GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT

Our project “Europe: the puzzle of diversity” gives priority to raising awareness of the history, values and civilization of European countries through innovative education in a digital era. In an era when migration issues urgently ask for answers and European values and ideals are being questioned, we wish to broaden our pupils’ perspective of the world surrounding us. Everybody is different, everybody is unique, but we need to respect and value each other in order to harmoniously coexist with each other. We aim at showing how diverse countries and cultures and people can all get together, communicate and collaborate, without putting aside, but by focusing on the unique characteristics of each one. We want our students perceive Europe as a puzzle, that is realize that each piece is unique and invaluable and that if a piece is lost or damaged, the puzzle will never be completed.
After a detailed needs analysis (swot analysis) among partners, we realized the need to strengthen our teaching profiles and create a high quality educational environment. Global experiences have shown that teaching core subjects such as maths, science or literature by using the intangible cultural heritage background of learners can make the learning process more relevant, as it creates better connections between what is taught in classrooms and the children’s everyday life. It can also strengthen the links between schools, families and communities, reinforce relations between children, their parents and grandparents, stimulate students’ curiosity and promote the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage – all this while making learning more exciting and accessible.
The main motivation of our project is to promote creativity and create novel teaching material and activities through experiencing different cultures and exchanging ideas and best practices. Raising awareness on our shared cultural heritage, be it music, dances, folklore, daily habits, sports, games and toys, even folk tales and myths, we wish to develop perception, understanding and acceptance of diversity and cultural relativity. We focus on activities that promote collaboration, team work and social inclusion of all students, irrespectively of social, economic, cultural, health and learning difficulties.
Web 2.0 tools form the core of our project, since most partners are aware of basic ICT skills, but wish to improve their knowledge and integrate digital activities in their everyday practice. Adoption of these tools will help teachers improve their teaching, implementation and assessment methods. Also, they will help us raise students’ motivation to learn foreign languages, foreign habits and cultures, and ultimately develop communication with peers from other countries respectively. Participant teachers will also lead the way of educating future European citizens that are tolerant of diversity and fight prejudice of all kinds.