Innovation

All the partners have experiences in many european projects, but neither of us had ever thought of such an ambitious project in an subject like Music.

What is innovative in this project is that we will not only learn a lot about music and art from six different European countries, but we will emphasize what unites us, a common tradition as Europeans and we´ll make it known to all the students in the project, the environment of schools and many European teachers through networks such as eTwinning and EPRP.

Another innovative aspect is that the project will reach its culmination with an activity consisting of a concert celebrated with performances by students from the six countries. And as a grand finale, a chorus of students from the six nationalities will play a piece of music. The idea of thinking about a choir with students of six nationalities is exciting and full of enthusiasm.

A major innovation is the various ways in which learners of multiple Intelligences will benefit from our program:

According to Gardner (1991) students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways. According to this theory, "we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. Where individuals differ is in the strength of these intelligences". Unfortunately, our educational system is heavily biased toward linguistic modes of instruction and assessment regardless of the fact that students learn in ways that are identifiably distinctive. The broad spectrum of students - and perhaps the society as a whole - would be better served if disciplines could be presented in a number of ways and learning could be assessed through a variety of means. The following learning styles suggested by the “Multiple Intelligences” theory apply to the diversity of learning methods we are going to use in our Musical and Cultural project.

Visual-Spatial – Students who think in terms of physical space, who like to draw, do jigsaw puzzles, read maps, will benefit from the use of graphics, charts, photographs, drawings, video, videoconferencing, multimedia, texts with pictures/charts/graphs., used in the preliminary stages of our project.

Bodily-kinesthetic – Students who use their body effectively, who like movement and communicate well through body language, will enjoy being taught through physical activity, as they will take part in dancing activities.

Musical – Students who show sensitivity to rhythm and sound, who love music and study better with music in the background, will take pleasure in this project as they will be exposed to various kinds of musical backgrounds and traditions. Our activities will also include exposure to unusual national musical instruments.

Interpersonal – Students who learn through interaction, can be taught through group activities and dialogues. Tools include audio conferencing, time and attention from the instructor, video conferencing, writing, computer conferencing, E-mail.

Intrapersonal – Students who tend to shy away from others, who are in tune with their inner feelings, who have intuition and motivation, as well as a strong will, confidence and opinions, can be taught through independent study and introspection. Tools include books, creative materials, diaries, privacy and time. These students can be involved in the theoretical aspects of research and study of national musics.

Linguistic – Students who have highly developed auditory skills and often think in words, who like reading, playing word games, making up poetry or stories, will be encouraged to work together with their foreign partners in creating a song (lyrics and music).

Logical - Mathematical – Students who think conceptually, abstractly and are able to see and explore patterns and relationships, who like to experiment, solve puzzles and ask cosmic questions, will be encouraged to do research on the history of each country’s musical tradition.

We´ll complement this theory with other innovative methodologies, such as Flipped Classroom, Cooperative work techniques, programme the didactic units through Projects, creative thinking and collaborative problem solving.

The project will complement other projects on innovation and digitalization in the schools. In Cádiz, Chromebooks are being implemented in secondary and students will be able to use them to do collaborative works.

It will complement other linguistic projects in schools, such us BEDA programmes in Cádiz school.

In addition, students will learn to: persist, listen with understanding and empathy, think flexibly, apply past knowledge to new situations, think and communicate with clarity and precision, gather data through all senses, create, imagine, innovate and take responsible risks, all of which are indispensable habits of mind.