly resemble a learning environment? These were the big questions we attemptedto nd answers to by setting up and carrying out a survey in all project countries.We looked at the current state o adult education in the partner organizations countries by re-searching existing documents revealing both policies and practices. To narrow down our ocus,we then investigated training programmes that were recommended to us as good practices.While doing so, we wanted to see things rom a double perspective: that o the trainer, and thato the learner.In the survey to identiy good practices in motivating adults or participation and persistence inlielong learning, our partnership contacted a total number o 25 adult education centres; one

national level Adult Educators Association, and a university. In the same survey, 41 trainers and85 adult learners were interviewed.


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All the training practices collected have been assessed inside the proponent organisation and atotal o 20 good practices were subjected to peer evaluation in order to be eligible or publicationin the Motivating Adult Learners Participation and Persistence in Lielong Learning Processes - Col-lection o best practices (2010).

The survey methodology as well as the description o the 20 good practices preliminarily identi-

ed have been published in the Survey report Best Practices o Training Methodologies andLearning Techniques in Adult Education (2010).

All the selected training practices share an inno-vative approach to teaching adults, or else theywould not have been included in this selection.Characteristics such as innovation, transerabil-ity and motivating are met by each one o thesepractices. Some other common eatures o theidentied methodologies that counted as goodpractice are:

use o interactive methods;

hands-on activities;requent use o group work;trainees ample guidance and/ or mentoring(especially or small size groups o trainees;explicit use o trainees prior knowledge;sharing and refection o trainees;responding to the learning needs targetand goal oriented;positive and constructive training environment;applicability o knowledge personal and proessional meaning;

Sel-directed learning.

Ater having identied the core ingredients o the kinds o training programmes that keep adultsengaged in learning and motivate them to search or new learning opportunities, we wanted totake a closer look at some examples o outstanding practice so as to be able to describe them ina manner that would inspire adult educators beyond our group.

16 practices which had obtained the highest scores in the sel- and peer evaluation process werecareully described and included in the Motivating Adult Learners Participation and Persistence inLielong Learning Processes - Collection o best practices.Once we have ound out what works, we were ready to create new strategies, methods and learn-ing activities to increase adults motivation or learning.

Based on the identied actors, we developed a set o creative and critical thinking strategies tobe used by adult educators so that they may more successully motivate adults to participate inlielong learning.


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2. Create Motivate Learn Project Consortium

Our project could not be done in one country or region, or by one organization, as it requires awide outreach to adult education institutions and organizations in a variety o settings. Indeed,there is a lot o diversity within our partnership in terms o geography, experience in Grundtvigproject implementation, and areas o major interest within adult education. Clearly, the benets

o and need or European cooperation in this project are sel-evident. The project partnershipconsists o ten partner organizations rom nine countries:

Reading and Writing or Critical Thinking International Consor-tium, based in Romania is an international association o or-ganisations and individuals committed to the promotion andimplementation o the Reading and Writing or Critical Think-ing (RWCT) program and its philosophy around the world. Itsupports the member organizations joint eorts to promotequality education or all, critical thinking and active learning,civic literacy, and international collaboration among educators

with a view to continuous proessional development and in-novation in education.

Thringer Volkshochschulverband e.V. Jena, Germany. It isthe umbrella organization o 23 regional adult education cen-tres rom communities and major cities in Thuringia and pro-motes adult education. It is involved in the implementationo LL through raising consciousness among the wider publicand working on the basic conditions or it. It does pedagogicalwork in the elds o politics, society, the environment, culturaleducation, healthcare, languages, vocational education and lit-

eracy learning.

Iberika Sprachschule Berlin, Germany. Iberika is a private lan-guage school rom Berlin, Germany. It provides Spanish, Eng-lish, Portuguese and German language courses. Most o Iberi-kas students are adults and working people who want to obtainurther education or private or career-related purposes.

Instituto de Formacion Integral S.L.U. Madrid, Spain. It runstraining activities all over Spain, oering more than 200 trainingcourses per year, addressed to enterprises, Employers Asso-ciations, Trade Unions, organisations and individual workers.

Centro Studi ed Iniziative Europeo, Trapetto (PA), Italy. It workstowards the promotion o cultural, educational, scientic andeconomic development at both local and international levelsthrough the employment o innovative and participative toolsand methodologies.


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Education Development Centre (EDC), Riga, Latvia. It operatesin the eld o civic, intercultural, inclusive and developmenteducation and provides or the urther development o an ed-ucated, democratic society in Latvia by promoting increasedproessional capacity, competitiveness, and cooperation.

Modern Didactics Centre (MDC), Vilnius, Lithuania. It oper-ates in the eld o non-ormal adult education. Its main targetgroups are teachers, school specialists, and adult educators.MDC aims to encourage and to support the initiatives o theacademic community designed to bring about changes inhigher education and teacher training and oster democracyand cooperation.

Interkulturelles Zentrum, Vienna, Austria. It promotes the de-velopment o relations between people o dierent cultural or-igin and trains people to carry out practical intercultural work,in particular cross-border co-operation between schools, in-ternational youth work, as well as intercultural education anddiversity management in Austria. In general the target groupso IZ trainings are pedagogues, youth workers, employees in-terested in intercultural issues, multipliers, experts.

Orava Association or Democratic Education, Bratislava, Slo-vakia. It serves the proessional development needs o Slo-vak educators and it works to improve education in Slovakiaby supporting the broader educational community o teach-

ers, parents, school administrators, university aculty, Ministryo Education leaders, interested community leaders and stu-dents.

Ariadne Hess, silent partner, Zug, Switzerland. It oers consult-ing in learning and project management in the eld o educa-tion and pedagogy. It targets schoolchildren, students, adultsin urther education as well as seniors and minority ethnic peo-ple in all areas. ARIADNE works in the area o ageing, physicaland mental well-being and ethnicity in Switzerland and acrossEurope.


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3. The Guidebook Innovative Ways or Motivating Adults or Learning

3.1. Why develop a Guidebook?

This guidebook has been developed as part o the EU-unded project Create Motivate Learnwith the aim o disseminating the innovative strategies, techniques or learning activities devel-

oped and tested within the partnership. The dissemination targets mainly adult educators, train-ers and teachers. Our experience shows that adult educators use guidebooks as resources tond new methods, strategies or learning activities when they intend to change something in theirtrainings or to adapt their teaching to challenging groups o learners.The ways o learning and teaching we ound motivating or adults are described in detail, re-

sources are provided when necessary, and thetesting experience is also shared. Neverthelessthis guidebook is not an ABC or adult learningmethodology; the authors believe that adult edu-cation methodology is known to adult educatorsand the correlation between aims, content, meth-

ods and assessment is amiliar to readers.We encourage adult educators to take what isuseul rom this guidebook to enrich their ownteaching strategies and combine it with materialor procedural resources they have ound useul inthe past.Our partnership relies on the belie that goodadult educators make a signicant dierence be-tween highly motivated adult learners and poorlymotivated ones. Good educators are amiliar witha wide range o strategies to be able to adjust to

a variety o learning styles and dispositions.The innovative strategies, techniques or learning activities shared in the guidebook were testedon diverse target groups, people o diverse socio-economic background, including disadvan-taged groups, as we intended them to be o most use to those educators who work with poorlymotivated adult learners.The examples we introduce in this guidebook have resulted rom testing the teaching-learningmethods, techniques and activities in our trainings. Hence, there is a large variety o learningcontexts, types o adult learners or content o training programmes that were used in testing. Weencourage our readers to be creative and to adapt our approaches to a certain learning context,specic group o adult learners and content.Even i the approaches were tested on at least two groups o adult learners in two quite dierentcontexts, we would very much appreciate to receive adult educators eedback on the experiencethey may have had when using them. On page 86, the readers will nd a eedback sheet. Wewould be very grateul to those readers who wantto share their comments and learning experiencewith us by lling in the eedback orm and send-ing it to us.We want to share with adult educators, teachers,trainers the innovative strategies we developedand tested. The guidebook, which is one o themain dissemination instruments, will be availableon the project website. It will also be used as train-ing material in the Grundtvig course we will de-

velop and oer to adult educators.


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3.2. Target group o the Guidebook

This guidebook is targeted at practicing and prospective trainers involved in adult education whowork with adults reluctant to engage in lielong learning. The methods, strategies and learningactivities described in this guidebook may be used in both ormal training programmes and innon-ormal learning settings. Some o the methods and learning activities might inspire teachers

that work with teenagers or school teachers working with parents.The guidebook oers practical ideas to better motivate adults or learning.The guidebook might also prove useul or organizations that are interested in organizing pro-essional development events or adult educators or or adult education providers interested inimproving the quality o their services.

3.3. How to use the guidebook

The guidebook is organized in two chapters. The rst introductory chapter presents the Create-Motivate-Learn project and partnership, as well as some basic inormation about this guidebook.The second chapter starts with our denition o innovative strategies and with the motivation

actors in the eld o adult education. Ater presenting an overview table o the innovative waysCreMoLe partnership developed or motivating adults or learning, each innovative method, tech-nique or learning activity is described, rstly by giving basic inormation about it and secondly, byintroducing examples o practical use, summarizing the results o testing activities and concludingby introducing our ndings and recommendations or transer. Resources or implementing theinnovative ways are provided in the Annexes o the guidebook.This guidebook contains 9 diverse methodological approaches:

worksheets and/ or short activities which may be easy to use in a training;exercises/ learning activities which need some previous experience in using the constructivistthree-phase approach (Anticipation Building Knowledge Consolidation or Evocation Re-alization o meaning Refection);

ull descriptions o training programmes or a chain o learning activities, which might be used

as described, which needs several days o training to deliver.Basic inormation about each method, techniques or learning activity is provided in a recipe-likeormat or trainers -- a concise expression o what an adult educator who wants to use the method/technique or learning activity should do. On the right side o the page you can nd the keywordstrip. The keywords are related to:

targeted competences and skills: competences and skills that are targeted by the trainingwhere the described method/ technique or learning activity is recommended;targeted motivation actors: motivation actors that are targeted by the described method/technique or learning activity;targeted learners/ groups: age and/or proession o learners or whom the described meth-od/ technique or learning activity is recom-mended;organisation o learning, group size: way oorganizing the learning and the group sizeor which the described method/ techniqueor learning activity is recommended;time requirements: the time needed by anexperienced adult educator when imple-menting the described method/ techniqueor learning activity;necessary resources/ materials: types o re-sources/ materials that the adult educators

need when implementing the describedmethod/ technique or learning activity.


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The keywords that seemed to us to be relevant to any particular method/ technique or learningactivity are highlighted.For each innovative method/ technique or learning activity we have provided a brie theoreticalrame which explains why a certain approach was thought to be eective in increasing motivationor and persistence in learning. This section is ollowed by a compact statement o the suggestedprocedure. For ease o use under workshop conditions, as a rule, the text is arranged so that the

summary o the procedure is completely contained on one page.The examples o practical use come rom testing o the methods/ techniques or learning ac-tivities. They contain background inormation concerning the piloting and cross-piloting activitiesthat were implemented within the CreMoLe project and the description o the testing activities.These examples o practical use together with the evaluation and conclusions sections oer somemore practical tips/ ideas or the intended users o the method/ technique or learning activity.

3.4. Development o this Guidebook

The process by which this guidebook has been developed started, during the Workshop or adulteducators organized within the ramework o the CreMoLe project, hosted by the Italian partner

organization Ce.S.I.E. in Palermo, September 2010. During the workshop we shared some eec-tive practices identied during the survey stage, we dened the concept o innovative strategyand we detailed the plan to develop the innovativestrategies.Each partner organisation created at least one innova-tive strategy/ technique or learning activity to bettermotivate adults or learning. Then, we tested them rston groups o learners in the country where the inno-vative approach to teaching-learning was developed.The testing o the new strategies has been done in therame o small scale action research projects carried

out by the adult educators involved. By early Febru-ary, when we organised the conerence entitled Shar-ing innovative strategies and reections - Seminar and

partnership meeting in Riga (February 2011), we wereready to share with the partnership the outcomes oour action researches. We described the innovative strategy and shared the ndings o the actionresearch project in a manner that allowed other organisations to pick one strategy to test it ontheir own learners.We supported each other within the partnership by cross-testing the approaches on dierentgroups o learners in a country other than the one where the strategy was developed. There weretwo exceptions to this:

the innovative approach created by the Spanish partner organisation; this innovation was de-signed specically or motivating and increasing engagement o construction workers duringtheir compulsory training in occupational saety at work . As no other partner organisationdelivers compulsory training, the partnership decided that the Spanish organisation wouldre-test the same innovative approach on a dierent target group;both organisations rom Germany developed a set o innovative learning activities by usingon-line platorms or language learning. They worked together, one o the partners imple-mented and tested one innovative learning activity on their Moodle platorm, and the otherorganisation peer-tested it.

In brie, our general approach was to look at what is already good or very good practice, createsomething new using core ingredients o these practices, and attempt to validate the new ap-proaches. The pedagogy we employed relies on evoking prior knowledge, building meaning,

and acilitating refection on the newly acquired knowledge and skills.


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4. Innovative strategies

4.1. What motivates adults to learn?

Extensive research has proved it that intrinsic and autonomous types o extrinsic motivation areconducive to long-term engagement in learning in all educational contexts, adult education in-

cluded. Learning is a lielong process in which people make contact with their environment andassimilate it. Learning is one o the most natural processes: the tendency to explore and to assimi-late is innate. One o the major theories used or raming motivational studies thesel-determi-nation theory (Deci and Ryan, 1985) also assumes that the propensity to be curious about onesenvironment and interested in learning and developing ones knowledge is inherent in humannature. However, in most organised especially group learning settings external controls are intro-duced into the learning environment, which can undermine the psychological processes involvedin high-quality, deep learning. Evidence suggests that conditions supporting students experi-ence oautonomy, competence and relatedness oster the highest motivation and engagement,including sel-regulation or learning, enhanced academic perormance, persistence in learning,creativity and wellbeing.

In this publication, we have used the ollowing motivation actors as the ocal points o the innova-tive training strategies, methods or activities that have been developed, all o which are subsum-able to the three pillars o the sel-determination theory:

Sel-directedness (autonomy);Shared ownership o training organization (autonomy and relatedness);Active engagement in learning (relatedness);Immediate applicability o learning (competence);Recognition o learner achievement (competence, relatedness);Supportive emotional environment (relatedness).

4.2. What do we mean by innovative strategies?

When things have been done in a certain way or a set o ways over a signicant period o time,and the outcomes are still not as good as expected, or have stopped improving, then it is timeto do something dierently. In our case, when all the well-established ways have been tried outto improve adults engagement in lielong learning processes, and the results are still not satisy-ing (i.e. we are still not pleased with either the number o participating adults, the quality o theirparticipation or the overall outcome o their participation), then innovation is required.In our project, what we have agreed to change is the approach to acilitating adults learning. Inour understanding, introducing innovative strategies is like assisting adults in their endeavour todiscover new tastes when already known or new ingredients are combined dierently. We expectthat this new combination will be the potion that causes change in the adults thought processesabout and/or attitudes toward learning, and thus they will get hooked on lielong learning.The innovative strategies we propose are meant to support proessional and personal develop-ment; they are transerable and adjustable to contexts other than the ones in which they havebeen tried out. The innovation o the strategies we have developed and tested resides in at leastone o the ollowing:

Use o a new type o learning activity with a group (or category) o learners who have notexperienced it beore;Use o a learning activity that has some new elements (e.g. a new set o materials such ashand-outs or worksheets, a dierent orm o presentation o the new input, a new way ogrouping learners, dierent sequencing o the steps to complete the activity, a dierent ocuson some targeted learning behaviour, etc.).

In most o the innovative strategies that we share there is a combination o both the above de-

scribed categories o innovation.


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Name o the innovative strategy Innovative dimension

Biographic work

New approach to actively engaging disadvantagedlearners in developing cultural awareness and ex-pression

Online ca in language learning

New media or practicing communication in a or-

eign language in a structured manner

Community mappingNew purpose (evaluation) or using a popular com-munity development activity

Stepping in the picture New approach to using learning materials

Reading with predictionsNew prole o learners group parents who thenuse the reading strategy with their young children

Basic skills or group discussionsNew learning instrument or metacognitive learn-ing

Benets and costsNew learning instrument or metacognitive learn-ing

Film as a Tool o MotivationNew approach to using lm in learning (viewed withstops or comprehension check and anticipation)

Active engagement in learningoccupational saety and health

New target group in a challenging learning environ-ment using cooperative learning strategies


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II. Innovative strategies developed by the project partners

5. Developed Innovative strategies5.1. Overview

Targeted competences and skills Targeted motivation factors Targeted learners / groupsOrganisation of

Learning,group size

Strategies

Communicationinthemothertongue

Communicationinoreignlanguages

Learningtolearn

Socialandciviccompetences

Culturalawarenessandexpression

Criticalthinking

Creativity

Initiative

Problems

olving

Riskassessment

Decisiontaking

Managementoeelings

Sel-directedness

Activeengagementinlearning

Sharedownershipotrainingorganiza

tion

Supportiveemotionalenvironment

Immediateapplicabilityolearning

Recognitionolearnerachievement

Collegestudentsandyouth

Educators/teachers

Adultsingeneral

Aspecifcproession

Mixed

Groupoupto5learners

Groupo5-10learners

Groupo10-20learners

Mixedgrouping

Biographic work: Associativepicture cards

Online ca in language learning

Community mapping

Stepping in the picture

Reading with prediction

Basic skills or group discussions

Benefts and costs

Film as a tool or motivation

Active engagement in learningOccupational Saety and Health


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5.2. Biographic work: Associative picture cards(Austria)

Introduction An overview

Biographic work, a personal approach, is an option to learnmore about onesel, to identiy and make connections be-tween the past, the present and the uture, between onessocial surrounding and personal lie, personal perspec-tives and goals. By working with these subject areas, onecan make resources accessible and get to know about thepossibilities to (re)design ones own lie concepts.Through orientation along a specic timeline, ones devel-opment can be monitored better. Peoples own line o ac-tion and decisions can be understood better and can beaccepted as the right solutions or that time and situation

even i the person would act dierently at the time o retro-spection. In this way, ones current mental state and currentexperience are more visible and easier to understand. Inview o ones lie career, the person undergoing this proc-ess o awareness-awakening will be able to make eectiveadjustments and understand hidden issues and motivesin lie. The goal o biographical work is to nd ones ownthread o lie and to develop it in an active way.

Steps to implement the strategy

Biographical work involves use o a variety o methodicaltools (see Annex 8). In this section, we will describe thesteps to carry out one particular activity, called Associa-tive picture cards. In general, picture cards can be usedin counselling, therapy, coaching and training or variouspurposes. By means o using pictures, participants arestimulated to connect with their inner sel -- their mem-ories, experiences, resources, ideals or eelings -- and tobroaden and nourish it by means o the associations theymake. The participants interpretation o a card is alwaysaccepted in the way they chose to make it.Below, we will describe the use o picture cards within theramework o biographic work or the purpose o identiy-ing and activating the learners resources.

The purpose o the activity is to assist the participants inbecoming aware o theresources they have and know howto use by remembering a challenging situation in the pastand recalling what helped them to master this situation.While the participants do the activity, they may becomeaware o additional resources they possess.

In order to carry out the activity with a group o up to 12people, you need a set o OH-cards. To prepare the ac-

Targeted competences and skills

Communication in the mother tongue

Communication in oreign languagesLearning to learn

Social and civic competences

Cultural awareness and expression

Critical thinking

Creativity

Initiative

Problem solving

Risk assessment

Decision taking

Management o eelingsTargeted motivation factors

Sel-directedness

Active engagement in learning

Shared ownership o training organization

Supportive emotional environment

Immediate applicability o learning

Recognition o learner achievement

Targeted learners / groups

College students and youth

Educators / teachers

Adults in general

A specic proession

Mixed

Organisation of Learning, group size

Individual learner

Pair o learners

Group o up to 5 learners

Group o 5-10 learners


Group over 20 learners

Mixed grouping

Time requirements

Up to 2 hours

day

1 day

Up to 2 days

Flexible (up to one week)

Necessary resources / materials

Photocopies

Photographs

FilmMultimedia


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tivity, spread out the cards openly so that they can all beseen. Divide the participants in small groups o 3 or 4 per-sons each.Ask the participants to close their eyes, i they eel com-ortable doing it, and remember situations in the past thatwere challenging or them. Give time so they can select a

situation that they think they would like to work with andalso share.Instruct the participants to select a ew cards (2 to 4) torepresent the challenging situation and a ew cards (2 to 4)to represent the resources that helped them to master thissituation and to return to their small group.Ask the participants to place the cards they have selectedin ront o themselves so that the cards orm a story. Givethe participants time (about 5 minutes per participant) totell each other about the challenging situation masteredand the resources they used.

Ask the participants to return to the circle (whole group)and give them opportunity to share how it was to tell andlisten to the stories. Conduct an evaluation o the activitytogether with the participants, giving everyone the chanceto share what they learnt, but not orcing anyone to talk.



Communication in oreign languages

Learning to learn


Cultural awareness and expressionCritical thinking

Creativity

Initiative

Problem solving

Risk assessment

Decision taking

Management o eelings

Targeted motivation factors

Sel-directedness









Adults in general

A specic proession

Mixed

Organisation of Learning, group sizeIndividual learner

Pair o learners





Mixed grouping

Time requirements

Up to 2 hours

day1 day

Up to 2 days



Photocopies

Photographs

Film

Multimedia


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Examples of practical use

Background inormation concerning the piloting and cross piloting activitiesThe background to develop the innovative strategy was provided by the project Intercultural Cen-tre in 2010, in which we worked with young unemployed people with immigrant background.

Young people with immigrant background are two to three times more likely to be aected byunemployment than non-immigrants, as a result o requent employments without qualicationstaken adequately into account and shorter employment periods.The project concept included training in social and intercultural competencies, job orientationskills, gender issues, cultural work, establishing mentor-mentee partnerships, setting up intern-ships, arranging outplacement, and doing biographical work.Nearly all o the participating youngsters were early school leavers who had been included in sup-portive projects (job orientation, job seeking), but all o them dropped out o the training courseand some o them dropped out o apprenticeship. Thats why the project aimed to support andmotivate these young people to improve their individual options, to develop their proessionalcareer by building on existing competencies and developing new ones.

Ater 4 weeks o training and because o a xed training concept, we had to start with the bio-graphic work in spite o the unavourable conditions or this approach: the pre-selection processby the labour oce was not done according to the proposed criteria and thereore group build-ing was not completed (which could be one o the reason or the increasing absenteeism o theparticipants). Hoping that the biographic approach would help to increase their motivation ingeneral, we started with the biographic work approach, a six-day program which we will describebelow. We note thatevery day we started the training with a warm-up activity and with a refectionsession on the previous day.

Day 1: Biographic work introductionThe metaphor Lie Journey (What is part o a journey? In what sense is it similar to lie?);

BrainstormingPhilosophizing about particular aspects o lie (aims, orientation, luggage, companions/partners, responsibility, etc.); Group discussionBrie discussion about issues connected to language, bilingualism, language learning as achild versus as an adult;Additional activity: getting to know each other on the basis o learners lie histories (in thebroadest sense); the participants stood in a circle, while the trainer asked questions aboutlie; all those who shared a specic characteristic had to take a step orward.

Day 2: OriginFamily o origin: amily tree; individual work ollowed by presentations;Probing questions addressed by the trainer or by the trainees to the presenters: Who livesnearby/ar away? Who do you keep in touch with and who do you not keep in touch with?Who came to Austria earlier?Womens and mens proessions in the amily; the participants wrote about their amily mem-bers proession/ occupation on cards, and then built clusters.Group discussion o the ndings related to proessions, based on the clusters displayed onthe board.

Day 3: LanguageLanguages used in the (Austrian) society; language assessment done by the participants orthemselves and their environment.Trainer input about language competence and its dierent elements (speaking, comprehen-

sion, writing, reading); everyday language versus complicated language; the history andmeaning o names;


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Introduction to the topic Resources; Passengers luggage - what learners have receivedrom their amily (i.e. resources and/or values); work in small groups to prepare a poster usingsymbols; presentation; discussions on similarities and dierences.

Day 4: ResourcesStories about learning resources (Everything in lie is good or something); reading o sto-

ries (Fatima, rom Palast der Geschichten by Reinhold Dietrich); comprehension o thestory, group discussion; development o a system or monitoring individual results o thebiographical work (paired refection);Imagery journey Journey through lie; participants observe their own journey through lie asi rom above, looking upon dierent the situations on the road o lie;Sel-condence, resources; individual work in which the participants chose a positive experi-ence and describe their contribution to it, answering questions such as Which o my ownabilities did I use and witness in action?; then participants worked together to analyse oneexample.

Day 5: Resources

From the individual to the general/ collective: Challenging lie situations; selection o cards

(card examples: Reach adulthood / Uncertainty, uncertain uture / Experiencing a disappoint-ment / Things never turn out the way you expect, etc.)Presentation o strategies or overcoming dicult lie situations; the participants worked insmall teams on each o the chosen lie situations; they chose an illustrated card, set it up,explained how the card t the topic; wrote down experiences/ tips/ advice or a person whostruggles with the same problem answering the question: How can you resolve such a situ-ation?Sources o strength (Resources in dicult situations); the participants arrange the cards withdierent possible answers on the foor (nature, amily, riends, religion, hobby, etc.). Each par-ticipant selected one o the prepared cards and positioned hersel/himsel in ront o her/his

most important source o strength. The established groups asked each other questions.Viewing o the lm Jasmin (Jasmin is the daughter o Pakistani immigrants, who lives be-tween two completely dierent identities) as an example or sources o strength. Explana-tion concerning choice o lm, observation assignments; discussion.

Day 6: IdentityResponsibility or the individual success o the current training course; the participants ll outthe sheet Responsibility-cake; look at it together and discuss dierent positions/ perspec-tives;Social skills or an employee; mind-mapping activity;Identity - my inner world (logical levels rom outside to inside: environment, behaviour, indi-vidual skills, persuasion, values, source o strength); individual (personal) description o eachparticipant;Creation o a ctitious (youngster) identity; the participants used creative methods or pres-entation, such as rap music.

Some activities o the biographic work approach were tested in Romania with a group o six youngpeople (Roma high school students) in the ramework o their monthly group meeting with theirmentor. The approach was used in a dierently structured activity, which lasted somewhat overthree hours, as described below.Ater a brie introduction to the activity, the ollowing task was given to the participants: Drat a

story, a poem, the lyrics and the melody o a song, a set o comics, or the script o a movie aboutyour lie as a journey. Guiding questions were provided, which the young people read togeth-er with the trainer to make sure that everyone understood what they meant. The students thenworked individually to prepare: think, make notes, and drat their work. Drating was ollowed


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by paired discussions where the youth shared their drats, and received help rom their peers tomake a decision about what to elaborate on. By asking each other questions ater listening to rstthoughts/ answers to the guiding questions, the youth supported each other to make a decisionabout what story/ poem etc. to actually write about themselves and their lie as a journey. Next,second drats were prepared, or the chosen topics were elaborated on. When they nished, thetrainer invited them to share their stories/ essays / products. Each presenter received questions

rom their peers or rom the trainer.The activity ended with a group refection on the ollowing questions: What have I learnt aboutmysel by refecting on my lie so ar / What have I learnt about how I think by refecting on mythoughts about this journey?

Evaluation

For the pilot activities the evaluation was done through sel- and peer evaluation o the participantgroup ater each working day and at the end o the week based on the question What have welearned and how could it be used? The trainers also conducted evaluation each day concerning

group dynamics, individual progress, while they also discussed striking points and necessary ad-aptations. The trainers conclusions and the ndings drawn rom the participants sel-assessmentrevealed the ollowing aspects. Because o the specic situation o the group in general at thetime o implementation o the biographic approach (new group members joined the group onine already existing members), the group members werent enough amiliarized with each other,so they didnt want to discuss their dicult amily situations in the group, and showed some in-dierence. Diculties appeared due to the daily fuctuation, and the planed bottom to top workapproach was dicult to maintain. Despite all the care taken by some participants, some groupmembers didnt manage to concentrate long enough, and their ocusing on the topics over along period proved dicult. In general the participants had diculties engaging with other groupmembers along their contributions to the discussion.

Moreover, the group was split into interested and indierent group members, and the trainershad diculty handling this situation. In response to this situation the implementation concept hadto be adapted rom time to time.Because o the language problems (some o the participants didnt understand and speak Ger-man language well enough to ollow the content), translation was necessary, which was providedby the fuent group members, and which urther caused disruption in the group.The ormation o working groups by the participants themselves was mainly done by ethnic crite-ria. When the trainers set up mixed groups, the group discussion showed better results. Dealingwith the issue o identity captured the participants attention signicantly. For this topic we had todo a specic ollow-up work.The group refection the week ater the implementation o the biographic approach brought aninteresting result. Participants apologized or their indierent behaviour during the implementa-tion o the Biographic work approach.The activities cross-tested on the group o Roma youth were evaluated through group refectionon the ollowing questions What have I learnt about mysel by refecting on my lie so ar / Whathave I learnt about how I think by refecting on my thoughts about this journey? and by an in-dividual refection, where they had to complete a eedback orm. The ndings in this case were:some o the participants wrote sae texts like one would in school (although they had sharedquite personal details orally), which could be a sign o insecurity in handling writing or it couldrefect the infuence o the environment in which the meeting was held (a school); thereore, thisactivity is probably best done outside o the school, and not upon a rst meeting with the groupmembers; alternative orms o expression(other than text) should be encouraged more. The train-ers expectation that the youth would refect deeply on personal issues and share their refectionswas unrealistic.What was shared in the group related to the questions What have I learnt about mysel by refect-


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ing on my lie so ar / What have I learnt about how I think by refecting on my thoughts about thisjourney? did not refect much learning about the use o refection, but rather learning about onespersonality. However, as the participants did not seem to be used to refecting deeply, one suchmeeting which was relatively short could not be expected to teach them that.The size o the group is very important; this activity is best done with small groups (max 8 partici-pants).

The participants themselves suggested that a ollow-up would be good, and then they would eelmore relaxed, more secure in the group, and they would get a better chance to know each other.The impression o the trainer was that the written eedback only partly refected the eect o theactivity on the group members; they seemed to write what they suspected that the trainer wouldexpect them to write, which may be yet another sign o insecurity.

Conclusions

The pilot activities have shown that motivation shown by decrease in the number o sessions thelearners missed (times absent) - didnt increase signicantly in the group as a whole. A signi-

cant increase in motivation or participation in learning activities could only be noted in the caseo a ew participants. Our hypothesis (i.e.participation in group work where the topic o learning isones own lie leads to the emergence o a sense o success in learning and subsequent behaviourwhich reects the interest to participate in more such learning) could not be veried. This seemsto be an indication that the biographic work approach is rather a long term approach, especiallywhen this work is done with a group o young participants.The teams that carried out the piloting and cross-piloting activities still see the value o the bio-

graphical work approach even with the described target groups, but the concept o implementa-tion has to be adapted in certain ways:

The approach is highly eective with long standing small groups. In the case o the pilotactivities the group was still concerned with the clarication o the individual group status

(the period o implementation was decided too early, the process o ones positioning in thegroup was not yet completed); in the case o the cross-piloting activities, the group wasnttogether long enough and they were not amiliar with each other.In both cases, the trainers who implemented the biographic work had not worked with thegroups o learners beore, whereas biographic work needs a certain level o amiliarity withthe group and experience in handling the specic group.The implementation o the biographic approach needs extensive time; it ideally requires in-dividual talks with the learners beore, during and ater the implementation.Experience with the specic target group related to the pilot activities (youngsters with mi-grant background) has shown that migration or to be a migrant is seen as a decit in thehost society. This makes it dicult to discuss amily topics in the group. In this case it is alsoimportant to pay attention to a coherent language, especially when working with a complexapproach and/or with groups with some degree o language diculties.


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5.3.Online caf in language learning(Germany)

Introduction An overviewIberika group and the Thringer Volkshochschuleverande.V. developed an innovative strategy to motivate its adultlanguage learners to allocate an increased amount o timeto practising the language between classes and to there-ore learn more and better and - on the long term - persistlonger in lielong learning.The online caf is basically an online forum. Through the pi-loting and cross-testing phase of the CreMoLe project it wasused by both institutions to motivate language students.The online ca is a part o Blended Learning. According toSauter, Sauter and Bender (2003), Blended Learning is anintegrated combination o the advantages o ace-to-aceinstruction and technology-based E-learning. The trainerneeds to give guidance to the students during the E-learn-ing phase. For this purpose, an E-learning platorm shouldideally be used where, at any time and rom anywhere, thetrainer can provide the students with inormation or ad-ditional material, quizzes, open online orums, etc. BeoreDecember 2010, neither Iberika group nor the ThringerVolkshochschuleverand e.V. had applied Blended Learn-ing within their institutions.The introduction o Blended Learning was a process. With-in this phase dierent kinds o exercises were developedand tested. In the cross-testing phase both institutions

used the open source E-learning platorm called moo-dle. For this guidebook we ocus on the description oone exercise: the online ca.


The evaluation o the piloting and cross-piloting has shownwhich steps should be considered towards a successulimplementation o the online ca:

Make sure that you and your trainees have sucient1.

computer skills to use an E-learning platorm. Alter-natively, you may have to use sta who can introducethe technical part to you.Make sure that you and your students have access to2.a computer either in your institution or at home.Choose any kind o E-learning platorm which pro-3.vides the possibility to create an online orum i youdo not already have one in your institution. The kindo platorm/orum depends on the nancial resourc-es o the educational institution or o the students.Depending on this, one may decide to buy an al-ready set-up system or use an open source sotwaresuch as moodle to design ones own E-learning plat-orm. Already set up systems oten prove to be more




Learning to learnSocial and civic competences


Critical thinking

Creativity

Initiative

Problem solving

Risk assessment

Decision taking


Targeted motivation factorsSel-directedness









Adults in general

A specic proession

Mixed


Individual learner

Pair o learners





Mixed grouping

Time requirementsUp to 2 hours

day

1 day

Up to 2 days



Photocopies

Photographs

Film

Multimediae-learning platorm


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user-riendly, while open source E-learning platormscan be lled with more individualised content. I youdecide or the latter, remember that the teacher willneed extra time to create and upload the individual-ised exercises.Analyse the needs (grammar, vocabulary, fuency,4.

accuracy, etc.) and interests (topics) o your targetgroup in language learning. Depending on whatyou nd, choose a topic or the online ca. This canbe a theme you want to discuss such as politics, en-vironmental issues or hobbies, spare time activities,etc. The topic may be introduced through anothermedium that you can install and/or upload in the E-learning platorm/orum. Such a medium could bea song, a ragment o a lm, a speech o a amousperson or a newspaper article. The discussion willurther develop the ideas introduced through the

additional medium.Create the online ca technically and make it acces-5.sible to all students (log in etc.)Introduce the online ca6. and the additional materialto the learners. It is important to explain:

a) The advantage o using it in class;b) How to use it;c) Remind the students to use it.

Start using the online caf in between the classes. Not7.only you as a teacher but also the students can uploadand include different media, such as photos, links or

articles. This makes the approach very interactive.Correct the students.8. This can be done directly withinthe online ca (orum) or during your next ace-to-ace session. You need not limit yoursel to correct-ing your learners, but may also actively take part intheir discussion. Bring in new aspects and be part oyour course. This gives you an opportunity to makecorrections unobtrusively.Evaluate the use o the platorm ater the rst ew9.sessions in order to gain insight into the learnersopinion about it:

How many learners have used the platorm? I not all, why have some not used it? Are there any technical diculties?

As oten as necessary,10. adapt the topic/theme to thelearners needs. Consider using dierent media ap-proaches like videos, pictures, live streams etc.Continue checking11. the results o what has been doneby the learners. Are there any diculties with thecontent? Where do they need more support (gram-mar, listening or reading comprehension, etc.). Usethe results or urther planning o the sel-studyingdimension.

Final evaluation. Talk with your learners about using the online ca: Was it useul? What12.should be improved? What were the weaknesses and strengths o the approach?




Learning to learn


Cultural awareness and expressionCritical thinking

Creativity

Initiative

Problem solving

Risk assessment

Decision taking



Sel-directedness









Adults in general

A specic proession

Mixed


Pair o learners





Mixed grouping

Time requirements

Up to 2 hours

day1 day

Up to 2 days



Photocopies

Photographs

Film

Multimedia

e-learning platorm


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Example of practical use

The online ca can be used in dierent settings as well as with dierent groups. Within the pilot-ing and cross-piloting phase, both iberika group and the Thringer Volkshochschulverband e.V.tested the online ca with language learners. Both institutions took the chance to test it with di-

erent target groups, within dierent settings and through dierent E-learning-platorms.When we thought o using the online ca, we were aware o a number o issues connected tolearning a oreign language, which requires a lot o sustained eort. A general problem whenlearning a language is the lack o motivation to constantly study at home. This phenomen occursespecially in classes with several days time between consecutive sessions. Many adult learnersare employed and do not have the time and energy to study outside o class. Especially thoselearners who do not benet rom learning the language immediately, or instance by travelling tothe country where the language is spoken, ace these problems.

Another problem that oten occurs is how to catch up with the work i a student misses a class.Most o the times the students cannot get access to the learning material and to what was done

during the class they missed. Moreover, learning a language is sometimes not very entertainingbecause the vocabulary has to be memorized and the grammar has to be practised meticulously.The consequence o the above can be that the learners make little eort to study between theclasses or in the worst case drop out o the course. To prevent these consequences, we came upwith the idea to o the online ca.

Here is one example o how the online ca has been used. Ater all the technical aspects had beentaken care o and the students were already amiliar with the online ca ormat, the trainer introducedthe topic or discussion: We shall be ree.For this activity, in the E-learning platorm we installed alink to the song by Garth Brooks We shall be ree. The learners rst listened to the song. Ater that,they did a ll-in-the-blanks-type exercise in which they had to identiy words rom the song to com-

plete the lyrics o the song. They were able to correct themselves, as they were also given the lyricso the song. Next, the trainer instructed the students to turn to the online ca, and complete the ol-lowing task:Tell your colleagues what is important or you in order to eel ree as described in the songWe shall be ree. Express your own opinion and respond to the statements o the other learners.Example: When politicians really take care o the social problems o their citizens, then we shall be ree.The students contributed their ideas, and commented on the ideas o their peers and on what thetrainer shared. The trainer corrected the students errors by interacting with them in the on-lineorum.(student wrote) When there will be no weapons in the world, we shall be ree.(teacher responds) You mean when there are no weapons, we shall be ree. How about reedomo thought?

You can nd an overview o the piloting and cross piloting activities, as well as more examples oronline discussions in the Annexes 9 - 11.

Evaluation

The evaluation o using the online ca was done through the use o a questionnaire and discus-sions with the learners. In addition, the trainers also refected on the students progress and levelo involvement. To pull together the results, both organizations had a eedback round with theteachers who carried out the above-described learning activities. The ideas below emerged romthe processing o the questionnaires, and rom the eedback the trainers provided.Online ca has a number o advantages. For instance, the trainees can practice the use o gram-matical structures, learn new vocabulary and improve their writing skills in the oreign language


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detached rom time and space. Furthermore, through the corrections o the teacher the studentscan improve and learn rom the mistakes o the others, not only during the classes but also in theonline communication. The teachers can learn a lot about the interests and the learning needs otheir students. Another advantage o the online ca or the use o any an E-learning platorm ingeneral is that i a trainee has missed a class, he/she can at least take part in the discussion andcatch up in a more fexible way.

In general the trainees can improve their writing skills, express their own opinion and be creativethrough the use o the online ca. They can communicate, interact and socialize even outsideclass. Both the teacher and the students can give immediate eedback to each other. The themescan be discussed without any space or time limitations.All these points increased the motivation o most learners to allocate more time at home to lan-guage learning between classes. The successul use o the online cae mainly depends on:

Age: the online-ca was more oten used by younger participants due to its socialising e-ect;Combination with other media: a variety o media should be used to make learning moreexciting;Topic: Themes and media should t the interests and needs o the target group;

Time rame: to get used the online-learning platorm can take some time; thereore its use is

more relevant in longer courses than in short, intensive courses.The learners computer skills; i the learners computer skills are not good enough, using thetechnology can act as a deterrent rather than help to learn more.

Conclusion

To sum up, the success o the online ca stands and alls with three determinants:a) The teacher/ trainer

Teachers and trainers nd themselves in a tight sport. They will not only be the persons to teachthe content o the course but also the instructor or how to use the E-learning platorm and con-tact person or all technical problems and complaints.

It is also important that the organisation the teacher/trainer works or reimburses the extra work-ing time incurred by the implementation and use o the online ca. The teacher/trainer shouldalso expect that in the beginning it will take quite some time until the learners start using the

online ca. Thereore especially in the beginning it will be necessary or the teacher/trainer toexplain and present it more than once as well as to answer questions about the online ca.


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b) The learnersThe learners age;The learners computer skills in combination with their attitude toward technology: when stu-dents dont enjoy working and learning at the computer, the online ca is not suitable;Attitude towards E-learning: they must be determined to work in a sel-directed manner andto spend extra time learning outside the lesson.

c) The topic/themeExercises should t the need o the learners. In general, exercises should be:

linked to the content o the class;t the level o the learners;make learning more exciting;economical: they should not be too complex or time consuming.

To conclude, based on our experiences, the online ca helps to make language learning moreengaging and to give the participants an enhanced role during the course. They are given thepossibility to practice rom home and thereore improve the skills tting to their needs and levelo perormance.


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5.4. Community mapping(Italy)

Introduction An overview

According to the Recommendation o the European Par-liament and o the Council on key competences or lie-long learning (2006/962/EC), [u]nderstanding the multi-cultural and socio-economic dimensions o Europeansocieties and how national cultural identity interacts withthe European identity is essential. Starting rom this con-ceptual basis, we aced the need or the development ointercultural dialogue within local communities to createan inclusive European (and global) identity promoting thecommon cultural heritage and the importance o culturaldiversity.

One o the best ways to acilitate communication and dia-logue between people rom dierent backgrounds, help-ing mutual understanding and intercultural exchange, isto stimulate their creativity. Creativity is a ertile ground onwhich to plant the oundations or critical comparison, abase o discussion that also raises sel-awareness. This ur-ther leads to the trainees active involvement in the learn-ing process, as well as a conscious choice or the results tobe accomplished, and easier sel-evaluation o what hasbeen achieved. All these elements jointly yield increasedmotivation or learning, thanks also to immediate applica-

bility o what has been learned and awareness o the re-sults achieved.Community Mapping is a strategy that uses maps to gainunderstanding o a local situation and to acilitate discus-sion within a diverse group, and provide the basis to builda common understanding o the boundaries and charac-teristics o a community or neighbourhood, and o how allparticipants in the discussion t into it. Together, partici-pants create a map o their community that shows wherevarious resources, activities and opportunities are located.Everyones input is necessary in order to achieve a detaileddescription o the community.


The strategy can be implemented in groups o 10-15learners. It is very easy to use, and it takes no longer than1 day o training or its proper implementation. The mate-rials needed are paper and coloured pencils, crayons ormarkers.First introduce the purpose o the exercise. Divide thegroup into sub-groups o 2 or 3 people. Request that each

o the small groups draw a map o the city, the communityor desired urban area(s) marking the relevant personal




Learning to learn

Social and civic competencesCultural awareness and expression

Critical thinking

Creativity

Initiative

Problem solving

Risk assessment

Decision taking



Sel-directednessActive engagement in learning








Adults in general

A specic proession

Mixed


Individual learner

Pair o learners





Mixed grouping

Time requirements

Up to 2 hours day

1 day

Up to 2 days



Photocopies

Photographs

Film

Multimedia

PaperColoured pencils, crayons, markers


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landmarks (what they like or dont like about where theylive; ideas or making things better). Make sure all discus-sion gets recorded and reerenced to the map!Give people plenty o time (45-50 minutes) and space, pa-per and pens to prepare their maps. Underline that it isnot important to draw an exact map and that they could

use all their creativity. Bring the maps together and askeach group to present theirs. During the presentation,ask questions to probe understanding. For example, Arethere places in the community where immigrants and theautochthons generally meet? Are there any dierencesamong men and women? The questions can be adaptedto match the issues we want to investigate primarily. Askevery learner to explain why the places on the created mapare important or them and show on a real map o the areawhere else they requently go in the city/ neighbourhood.Then, at the end o the exercise each participant should

be asked to evaluate how the activity went and what theydiscovered.It is possible to add other elements to the community map-ping activity (as it was done during the cross piloting) suchas: ask the learners to image that a riend comes to theirtown and has only 24 hours to see the sights. The learnersshould think about a schedule or these 24 hours in whichthey should show their personal most important places othe town to their riends, all the things they believe a visitorshouldnt miss. When they have designed the schedule,they should write a letter to their riends explaining or pro-

posing what they would do on that day. As a closing activ-ity, everyone presents their personal proposed tour on abig map o the town.




Learning to learn



Critical thinking

Creativity

Initiative

Problem solving

Risk assessment

Decision taking



Sel-directedness









Adults in general

A specic proession

Mixed


Pair o learners





Mixed grouping

Time requirements

Up to 2 hours

day1 day

Up to 2 days



Photocopies

Photographs

Film

Multimedia

Paper

Coloured pencils, crayons, markers


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Examples of practical use

The above described activity was piloted by CESIE in Palermo within a project called Learn AboutUs Through Culture, which targeted a diversity o people. CESIE uses volunteering and active par-ticipation as means o promoting lielong learning. Volunteers rom dierent countries through-

out Europe and the world are invited by CESIE to work with members o the organization and thelocal community in Palermo. The participants were aged between 18 and 27 years. They camerom Austria, Estonia, France, Romania and the United Kingdom. They had spent 9 months inPalermo, Italy within the ramework o a project called Ubuntu which had a group o volunteersrom dierent countries help out the local community o immigrant children and their amilies inPalermo. The aims o this project were to promote intercultural dialogue and active citizenship,to raise awareness o the existence o minorities, cultural diversity, and European identity, and tocombat discrimination.

The cross-testing o the Community Mapping activity took place in a so-called integration courseo the Berlin language school Iberika. In this course, migrants rom dierent countries learn Ger-

man together or eight months, or 4 hours a day, ve days a week. When the strategy was tested,the class was in the language level B1 and the learners could understand, speak and write Ger-man quite well. Eight students o the class were present. These learners were between 24 and 46years old, coming rom eight dierent countries: Poland, Cameroon, Ukraine, Montenegro, Russia,Spain, Vietnam and Ecuador. Most o them went to Berlin just 6 to 12 months beore and had plansto settle there. Their social background was very dierent, some o them had completed theirstudies and had jobs, or were still studying, while others were less educated and had low qualica-tions. It was a very diverse and riendly group, open to experiencing new teaching methods.

Thanks to its simple nature, Community Mapping is a very useul tool to stimulate engagement inthe learning process and to overcome cultural and language barriers.

When we rst used it, our aims were:helping people record and analyse inormation which is a sensitive issue to talk about;giving less condent people a chance to express personal opinions ;ensuring that peoples views are recorded and the geographical details are retained,acilitating intercultural dialogue among participants rom dierent cultures, o dierent ages,and between guests and the local host community;overcoming cultural and language barriers;shiting ocus rom use o literacy skills as a means o expression;stimulating community-based activities at the local level the volunteers have a positive im-pact upon the activities already developed locally;increasing the opportunities o non-ormal education in Europe.

The target groups in both the piloting and the cross-piloting activities were composed o adultsrom dierent countries, who had lived in the area or several months beore they took part inthe Community Mapping. The activity was highly valuable because it helped to understand theperception that oreigners have o the city that hosts them, not only rom a geographical point oview, but also rom a social perspective.The specic problems we addressed through the use o Community Mapping were:

Absence o communication between local and immigrant communities: the local commu-nity and migrant communities oten work and live in the same areas but they are not able tocommunicate. There seems to be lack o integration o the migrants resulting rom a lack omotivation towards mutual knowledge;The useulness o education and intercultural dialogue is not ully grasped by either migrants,

or the autochthonous population;Low impact o the volunteers work in terms o intercultural dialogue at the local level.


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The implementation o the strategy took one day (six hours o training), and included the ollow-ing activities. The trainers introduced the activity by stating the purpose: learning about the plac-es where immigrants and autochthons gather together, and the reasons why they get togetherthere. At this stage, the trainers had to be careul not to reveal any personal assumptions. Then,the trainers divided the group into smaller clusters o 2 or 3 people. Each o the groups was askedto draw a map o the centre o Palermo and mark the relevant personal landmarks. The learners

were provided with paper and pencils, and told to take their time drawing the map. The train-ers assisted the learners when necessary. When the maps were ready, each group was invited topresent their ndings. The trainers and the other participants asked clarication questionsduringthe presentations.

The cross piloting activity, which took place at Iberika school in Berlin, was carried out using ourclass periods o 45 minutes each. This is how the trainer at Iberika described the experience: Firstwe had a short round o presentations. Ater that, I hung up a huge Berlin map in the classroomand we identied our position on it. Then I asked the students to create their own Berlin map,which should refect their personal Berlin and places that are important or them or which theyoten go to. They had 45 minutes or that and lots o paper and pens. Ater this rst step, everyone

was asked to present their map, and explain it to the other learners, who could also ask clarica-tion questions. Every student explained why the places on the created map were important orthem and showed on the real map where else they requently go to in the city. The next step wasto image that a riend was going to visit Berlin and would have 24 hours to see the city. The stu-dents were invited to think about a time schedule or these 24 hours. At the end, everyone pre-sented their personal Berlin tour on the big map placed in the classroom.

Evaluation

At the end o the exercise in Palermo, each participant was asked to evaluate how the activity went

and what they had discovered. The two trainers needed to nd ways to evaluate, together withthe participants, their level o intercultural learning and awareness ater spending nine monthsdeveloping these skills through active, participatory learning and volunteering. The use o Com-munity Mapping gave the opportunity to the participants to sel-assess their progress in relationto knowledge o the territory along these topics: intercultural dialogue, minorities and culturaldiversity, active citizenship, European awareness, and ghting discrimination. Sel-assessment en-courages motivation or learning. This is conrmed by the reactions o the participants, who haveworked actively in the activities.

The reaction o the group o language learners in Berlin was really positive. They had expectedto go on with their language book exercises as they came to the lesson. Their rst reaction to thetopic o the class was quite positive and they were curious about what was going to happen. Atthe end, the learners said that it was very interesting or them and that they were refecting abouttheir moving through the city and their knowledge and ignorance about it. They ound the classmotivating and said that they would like to do more o this kind o work. They also said that it wasnot useless in terms o language learning because they had to both listen and speak during theactivity. At the same time the teacher noticed that they took interest in looking at the real Berlinmap to identiy streets and planning their tours.


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Conclusions

Community Mapping is a very useul, interesting and at the same time entertaining method toexploit an intercultural environment including or purposes o language learning. In a languageclass, it also can be used while learning how to ask or directions or how to describe a city.

The use o the interactive elements resulted in the act that the participants were highly motivatedand deeply engaged during the activity.Our major ndings about learning with the use o Community Mapping were:

it improves communication among the learners;it enhances knowledge o the trainers about the situation o their learners and the area wherethey live;it helps refe

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