The project

Project Summary

The project involves 6 schools from 4 different countries: 3 schools from Italy, 1 from Cyprus, 1 from Spain and 1 from France.

The schools involved are upper middle schools and have been analyzing their common problems on the basis of a SWOT analysis that led to a tree-diagram problems list:

- Students lack active citizenship awareness on different levels: local, national and European;

- Students lack critical thinking skills. This leads them to follow masses and social networks fake news, factors that can mislead and force them, taking them into exasperate individualism with no relations among them.

From these problems three objectives naturally follow:

1. Stimulate active citizenship awareness of the students;

2. Stimulate critical thinking skills in order to make the students able to understand and read the world they live in;

3. Empower pedagogical and methodological skills in the teachers to get a didactics that:

a. Stimulates critical thinking;

b. Increases active citizenship and the awareness of what EU is and which possibilities it gives;

c. Uses English language as Lingua Franca into CLIL contexts;

d. Uses peer to peer and cooperative learning as a better learning tool through continuous debate.

The activities that will be implemented are:

1. 2 training courses:

a. 1 regarding the EU, its structure and the opportunities it offers to youngsters in order to build democracy;

b. 1 on the debate methodology as a different approach

2. Research, analysis and teaching pathways construction, based on the chosen topics in which a great depth is going to be reached.

3. Debates among students from all the countries involved.

4. 3 international mobilities and students exchange, the last of which in Strasbourg, home of the EU parliament. In every exchange a public debate will take place.

The methodologies used are going to be centered on: group works, frontal lessons, work of the singles and debates.

The goals the project wants to reach are:

1. To acquire the awareness of the responsibilities, the rights and the duties that being part of a community gives us;

2. To participate to the democratic processes of a community;

3. To be attentive to the others point of view;

4. Critical evaluation of information;

5. Awareness of active citizenship values;

6. The improvement of Lisboa key competences, especially for what regards STEM, languages, digital competences, social and civic awareness, learning to learn.

To reach these goals, the debate topics developed in the project will be about environmental and migratory problems, that involve social and STEM disciplines, in a global perspective.

The project will be monitored during its whole duration and ongoing evaluated with quarterly, intermediate and final milestones. Evaluation and dissemination plans have been developed, together with their indicators dashboard, in order to constantly check if the project’s objectives are reached or not and in order to amplify the value of the results achieved.

The project is sustainable, being structured in order to be part of national curricula and of the European Development Plan of every partner school. Moreover the partner schools intend to put in place other projects to continue pursuing the same goals, in other programmatical European actions too (Europe for Citizens for example).

All of these via the debate methodology!

A debate is a structured argument. Two sides speak alternately for and against a particular contention usually based on a topical issue. Unlike the arguments you might have with your family or friends however, each person is allocated a time they are allowed to speak for and any interjections are carefully controlled. The subject of the dispute is often prearranged so you may find yourself having to support opinions with which you do not normally agree. You also have to argue as part of a team, being careful not to contradict what others on your side have said.

It is an excellent way of improving speaking skills and is particularly helpful in providing experience in developing a convincing argument. Those of you who are forced to argue against your natural point of view realize that arguments, like coins, always have at least two sides.

In a few words debate makes students better critical thinkers and, in the end, better citizens!