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20
Journal of the Comenius Association
Journal de l’Association Comenius
No. 20 – September 2011
Guest Editors
Niomi Kelly, Lia Frederickx & Piet Tutenel
Lessius Mechelen
Responsible Editors
Board of the Comenius Association,
represented by Geneviève Laloy, President
Language Editors
Niomi Kelly
Lia Frederickx
Chantal Muller
George Camacho
Piet Tutenel
–
Lessius Mechelen, Instituto Politécnico de Santarém
Haute École Namur-Liège-Luxembourg
Layout
Wim Bruyninckx
[email protected]
The views expressed in this journal are the sole
responsibility of the individual authors.
ISSN 2033-4443
journal de l’
association
comenius
comenius journal
September 2011
Contents
In Loving Memory
2
Perspectives: Internationalisation of the Curriculum
and new technologies
8
Could Facebook be Academic?
European Public-Private Partnerships on Media Literacy
E-ntercultural
Environmental Conscious Education and ICT
Education and Internationalisation in a Digital Age
Internationalization and Geography Fieldwork
Vision and Practices
International Learning in the Curriculum of Teacher training
What´s in our Head?
Le projet Comenius “Toddler”
Travel Experiences
Building Bridges
Outdoor Education in Norway
Life Long Learning is (Individual) Perception
Une quatrième année superflue?
Timisoara: A Flower with many Colors
How to organise an International Seminar in 10 steps
Philosophy at School
8
10
12
14
17
20
26
26
29
32
34
34
36
38
39
41
43
44
Announcements and upcoming events
49
Contributors
51
Institutions
52
In Loving Memory
Martine Chevalier °20 novembre 1953 – † 3 september 2011
What is Dying?
A ship sails and I stand watching it till it
fades on the horizon.
Someone at my side says, “She is gone.”
Gone where?
Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large as when I saw her.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is
in me, not in her.
And just at that moment, when someone at
your side says, “She is gone”
There are others
who are watching her coming.
And other voices take up the glad shout.
“Here she comes!”
And that is dying.
Le voilier.
Je suis debout au bord de la plage.
Un voilier passe dans la brise du matin et
part vers l’océan.
Il est la beauté, il est la vie.
Je le regarde jusqu’à ce qu’il disparaisse à
l’horizon.
Quelqu’un à mon coté dit : “Il est parti!“
Parti? Vers où?
Parti de mon regard, c’est tout!
Son mât est toujours aussi haut,
sa coque a toujours la force de porter sa
charge humaine.
Sa disparition totale de ma vue est en moi,
pas en lui.
Et juste au moment où quelqu’un près de
moi dit : “Il est parti! “
Il y en d’autres qui, le voyant poindre à
l’horizon et venir vers eux,
s’exclament avec joie : “Le voilà!“
C’est ça la mort.
William Blake
In Loving Memory
Interview Martine Chevalier, octobre 2009
Martine CHEVALIER est professeur
d’histoire à HELMo Sainte-Croix. Depuis
de nombreuses années, elle s’y occupe
également du service des relations internationales. Après de nombreuses années passées en classe mais aussi sur le terrain des
programmes d’échanges internationaux,
elle nous livre ici ses réflexions sur son enseignement et son rapport avec les futurs
enseignants qu’elle forme au quotidien.
Portrait
Nuances: Quel a été ton parcours académique et professionnel?
Martine CHEVALIER: Je suis sortie de
l’université avec une licence d’histoire et
l’AESS en poche en 1976. J’ai tout de
suite commencé par un premier intérim
à Hannut dans l’enseignement général et
technique. Mais très rapidement, j’ai été
appelée à Sainte-Croix pour y exercer un
¾ temps dans le secondaire et aussi dans
le normal primaire. C’était un peu de la
folie… J’avais face à moi des étudiants
qui étaient à peine jeunes que moi et qui
étaient beaucoup plus compétents en
didactique et en pédagogie. J’avais 22 ans
et je me lançais dans l’enseignement!
As-tu, comme beaucoup de profs, été
éparpillée dans plusieurs institutions
d’enseignement?
MC: A un moment donné, j’avais un horaire réparti dans cinq écoles! Je donnais
des cours dans le supérieur ici à SainteCroix mais aussi dans le secondaire à
Saint-Louis, à Ferrières, à Visé et à SaintBarth. J’aurais même dû aller à Stavelot!
Il me fallait plus de temps pour aller et
revenir que pour donner mes deux heures
de cours! Heureusement, dès 1988, je
n’ai plus enseigné qu’ici et à Saint-Louis.
C’est alors que la formation d’instituteur
primaire est passée à trois ans et en 1992
j’étais à plein temps à Sainte-Croix.
Tu es également fortement impliquée,
depuis de nombreuses années, dans
les relations internationales. Pourquoi
cette envie?
MC: Dès les années ’80, je me suis lancée
là-dedans. J’ai donc accompagné quasi
depuis le début le processus d’évolution
des échanges internationaux. Surtout via
Comenius, qui est une association qui est
née il y a tout juste 20 ans. A Sainte-Croix,
je travaille en étroite collaboration avec
Martine WILMOTS et nous formons une
bonne équipe. Chez nous, les étudiants
peuvent s’inscrire dans différentes activités. Dès le 2 ème bac, ils peuvent partir en
programmes courts. C’est maximum 15
jours et c’est soit en programme intensif
ou en semaine internationale. Ensuite, en
3 ème bac, il y a différents types de programmes. C’est très spécifique à SainteCroix, ça. Il y a bien sûr les traditionnels échanges Erasmus avec lesquels les
étudiants peuvent partir de 3 mois à 1 an.
Chez nous, les régents en langues doivent
obligatoirement partir à l’étranger.
A Sainte-Croix, les étudiants ont-ils
la possibilité de partir au-delà des
frontières européennes?
MC: Oui, exactement, car outre Erasmus,
nous avons aussi des programmes qui permettent aux étudiants de s’envoler pour le
Québec, le Bénin ou le Sénégal. Dans ces
cas-là, il s’agit d’un véritable projet pédagogique qui est mené, dès septembre, avec
les étudiants. Ce n’est donc pas du clé sur
porte. Il y a donc toute une préparation
interculturelle pour tous ceux qui partent.
Nous avons plusieurs réunions avec eux.
On y évoque leurs craintes et leurs peurs
face à l’inconnu, les chocs culturels qu’ils
peuvent subir. On y évoque aussi les buts
d’un voyage à l’étranger dans le cadre
d’une formation pédagogique.
Pour en revenir au cours d’histoire
que tu donnes, quels en sont les spécificités?
MC: Pour moi, il est important
d’apprendre aux étudiants la rigueur
dans le travail. Je donne aussi une grande
importance à l’institutionnel, au rôle de
l’étudiant dans la société mais aussi dans
sa classe. Lorsqu’on est enseignant, on
défend un certain nombre de valeurs et le
cours d’histoire prend ici une place toute
particulière. Car l’histoire, ce n’est pas
seulement retenir des dates! Il faut donner
un sens aux choses. Expliquer pourquoi
elles se passent, rechercher les origines et
le lien qui existent entre les événements.
Comenius Journal
September 2011
Je m’intéresse tout particulièrement aux
périodes révolutionnaires parce qu’il s’agit
de moments charnières de l’histoire.
Comment travailles-tu avec tes étudiants?
MC: En 3 ème bac instituteur primaire, je
fais un jeu de rôles. Je monte cela comme
un vrai projet. Généralement, on part d’un
film: « Daens » par exemple. Les étudiants identifient les acteurs historiques et
ils doivent ensuite adopter l’un des rôles
observés. Je leur distribue des dossiers
avec des sources et ils doivent entamer des
recherches pour construire leur rôle: un
patron, un ouvrier, un évêque… Je leur
donne ensuite une fourchette de dates et
un fait historique. Après avoir cherché
eux-mêmes leurs costumes, ils doivent
élaborer une argumentation en fonction de
leurs rôles et de la période choisie. Nous
faisons ensuite un débriefing et on revient
aux véritables faits historiques. J’essaye de
leur montrer la distance qu’il peut exister
entre aujourd’hui et hier. L’idée majeure,
c’est que nous reconstruisons le passé en
permanence. Les étudiants peuvent ensuite utiliser ces acquis pour faire des liens
avec le programme intégré. Malheureusement, ce n’est qu’un cours de 15 heures
en 3 ème bac.
Un souhait pour le futur?
MC: Continuer à aimer faire ce que je fais!
Ce qui me plaît beaucoup, c’est d’aller à
l’étranger pour rencontrer des partenaires
pédagogiques. J’aime mettre en route des
programmes d’échanges où je sais que
je peux envoyer les étudiants en toute
confiance et où je suis persuadée qu’ils
apprendront quelque chose d’intéressant
pour leur métier et leur vie futurs!
P at r i c k D e j a r n ac
collègue et professeur
3
In Loving Memory
Martine, chère Martine,
Nos cœurs sont en berne depuis quelques
jours car une femme hors du commun
vient de nous quitter. Martine, chère
Martine.
Je parle ici au nom de l’Association
Comenius, Réseau de partenariat
pédagogique entre Universités et Hautes
écoles de Formation d’enseignants un peu
partout en Europe.
Martine y était une véritable cheville
ouvrière depuis des années et son engagement était un modèle en la matière.
Coordinatrice internationale à son propre
institut, elle était également depuis
des années un membre du Bureau de
l’Association, prenant en charge avec brio
une bonne partie de ce secrétariat international, stimulant de nombreux projets
internationaux, se donnant corps et âme
pour l’international, en Europe et bien au
delà, avec ses nombreux partenaires un
peu partout dans le monde.
Corps et âme, c’est bien de cela qu’il
s’agit. Martine donnait sans cesse de son
temps et de sa personne pour des projets
et collaborations auxquels elle croyait,
qui rejoignait ses valeurs d’ouverture,
de convivialité, d’éducation citoyenne,
d’interculturalité, de développement durable, de construction européenne.
Elle se donnait sans compter, à tel point
que l’on se demandait comment elle
pouvait prendre tout cela en charge,
comment elle pouvait être ici et ailleurs,
stimuler, coordonner autant de projets,
tout en donnant cours, tout en accueillant
des hôtes étrangers, tout en rédigeant des
rapports et dossiers, tout en partant pour
4
Santarém alors qu’elle venait de revenir
de Chicoutimi, tout en portant attention à
chacun, étudiants et collègues, tout étant
une grande dame, qui semblait se mettre
sur son 31 en toutes occasions. Elle était
admirable et nous l’admirions.
Comme il était bon de faire des projets
avec elle. Comme il était bon de rêver à
ce qui pourrait passionner nos étudiants
et nos collègues, comme il était enthousiasmant de voir ensemble comment nous
allions y arriver.
Elle était efficace et rigoureuse,
Elle était tenace et audacieuse,
Elle était avant-gardiste et consciencieuse,
Elle était perfectionniste et tellement
généreuse.
Elle savait travailler du matin au soir mais
elle savait aussi laisser la place à la fête,
aux soirées interculturelles et quand elle
ne courait pas, elle adorait danser.
Elle était décidément une comparse de
travail formidable avec qui c’était un bonheur de lancer et coordonner tous ces projets internationaux ainsi que l’Association
Comenius elle-même. Au-delà de la collègue de travail, de la
partenaire si précieuse, elle était aussi
pour bon nombre d’entre nous, une
grande amie.
Chacun d’entre nous se dit qu’il a eu la
chance de croiser sa route et de faire un
bout de chemin, court ou long, avec elle.
Les messages des collègues de
l’Association Comenius sont nombreux,
ils viennent de Suède, du Danemark,
de Norvège, de Roumanie, de Hongrie,
d’Autriche, de Suisse, d’Espagne, de
Comenius Journal
September 2011
France, du Portugal, des Pays-Bas, de
Grande-Bretagne, d’Irlande, de Belgique
mais aussi de Klingenthal de la part de
Madame Stintzi et enfin d’au-delà des
frontières européennes. Tous souhaitent
redire à sa famille et ses proches amis,
combien elle comptait énormément pour
nous tous, combien elle était appréciée et
combien elle va continuer à nous accompagner, à la manière des bonnes fées, qui
veillent de loin.
Martine a toujours été une bonne étoile et
elle le restera longtemps encore…
C’est certain, elle va nous manquer. Elle
nous manque déjà.
Je cède maintenant la parole à Wim
Friebel qui fut pendant de longues années
le trésorier de l’Association Comenius et
avec qui Martine a donc fait longtemps
équipe. Elle adorait écouter ses discours,
cela lui faisait du bien de l’écouter, cela la
faisait toujours sourire et parfois rire aux
éclats.
Geneviève Laloy
President of the Comenius Association
On behalf of the Comenius Association
In Loving Memory
Martine, dear Martine,
Our hearts are mourning since an outstanding woman left us.
I am speaking currently in the name of
the Comenius Association, a network
of teacher training institutions all over
Europe. Martine used to be a kingpin in
this team and her year-long involvement
was remarkable. She was the international
coordinator in her institution, a member of the Association Bureau, taking in
charge brilliantly most of the international
secretarial work; she was able to stimulate
a lot of international projects; she threw
herself body and soul into these international projects within Europe and outside
the European borders, devoting herself to
her partners all over the world.
With body and soul, this is the way Martine acted. Martine used to give her time,
her energy to projects, to collaborations, in
which she believed, which embodied her
values of openness, conviviality, education
to citizenship, interculturality, sustainable
development and European construction.
She spared no effort. We kept wondering
how she managed to take care of all these
matters; how she managed to be here and
there; how she could stimulate, coordinate
so many projects, and still teach; how she
could on top of all this welcome so many
foreign colleagues, and still write reports
and files; how she could leave for Santarem when she had just come back from
Chicoutimi; how she could pay attention
to everyone, student or colleague; how she
could be this grand lady always so elegant.
She was admirable and we admired her.
How good it was to make projects with
her. How good it was to dream of what
could motivate our students and colleagues. How exciting it was to work out
together how we would manage.
She was efficient and rigorous.
She was tenacious and daring.
She was avant-gardist and conscientious.
She was perfectionist and so generous.
She could work whole day long but she
also enjoyed partying, intercultural evenings and when she did not run, she loved
dancing.
Now I give the floor to Wim Friebel, who
was for many years the treasurer of the
Association and with whom Martine made
a team. She loved listening to his speeches,
she always smiled and even sometimes
roared with laughter.
Geneviève Laloy
President of the Comenius Association
On behalf of the Comenius Association
She was indeed a formidable partner of
work, with whom it was a pleasure to
launch and coordinate all these international projects, including the Comenius
Association itself.
Next to the colleague, the precious partner, she was also for many of us a great
friend.
Every one of us knows it was a great
chance to have been able to cross her road
and to go part of the way – be it short or
long – with her.
The messages from colleagues from the
Comenius Association are numerous. They
come from Sweden, Denmark, Romania,
Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Spain,
France, Portugal, the Netherlands, GreatBritain, Ireland, Belgium but also from
Klingenthal from Ms Stintzi and finally
from outside Europe. All want to tell her
family and her close friends how much we
appreciated her. She will go on with us on
the way, like a good fairy, watching over us
from afar.
Martine always was a lucky star and she
will remain it …
For sure, we’ll miss her. We already miss
her.
Comenius Journal
September 2011
5
In Loving Memory
Chère Madame, maman de Martine,
Cher Pierre, frère de Martine,
Chers famille, amis, collègues,
Me joignant aux paroles de Geneviève,
je veux illuminer la vie de Martine au
sein de l’Association Comenius, comme
ancien collègue international, ça va sans
dire, mais surtout comme un de ses amis,
puisque, comme Martine Wilmots, collègue de l’Institut Sainte-Croix l’a évoqué
dans un de ses mails fréquents : « Martine
a joué un rôle important dans l’Association Comenius mais la profondeur des
relations amicales qu’elle a développé avec
tant de partenaires, c’était vraiment sa
marque. »
Je suis Wim Friebel, ancien trésorier de
l’Association, et je connais Martine depuis
plus de 20 ans. Je ne me rappelle pas
exactement l’année de son entrée dans
l’Association mais la première coopération
avec Hogeschool Alkmaar aux Pays-Bas
où j’étais le responsable des Relations
Internationales à cette époque, était une
manifestation d’idéalisme et de force sans
pareil.
Il s’agissait d’un projet de promotion de
la connaissance des langues étrangères
appelé « Lingua ». Les étudiants néerlandais suivaient un programme avec des
conférences et des ateliers et ils rendaient
visite aux écoles pour donner des cours ;
vice versa, les étudiants liégeois séjournaient deux semaines à Alkmaar avec le
même but. Si je vous montre la brochure
de travail à Alkmaar, vous comprenez
le caractère sérieux de ces rencontres.
Et n’oubliez-pas, ce projet s’est déroulé
en 1992, c’est-à-dire la période durant
laquelle les instituts commençaient à
penser que les idées d’interculturalité et
d’internationalisation pourraient avoir de
la valeur dans la formation.
Dans les années suivantes, Martine a
coopéré à toutes sortes de projets, prenant
toujours un rôle très actif. Qu’il s’agisse
6
de stages courts (une ou deux semaines)
ou de stages longs (trois à six mois), ou
d’ateliers concernant l’expression créative
ou l’éducation musicale, Martine montrait
non seulement son intérêt mais également ses propres idées et venait avec des
apports bien réfléchis, qui sortaient du
commun.
Permettez-moi de vous donner un
exemple : les étudiants de Liège qui
étaient en stage à Alkmaar pour trois mois
ne suivaient pas le programme en anglais
développé notamment pour les étudiants
étrangers, non, elle insistait pour que les
étudiants liégeois suivent le programme
régulier en néerlandais. Elle a toujours
particulièrement sélectionné les étudiants
liégeois qui voulaient améliorer leur
connaissance de la langue néerlandaise.
Vous l’aurez compris, Martine avait une
volonté et une opinion bien à elle.
Je veux vous encore parler d’une catégorie
de projets : ce sont les Programmes Intensifs. A mon avis, Martine était la Grande
Dame des Programmes Intensifs.
Peut-être dois-je expliquer à ceux qui
ne travaillent pas dans l’enseignement
supérieur ce qu’est un Programme Intensif. Cela concerne un projet dans lequel
un grand nombre d’étudiants venant de
cinq ou dix pays européens travaillent
ensemble à un certain endroit autour d’un
thème pertinent pour leur formation pendant 10 jours. Les programmes intensifs
sont subventionnés par la Commission
européenne mais les conditions pour recevoir ces subsides sont sévères.
Pourquoi en est-elle la Grande Dame
dans notre Association ? Parce qu’elle
s’occupait d’une variété incroyable de
Programmes tant au niveau des contenus
que de la coopération qu’elle avait avec un
grand nombre d’Instituts.
Le premier programme développé sous sa
direction avait comme thème le déve-
Comenius Journal
September 2011
loppement durable. Sans doute reconnaissez-vous immédiatement la personne
de Martine dans ce thème. Mais après,
comme je l’ai mentionné, elle a coordonné
une série de programmes avec des thèmes
totalement différents tels que : la violence,
le patrimoine européen, la philosophie
et la citoyenneté. En plus de coordonner
ces programmes, elle coopérait aussi avec
d’autres instituts de l’Association tels
que : « Education for peace, conflict and
resolution », « Water, a common concern
for Europe, an educational topic », « Former à l’interculturalité à l’école fondamentale ».
Je suis sûr que vous êtes d’accord, Martine était véritablement la Grande Dame
des Programmes Intensifs.
Chaque année, l’Association Comenius
organise une conférence aux environs
de Strasbourg, à savoir dans un château
dans le village de Klingenthal. Après mon
arrivée par train à Liège, Martine venait
me chercher à la gare et nous voyagions
ensemble dans sa voiture jusqu’à Klingenthal. Après quelques heures agréables
– avec un arrêt où l’essence était offerte
à un prix modéré afin de restreindre les
dépenses pour son institut Sainte-Croix –
nous arrivions au Château de Klingenthal.
Là, la Fondation Goethe nous accueillait.
L’année passée, ma dernière visite à Klingenthal aurait dû avoir lieu. Je me suis en
effet retiré comme trésorier de l’Association et puisque je suis retraité, c’était le
bon moment pour dire adieu à tous mes
collègues. Cependant, je n’y suis pas allé
à cause de la maladie de Martine : au
mois d’avril, la chimiothérapie n’était pas
encore terminée et il était évident qu’elle
ne pourrait pas assister à la réunion de
Klingenthal au mois de mai. Comment
dire adieu sans Martine ?
Mais elle était encore optimiste, comme
moi. Quoique cette maladie terrible ait
bouleversé toute sa vie, je ne pouvais pas
In Loving Memory
croire qu’il n’y avait pas de récupération
possible. Madame Stintzi, la Présidente
de la Fondation Goethe qui maîtrise le
château de Klingenthal avec laquelle j’étais
en contact, était de la même opinion. Elle
aurait d’ailleurs voulu être ici en ce moment pour témoigner de ses sentiments de
haute considération pour Martine. Hélas,
la vie peut être cruelle car la maladie a
éteint toutes les forces de Martine.
Si vous le permettez, je veux terminer en
termes positifs. Savez-vous que l’Association Comenius a créé en 1998 un prix
pour récompenser des travaux d’étudiants
portant sur une expérience de pédagogie interculturelle européenne ? Ce prix
Comenius a été attribué cinq fois, à savoir
une fois pour un représentant de Valence,
une fois à une étudiante d’Alkmaar, une
fois à un étudiant de Timisoara en Roumanie. Les deux autres fois, il s’agissait
d’étudiants de Liège. Voilà de nouveau un
exemple de la persévérance et du dévouement de Martine n’et-ce pas ? Elle savait
enthousiasmer ses étudiants et en tirer de
grands efforts.
En 2005, Martine a été élue secrétaire
de l’Association Comenius. Je me suis
franchement demandé comment elle
pourrait trouver le temps d’exécuter cette
tâche. Qui doit toujours travailler durant
les conférences et les réunions ? C’est la
secrétaire. C’est la tâche la plus lourde.
C’est plus facile d’être le trésorier.
Dès cette période-là, Martine ouvrait son
lap top au début des séances. Elle prenait
des notes, assise en face du groupe, à côté
de la présidente, et après les réunions,
nous recevions à la maison des rapports
de grande qualité. Tombés du ciel ? Non,
scrupuleusement rédigés et envoyés par
Martine.
nouveau mandat.
S U M M A R Y
Quoi qu’il y ait toujours une deuxième
personne travaillant pour le secrétariat,
notamment pour les travaux en anglais,
on ne peut s’imaginer que le secrétariat de
l’Association ne soit plus dans les mains
de Martine.
Martine Wilmots m’a fait savoir que « les
marques de sympathie » ont plu des quatre
coins de l’Europe dans sa boîte mail. Je le
comprends très bien. Elle avait des amis
partout.
Et je n’en ai pas encore parlé mais comme
nous avons ri et vécu de grands plaisirs durant les soirées après les longues
réunions autour d’un verre ou lors de
nos tours aux Pays-Bas et en Belgique,
comme les temps avec Raoul et Huguette
Fontaine. Voilà aussi une facette de la vie
de Martine.
Je suis d’accord avec Pierre, son frère, qu’il
ne s’agit pas aujourd’hui d’un véritable
adieu. « Comment effacer des souvenirs
heureux ? Martine a été et reste une
personne authentique en nos cœurs. Elle y
restera vivante, présente. »
Wim Friebel,
Ancien Trésorier De L’association Comenius,
Collègue International Et Ami De Longue Date De
Martine Chevalier.
Au début, elle avait accepté la tâche du
secrétariat pour une période de deux ans.
Mais bien sûr, elle avait accepté de continuer pour une nouvelle période de trois
ans et enfin en 2010 de recommencer un
September 2011
E N G L I S H
Wim Friebel evokes the important
role Martine played in the Comenius Association as a hard-working
secretary but also the depth of the
relationships she developed with
so many partners. He stresses the
fact that Martine launched a lot of
projects of different types on varied
topics. But he also recalls the friend
he has lost.
Martine était encore une jeune femme
au moment où je l’ai rencontrée pour la
première fois. Mardi passé je l’ai vue pour
la dernière fois à l’hôpital de Huy, très
maigre mais encore avec une opinion et
une volonté propre. Pourquoi nous a-t-elle
quittés dans la force de sa vie ?
Comenius Journal
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Could Facebook be
Academic?
A B S T R A C T
Kia KIMHAG
Lecturer, International coordinator
University of Gävle
I have started to use Facebook to create
a better access to my students. But is
Facebook academic? Why do we have a
need of using it? What can be done? As far
as I see students are spending quite a lot
of time on Facebook and that gives many
opportunities to get closer to the students.
The students in the class continue to
socialize. I have also noticed that it works
very well if I really want to reach students
or quick need to get out a message to the
class. I always get a quick reply if I send it
on Facebook instead of using Blackboard.
One thing that is functional is creating
groups where discussion, information,
course objectives, data etc reach everyone
in the group. Before a lesson I can as a
teacher ask students for preparation that
I want to add. After the lesson students
can have a discussion going on about the
content of the lesson. They can reflect
upon their own learning and issues could
arise if I and the students respond and
bring the discussion forward. I also think
8
Dans les dernières années, les nouveaux média de communication sociale ont pris une
grande part dans nos vies. De plus en plus les gens utilisent de leur temps de loisirs ou
de travail pour voir ce qu’il y a de nouveau par exemple sur la plateforme Facebook, le
deuxième site le plus visité au monde après Google. Au passé, nous avons utilisé dans notre
université la plateforme Blackboard, mais j’ai constaté que les étudiants n’y allaient pas aussi
régulièrement et avaient parfois des difficultés de connections, etc.
In a few years the social medias have grown to become a big part of our lives. More people
spend their leisure time and also school time to check what’s up between friends for example
on the platform Facebook, the second most popular site in the world after Google. Our
courses at my University have for many years used the platform Blackboard. But what I have
found is that our students not so regularly visit the platform and struggle with problems of
access etc.
that it might be easier to be heard in the
discussion for example like a quiet person
or a person with difficulty of expressing him- or herself orally. More talkative
students can take over in the classroom.
The time and the space are wider and
the culture on Facebook is in my point
of view that we accept incorrect spelling and it is not so formal. Most of the
structure and the tools at Facebook are
already known by the students, so I don’t
have to teach the students how to use
Facebook. They already know! Robin
Teigland (2010) investigates about virtual
worlds and social media. Teigland means
that if you use Facebook and other social
platforms you also follow some principles.
Comenius Journal
September 2011
Networks are self-regulating, users picking
up what works and does not fit to share,
you can´t control or direct the networks
and whether you should get something
you have to give. People who do not share
are not popular. Many teachers use social
platforms and have done so for a long
time for many reasons.
I have asked colleagues at my university
why they use Facebook and what they
think of it as a tool. Here are some of the
answers:
Lecturer one
“I agree that Facebook (fb) is more accessible and easy to use than for example
Pe r s p e c t i v e s : I n t e r n a t i o n a l i s a t i o n o f t h e C u r r i c u l u m a n d n e w t e c h n o l o g i e s
bb (Blackboard). However, bb has to be
much secure and be able to “do” more
things (registration, course evaluations,
individual and group blogs, wikis, etc.)
Hence bb is bound to be more complex
to use than for example fb. In my view
fb can serve as an excellent area for social
communication and informal learning in
distance courses. By creating secret groups
in fb I have created a social meeting place
where the student conversations are allowed to get less formal and people who
seldom express themselves in formal situations can make their voices heard here.
I compare fb to a student corridor. It’s a
place where students can talk about anything, since their common goal is learning,
this often means that they will in fact learn
informally onfFb. Every now and then
(like in a corridor) a teacher might walk by
(in this case visit the secret fb-group) and
then it’s ok to ask him/her question. However, I make it very clear to the student
that participation in the group is voluntary
and that I or HIG (University of Gävle)
doesn’t take responsibility for moderating
the conversation, etc. “
Lecturer two
“I was invited by quite many student on
facebook at first and said that I can try it
for three months and so I did. I found it
quite interesting to notice how vivid the
dialogue was at times and I could see that
some students that were not so active in
the seminars, took more apace on fb. After
the three months, I closed my account
and only after some days I had a bunch of
e-mails where – not only – students asked
why I was not on fb any more. The result
was that I reactivated my account and in
my academic work I have used it for quick
communication with Erasmus- and Comenius students.
With the Erasmus students (student teachers), most of them from Malta, Holland,
Belgium and Spain, the use of fb developed organically: I had a request from one
of the students about becoming a friend
of fb and after some weeks this had grown
so that some twenty or more Erasmus
students and I had the possibility to communicate via fb. Today (the beginning of
September 2011) I can see that there are
contacts still between students that met
at the University of Gävle two or even
three years ago – and also some Swedish
students, teachers and pupils from the
practice schools and take part in this international chat and spreading of information
and links on education and other sectors
of their lives.
The Comenius students from Slovenia,
Turkey, Estonia, Belgium and Sweden I
worked with early last year (2010) suggested at the beginning of the intense three
weeks course that we should establish a
closed fb group for quick communication and to be able to stay in contact if we
wanted after the end of the project. Today,
1 ½ years after the end of the course, at
least three of the academic teachers and
ten of the all together thirteen students
still have some contact and some more
intense than others.”
but an excellent complement”
Lecturer two
“ I can see that fb – or other platforms of
this kind – can serve complementary to
the educational platforms that are used
within the higher education. Maybe the
social medias also can open for more
emancipation, as the easiness of the use of
them is obvious.”
The question if Facebook can be academic
must be up to us to decide. We are one of
the tools of the future so even if our work
changes we have to follow the society. Or
do we?
Kia Kimhag
Education is changing in the schools and
we have to prepare the teachers we educate. Anna Karlsson (secondary teacher)
won the European final 2010 (Microsoft
price) as most innovative teachers and she
came 3rd in the world cup (South Africa
2011): she uses Blogs, Facebook and Twitter to add up for example lessons online.
She says that is how we use the computer
tools and see opportunities that make a
difference. The school must keep up with
the society. Ylva Hasselberg (2000) says
that personal relations and networks constitute an important resource. That is the
key to get information and the formation
of developing attitudes.
References
Anna Karlsson, teacher at Viktor
Rydbergs samskola, Danderyd. Dagens
Nyheter 2011-09-05, http://www.
dn.se/nyheter/sverige/natet-verktyg-forinnovativ-larare-?rm=print.
Ylva Hasselberg, 2000, Social
networks and economic development.
Entrepreneurial networks and their
influence on patterns of innovation and
stagnation in Swedish business 18701985 (Tore Browaldhs stiftelse).
Robin Teigland, http://www.hhs.
se/search/person/pages/person.
aspx?personid=785.
Thomas Dahlström http://www.
meetingsinternational.se/articles.
php?id=190.
Is it possible to ignore social platforms
that the pupils/students prefer to use?
How innovative are we lecturers in the
education? Do we want or need to use the
social platforms? Or can we avoid it if that
is the future for our becoming teachers?
Thomas Dahlström (2010) interviewed
Robin Teigland about hormones (oxytocin- makes us peaceful and prosperous)
researcher have found in the brain and
how that explains our use of social media.
After only 10 minutes of Twitter the percent increase (13%) the study also showed
that the stress hormones went down. So
the use of the media has many levels!
My colleagues conclude the question if
Facebook can be academic.
Lecturer one
“Well, since a secret fb-group of university
students are likely to discuss academic
questions on fb it can. It is not yet, however, a replacement for their formal LMS
Comenius Journal
September 2011
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European Public-Private
Partnerships on Media
Literacy
A Boon to Adapt to
Change?
A B S T R A C T
Violaine HACKER
PhD, European Department Studies,
Sorbonne
Consultant in Public Policy
The way audiences view television is
about to change. For instance, Microsoft
is set to bring live television to millions of
Xbox 360 owners. The landscape is transforming, and Internet television availability will be as widely available around the
world as it currently is in the UK.
Over the next few years, digital services
will be free to use on your console to
which you will be able to directly really
speak to order video, mobile phone services, less controlled web and social networks. Against this backdrop, and given
the fact that the “Europe 2020 Strategy”
will determine the EU’s policies and
investment priorities for the next decade,
the cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary
aspect of creativity mixing elements of
culture-based creativity and economic as
well as technological innovation are foregrounded. Moreover, policy makers acknowledge that a competitive audiovisual
sector has important economic spill-over
effects on other industries. Consequently,
10
La politique des médias dans un contexte globalisé révèle la façon dont la société de
la connaissance et la diversité culturelle est perçue. Elle doit tenir compte des nouvelles
logiques technologiques et identitaires en constante évolution. En particulier, l’ambition des
programmes institutionnels européens sur l’éducation aux médias (media literacy) - bien que
cela relève de la compétence des Etats membres -, révèle la responsabilité et les opportunités
relevant du secteur privé (notamment industriel), et le rôle de la société civile. Cet article
interroge donc sur le système de gouvernance capable de tenir compte du changement, et
sur le principe de coresponsabilité. Il envisage les dangers, les opportunités et les efforts à
mener quant aux partenariats publics-privés sur l’éducation aux médias. Une comparaison
internationale permet de déterminer les avantages et inconvénients d’un tel paradigme.
The paper is related to media education and cultural or educational policy as well as international developments in media education. The aim is to analyse EU Medias regulation in a
globalized context, as regards cultural diversity and knowledge as common goods. In that
respect, I show ambition of the EU programme on EU media literacy - even though education
remains a competence of the member states. Therefore I show the fragmentation among
countries, the accountability of as well as opportunity for the private sectors, and the role of
the educational people. Despite the Lisbon and Europe 2020 strategies, enlargement continue to pose a challenge, when the ECE states are still in post-accession crisis (see European
policies at regional and local levels). I wonder if digital citizenship is a new set of life skills
or a form of moral education that frames media and technology use in terms of middle-class
values and cultural norms. I demonstrate how do messages about media literacy and about
the value of digital media and learning resonate with policymakers, school leaders, as well
as the private sector.
efforts will have to be steered in the right
direction, not only to foster entrepreneurship but also to enable European citizens
to acquire new skills necessary for social
inclusion and cohesion. Europe has to
find a way to move from cultural competition to cultural collaboration both at
institutional and industrial level. It would
gain from a more public-private collab-
Comenius Journal
September 2011
orative approach, partly because Media
education is committed to the principle of
continuous change regarding technology
as well as people’ way of thinking. Then, if
developed in tandem with such a continuously changing reality, the result would be
lifelong empowerment of the citizen.
If curriculum strives to reflect the values
and principles of a democratic society,
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there seems to be an opportunity for
critical literacy and Media Education
in Languages and Culture courses. For
instance, in South Africa, the increasing
demand for Media Education has evolved
from the dismantling of apartheid and the
1994 democratic elections, so that new
national curriculum has been in the writing stages since 1997 to promote critical
thinking skills to bear on all media, from
music videos and Web environments to
product placement in films and virtual
displays on NHL hockey boards and next
consoles. The recent concept of media
literacy is defined attached to the idea
of “Education for Sustainable Development” included in the United Nations’
Principles, of which UNESCO is the lead
agency. It was contextualized within the
advocacies on the human rights-based approach to programming, and the creation
of knowledge societies, both carried out
with the support of the Council of Europe.
The EU regulatory framework for media
literacy has accelerated in recent years,
even though culture remains a national
competence. This supposes a transition
toward multilevel governance based on a
model of co-responsibility amongst public
sector, civil society and industry aware of
change.
Firstly, activities developed by government and institutional authorities aim at
promoting media literacy with investment,
subsidies, support, rulings, control, or
vigilance. This has been developing in the
UK since at least the 1930s. In the 1960s,
a paradigm shift in the field of media literacy was supposed to emphasize working
within popular culture rather than trying
to convince people that popular culture
was primarily destructive. Then, the focus
of media literacy shifted to the consumption of images and representations, known
as the representational paradigm, and key
agencies have been involved in this development. Media education was introduced
into the Finnish elementary curriculum
in 1970 and into high schools in 1977.
In the Irish curriculum, media literacy is
included in Social, Personal and Health
Education (SPHE). Nowadays almost
every European country has some form of
body or authority in charge of supervising the implementation of broadcasting
or telecommunication legislation. Now a
Europe-wide scale inclusion of media literacy in the official education curriculum
would promote programme for developing
media skills and knowledge as part of the
promotion of civil and knowledge society
as well as the promotion of diversity and
activities of local communities.
Secondly, the civil society plays a pivotal
role. Professional educators’ associations,
and associations of parents, professionals,
political and religious movements, and
young people that protest media related
risk situations, encourage the raising of
awareness. Nonetheless the possibility
that the development of active citizenship could affect the economy is taboo.
Ideological protectionism stemming
from a political commitment criticises
and condemns messages, so that media
get opposed to this commitment. There
remain differences between technical
focus to digital literacy and humanist and
cultural focus, mainly due to a lack of
bridges between educational systems and
the working system, as well as the lack of
consideration given to the value of education in relation to employability and the
ability to affect production. Consequently,
the current emerging model of co-responsibility is still lacking translation into effective actions. The dispersion and lack of
coordination among stakeholders leads to
failure in co-operation and interchange of
information among different actors. Then
national, regional and local initiatives do
not achieve any European visibility of
proper media. On top of it, despite the
existing network of cooperation, financial
support for meetings, research projects organized by existing networks and new services would help adapt to change. These
suppose a Common Framework with an
overall strategic goal, possibly defined dur-
Comenius Journal
September 2011
ing dialogue and cooperation between the
different actors regarding media regulation, self-regulation and co-regulation
as a means of promoting media literacy.
Institutional inertia and routine often slow
down the development of innovation that
media literacy policies bring with them.
Consequently and thirdly, the co-participation of industry, the education system
and other actors in the development
of lifelong learning activities could be
encouraged through European support
mechanisms for production. Ties can be
promoted between industry and research
into media education, such like the BBC
offering the general public many different
online resources for getting involved with
Media Literacy and media production
skills. While Media literacy continues to
evolve at the same time of new technology
leads to emerging insight, in Hong Kong
and China, the rapid diffusion of ICTs
in education and the massive injection of
funding have offered huge potential for
developing creative work, with an eye on
internet safety for youth, in Singapore or
Japan. In the US, various stakeholders
struggle over nuances of meaning associated with the conceptualization of the
practice on media literacy education.
Eventually, Australia, New Zealand
and Canada remain the most advanced
countries, notably because well established
partnerships with the media industry and
regulators are accepted. Where there are
fewer resources, or where there is little
interest from policy makers, the development of Media Literacy initiatives relies
almost exclusively on partnerships, for
example with production based projects in
China and Hong Kong. In many African
countries, these partnerships are necessary just to ensure the provision of basic
resources. In many developing countries,
educators are still largely preoccupied with
developing basic print literacy, so that
media literacy is only just beginning to
register as a concern!
Violaine Hacker
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E-ntercultural
Supporting Intercultural
Competence in Teachers
Through an Online
Training Course
A B S T R A C T
Joke Simons and Gunilla de Graef present the e-tool “E-ntercultural”. The project aims at
enhancing intercultural competence for teachers through an on-line training course. The e-tool
has been developed by CIMIC, Centre for expertise on Intercultural Management Lessius.
Joke SIMONS
researcher and coach Teacher Training
Lessius Mechelen
Gunilla DE GRAEF
coordinator CIMIC,
Centre for expertise on Intercultural
Management Lessius.
The project ‘E-ntercultural, in support
of intercultural competence for teachers through an on-line training course’ is
rooted in current social developments. A
recent study of social, economic and political dimensions of globalization shows
that Belgium is considered to be one of
the most globalized countries in the world
(De Standaard, January 8, 2008). Globalization is accompanied by an increase
in diversity at all social levels. In primary
and secondary education, this increased
diversity is already clearly reflected in the
student population (Verstegen, 2004).
But most teachers and school management teams, by contrast, do not reflect the
multicolored society. In 2009, the Flemish
Minorities Forum calculated that of all
Flemish teachers, less than 1% is of immigrant origin. This under-representation of
12
Joke Simons et Gunilla de Graef presentent le e-tool «E-nterculturelle». Le project
l’amélioration de la competence culturelle des professeurs a travers d’un cours on-line. Le
e-tool a été developé par CIMIC, Centre d’Expertise de management Interculturel Lessius.
teachers / role models of immigrant origin
has an impact not only on the pedagogical
and didactic approach, but also influences
the study-choices of young people from
ethnic minorities.
Teachers and principals are struggling
with diversity and multiculturalism. But
a targeted approach is lacking. There is a
need for a concrete framework on intercultural competence and management
that allows teachers to more effectively
cope with the intercultural reality. In addition, there is need for a support-program
that allows them to actively respond to the
challenges associated with increasing (ethnic) diversity. The project E-ntercultureel
offers both.
Comenius Journal
September 2011
Sensitivity to the needs of ethnic minorities and thus attention to cultural
differences is an essential skill for today’s
teachers and lecturers. Indeed, the
intercultural competence of teachers supports a successful intercultural dialogue
in broad social terms (in the workplace,
in the media,…). But today, there is not
sufficient attention in teacher training
for existing ethno-cultural differences.
The preliminary research in this project
showed that in the existing curriculum,
despite a positive trend – e.g. multiculturalism as an optional course – there is
still insufficient systematic attention to
developing intercultural skills.
One explanation for this ‘lack’ is a practical one. Despite the many questions and
difficulties that teachers encounter when
Pe r s p e c t i v e s : I n t e r n a t i o n a l i s a t i o n o f t h e C u r r i c u l u m a n d n e w t e c h n o l o g i e s
dealing with multiculturalism, it is difficult
to engage them in additional learning
about intercultural encounters. An indepth course on intercultural competence
and coping with ethnic and cultural diversity requires a large investment in terms
of time, resources and covering distance.
It is therefore important to create an offer
‘closer to home’. The e-course ‘E-ntercultural’ makes this possible. It offers current
and prospective teachers the opportunity
to reflect on their practices in the intercultural classroom at their own pace and
in their own time, thanks to the modular
structure of the course and the fact that it
is of course an on-line application.
The specific objectives of the e-course are
the following: we want to offer (future)
teachers:
•an opportunity to reflect on one’s own
cultural frame of reference (position and
grounding)
•a support in identifying the diversity of
cultures and to define a comprehensive
framework of values and norms (interpreting and understanding)
•a forum to develop skills in dealing with
cross-cultural differences (know and
interact)
•a forum to reflect on their didactical
practices and how they are influenced by
culture.
E-ntercultural consists of the following
elements:
•An e-tool that is made up of different
types of exercises that allow (future )
teachers to become more aware of one’s
own frame of reference, cultural differences and the implications for teaching
and learning styles (essay-questions,
working with images, practical dialogue
assignments, researches-projects,…).
The e-course also offers conceptual and
theoretical input on the issue of interculturalism.
•A program for three workshop encounters where participants of the course can
meet their coach and fellow-students
As said, the e-tool is made up out of different modules. Four of them focus on
general intercultural issues, four of them
explore more specific classroom related
issues like multilingualism, contact with
parents of different ethnic background or
working around spirituality and religion.
It is also important to mention that much
References
effort was put into not only offering
interculturally relevant content but also
working in an intercultural manner, using
intercultural methods and training-design.
Bastiaens, J. (2009). Een draagvlak
voor diversiteit: drie instrumenten voor
het hoger onderwijs. Hasselt: Associatie
Universiteit-Hogescholen Limburg.
de Graef, G., & Matheusen, F. (2008).
Diversiteit in het onderwijs: Hoe
begin je eraan? Kompas voor een
reis in 80 dagen. Mechelen: Centrum
voor Intercultureel Management en
Internationale Communicatie. Hasselt:
Associatie Universiteit-Hogescholen
Limburg.
de Graef, G., & Matheusen, F. (2009).
Interculturele communicatie: bouwstenen
voor het onderwijs.
Denman-Maier, E. (2004). Intercultural
factors in web-based training systems.
Journal of Universal Computer Science,
10, 90-104.
Elchardus, M., & Siongers, J.
(2009). (Red). Vreemden. Naar een
cultuursociologische benadering van
etnocentrisme. Tielt: Lannoo.
Fantini, A. E. (2000). A central
Concern: Developing Intercultural
Competence. In A.E.
Fantini, (Ed.), About Our Institution
(pp.25-42). SIT Occasional Papers
Series. Brattelboro, VT: The School for
International Training.
Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of Mind.
The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
London: Fontana Press.
Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple
Intelligences. The Theory in Practice.
New York: Basic Books.
Hajer, M. (2006). Lesgeven in een
multiculturele hogeschool. Vernieuwing,
65, 9-10.
Kelly, C., & Meyers, J. (1992). The
Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory
(CCAI). Minneapolis, MN: National
Computer Systems.
Kolb, D.A. (1985). Learning style
inventory. Boston, MA: McBer and
Company.
Kolb, D. A., Rubin, I.M., & McIntyre,
J.M. Organizational Psychology. A book
of readings. New Jersey, Prentice-Halle.
Laroche, L. (2002). Managing Cultural
Diversity in Technical Professions.
Oxford, Philadelphia: ButterworthHeinemann.
Matheusen, F. (2009). Map KBSTutoring. Mechelen: Centrum voor
Intercultureel Management en
Internationale communicatie.
Sierens, S. (2007).
Burgerschapsvorming en gelijke
leerkansen in een pluriforme
samenleving. Een referentiekader. Gent:
Steunpunt diversiteit & leren.
Simons, F.G. (2000). The challenge for
interculturalists & diversity specialists:
The train is leaving- are you on it?
Afgehaald van het web op 10 oktober
2009 http://www.diversophy.com/gsi/
Articles/0nline.pdf
Van Endt, M. (2003). Met nieuwe ogen:
werkboek voor de ontwikkeling van een
transculturele attitude. Bussum: Coutinho.
These objectives of the e-course are also
consistent with a concrete frame of intercultural competence, developed through a
related research-project on the definition
and assessment on intercultural competence. This consist of six components:
Openness (OPEN)
•Being able to handle ambiguous situations, open to others and accepting of
differences
•Ability to change perspective,
•Striving for impartiality and assuming a
non-discriminatory attitude.
Flexibility (FLEX)
•Ability to deal with specific situations
and requirements
•Be able to identify with what others think
and feel in specific situations.
Emotional resilience and connectedness (EMO)
•Being able to deal with cultural clashes,
conscious of the own cultural frame of
reference,
•Life experience, maturity.
Cultural curiosity (CULT)
•Ability to strengthen and correctly apply
cultural knowledge.
•Willing and able to learn from others.
Autonomy and Responsibility (AUTO)
•Able to critically and consciously reflect
on the society in which we live.
•Able to set boundaries.
Communication (COMM)
•Ability to identify problematic intercultural interactions as communicative
misunderstandings and consequences of
stereotyping.
•Be able to indicate what general communication skills can be used.
•The ability to handle conflicts.
•Opting for dialogue and cooperation.
These general competences are translated into concrete behavioral indicators
throughout the course.
Comenius Journal
September 2011
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Environmental Conscious
Education and ICT
Bridging the Gap
A B S T R A C T
Anna MEGYERI-RUNYÓ
lecturer Apor Vilmos Catholic
College, Natural Science and
Mathematics Institute
In Hungary the state provides the legal
background of the centrally controlled
institutional education. In this framework
the state establishes a united syllabus
operative for the entire country (National
Basic Syllabus) by approving central syllabuses. This syllabus provides a frame
for environmental conscious education
founding and developing environmental
consciousness among children. Important
target is the appearance of environmental
education that helps the development
of environmental consciousness at every
level from basic to higher education. The
development of environmental conscious
thinking and behaviour of youngsters leaving institutional education would also be
an important aim.
The role of higher education institutions
is most significant regarding the education
of environmental consciousness, as teachers trained in teacher training colleges will
form children’s environmental attitude.
14
Mon étude présente la place et le rôle de l’éducation environnementale et celle de la conscience environnementale dans l’instruction publique.
Je m’occupe tout particulièrement de la responsabilité de la formation supérieure de ce genre
et de la nécessité du renouvellement de la formation des pédagogues.
Je présente, comme une des voies possibles du renouvellement méthodique, les possibilités
pratiques et les avantages de la Technologie de l’Information et de la Communication, ainsi
que son effet positif sur l’attitude environnementale des petits enfants.
Tout en examinant ses grandes unités structurales je présente en gros l’e-programme basé sur
les matières de l’enseignement écologique, élaboré et employé par notre école supérieure,
ainsi que la possibilité de son application à l’école élémentaire.
This article deals with the place and role of Environmental Education and the role of Environmental Conscious Education. I more precisely deal with the responsibility of higher education
and the need of renewing the formation of pedagogues.
I present as one of the possible paths in renewing the methodologies the possible practices
and advantages of ICT and Communication as well as its positive effect on the attitude
towards the environment of young children.
Giving an overview of the mayor structural units I present briefly the e-programme based on
a curriculum of ecological education, refined and worked out by our HEI, as well as the possibility of applying this in a primary school.
For the realization of these it is essential
that the higher education institutions give
the appropriate key competences to its
students.
Unfortunately, Hungarian education has
not been effective enough in educating
environmental consciousness and providing the pedagogy of sustainability (Havas
2001, Vásárhelyi-Viktor, 2003). Therefore
renewal of teachers’ training is inevitable.
Comenius Journal
September 2011
It is highly important to increase the ratio
of practical teachers’ training. Apart from
professional knowledge it is important to
have appropriate methodological knowledge for attracting the interest of children
and motivating them. ICT offers help for
this.
Due to the above mentioned facts, it is
essential to introduce the challenges of
ICT to teachers and to prepare them for
Pe r s p e c t i v e s : I n t e r n a t i o n a l i s a t i o n o f t h e C u r r i c u l u m a n d n e w t e c h n o l o g i e s
the application of the technology. Old
methods are not suitable for obtaining
knowledge in this way. Application of the
ICT can be effective in helping the transition between the kindergarten and school,
in developing basic skills and even in
improving behaviour disorders as well. For
realizing the above, the role of the teacher
role has to be renewed.
At Apor Vilmos Catholic College in
Vác environmental education has been
introduced and applied for years in the
framework of the course “Education for
Environmental Conscious Life”. The
course covers 4 semesters, and is offered
to students as a required elective program
that can be chosen from a list of courses
. The issue is approached from different
points of view throughout the 4 semesters.
The first two semesters focus on experiential learning. Semester 3 presents the work
of non-governmental organizations, and
the students are offered the possibility of
joining their activities. Semester 4 is designated mainly to field practice. Students
become familiar with the local environmental programme, the environmental
protection activities of companies and with
the tasks of education centres of national
parks. During this practice they may establish relationships that might prove useful
in their future educational work as well.
Naturally all four semesters are filled by
the methodology of transferring knowledge and development of abilities and
skills. For example, during the first two
semesters when global ecological problems
are discussed students are introduced to
the e-curriculum (e-learning) developed at
our college in the framework of a tender.
The application of the curriculum presents
a useful tool for transferring knowledge in
an interesting and understandable form
at early elementary level by the means of
ICT. The main structural units and methodological relations of the e-curriculum
are the following (Megyeriné Runyó,
2008):
•Introductory photo material for emotional motivation. The introductory images
are aimed at tuning up to the topic. It
is important for the children to realize
the situation offered by the issue and to
explore the role and significance of the
issue in their everyday life and in their
environment. The issue is brought closer
to the children by talking and making
them talk. Tasks of the children are to
analyse what they see and to compare
the images. Differentiated group-work or
individual work can be applied according to the composition and age of the
class. Younger children may wish to talk
about their experiences obtained during
their walks or trips on the smart board.
Older pupils can collect positive/negative
examples or interesting facts associated
with the issue on the Internet.
•Illustrations and animations for strengthening the various fields of skill development:
•Following the introductory images,
generally figures or/and animations help
the understanding and deepening of
the issue and the development of the
appropriate ability and skill development. With the help of animation those
processes can be illustrated as well that
could be observed only in a very long
time in Nature (e.g. process of germination, development of plants).
•Illustrations-animations imitating or
inviting for experiments:
•In environmental education knowledge obtained through experiences
and practised behaviour forms have
great significance. Therefore it is highly
important that even e-curricula include
experiments. Simple but interesting
Comenius Journal
September 2011
experiments are involved that present
no problem to older children and can be
performed easily for younger children by
their teacher. (E.g. presenting greenhouse effects, or the “rolling test”)
Interactive tasks for forming the attitude::
•The joy created by the animations and
the motivating effect of the illustrations
all help to raise and maintain the interest
of children in the topic They learn the
right behaviour and environmental attitude without noticing it. For example,
they choose how to wash their car learning the different amount of water the
chosen method requires. They can plant
trees in the place of cleared forests.
•With older children we can use animations regarding global problems as well
(e.g. the more I drive my car the more
the Earth will be polluted).
•Video shows: These have double aims.
Drawing attention and showing a process
in order to gain knowledge about it.
It should be used in the application
phase. Play the video only when children
already know the topic and are able to
conclude the problem and the causes
from the presented video (e.g. Compost
or burn? Process of composting).
Additional material and tasks:
•One part of the additional material
relates to environmental problems worth
discussing only with older children (e.g.
problem of acid rain). However, these
topics are vital in environmental conscious education, it is better to include
additional material in the programme.
Children that are more interested in the
topic are provided with some additional
materials which may guide children to
individual ways of gaining information
(e.g.: Look for some information on the
lifestyle of pandas! Why are they endangered?).
A completely new approach is used for
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discussing the chosen topics of education
for environmental consciousness, however,
due to their application possibilities and
motivating character it is worth including
them in education besides the traditional
ways of education.
Application of the e-curriculum enables
effective ability and skill development together with positive attitude forming apart
from transferring knowledge.
It is important that students learn these
possibilities during their higher education therefore they will use them easier
throughout their careers. This is the only
way for them to become teachers who are
able to develop the lifestyle of children
correctly and to plan activities appropriate
for the age of the children.
Anna Megyeri-Runyó
References
Havas P., 2001, A fenntarthatóság
pedagógiai elemei (Educational
elements of sustainability). Új
Pedagógiai Szemle, 2001/9. 3-15.
Megyeriné Runyó A., 2008, IKT
felhasználása a környezettudatos
nevelésben (Application of the ICT in
environmental education). In: Szilágyiné
dr. Szemke J. (ed.): IKT alapú
kompetenciák fejlesztése (Developing
ICT based competencies). AVKF, Vác,
pp.117-139.
Vásárhelyi T.- Victor A. ed., 2003,
Nemzeti Környezeti Nevelési Stratégia
– alapvetés (National Environmental
Education Strategy – principles),
Hungarian Society for Environmental
Education, Bp. 174p.
Notes
(1) In our training system there are
required core courses that are obligatory
for every student of a training, and there
are two types of elective courses. There
are the - so called - “required” elective
courses, out of which students have to
choose a certain number classes and
optional courses which can be taken on
if there is an interest for them among the
students.
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Education and
Internationalisation
in a Digital Age
The Role of Interactive
Whiteboards
and Social Media
A B S T R A C T
Jan BRAUER
Coordinator: Media Centre
Christiaan ROOS
Media consultant: Media Centre
Based on an on-going Comenius Regio
project, IWBnordic2, (IWB: Interactive
Whiteboard) the aim with this article is
to illustrate how IT and new/social media
may contribute to increased internationalisation of education.
It is no secret that schools in the 21st
century have been under strong pressure
to adapt to a changing society. Not least
the technological advancements in digital
mobile-apparatuses and online technology,
particularly where these meet.
Before the world went online and digital,
communication and social interaction, including learning, have been based on what
we may call the “being there paradigm”.
Learning was synchronous and geospatially dependent, i.e. both the teacher and
pupils were present in the classroom at the
same time.
Deux facteurs importants affectent l’éducation aujourd’hui. Premièrement la révolution numérique associée à la mondialisation et la seconde, le fait que la jeune generation soit née avec
ses nouvelles technologies. La mondialisation exige l’internationalisation de l’éducation, la
révolution numérique nécessite la numérisation de l’éducation.
Sur la base de plusieurs projets Center for Undervisningsmidler, Collège Universitaire du sud
du Danemark, a étudié la façon dont les tableaux blancs interactifs (TBI) dans les classes,
les appareils numériques utilisés par les étudiants et les médias sociaux en ligne peuvent se
combiner pour faciliter l’internationalisation de l’enseignement.
Nous croyons qu’une modification radicale de la salle de classe basée sur une conception basée sur les TI didactique est nécessaire. Two important factors influence present day education. On the one hand side there is the
digital revolution linked to globalisation, and on the other there is the generation of digitally
native youngsters that are growing up in this world. Globalisation calls for internationalisation
of education and the digital revolution calls for education to become more digital.
Based on various projects the Centre for Undervisningsmidler, University College Syddanmark, studied how interactive whiteboards in class, digital devices used by the student and
the social online media can be combined to facilitate the globalisation of education.
We believe that a drastic change in classrooms based on the idea of IT-pedagogy is necessary.
where digitalisation has transformed the
modus of communication and social interaction to a “being everywhere paradigm.”
Communication and social interaction
now take place both asynchronously and
synchronously. Learning can be multimodal and geospatially-independent. I.e.
neither teacher nor pupils have necessarily
to be present at the same time and place.
This opens doors for internationalisation of education. It is possible for a class
in one country to work together with a
similar class in another. Not having to be
“there” at the same time, and by definition
being “elsewhere” geographically, opens
many possibilities for cooperation and
knowledge sharing.
Digital native pupils increasingly live in
Digital natives have grown up in a world
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September 2011
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blackboard
the being everywhere realm of online connected reality. They have access to handheld digital devices through which they
are in contact socially. Increasingly these
devices have the capability to be online
permanently either through Wi-Fi or 3G.
Theoretically they are perpetually online
with unprecedented access to information
and social networking media.
Schools and education however, are for
the most part still stuck in the being there
paradigm. This is true for teachers, their
didactical approaches as well as for the
non-development of school IT infrastructure. In school more often than not digital
natives experience that their digital online
tools are disabled, either through lack
of Wi-Fi to get online or because social
media sites are blocked. Even worse their
devices are simply forbidden or ordered
switched off.
Obviously this way of presenting the
situation is too starkly contrasted, reality
lies in-between. Unfortunately though
the gross number of schools will find
themselves far closer to the being there,
than the being everywhere modus of
operation. The majority of pupils in those
same schools will feel themselves far more
at home in the being everywhere world
and this means that their expectations of
schools, teachers, teaching and learning
will be in most cases not be met.
18
The main obstacles to schools transitioning to the digital-global era are:
•Funding
•Technical knowhow
•Teacher IT skills
•Teacher interest in using IT in education
•Lacking curricular requirements for using IT in education
•Lacking curricular requirements for
internationalisation in schools
We believe that the way to turn this development around is that schools should
work towards a new IT-based didactical
design. This should redefine the following:
Redesigned classrooms so that the
educational room reflects IT as basis for
learning
Learning tools and resources must change
from analogue to digital
Training and guidance of teachers to enable the transition to IT-based education
within a realistic timeframe
Focussing the digitally based education to
include internationalisation as a natural
component.
Social media and teaching – CFU experiences
At CFU we have over the past several
years worked intensively with how social
media could be used to support internationalisation in schools. The latest 3 projects we have worked on in this regard are:
LTE3 - (Comenius Network)
NordicBoard4 - (Nordplus Horizontal)
Comenius Journal
September 2011
IWBnordic5 - (Comenius Regio)
A lot of valuable information on the learning potential of IWB may be found on
the websites of LTE and NordicBoard. In
IWBnordic we are also working towards a
more formalised cooperation and knowledge sharing between the participating
schools around the IWB as a digital teaching tool. In all of these projects we have
been following a dual approach.
Firstly, we looked at the interactive
whiteboard as a digital platform and the
possibilities that lie in the sharing of prepared digital lectures with other teachers
both nationally and internationally (i.e.
languages etc.).
Secondly, we have investigated how web
2.0 technologies/social media could be
incorporated into teaching and learning.
Our theoretical approach has been to investigate to what extend the use of IWB’s
in classrooms can open up for the use of
both social media and internationalisation
in everyday teaching and learning.
Whiteboard in the classroom, cultural
bridging, the social internet and the internationalisation of education
In essence the classroom IWB functions
as a digital didactical “common room”. It
is a mixer where the didactical knowledge
and pedagogical content brought by the
teacher, meet the social media savvy of
digital native pupils. Done correctly this
can be a positive exchange that produces
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whiteboard
learning, both for pupils and teachers. In
doing so the digital gap between pupils
and teachers may to a reasonable extent be
remedied.
Because the classroom has a mutual focal
point on the whiteboard everyone can
learn from those actually interfacing with
the Board.
Once the IWB has been implemented as a
natural part of the teaching and learning
processes in the classroom the possibility
of broadening horizons becomes available. Simply put, once a class is used to
the IWB as a common reference, interacting with it either directly or through the
“cloud” from their personal digital device
the requirements for internationalisation
are in place.
The next step is to find a class with similar
capabilities in another country. This can
for example be done via the “e-Twinning
Network6”. Once the connection is made
ground rules for the cooperation between
the two classes must be agreed upon.
Teachers and pupils from class “A” can
then begin to interact easily and regularly
with class “B” from another culture/country.
The IWB in the classroom is the shared
space where pupils can orientate themselves and where the teacher keeps track
with the progress, can direct the “traffic”
and uphold the ground rules of the cooperation. Most of the time the contact will
more than likely be directly between students via a social network(s) yet with the
teacher and IWB as constant reference.
pedagogical structure on top, thus creating learning which includes international
cooperation.
Jan Brauer
Christiaan Roos
We believe a feasible model to make cultural bridging from within the classroom
cheap, easy and manageable includes 3
factors:
•Using the IWB as common in-classroom
digital platform for international cooperation
•Via this accessng relevant social media
and structuring formal international
cooperation with another class
•Allowing pupils to interact via the social
media but in a structured manner so that
teachers have an overview of activity and
the ability to manage it within reason
Notes
(1 & 4) www.iwbnordic.eu (2) www.
lte-project.com (3) www.nordicboard.dk
(5) www.etwinning.net
In order for the pedagogical side to function it is imperative that the “triple access”
conditions are met with regard to the
technical IT side:
•Access to digital tools in the classroom
(IWB, PC’s or handheld units)
•Access to high-speed internet which is
distributed wirelessly throughout the
school
•Wide access to the internet, especially to
social media, i.e. non-blocking of services
and networks.
In this fashion the technical foundation
enables teachers and students to build the
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September 2011
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Internationalization and
Geography Fieldwork
Opportunities for Skills
Enhancement
A B S T R A C T
Ruth McManus
Head of Geography Department,
St. Patrick’s College
Gerry O’Reilly
International Affairs Coordinator and
Senior Lecturer,
Geography Department,
St. Patrick’s College
Geography and
Internationalization
Cet article analyse les approches de l’internationalisation entreprises par le Département
de géographie au Collège St. Patrick, Dublin. Il débute par un aperçu du potentiel de la
discipline de la géographie pour promouvoir l’internationalisation, avant d’expliquer certaines pratiques existantes au sein du Département qui sont destinées à favoriser la mobilité
et l’internationalisation ‘chez-nous’. Le thème central de cette discussion repose sur une
approche de l’internationalisation à travers le travail de terrain qui a été développé et affiné
dans le département au cours des huit dernières années. Le module est décrit en détail, avec
un examen des résultats d’apprentissage et une évaluation des approches informatiques,
compétences linguistiques, disciplinaires et interpersonnelles favorisées par cette approche.
This article outlines the approaches to internationalization undertaken by the Geography
Department at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra in Dublin. It begins with an overview of
the potential of the discipline of geography for internationalization, before explaining some
existing practices within the Department which are intended to foster both mobility and
internationalization at home. The core of the paper is a discussion of an approach to internationalization through fieldwork which has been developed and refined in the Department
over the past eight years. The module is described in detail, together with an examination of
learning outcomes and an evaluation of the various IT, linguistic, disciplinary and interpersonal skills fostered by this approach.
By its very nature, geography lends itself
to internationalization. Geography deals
with places and people, covering international issues at various scales, ranging
from physical, urban and rural environments and their evolution, to climate,
development and political economy.
Geographers consider the ways in which
these are interconnected to form patterns
and processes which impact not just on
the present, but also on future generations. As a subject, then, it is attractive for
its real-world applicability and contemporary relevance.
has approximately 550 students, comprising roughly equal numbers of BEd
students, who will become primary school
teachers, and BA students, whose path
leads to a range of potential future careers,
including both primary and secondary
teaching. We also welcome international
students for one semester or full year
visits, who may take a single module or a
number of different modules during their
time with us.
At present, the Geography department
In order to enhance integrated, student-
20
Comenius Journal
September 2011
centre teaching and learning, geography
department modules are delivered within
an overarching thematic framework. In
the first year, the theme is Sustainable
Development, focussing on long-lasting
positive change and achieving a balance
between ecology, economy and society/
culture factors. Student work is enhanced
by face-to-face seminars and lectures,
blended learning using Moodle, in-field
and computer lab work. Building on this
framework, the Second year geography
programme emphasises democratic insti-
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tutions and processes, with the theme of
Citizenship and Human Rights incorporated in modules such as Humanitarian
Action and Europe and the European
Union. Cultural and historical geography,
and its legacies, are brought to the fore
in a module which incorporates student
fieldwork experiences in specific areas
including Belfast’s politically divided Falls
and Shankill Roads, Stormont Parliament
and Belfast City Hall in March 2011. The
Third Year theme, Professional Geography,
helps consolidate competencies and skills
for students choosing careers in education at all levels, and in the private sector
(http://www.spd.dcu.ie/main/academic/
geography/index.shtml)
Overall, the department operates an
internationalised curriculum so as to allow
non-mobile students to acquire intercultural and international skills at home,
based on Nilsson’s (1999) concept of
‘Internationalisation at Home’, while also
encouraging outgoing mobility. Geography
students studying for a semester or a full
year abroad at partner institutions in Europe and the USA certainly benefit from
their ‘in the field’ education and experiences, as do lecturers on Staff Mobility
programmes which have included visits
to Prague, Ljubljana, Warsaw, Metz and
Valencia in recent years. As with student
and staff mobility, research and conference participation enhances internationalisation, bringing ‘home’ to the outside
world and simultaneously international
focuses into the Department. Departmental staff members are strongly involved
in the national representative bodies for
geography and geography teaching, while
the two major Irish geography journals are
being edited within the department - Irish
Geography, the international journal of the
Geographical Society of Ireland, published
by Taylor & Francis - and Geographical
Viewpoint - the journal of the Association
of Geography Teachers of Ireland. Staff
members also participate in a variety of international networks and projects such as
EUROGEO (European Association of Geographers), EGEA (European Geography
Association), HERODOT (Network for
Geography in Higher Education), NOHA
(EU Network on Humanitarian Action)
and various specialist groups within the
RGS-IBG and American Association of
Geographers.
Case Study: Reading Irish
Landscapes
For the past eight years, a specially tailored International student field-course
(IFTM) has been offered by the Geography department to visiting students. This
special module is in addition to the option
offered to visiting international students of
taking any of the modules or field-courses
available within the department. Because
the department recognises that many visiting students will have little or no specific
experience in Geography, the specialised
module is designed to cater for those with
little or no prior knowledge and familiarity
with the discipline. As Nairn et al. (2000)
stressed, fieldwork has the potential to play
a flagship role in the context of internationalism; because of its focus on ‘reading landscapes, the IFTM module has a
strong fieldwork element and is worth 2.5
ECTS. It is interdisciplinary in nature and
exposes the students to Irish civilisation,
by blending geography, history, heritage
and culture. Various locations have been
used as the basis for fieldwork over the
years, including the Boyne Valley in Co.
Meath, Glendalough in Co. Wicklow,
and Dublin City. Typically the core of the
module involves students being brought
on a full-day guided trip to a rural location. In addition, they are provided with
the necessary materials to undertake selfguided field exploration of Dublin’s urban
environment.
The pedagogical approach of the IFTM
module is around discovery and blended
learning. The key learning outcomes are
outlined in Table 1. Parkes and Griffiths
(2008) have highlighted the value of a
comparative education approach which
requires student teachers ‘to acknowledge
the historical, geographical and temporal nature of knowledge and identities,
through international comparative work’.
This is undertaken in a very practical
way through the ‘Reading Landscapes’
module. It has evolved to take account of
the diverse needs of international students
coming from a range of academic and cultural backgrounds, some of whom will be
studying geography for the first time. The
opportunity is given for them to encounter
Irish cultures and to learn to read landscapes, thereby creating their own images
of Ireland. Work in the field goes beyond a
simple ‘look and see’ approach, as students
Comenius Journal
September 2011
are given the opportunity to examine
different perspectives on the heritage and
culture around them. For example, a visit
to the site of the Battle of the Boyne does
not just illustrate a famous page in Irish
history, but also enables the visitors to see
how various events have been represented
and distorted to reflect different perceptions of heritage. In examining such a site,
the students can see how meaning is ascribed by different groups and how spaces
can have contested or multiple meanings.
The fundamental geographical skill of
reading landscapes offers students another
way of exploring their own cultures and
identities, as well as those of the host
country, since, in the words of Donald
Meinig, ‘Any landscape is composed not
only of what lies before our eyes but what
lies in our head’ (Meinig, 1979). Thus,
students are encouraged to develop new
skills in terms of landscape reading, and
to apply these skills not just to begin to
understand varying perspectives on Irish
heritages and cultures but also, ultimately,
to make broader linkages to their own
home countries and experiences.
Table 1: Aims and Learning Outcomes
•To introduce the foundation concepts
of landscape reading and sustainable
development
•To make students familiar with different perspectives on Irish heritages
and cultures
•To explore concepts of image and
reality in relation to both urban and
rural Ireland, and to relate this to diverse backgrounds, stereotyping and
preconceptions
•To facilitate the conceptual linkages
between the local, national and European scales and processes contributing to changing Ireland - Ireland in
Europe and Europe in Ireland
•To enhance students computerbased learning and teaching skills
through use of Moodle and electronic
resources
•To make academic research and skills
from this course of use to student/
teachers back in their home countries
Course Structure
and Organisation
Clearly the approach taken in this module
must be an incremental one. To begin to
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Figure 1
introduce the participating students to
some of the concepts involved, an initial
seminar invites them to interactively explore their preconceptions about Ireland.
Each student is asked to spend a few
minutes writing down single words which
capture their existing images of the country. They then take turns to share these
with the other participants. Certain words
or images seem to be dominant, including
those which focus on the country’s Celtic
past, the existence of many ruined castles,
the weather, the Irish pub and the rural,
pastoral landscape. While the sample is
too small to provide definitive findings, it
is nevertheless clear that overseas visitors
have certain strong preconceptions and
images of Ireland, which seem to vary
depending on visitor origins (i.e. visiting
students from North America appeared
to have different key words and perceptions than those of Francophone European students, for example). One of the
key lessons which the students take from
this initial encounter, importantly, is the
range of different images – some of them
conflicting or contradictory - which they
may already have of the country in which
they will be living for the next number of
months.
At this session the students are also provided with the necessary ‘house-keeping’
information about the structure of the
course, the initial fieldtrip, and how to
access the e-learning software (Moodle)
used in the college. To help the students to
prepare for their first field day, particularly
in terms of the foundation concepts and
some perspectives on Irish heritages and
cultures, they are provided with a short
selection of readings and DVDs
22
Table 2: Course Structure
•Introductory session: challenging
preconceptions
•Field day: Boyne Valley
•Brief overview and preparation followed by
•Self-guided exploration: Dublin
•Final poster presentations and individual project showcase e.g. Powerpoint
The first field day provides a real-world
encounter with the Irish landscape,
including some key heritage sites which
reflect important phases of Ireland’s history. In Spring 2011, a full day was spent
in the Boyne Valley area, approximately
one hour north of Dublin. This rich and
diverse landscape contains many important heritage sites, including the Neolithic
necropolis complex at Brú na Bóinne
which includes the world’s oldest standing
building, the tumulus at Newgrange (Figure 1). This UNESCO World Heritage
Site is believed to have been constructed
by some of Ireland’s first farmers. Other
sites visited included the 5th century early
Christian monastic site at Monasterboice,
medieval Bective abbey, and the site of the
Battle of the Boyne at Oldbridge. At the
start of this first trip, the international students were allocated to mixed-nationality
teams and asked to work together with
their team members throughout the day,
gathering photographic images for later
use. Students were invited to share their
experiences online through the interactive
Moodle page for the course.
The second phase of fieldwork was
Comenius Journal
September 2011
conducted in a rather different fashion,
both for practical budgetary and pedagogical reasons. A seminar was held in
preparation for this urban fieldwork,
which included a Powerpoint presentation outlining the evolution of Ireland’s
capital city. The students were also directed to preparatory readings which were
made available as PDF files through the
Moodle system. The implementation of
the fieldwork was also discussed in detail
during this session. Given that a number
of the students had been in Ireland for
more than six months at the time that the
IFTM field course began, and therefore
had a good general knowledge of the
city, it was decided not to offer a guided
fieldtrip. Instead, the teams were encouraged to tailor their Dublin-based fieldwork to their own particular interests, with
the help of an interactive map (Figure 2).
They were also invited to discuss their
plans with the fieldtrip coordinator where
required. Among the suggestions were
options featuring Dublin’s 18th century
Georgian heritage of the city, the redeveloped Docklands area, the historic markets
of the North-Inner city and the emerging
multicultural areas. The students were
given a period of three weeks within which
to arrange their fieldtrip within their
respective teams. As the internationally
celebrated St. Patrick’s Festival - March
17th - fell within the fieldtrip period, the
teams were given the option of including
this in their planned approach. Safety was,
of course, discussed, with an emphasis on
sensible precautions, with no student to
travel alone.
Following their second trip, the four teams
each prepared a poster of their ‘images of
Pe r s p e c t i v e s : I n t e r n a t i o n a l i s a t i o n o f t h e C u r r i c u l u m a n d n e w t e c h n o l o g i e s
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Ireland’, while each individual student also
created his or her own project, submitted
via the online Moodle system. These two
assessment elements are discussed in more
detail in the following sections.
gun in the first session where the students
explored their initial perceptions of the
country. A number of specific requirements helped to structure the responses.
First of all, each of the pictures used in
the poster had to be original photographs
taken by team members during fieldwork.
There was also a requirement to include
a mixture of urban and rural images. The
teams were encouraged to include ‘typical’
or ‘expected’ images, as well as ‘surprises’,
or things that they had not expected to
encounter. Finally, the students were
asked to explain why they had chosen
these particular images. The posters were
presented in an informal setting as part of
a final seminar, to the full student group,
the lecturers and invited members of the
College community, who were invited to
ask questions and comment (Figure 3).
multicultural present, and drew parallels
and contrasts with their home countries
and lived experiences. Apart from some
of the expected, iconic images of Ireland,
including the harp and the pint of Guinness, some teams also examined more
novel aspects of their Irish experience.
These included features of the everyday
landscape such as road markings, or the
typical meals which they had encountered,
or even the fact that spring arrives earlier
in Ireland than in continental Europe.
Groupwork and Intercult u r a l L i n k a g e s : t h e Te a m
Poster
The team poster was introduced as part
of the assessment of IFTM in the most
recent (Spring 2011) presentation of the
module. This additional facet aims to
encourage increased intercultural linkages
and explorations within the international
student group. As mentioned above, students were allocated to teams of approximately five people, each of which had a
varied membership, to ensure that no one
nationality or language predominated.
The overall assessment was divided so
that 25% was allocated to work completed
by the team, while the remaining 75%
was awarded on the basis of an individual
project. This weighting was intended to
allay any potential problems around poor
group interaction or participation levels,
by ensuring that the majority of the marks
remained with the individual work. In the
event, the teams worked extremely well
together, with an excellent group dynamic
emerging and increased mixing between
the different nationalities, so that the students were learning from each other.
Each mixed-nationality team was asked
to produce and present a poster of their
‘images of Ireland’, based on specific
criteria. The students therefore engaged in
dialogue to decide which images best portrayed their overall experience of Ireland.
This was a continuation of the process be-
Interestingly, certain common elements
emerged in the posters created by each
team. Of the four posters completed in
Spring 2011, all included images of a
medieval monastic site (Bective Abbey)
and of Celtic crosses (Monasterboice),
while three included pictures of the
Neolithic passage tomb at Newgrange, of
the shamrock plant, and of Dublin’s 18th
century Georgian doors. The commentaries presented by each team also referred
to certain common themes, including
the green-ness of Ireland, the impressive
nature of the many archaeological and
historic sites in the Irish countryside, and
the contrast between student perceptions
of the unique nature of rural Ireland and
the more cosmopolitan, modern European capital. Indeed, many of the students
noted their surprise at the apparent
contradictions between the Celtic past and
Comenius Journal
September 2011
One of the most interesting aspects of
the team poster, then, was the ways in
which they simultaneously reflected and
challenged the students’ preconceptions of
Ireland. The exercise, although deceptively simple, encouraged the students
to reconsider their experience of living
abroad, and the meaning afforded to
both everyday objects and landscapes and
historic artefacts.
A Ta n g i b l e P r o d u c t :
Individual student
projects
The task of creating an individual project
was deliberately left open to allow for a
number of different approaches, although
a tight word limit was imposed so as to
encourage students to focus on the use
of images rather than text. The emphasis
was on creating a digital product, whether
in PowerPoint, PhotoStory or other class/
lesson work in an electronic format, which
the students could use in their classroom
‘back home’. The focus of each project
was on comparing and contrasting the
student’s experience of Ireland with their
home environments, whether in Hungary,
Austria, Scotland, Finland, the Nether-
23
Pe r s p e c t i v e s : I n t e r n a t i o n a l i s a t i o n o f t h e C u r r i c u l u m a n d n e w t e c h n o l o g i e s
lands, Belgium, France, Spain, Colorado
or California. The emphasis on images
rather than text was helpful in overcoming
language barriers and in making the results readily accessible to everyone. Each
student submitted their individual project
via the Moodle system, and also had the
opportunity to display and discuss their
work during the final showcase seminar
(Figure 4).
Of the eighteen projects submitted for
grading (some additional students attended the course but did not require credits),
there was a clear divide in the approaches
taken. Quite a number took a general
model which looked at key aspects of the
Irish lifestyle and compared and contrasted them with the way of life in their
home country. For example, one student
looked at Ireland and Austria in terms
of landscape, food, leisure-time sports,
religion, traditions, symbols and daily life.
Another asked whether capital cities look
the same in Europe, taking the examples
of Dublin and Brussels. A similar urban
focus was seen in a project comparing and
contrasting Dublin and Stockholm. The
physical landscape was an attraction for
some of the students, with one contrasting the mountains and cliffs of Ireland
and Finland, while another examined the
landscapes of Ireland and Lithuania.
A second popular approach was to take
a particular physical landscape or major
historic event in Ireland, drawing parallels
with a similar location or experience in
the home country. For example, one student drew comparisons between two 17th
century battles – the battle of the Boyne in
Ireland and the battle of White Mountain
in Bohemia:
There is a striking resemblance between
the battle of the Boyne and the battle
of White Mountain, not as much in the
process of the battles themselves as in the
origins of the conflicts, goals and the impact on Ireland and Bohemia. Both battles
affected the course of the two countries
for centuries ahead (Tomas).
Another student wrote of the parallels
between this most divisive of Irish battles
and the Battle of Maciejowice in her native Poland:
The Battle of the Boyne and The Battle of
Maciejowice are quite similar. The most
similar aspect is connected with the fights
to maintain independence. Because of
24
that, Irish and Polish know the feeling of
being under domination of another country and know how it feels to fight for their
own culture, religion and independence
(Monika).
The tumulus at Newgrange was compared
with similar structures in Lithuania and
in Japan by different students. A number
of students examined historical linkages
between their countries. One, for example,
looked at the use of religious art in Ireland
and Poland as a means of transmitting the
Christian message to non-literate populations, while another looked at the origins
of the Celts and the way in which their
heritage remains visible in the landscape
in Ireland and in the Czech Republic
The remarkable range and diversity of the
projects illustrates the extent to which students were able to tailor their learning experience to their own needs and interests.
It also provided an additional intercultural
learning opportunity for the staff involved,
who were exposed to fascinating crosscultural discussions.
Findings Learning Outcomes
achieved
The approach undertaken in the IFTM
module has been refined over a number
of years. While the structure is relatively
simple, it enables a number of learning
objectives to be attained. The approach
facilitates the acquisition of language,
computer skills and subject knowledge.
Participants are encouraged to develop a
number of skills due to the digital learning component of the module, whereby
Moodle and electronic resources are used.
They also develop their interpersonal
skills, through the group work undertaken.
The physical product which they create, in
terms of a final project, is also a tangible
resource which they can utilize in their
home country. Overall, the skills which the
students develop during this module are
transferable, and will be applied by them
in their future work environments.
From a conceptual perspective, the deceptive simplicity of the model used defies
the complex outcomes achieved. Students
learn about reading the landscape and
apply these concepts in their rural and
urban fieldwork. Furthermore, from the
first encounter they are encouraged to
explore the concepts of image and reality
Comenius Journal
September 2011
in relation to Ireland, and then to relate
this to diverse backgrounds, stereotyping
and preconceptions. Increasingly, as they
tackle their final individual project, students begin to make conceptual linkages
between the local, national and European
scales and processes. Ireland is not seen
in isolation, but rather the students begin
to draw parallels with their home country
and start to see their home place through
a new lens. These complex outcomes are
best reflected in feedback from the students themselves:
“I appreciate that the assignment made
me learn something new about Ireland as
well as my own country.”
“You get to notice all the linkages between
Irish and European landscapes”
“Great fieldtrips with lots of fun, you
don’t know that you are learning … I’m
going to try this out back home in Colorado”
“To my surprise we have many similar
things in Japan’s landscapes”
While this particular module will inevitably continue to evolve, there are elements
within it which lend themselves to application in other institutions, including
Comenius Association partners for standalone modules or joint shared modules
and network research. These include the
blended approach whereby the course is
delivered via a combination of fieldwork,
Moodle/ interactive e-learning environment and face-to-face exchange of ideas.
Another potentially useful concept is that
of the digital ‘product’, which the students
can bring home not just as a souvenir to
show their friends, but also as something
tangible to be used in the classroom. The
emphasis on images and photography has
conceptual and practical utility, in terms
of overcoming language barriers and
seeing things in different ways. Above all,
this is a student-centred approach which
encourages intercultural communication
and mutual understanding.
Ruth McManus
G e r r y O ’ R e i ll y
Pe r s p e c t i v e s : I n t e r n a t i o n a l i s a t i o n o f t h e C u r r i c u l u m a n d n e w t e c h n o l o g i e s
References
Meinig, D.W. (1979) The Interpretation
of Ordinary Landscapes, Oxford
University Press.
Nairn, K., Higgitt, D., Vanneste, D.
(2000) International Perspectives on
Fieldcourses, Journal of Geography in
Higher Education, 24 (2), pp. 246-54.
Parkes, R.J. & Griffiths, T.G. (2008)
Comparative Education, Border
Pedagogy, and Teacher Education
in an Age of Internationalisation,
paper presented at annual conference
of Australian Teacher Education
Association (ATEA), Albury 2008,
available online at: http://newcastleau.academia.edu/RobertParkes/
Papers/97690/Comparative_
Education_Border_Pedagogy_and_
Teacher_Education_in_an_Age_of_
Internationalisation [accessed 4 June
2011].
ESCalate / Trahar, S. (2007) Teaching
and Learning: the International Higher
Education Landscape - some theories
and working practices, Discussion
Series, Spring 2007, available online
at: http://escalate.ac.uk/3559
[accessed 4 June 2011].
Comenius Journal
September 2011
25
Vision and Practices
International Learning
in the Curriculum of
Teacher training
A B S T R A C T
Roger STANDAERT
Director of the Flemish Department
for Educational Development Professor University Ghent,
Chairman CIDREE
University of Ghent
Concepts and ideas
Internationalisation is an umbrella term
for the set of diverse tendencies and domains with a worldwide or transnational
sphere of influence. Economic internationalisation, often called globalisation,
is the most recent domain to be situated
here, as well one of the most talked-about.
In education, one more often draws on
the term internationalisation. The derived
terms ‘educating internationalisation’, or
‘international education’, have become
widely used. The term mondialisation is
slightly older; and equals to a large extent
the term internationalisation. Derived
from this term one finds concepts as
‘developing world citizenship’ and ‘global
education’.
We find a familiar distinction in the
international terminology regarding
international learning. More precisely for
26
Roger Standaert considère l’internationalisation comme une pierre angulaire de la formation
des enseignants avec une vision pour le futur. Il a donné une conférence sur ce sujet lors
du séminaire consacré à ce thème en février 2011 à Malines. L’idée de l’apprentissage au
niveau international se répand suite à la tendance actuelle à la globalisation. Mais, à la fois
en ce qui concerne la conception et le contenu des programmes, professeur R. Standaert met
en garde contre l’activisme et l’uniformisation en éducation.
Roger Standaert underpins internationalisation as a cornerstone in the curriculum of teacher
training with a vision. He held a lecture during the seminar on the same topic in February
2011 in Mechelen. The current tendency of globalisation seems to diffuse our idea of international learning. Both on design and contents of the curriculum, prof R. Standaert warns about
activism and cross-country uniformity in education.
the distinction between internationalisation via mobility of students, teachers and
trainers on the one hand and internationalisation at home on the other. The first
term refers to the expectation that students and teachers achieve international
competences by having been abroad. The
second term focuses on achieving these
competences via the curriculum in one’s
home country. A more contents-based
approach reveals another perspective with
various definitions. We see global solidarity education, third world education, developing tolerance and social justice. Even
further down the line we find environmental education, education for sustainable
development, multicultural education,
intercultural education, peace education,
human rights education… To summarize
all these dimensions in one denominator,
perhaps developing world citizenship is
the most valid.
Comenius Journal
September 2011
With respect to content, the concept
international learning can also be formulated in a more generic way. This entails
four umbrella perspectives for developing
international learning.
Mutual dependency. In a global society
we are permanently linked to other parts
of this planet. Places, events, problems
and people are continuously entwined
with influences worldwide.
Image and image building. The creation
of an image of people who are different in
nationality, descent, gender, age or skills is
often based on prejudices and stereotypes.
Social justice. Social justice refers to
universally valid concepts such as human
rights which can be denied or defended
on an individual, local, national and international level. Only when there is justice,
the conditions for durable peace are met.
Conflict and conflict resolution. For many
young people conflict is synonymous with
Vision and Practices
violence. Nonetheless violence is an extreme way of dealing with conflicts. Skills
for a non-violent conflict resolution have
to be trained on a personal level, within a
group, a community, on a national and on
an international level.
The last few decades we have seen not
only the term internationalisation but also
that of globalisation come to the fore. The
two concepts overlap and are intertwined.
But still, the term globalisation has
evolved more and more towards a shift of
meanings. The term is often
associated with internationalisation in higher education,
but also with the connotation of a free market system
and competition. This makes
it clear we can look at internationalisation from various
ideological points of view.
There is often not enough clarity in what
exactly one aims to achieve with international learning. This sometimes leads to a
sort of activism, characterized by various
initiatives, often exchange projects or visits
to other countries. Perhaps one does not
question enough the true surplus value
of the international activities, and this is
accordingly reflected in the neutrality of
measuring and adding up numbers. One is
not always aware of the underlying philosophy and the deeper rooted values, which
are for example propagated by the EU, the
Internationalisation can
be looked at from a political point of view focussing
on technical assistance,
international safety, treaties
and so on. Just as well one
can adopt a pure economical viewpoint, inspired by
a well-defined economic
theory, for example the free
market, economic growth,
growth of the gross domestic product (GDP), and
competition. Transferred
to higher education this
paradigm becomes a set of
international benchmarks,
rankings and evidence based
Marc Chagall, Der Spaziergang, 1917
thinking. One can also look
at internationalisation from
a social and cultural point of
Organization for Economic Co-operation
view. This involves intercultural exchange
and Development (OECD) and UNESand working towards social justice, peace,
CO. It would soon become clear there are
tolerance and social cohesion.
different aims and agendas. OECD is an
economic organization, founded on a phiI am convinced that the ideological interlosophy of competition, while UNESCO is
pretation of the international competences
an emancipatory organization, focussed on
is not enough looked at while designing
the disadvantaged in the world. Therefore
international learning. Often there is a
it is important to question the EU on the
focus on the quality of the process, on the
objectives of its international projects.
methods and on the output (for example
using indicators and result oriented
benchmarks), but hardly on the quality of
Designing curricula
the aims one has in mind when speaking
about international learning.
Remarks concerning content
Comenius Journal
September 2011
I want to start from the four generic
approaches of world citizenship: mutual
dependency, image and image building,
social justice and conflict resolution. By
choosing for this generic point of view, I
adopt at the same time a wide, transversal
approach to educating internationalisation.
Principally and via this approach I state
we should look at internationalisation in
our own front yard, and thus in our own
teaching practice. The curriculum can be
constructed in such a way, that we start
from the micro-situation of
the learning group at school
or in the institution, and it
broadens to wider connections on a regional, national,
European or worldwide level.
This construction of layers
is, according to my opinion,
a typical feature of an international teaching pedagogy.
One starts from the own
situation and then expands
gradually, where possible, to
higher levels. Next to these
four generic levels I propose
a fifth one: learning from
each other and gaining new
knowledge and insights.
Remarks concerning
design
The curriculum internationalisation for a teacher
training should first and
foremost take into account
the already existing curricula
for the groups the aspirantteachers will be working
with. It is therefore advisable
to dispose of an inventory of
all elements related to internationalisation
in those curricula. This inventory then has
to fit in, in the different categories also
articulated in the curriculum of teacher
training.
Then also the question arises to which
extent an exchange with other countries
makes a valuable contribution to international learning.
The first four generic levels mentioned
above can quite easily be regarded as
internationalisation at home. Especially
thanks to the modern means, available
27
Vision and Practices
through ICT, a great deal of this learning process is possible within one’s own
environment. This holds to a much lesser
extent for the level ‘learning from each
other’. Effectively, in order to gain an
insight in the stresses and the points of
emphasis to be seen in study programmes
and schools in other countries, a stay
abroad is desirable. It is very difficult to
interpret the variations in a system, when
one is not in the possibility to actually see
the context, and when one cannot discuss
these variants with the people concerned,
within this context. Considering the time
investment and the costs related to these
visits, it is desirable to provide a comprehensive preparation and follow-up of these
exchanges and international visits. In the
past these exchanges have been criticized,
which were perceived as a sort of sociable
passing of time with other people, without
having set a definition of the purpose as
to content, and without requiring certain
returns. A couple of years ago someone called it ‘sublimated truancy’. It is
important that we put in a great effort to
counteract such negative perceptions.
Maybe one should warn against an all
too direct and unmodified copying of elements and practices from abroad. An education system is always a coherent body,
organically grown from local historical
and cultural circumstances. In a way it is
to be compared with what we know about
medical transplantations. The transplant
of organs is always to be executed with the
highest of care because the transplanted
organ might be rejected. The transplanted
organ has to be accepted by the body of
the patient. It therefore has to be compatible with the receiving organism.
References
I also object to the idea that mobility programmes, as promoted by the European
Union, should per definition lead to a
cross-country uniformity. This would not
agree with what I have stated above about
the restricted role of and the resistance
against globalisation on the level of local
and national identity and culture. And obviously, education is an important outing
of one’s own culture.
Internationalisation at home in teacher
training can also be promoted by establishing a form of seminar or a thematic
study of internationalisation in the schedule. In the prescribed basic competences
by the Flemish Community there has
been added a tenth element, next to the
existing nine ones: “The teacher as a participant in culture”. For this subject the
teacher is expected to gain insight in the
society as a whole. Pupils, teachers and
schools are after all encapsulated in a wide
societal environment.
Underpin a curriculum
with a vision
With this text I wanted to make a contribution to be able to underpin a curriculum in teacher training with a vision. Also
I wanted to clearly take sides as to the
present day evolutions on an international
level. Furthermore I tried to put forward
some suggestions, based on my experience
in comparative education. These are open
for discussion now.
Roger Standaert
It is important to keep clear sight of the
fact that phenomena, which at first glance
are the same in a different system, still
can fulfil another function in the bigger
picture. For example repeating a class can
in one system be regarded as an opportunity, but in another as a great nuisance.
Because of the different contexts, a same
phenomenon can get another meaning
and can aim at a different goal. On the
other hand, unequal practices can be
functionally equivalent to each other.
Inclusion of pupils with certain learning
disabilities mostly aims at the same goals
as taking care of these pupils in specialized centres.
28
Comenius Journal
September 2011
Beech, J. (2009), ‘Policy spaces,
mobile discourses and the definition
of educated identities’, Comparative
Education, Vol 45, n° 3, pp 347-364.
Castells, M. (2000). The rise of the
network society. Oxford: Blackwell.
Damon, W. (1995). Greater
expectations. Overcoming the culture
of indulgence in America’s schools and
homes. New York: The Free Press.
Green, A. (1997). ‘Educational
achievement in centralized and
decentralized systems’, in. Huntington,
S. P. (1996).The clash of civilizations
and the remaking of the World order.
London: Simon and Schuster.
Kamens, D.H. and Mcneely, Conny, L.
(2010), ‘Globalization and the growth
of international educational testing and
national assessment’, Comparative
Education Review, Vol 54, n°1, pp 5-25.
Landes, D. S. (1998). The wealth and
poverty of nations. Why some are so
rich and some so poor. New YorkLondon: Norton and Co.
Lundahl, C.and Waldow, F. (2009),
‘Standardisation and ‘quick’ languages:
the shape shifting of standardised
measurement of pupil achievement in
Sweden and Germany’, Comparative
Education, Vol 45, n° 3, pp 365-386.
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization,
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Standaert, R. (2002). Inspectorates of
education in Europe. A critical analysis.
Leuven: Acco.
Standaert, R. (Ed) (2003). Becoming the
best. Educational ambitions for Europe.
Brussels: Consortium of Institutes for
Development and Research in Education
in Europe (CIDREE).
Steiner-Khamsi, Gita (2002).
‘Reterritorializing educational import:
explorations into the politics of
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and Lawn, M.(Eds) Fabricating Europe:
the formation of an education space.
Dordrecht-Londen: Kluwer Academic
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Waldow, F. (2009), ‘Undeclared
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policy-making and research in Sweden’,
Comparative Education, Vol 45, n° 4,
pp 477-494.
Vision and Practices
What´s in our Head?
Principles and
Implications of Brainbased Teaching and
Learning
A B S T R A C T
Hans SCHACHL
Rector of Private
University of Education Linz, Austria;
Neurosciences and Learning
“What´s in our head?” This is a question,
which has been interesting for humans,
since they can think. In the last 20-30
years insight into the brain has dramatically improved by new techniques, which
enable us to look into the living brain. This
question is important for learning, because
it is based on the brain (Schachl, 2006).
There are some important topics, which
we have to deal with: How comes information into the brain? The important role of
attention and emotions. How will information be stored?
How comes information into the brain?
It is not possible to get knowledge automatically into the brain. Gaining knowledge is an active process. Let us explain
this active process of perception by looking
on a picture:
The background of our eyes transforms
the energy of the light into electrical
Les thèmes développés sont les suivants: Comment l’information arrive-t-elle au cerveau?
Que sont les neurones miroirs ? Quel est le rôle de l’attention et des émotions ? Comment
l’information est-elle stockée ? Comment, avec les réponses aux questions précédentes, trouver des principes guidant l’apprentissage et l’enseignement ?
The topics to be answered are: How comes info into the brain? What’s about mirror neurons?
What is the role of attention and emotions? How information is stored? From the explanation
of these topics “guiding principles”, consequences for teaching and learning will be derived.
energy in the nerve cells, which deliver it
via the optical nerves to the backside of
the brain. And here the information is analyzed concerning edges, contrast, dark or
light sides, colours, angles. In every brain
it´s the same until here. But from here
there are big differences, because creating
the real image is a mutual process of analyzing and comparing with expectations,
context, attitudes, available knowledge and
so on. Perception is therefore a subjective,
constructive process. This subjectivism is
important for teaching, educating, learning too: We have to take into account the
different attitudes, knowledge, talents of
the children.
of individual talents.
Therefore the following guiding principles
are important:
Overview before details. Multi-sensory
approach. Take previous knowledge into
consideration. Contextual learning. Interdependence of knowledge areas. Take care
Researchers found these mirrors in the
human brain with other activities, such for
facial expressions too. But that´s not all:
The mirror system may also decipher the
intentions and future actions of others,
and depends on the context of previous
Comenius Journal
September 2011
In addition to the topic “perception” a
short excursion to “learning by imitation”:
The Italian researcher Rizzolatti and his
colleagues (Iacobini, M. 2009, 66; Degen,
2007) got a surprising, exciting result:
Grasping a thing, the nerve cells of a specific region fire (are in action). The same
firing is, if we only intend this movement:
The cells fire before we actually do it. But
the surprising and most exciting finding
is, that the cells fire also, when we observe
another person grasping. It´s like a mirror
in our brain, therefore these specific cells
are called “mirror neurons”.
29
Vision and Practices
activities: grasping a fruit or grasping a
cleaning towel leads to different mirror
actions. Some researchers say, that the
mirrors are interested not only in the motion, but also in the “motivation behind
it” (Vogeley, 2009). A hot discussed
topic is mirrors and “empathy”: mirrors
responded, when women observed the
pain of their boyfriends, and such women
responded more, if they lead higher scores
of empathy in a psychology test. Critical researchers say that there is more to
empathy than the mirrors: This mechanism provides only an intuitive feeling that
underlies empathy. And there are other
cognitive, social processes in this complex
behaviour: If you see someone behaving
badly, you hopefully don’t want to do the
same. So, at the end of the mirror story:
we must find out, what is “behind” all the
mirrors (Damasio et Meyer, 2008, 167168; Miller, 2008b).
All kind of information comes either from
the body or from outside. All these stimuli
travel via the Reticular Formation and are
processed to the Limbic System (responsible for emotions), combined with the
impact on the Autonomic Nervous System (Hypothalamus: if it is exciting, the
blood pressure increases, and so on). The
Cerebellum (Kleinhirn) is responsible for
a good muscular status, like holding the
head up and listening carefully. Finally
the Cerebral Cortex is consciously aware.
What happens in the case of bad feelings,
because someone is not interested, it is
boring, or there are disturbances by other
things? The Limbic System produces bad
emotions, combined with bad feelings. It
is stress. Therefore people can either stand
up and go, but if they feel ashamed to
do it, so they stay. But the whole system,
especially the muscle tonus will switch off,
and the person falls asleep.
associated with changes in the density of
cortical Dopamine receptors (McNab et
al., 2009, 800-802).
The Hippocampus plays a role with
“spatial navigation” and is also involved in
planning actions (Pastalkova et al., 2008,
1322ff.). But: the Hippocampus is not
involved only in storing into the longterm
memory, but also in retrieving, together
with Prefrontal Cortex (Miller, 2008c,
1280f.; Gelbard-Sagiv et al., 2008, 96f).
And on the other hand: the prefrontal
cortex is not only responsible for retrieving (as it was assumed until some years
ago), but also for consolidating information (Takehara-Nishiuchi; McNaughton,
B. 2008, 960ff). One part of the prefrontal
cortex is involved too in the so called
“reinforcement-reward-learning” (Stuber
et al., 2008).
But as a summary for education: there is
no doubt, that imitation is necessary and
important for learning and education. As
a consequence: Demonstrate exactly and
often. Be a good example. Take care of
good feelings.
Summary: Cognition and emotion work
together even in an anatomical structure.
This is an important fact for learning with
the consequence, that teachers must take
care of good emotions.
What can be done for improving the attention? Primarily focus must be given on
emotions and feelings.
Role of Emotions
To the important role of attention and
emotions
Whether information actually comes into
the brain or not, depends on attention.
What factors influence attention? For
teaching and learning an important topic.
Your attention is influenced by your expectations, interest in the topic, attitudes,
the context, but also, what you get from
outside, what you see, hear, etc.
30
The Amygdala (almond) is the emotional
marker of the contents on their way to
longterm memory. Very important is the
Hippocampus: this part is responsible
for storing information into the longterm
memory. If the hippocampus is damaged,
you can learn nothing new. It´s the case
for instance with Alzheimer´s Disease.
But the Hippocampus is also important
for emotions. This double function is
evident in the chemical processes inside
too: For the entrance of new information
Dopamin-mechanisms, controlled by the
hippocampus, are important (Rossato et
al., 2009, 1017-1020). Learning is also
Comenius Journal
September 2011
Therefore at the end of this chapter again
some “guiding principles” for teachers
and learners: Foster and have positive
emotions. Arouse and have interest. Promote and do physical activity. Give and
take breaks. Teach and learn coping with
stress.
How information is
stored
Answering the question “How information is stored” we must try to understand
the basic units of the brain, the cells. The
power of brain can only be explained by
the gigantic number of nerve cells: More
than 100 billion neurons are interconnected, and in between 1000 billion so called
Glia cells. And all work nearly according
the same principle:
Information comes into the cells (neurons). The cell processes this information
Vision and Practices
and gives the result (electrical signal, german “Strom”) via one fibre to other nerve
cells. The contact place is called “Synapse”. The transfer of information happens
at a gap between neuron 1 and neuron 2:
the electrical information is transformed
into a chemical form, which transfers the
message to the other side of the gap: the
electric signal causes releasing of chemical transmitters (eg glutamate), which
transports the information to the postsynaptic side. By the transmitter the receptors
are opened and Calcium can come into
neuron 2. And there storage happens with
contribution of genetical processes. New
findings show, that at the postsynapse
there is no fixed position of receptors, but
a „highly dynamic structure“ with the
possibility „to rapidly refresh itself“ by an
exchange of the used receptors against unused (Silver, 2008, 183f.). The processes
are more complicated. The GLIA-cells
play a role in this game (Allen/Barres,
2009, 675-677): the Glia is responsible
for many jobs, but nowadays especially
one kind, the so called Astrocytes, seems
to have to fulfil tasks in producing and
managing mental abilities. The number of
Glia is huge (Trillions.); 90% of the brain
consists of Glia. These astrocytes seem to
communicate with neurons. Special findings for the case of memory (Henneberger
et al., 2010, 232 – 236; Santello/Volterra,
2010, 169 - 170): The classical form of the
longterm memory processing relies on the
role of so called NMDA-receptors. But
now it is shown, that astrocytes release the
so called D-serine, which is a co-worker of
NMDA.
Very important: Repetitive synaptic
activity enhances D-serine supply by the
astrocytes. One more argument for the
importance of repetition in learning.
of memory there are some basic guiding
principles again:
“Revise, Repeat.” This leads to repeated
electrochemical processes in the nerve
circuits and strengthen them.
“Take breaks.” is necessary to give these
processes time to work. Miller, 2009, p.
22).
“Give feedback soon.” is very important,
because to modify wrong learned matter is
always more difficult than to learn it right
from the beginning.
Feedback with “reward” is important,
because the strength of synapses will be
improved by dopamine-neurons in the
Limbic System. Also the “prognosis” of
reward causes positive effects (Stuber et
al., 2008).
“Linking ideas and topics to structures.” is
the way of working in the brain.
And all these principles are dominated by
an “overall principle”: The Brain Needs
Sense.
Therefore teachers must take care, that
pupils are motivated because they are convinced of the sense of learning; that pupils
understand the contents; and tha the contents are parts of associative networks.
All the mentioned “guiding principles” are
“old teachers” wisdom and experience,
now based on findings of brain research.
We must continue to explore our brain
processes in order to better learn, in order
to better understand, in order to give a
better world to our children.
Summary: Learning makes sprouting of
dendrites, increasing the number of synapses, strenghtening and stabilizing them..
And fascinating: there is also neurogenesis,
that means new neurons are built from
stem cells. (Berninger/Götz, 2009, 58-63;
Shors, 2009, 41-48; Ma et al., 2009, 10741077).
Hans Schachl
We know something about all these
processes, but “such findings are almost
certainly just the tip of the iceberg, and
there are many outstanding questions”
(Allen/Barres, 2009, 677).
Nevertheless derived from the chapter
Berninger, B.; Götz, M. 2009.
Nachwuchsförderung im Gehirn. In:
Gehirn&Geist, 7-8, 58-63.
Damasio, A., Meyer, K. 2008. Behind
the looking glass. In: nature, 10. Jul.,
167-168
Degen, R. 2007. Nervenbrücke
zwischen Du und Ich. In: bild der
wissenschaft, 11, 30-33.
Gelbard-Sagiv, H. et al. 2008. Internally
Generated Reactivation of Single
Neurons in Human Hippocampus
During Free Recall. In: Science, 3. Oct.,
96-100.
Henneberger et al. 2010. Long-term
potentiation depends on release of
D-serine from astrocytes. In: nature, 14.
Jan. 2010, 232 – 236
Iacobini, M. 2009. Die Gedanken der
anderen. In: Gehirn&Geist, 11, 66.
Ma, D. K. et al. 2009. Neuronal
Activity-Induced Gadd45b Promotes
Epigenetic DNA Demethylation and
Adult Neurogenesis. In: Science, 20.
Febr., 1074-1077.
McNab, F. et al. 2009. Changes in
Cortical Dopamine D1 Receptor Binding
associated with Cognitive Training. In:
Science, 6. Febr., 800-802.
Miller, G. 2008a. Mirror Neurons
May Help Songbirds Stay in Tune. In:
Science, 18. Jan., 269.
Miller, G. 2008b. Reflecting on
Another’s Mind. In: http://www.
sciencemag.org/cgi/content/
full/308/5724/945.
Miller, G. 2008c. Hippocampal Firing
Patterns Linked to Memory Recall. In:
Science, 5. Sept., 1280-1281.
Miller, G. 2009. Sleeping to Reset
Overstimulated Synapses. In: Science,
3. Apr. 22.
Pastalkova et al. 2008. Internally
Generated Cell Assembly Sequences
in the Rat Hippocampus. In Science, 5.
Sept., S. 1322-1327.
Rossato, J. I. et al. 2009. Dopamine
Controls Persistance of Long-Term
Memory Storage. In: Science, 21. Aug.,
1017-1020.
Santello, M.; Volterra, A. 2010.
Astrocytes as aide-memories. In: nature,
14. Jan. , 169 – 170.
Schachl, H. 2006. Was haben
wir im Kopf? Die Grundlagen für
gehirngerechtes Lehren und Lernen. Linz:
Veritas.
Shors, T. J. 2009. Saving New Brain
Cells. In: Scientific American, 3, 41-48.
Silver, R. A.; Kanichay, R. T. 2008.
Refreshing Connections. In: Science,
11. Apr., 183-184.
Stuber et al., 2008. Reward-Predictive
Cues Enhance Excitatory Synaptic
Strength onto Midbrain Dopamine
Neurons. In: Science,
19. Sept., 1690-1692.
Takehara-Nishiuchi, K.; McNaughton,
B. L. 2008. Spontaneous Changes
of Neocortical Code for Associative
Memory During Consolidation. In:
Science, 7.Nov., 960-963.
Vogeley, K. 2009. Viel sagende Blicke.
In: Gehirn&Geist, 10, 60-65.
Now at the end let me say with the ancient
teacher COMENIUS in the 17th century:
“The goal is, that in schools must be less
noise, less frustration, less boredom, and
not useless work, but more freedom, more
joy, more happiness, and therefore more
real success.”
References
Allen, N. J.; Barres, B. A. 2009. Glia –
more than just brain glue. In: nature, 5.
Febr. 2009, 675 – 677.
Comenius Journal
September 2011
31
Vision and Practices
Le projet Comenius
“Toddler”
Towards Opportunities for
Disavantaged and Diverse
Learners on the Early
Childhood Road
A B S T R A C T
Denis ROGISTER
Lecturer HELMo Sainte-Croix Liège,
Belgique
Présentation et objectifs principaux
Ce projet est né suite à différentes rencontres qui ont eu lieu dans le cadre de
l’Association Comenius dès 2009.
La mobilisation des personnes et des
énergies a permis d’aboutir au dépôt d’un
dossier à la commission européenne qui
a donné son feu vert au mois de juillet
2010.
L’objectif majeur de ce projet est de réduire les risques de décrochage scolaire en
offrant, dès la petite enfance, en particulier pour les populations plus défavorisées, des milieux d’accueil et d’éducation
propices aux apprentissages et une meilleure implication des parents.
Un des objectifs indéniables est d’assurer
un niveau de formation optimal des équipes d’encadrants et des enseignants qui
ont en charge l’éducation et la formation
de la petite enfance (18-36 mois).
Le projet s’étale sur trois années, il a démarré en novembre 2011 et se terminera
en octobre 2013.
32
Cet article présente le projet “Toddler”, un projet Comenius multilatéral à l’intérieur du
programme d’apprentissage tout au long de la vie. « Toddlers » en anglais est le mot utilisé
pour les enfants âgés entre 18 et 36 mois. Cette abréviation signifie également « Towards
Opportunities for Disadvantaged and Diverse Learners on the Early childhood Road”, c’est-àdire “Développer des opportunités pour tous les apprenants, y compris désavantagés, dès la
petite enfance”.
This article presents « the Toddler Project », a Comenius multilateral project withing the
Life Long Learning program. “Toddlers” is the word for children aged between 18 and 36
months. The abbreviation for this project also refers to « Towards Opportunities for Disadvantaged and Diverse Learners on the Early childhood Road”.
•Les institutions partenaires
•Neuf partenaires européens se sont
engagés dans le projet.
•University of Stavanger - Department of
Early Childhood Education - Norvège
•University College South Denmark Danemark
•West University of Timisoara - Roumanie
•Artevelde University College - Belgique
•University of Education Schwäbisch
Gmünd - Allemagne
•Kingston University- Royaume Uni
•Instituto Politécnico de Santarém Portugal
•Universitat Ramon Lull-Espagne
•Haute Ecole Libre Mosane – Belgique
•Haute Ecole de Namur – Belgique
•Haute Ecole Léonard de Vinci - Belgique
Comenius Journal
September 2011
La répartition du travail
Deux meetings internationaux (Stavanger
en Norvège, décembre 2009 et Santarem au Portugal, novembre 2010) ont
été nécessaires pour définir les différents
axes et missions du projet et se répartir le
travail.
De fait, l’ampleur du projet est énorme et
il a fallu du temps pour clarifier et accorder les attentes de chacun des participants
de même que les objectifs et les missions
spécifiques. Tout ce travail n’a été possible
que grâce à l’implication de chacun des
partenaires, à la construction d’un climat
constructif et participatif.
Une des richesses de ce premier travail
a été de nous rendre compte que les
Vision and Practices
structures d’accueil et d’éducation de la
petite enfance étaient assez similaires dans
nos différents pays mais qu’elles étaient
confrontées aux mêmes types de difficultés. Les encadrants et les enseignants
ne sont pas toujours formés de façon
optimale pour assurer un encadrement de
qualité et permettre à chaque enfant de se
développer sans accroitre toute une série
d’inégalités sociales et culturelles fortement présentes.
Ce premier constat renforce, bien évidemment, la nécessité de notre recherche et
nous pousse à aller de l’avant.
Suite à ces deux meetings, nous sommes
parvenus à éclaircir les différentes thématiques développées dans le projet et à nous
fixer des objectifs concrets pour chacune
d’elles.
Un premier volet du projet consiste à
dresser un état des lieux de la situation
actuelle dans chacun des pays impliqués.
Nous sommes partis d’une analyse du
rapport Eurydice « L’éducation et l’accueil
des jeunes enfants en Europe : réduire les
inégalités sociales et culturelles » (2009).
Ensuite, chaque partenaire a récolté des
données spécifiques à l’accueil des « toddlers » : une description sommaire des
différentes structures d’accueil existantes,
une série de photographies illustrant les
choix pédagogiques dominants et des exemples de bonnes pratiques menées pour
réduire les inégalités sociales et culturelles.
Ce travail aboutira à la rédaction d’un rapport de synthèse et d’un tableau comparatif international.
à mener des études de cas sur le terrain et
à les analyser. Les résultats seront présentés dans un diaporama.
Un quatrième volet étudie l’implication
et l’engagement des parents au sein des
structures d’accueil et d’éducation pour
les « toddlers ». Tout d’abord, un état des
lieux des recherches sur le sujet sera réalisé. Ensuite, chaque partenaire interviewera
des parents sur des sujets spécifiques.
Deux ateliers de formation, sous forme de
vidéos, à destination des futurs encadrants
et des enseignants, seront produits. Un
guide pour praticiens réflexifs sera édité,
de même qu’un documentaire vidéo sur la
relation parents/encadrants-enseignants.
Enfin, un cinquième volet porte sur la formation aux pratiques réflexives en formation initiale. A cet effet, des ateliers et des
activités de supervision d’étudiants seront
menés au sein des différentes institutions.
Un guide méthodologique à destination
des enseignants en formation initiale
sera rédigé : dans un premier temps sur
Internet, puis sous format papier après
synthèse et analyse des expériences et
des apports spécifiques présentés lors
d’une conférence internationale. Ce guide
présentera les démarches nécessaires à la
conduite d’entretiens réflexifs, des études
de cas et des séquences filmées de sessions
réflexives menées dans les différents pays
impliqués. Enfin un article scientifique
sur le thème « Comment enseigner les
pratiques réflexives » sera publié.
En plus de ces différents volets, le projet
conduira à la construction d’autres outils :
un site Internet (http://www.toddlerineurope.eu), des articles scientifiques, des
conférences internationales (Santarem
2010- PT, Timisoara 2011 - RO, Gmünd
2012- D et Sint-Amandsberg 2013- BE),
des dépliants et des signets de présentation
du projet.
Enfin, la dernière contribution de ce projet
sera la mise sur pied d’un module de
formation spécifique sur les « toddlers » de
5 ECTS. Ce module serait proposé aux
futurs encadrants de la petite enfance et
aux futurs enseignants du préscolaire.
Comme vous le constatez, ce projet est
ambitieux et riche. Il explore un terrain
trop peu étudié et assez méconnu. Il aura
du sens et amènera les encadrants de la
petite enfance, les enseignants préscolaires
et les formateurs en formation initiale à
réfléchir sur leurs pratiques et à les faire
s’améliorer.
Denis Rogister
Un second volet se focalise sur
l’apprentissage précoce de la langue. Au
travers de questionnaires distribués dans
les milieux d’accueil, l’objectif poursuivi
est d’identifier les caractéristiques les plus
importantes à prendre en compte dans
le traitement du multilinguisme et du
multiculturalisme. Les résultats de cette
recherche seront présentés dans un rapport de synthèse.
Un troisième volet se centre sur le bienêtre. Tout d’abord, les différents partenaires établiront un relevé des décrets et
des législations en vigueur et constitueront
un recueil bibliographique des ouvrages
théoriques traitant du bien-être de la petite enfance. La suite du travail consistera
Comenius Journal
September 2011
33
Travel Experiences
Building Bridges
Reflections on the
International Early
Years Training Week
at Kingston University
London
A B S T R A C T
Tessa SCHELLENS
Lecturer Music Early Childhood
at Lessius Mechelen,,
Kim OP DE BEECK,
Lecturer Multimedia Literacy
at Lessius Mechelen
The introduction to the British Early
Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and
presentation of the Early Years Study Programme on day one of our training week
already offered interesting insights. The
idea of having so many different qualifications and awards within the field of education and childcare provision for early
years was quite new to us. In Belgium, for
instance, we currently have no qualifications for Teaching Assistants or Foundation Degrees in Early Year’s Management
and Leadership.
At first it was not so easy for us to get
a grip on the organisation of Childcare
Provision in the UK. Luckily, well-arranged visits (scheduled on day 2, 3, and
4) to several children’s settings quickly
sharpened our blurry images. Although
parents can choose from a wide range of
34
En mai 2011, nous, c’est-à-dire Tessa Schellens & Kim Op de beek (professeurs de musique,
langue et multimedia, littérature enfantine à la Haute Ecole Lessius à Malines) avons eu la
chance de participer à une semaine de formation sur le système scolaire anglais pour les
enfants de 0 à 5 ans. Avec d’autres enseignants d’autres pays, nous avons vu et expérimenté
des exemples de bonnes pratiques dans le travail avec les enfants. Le programme proposé
par Kingston fut un voyage passionnant grâce à un équilibre entre des sujets relatifs à
l’éducation et d’autres au culturel, à l’interculturel. Nous nous réjouissons déjà de poursuivre
les discussions sur les différences et les similitudes à propos d’autres programmes internationaux. Nous espérons pouvoir mettre en place certains éléments résultant de ces échanges
dans notre propre pratique. Dans l’article qui suit, nous décrivons brièvement quelques points
forts et intéressants de notre formation pour le préscolaire à l’Université de Kingston.
In May 2011 we, Tessa Schellens & Kim Op de beeck (Lecturers Music, Language &
Multimedia Literacy Early Childhood, Lessius Mechelen), were privileged to attend a training
week about the English early year’s (0-5) educational system. Together with other international lecturers for early years we saw, experienced and overall enjoyed some examples
of good practice in working with young children. The Kingston training programme, which
kept a fine balance between educational and (cross)cultural topics, resulted into an inspiring
trip. We already look forward to further discussing differences and similarities between other
international curricula and hope soon to implement some of the recent training outcomes
into our own teaching practice. In what follows we will briefly describe some highlights and
insights of our EY staff training at Kingston University.
childcare, most options (either privately,
voluntarily or government funded) were,
in our opinion, very expensive. It is, for
example, not unusual to pay over £800
a month for full time care in a nursery.
Luckily the government set up Initiatives
and Legislation to support less privileged
and disadvantaged children. The Early
Years Entitlement enables all three and
four year olds to access 15 hours of free
childcare and education for 38 weeks of
Comenius Journal
September 2011
the year. In Belgium most parents can rely
on government funding for the provision
of their children ages 0-2;5. The government also provides (almost) free preschool education from the age of 2;5 to 6.
During many of the international (formal
and informal) conversations on EY provision and education, all participants in the
training programme greatly appreciated
the strong community and parent involvement within several types of childcare
Travel Experiences
provision in the UK. The concept of
organising parent & toddler playgroups in
community settings (such as church halls,
community halls) where parents, grandparents, childminders, nannies and other
carers can meet, was also new to us.
At Kingston University London EY
students are given the opportunity to shift
and progress into different and flexible
study routes. They are also blessed there
with an impressive Learning Resource
Centre open 24/24, Early Childhood ICT
resources, a driven and passionate Early
Years Team and many examples of good
practice into working with young children.
In all of the visited children’s settings
(either privately, voluntarily, government
funded, based or non-based within infant
schools) we noticed (rather) explicit
reference to the Early Years Foundation
Stage Curriculum (0-5 years) by means of
floorbooks, learning journeys, children’s
portfolios, written instructions/feedback,
pictures, children’s works … on tables and
walls. In many settings elements of the
Reggio Emilia Approach were clearly present: the outdoors coming in, stimulation
of free-flow play, messy play, challenging
and stimulating indoor & outdoor play
areas, the presence and use of natural and
recycled materials, the organisation of field
trips, strong parent involvement and so on.
In most cases a lot of attention was paid to
infrastructure and interior design: spacious
rooms, sensory rooms, soft play rooms, libraries, different types of play rooms, preschool bathroom facilities, dining/meeting
areas for children, parents and carers …
We were also amazed by the number of
interactive whiteboards, computers and
didactic materials (games, storysacks,
books, toys …) available to staff, children,
parents, childminders and other carers.
It was also nice to notice that some of
these settings also had specific facilities
for children with special needs. We very
much appreciated the strong integration
of educational support, health and social
care within several settings. One setting,
for instance, offered specific training
programmes for parents: baby cafés, playgroups for teenage mothers, playgroups
for custody dads, cooking on a low income
lessons, computer courses, nursery rhyme
singing courses …
All gathered setting and other impressions
were animatedly discussed by the international party during our collective and
often very amusing bus trips to Campus
Hill, formal and informal lunches and dinner parties, all wonderfully hosted by the
Early Years Team at Kingston!
In between our setting visits and Kingston
Hill campus tours we were also given the
opportunity to visit some cultural sites as
well: Hampton Court, Kingston Town,
Dorich House and London, to name a
few). This perfect balance between training, plenary discussions/evaluations and
leisure turned our first international study
visit to England into an unforgettable, successful and inspiring experience.
T e s s a S c h e ll e n s
Kim Op De Beeck
Comenius Journal
September 2011
35
Travel Experiences
Outdoor Education
in Norway
International Week
at the University of
Stavanger
A B S T R A C T
Anita FURGER
Erasmus student at University of
Stavanger, Spring 2011
Home institution: Teacher Training
University of Central Switzerland
Outdoor Education - Program
All the students have some experience in
nature and special feelings about it. That
was the key to get to know each other and
make the distance smaller. Everybody had
to write down their feelings about nature
and what they are doing there. Because of
that, they get to know each other better
and had some points of discussion about
nature and how they can use it for teaching.
In Norway, outdoor education is a part of
the curriculum. However, what is outdoor
education? Where does it take place? How
is it done? What is the reason to do it? Is it
worth to spend time outside?
If I think about outdoor education, my
thoughts are automatically about forest.
Unfortunately, not all schools have the
36
“La semaine internationale s’est déroulée à l’Université de Stavanger du 28 février au 4
mars. Les étudiants “erasmus” qui étudient le programme “enseignement comparatif” ainsi
que d’autres futurs enseignants européens ont reçu des cours concernant l’”enseignement à
l’exterieur”. Bien que à la Norvège ait une longue et vieille expérience de l’utilisation de la
nature dans l’enseignement dispensé aux élèves, il y avait aussi des présentations des autres
pays et les étudiants internationaux ont ainsi partagé leurs expériences et connaissances
entre eux. Le programme offert aux étudiants cette semaine-là était diversifié; il alternait
entre une partie théorique et une autre pratique ce qui a rendu cette semaine informative et
inoubliable.”
From the February 28th till March 14th, the international week takes part at the University of
Stavanger. The Erasmus students from the study program Comparative Education as well as
other European teacher students get a full time program about outdoor education. Although
Norway has a long tradition of using the nature for teaching, there were also presentations
about other countries and the multinational students shared their experiences and knowledges with each other. The program was diverse with theoretical and practical parts, which
makes it an informative and unforgettable week.
opportunity to go to a forest near by.
Nevertheless, outdoor education can take
part everywhere, particularly, in school
grounds or gardens, in the city with
guided walks, games or other events or
on every other place outside. Therefore,
outdoor education is possible in every
country.
All the students went out to observe how
outdoor education is done in Norway.
I had the chance to visit a 1st grad. Actually, three classes from the 1st grad go
every Wednesday together into a wood.
They have their rituals: free play, cook-
Comenius Journal
September 2011
ing, eating, organized exercises and
games in groups. First of all, I was a little
disappointed because I expected subject
based lessons in the forest. However,
we discussed what we have seen in class
and I learnt that children also learn a
lot through free play and that it is quite
important for their social skills. All the
students had different experiences but
the conclusion was that it differed from
teacher to teacher how outdoor education
is done. Nevertheless, three main points
can be mentioned in pre-primary and primary school. Firstly, the children should
practice their physical education. The next
Travel Experiences
goal is about natural science. The pupils
should be able to plan and conduct inquiries in natural environment in cooperation
with others. Finally, they should know
how to prepare food outdoor and use the
nature as resources.
Therefore, they did not see how the potatoes were made.
There are many reasons why outdoor education should have a formidable importance in the school life. According to Meg
Moss is it natural that children want to
discover their environment. Their motivation has been improved. Furthermore, it is
basic for their health and wellbeing and it
becomes more and more school business
to make sure that children stay outside.
Another mentionable point… the physical
exercises in nature and children’s growing
self-esteem. Additionally, three important
learning theories, constructivism, multiple
intelligences and social learning show
that outdoor education is essential. For
example, it is a kind of impossibility just
learning with books. The teacher has to
take time to let them learn by doing and
the best way to do it is mostly outside in
groups. Therefore, pupils also build up
their social skills.
All the experiences we had and examples
in the curriculum do not belong to a special subject. Nevertheless, it is possible to
do outdoor education in subjects. Teachers
from the Netherlands taught us how to
make mathematics as well as geography
outside. When it comes to mathematics,
most of the lessons are inside. However,
according to Meg Moss “there are many
reasons to take students outside to explore
mathematics”. “Learning mathematics
outside of the classroom can help to make
connections between mathematics and
other subjects.” I really had to mention
these two sentences because I always try to
explain why mathematics is still important,
although everybody is using calculators.
Now I know, it is because of understanding our environment. The same reason for
going outside can be used for geography.
Moreover, it is especially for weak pupils
an enormous advantage to learn directly
from the nature, because it often helps
them to understand the matter when they
see it.
Critical points about how they do outdoor
education are the unused possibilities.
As I mentioned before, I expected more
structure. In my class, the children had to
bring a potato for lunch. Unfortunately,
the teachers made the fire and cooked
them. None of the children had to help.
We had a lot of fun with all the people. It
was a great mixture of Austrian, Belgian,
Dutch, German, Spanish and Swiss.We
went to the forest and did an outdoor
education workshop with three different
kinds of exercises with ropes.There was
the international evening. The Erasmus
Comenius Journal
September 2011
students prepared starters, main dishes,
desserts and a program with funny games
for making the evening unforgettable.
Summary
To sum up the week, I could say that it
was perfect. Being a scout leader, I am
used to being outdoors and from my
point of view, the children nowadays are
not enough outside. I have learned many
useful things about the theory of outdoor
education and a lot of practical ideas
which I can use in my future work as a
primary school teacher. I recognized that
nearly every country but the Scandinavian
countries, has the same problem. There
is too less outdoor education. Through
this week, future teachers get an input on
how important outdoor education is and
hopefully try to do the same in their home
country. I definitely will.
Anita Furger
References
Clarke, B., Grevholm, B. & Millman, R.
(2009). Tasks in Primary Mathematics
Teacher Education. Purpose, Use and
Examplars. Outdoor Mathematical
Experiences: Constructivism,
Connections, and Healt. P. 263 – 273.
37
Travel Experiences
Life Long Learning is
(Individual) Perception
Student Exchange
in SILVER-Comenius
Project
A B S T R A C T
Essai sur une programme internationale (SILVER-Comenius project) pour les enseignants
étudiants en 2011.
Shashi Rekha BERGLUND
Student at Högskolan I Gävle
The notion of teaching to a group of
young adults or the nomads (Romans)
with their vast knowledge to survive with
self-dignity thrilled me when we were
given the information of our target group.
Call it a hunch or intuition. I felt these
target groups held a key to the knowledge,
which would empower the teachers of our
times. When I ponder over the matter, I
realize those young adults (school dropouts) and the Romans whom the rest of
the world refers to as the dropouts or the
outcasts, have something lot of us lack.
Call it a quality and self-integrity, selfreliance, or the opposite depending on the
perceiver and his or her perception.
What I mean to say can only be explained
with what happened with me and a young
fellow (let’s call him Leo). During my
visit to Maribor PUM I became fascinated by Leo’s persona, he was in his own
world of creativity. Every stitch he had on
him was covered with tags. I was told he
scribbles and draws everywhere by one of
the mentors at the center. I asked him if
he would consider personalizing a pair of
shoes and what it would cost me. He was
reluctant at first and after a long negotia-
38
Essay about a student exchange (SILVER-Comenius project) for teacher-students in 2011.
tion we agreed upon a sum and terms that
he would finish it before my departure to
Sweden. Next day when others (my fellow
Erasmus students) saw me handing him
a pair of shoes, they enquired what I was
doing. Upon explanation of our deal the
majority of my fellow Erasmus students
laughed and asked if I was naive enough
to believe that he would care to finish his
assignment. I said I believe in myself and
my trust in humans was that of what I
would expect of me, so the answer was:
Yes I trusted in him to complete what he
took on. Reading the following question
on their face, I mentioned that yes like any
other artist would have gotten I paid him
a symbolic 10% down payment to which
they shook their head in disapproval.
Next week I was at the center to pres-
Comenius Journal
September 2011
ent Swedish culture and Leo came with
a big smile on his face and handed me
the shoes (see the photo attachment). At
the end of our presentation, I could not
resist the thought and showed everyone
the shoes with a grin on my face. The
very shoes my 10-year-old daughter wears
proudly and her 7-year-old friend expects
to inherit when she grows out of them.
Coming back to my statement that our
target group held a key which might enable teachers of tomorrow, the very key is
in their individuality and strength to carry
on. These are neither school dropouts nor
the social outcasts. They are just stuck
with the wrong end of the bargain.
I am very glad to have met mentors and
their approach towards these lonesome warriors is filled with care and
understanding. To teach or to share and
experience is something every individual
teacher/mentor has to choose between.
I think my trip to Slovenia helped me in
crystallizing my perception of the kind of
teacher/mentor I would like to become.
S h a s h i R e k h a B e r gl u n d
Travel Experiences
Une quatrième année
superflue?
Rémy THOMAS
Student International Certificate
Haute Ecole Léonard de Vinci
A B S T R A C T
The Ecole Normale Catholique du Brabant Wallon (ENCBW) organizes since some years a
fourth year called « International Certificate in Comparative Education ». The students are
following an intensive module of courses of six weeks and then have two monthes of practise
in different schools and associations in education. In January they are leaving the ENCBW for
another institute in Europe. In this article, Rémy Thomas explains his experience in Stavanger.
L’Ecole Normale Catholique du Brabant Wallon (ENCBW) organise depuis quelques années
une quatrième année d’étude «Certificat international en pratiques pédagogiques comparées». Les étudiants prennent une module intensif de six semaines, suivi par deux mois de
pratique dans plusieurs instituts ou écoles. En janvier ils partent pour les stages a l’étranger.
Rémy Thomas nous raconte ses expériences a Stavanger.
Au terme de ma formation de professeur en Sciences Humaines, je me suis
lancé dans une quatrième année pour
l’obtention d’un « Certificat International
en Pratiques Pédagogiques Comparées ».
Nos professeurs nous prévinrent dès la
première heure : ce certificat n’a pour
l’instant aucune reconnaissance concrète.
Il ne nous donnera pas droit à un salaire
plus élevé, ou à une position privilégiée au
sein du monde enseignant. Une année de
perdue en quelque sorte ?
Bon. Soit. Il n’empêche. Il n’empêche
de fait que je me verrais bien parcourir
quelque peu le monde avant de tenter
de l’expliquer à mes élèves. C’est là sans
doute le point commun entre les dix étudiants réunis lors de cette quatrième année à
l’ENCBW : l’envie de découvrir (ou de re-
découvrir, la plupart ayant déjà effectué un
Erasmus) et de s’ouvrir au monde et aux
gens qui le peuplent. L’Irlande, l’Espagne,
le Liban, le Canada et - en ce qui me
concerne - la Norvège, tant de destinations aux profils différents qui diviseront
notre groupe après les trois mois préparatoires suivis à Louvain-la-Neuve. Et déjà
lors de cette préparation de riches différences se font sentir entre les pratiques
d’enseignement, que ce soit simplement
entre nous étudiants – l’enseignement en
Belgique étant loin de montrer un visage
unique, ne fut-ce qu’entre l’officiel et le
libre, ou encore le Nord et le Sud -, ou
lorsqu’un professeur venu de Suisse ou
d’ailleurs nous donne un aperçu du système éducatif dans son étrange contrée.
Cette courte période passée, me voici fin
Comenius Journal
September 2011
prêt à partir avec la détermination ferme
de découvrir la Norvège de haut en bas, et
de comprendre un peu mieux cette Scandinavie dont on nous parle tant. J’ai fait le
choix de venir à Stavanger avant les débuts
du programme d’Education Comparée, ce
qui me permit d’arriver en même temps
que le commun des étudiants étrangers
(autrement dit tout sauf de futurs professeurs). Dans cette Tour de Babel, point de
différences pourtant. Ou plutôt, tellement
de différences que tous en sont réduits
à une dénomination commune, celle
d’étudiant étranger quelque peu perdu
face au climat changeant qui rythme la vie
des gens d’ici. On en revient au langage
commun, non pas le latin mais bien
l’anglais, que tous baragouinent avec plus
ou moins de dextérité. Et lorsque l’anglais
fait défaut, l’on parle dans sa langue en
39
Travel Experiences
espérant (souvent à raison !) que par
un quelconque hasard de l’histoire il se
retrouve de part et d’autre du Rhin ou
des Pyrénées. Hors donc, me voilà bien
loin des systèmes éducatifs scandinaves.
Et pourtant, de parler avec toutes ces
personnes qui sont toujours les acteurs
principaux du système éducatif de leur
pays, l’on en apprend beaucoup. Et surtout sur son propre pays, à force de devoir
l’expliquer en long et en large, d’autant
plus que la Belgique n’est ni des plus connues, ni des plus simples, en particulier
depuis quelques centaines de jours.
Un petit mois plus tard, c’est l’entrée
dans le programme d’étude à proprement
parler. La première comparaison des différentes pratiques pédagogiques se fait via
les formations respectives des étudiants
présents. Car si chez nous l’on est professeur ou instituteur, cette division entre
enseignement secondaire et primaire est
loin d’être commune à tous les pays européens. Via différents cours portant sur la
musique, la culture norvégienne, les mouvements migratoires ou encore l’éducation
inclusive, nous avons l’occasion
d’approfondir notre compréhension des
systèmes éducatifs en Norvège, mais
également dans les pays des jeunes gens
participant. De plus, parallèlement aux
différents sujets abordés lors des cours
tels que le livre d’images, l’utilisation de la
musique dans des classes de la maternelle
au secondaire ou encore l’intégration
des migrants dans l’enseignement, divers
stages viennent confronter la théorie à la
réalité du terrain.
des domaines plus manuels ou sportifs et
en se détachant des traditionnels tableaux
noirs pour enseigner, elle apprend bien la
vie en société.
Un an passe qu’un court article ne peut
qu’évoquer, et qu’un plus long compte
rendu aurait bien du mal à décrire. Cette
quatrième année « superflue» s’est en fait
révélée être sans doute la partie la plus
instructive et enrichissante de mon cycle
d’études. Vivre au contact non pas d’une,
mais bien de plusieurs autres cultures
amène véritablement à se découvrir
soi-même et ouvre à la réflexion, à la
tolérance et au respect comme aucun
discours ne peut le faire. C’est bien plus
qu’une année d’étude : c’est une année de
vécu, et l’apprentissage qui en ressort est
donc bien plus profond.
Rémy Thomas
Me voici donc parti à la visite d’écoles si
différentes des nôtres, mais où pourtant
quelques lieux communs persistent. Car
si ici l’on ne parle pas d’échec scolaire en
terme de redoublement –presqu’inusité
jusqu’aux secondaire supérieur – on le retrouve dans l’inquiétude des professeurs,
parents et même élèves face à un manque
de contenu et d’efficacité hypothétique
des cours donnés. Et si le système se veut
totalement inclusif, l’exclusion sociale
reste un défi à relever pour les enseignants
norvégiens. Malgré ces problèmes, ou
plutôt ces challenges que l’on retrouve
probablement d’ailleurs à différents
niveaux dans tous les systèmes éducatifs
de par le monde, l’école norvégienne impressionne par les compétences relationnelles de ses élèves. En mettant en avant
40
Comenius Journal
September 2011
Travel Experiences
Timisoara
A Flower with many
Colors
Christoph HAUFE
student teacher Training Campus
Haderslev, UCS Denmark
What do you know about Romania - the
capital Bucharest, the Danube-delta, the
Carpathian Mountains, Dracula? Maybe
you think – it’s far away. But it isn’t!
Timisoara is only 300 km away from Budapest, 550 km from Vienna and only 160
km from Beograd.
It’s an international town – in the Theatre
and the Opera house the singers and
actors perform in 3 different European
languages, Romanian, Hungarian and
German. The performances have a very
high standard, you can compare it with
metropolitan theatres and opera houses in
Europe like in London and Paris.
Why do we only know little about this part
of Europe? I want to recommend you to
go to Timisoara now, before all the mass
tourism comes to this beautiful, hospitable
and, for Western Europeans, very affordable city. In a Danish newspaper I read the
sentence:
A B S T R A C T
Essai sur la semaine internationale (Semaine International Comenius) pour les enseignantsétudiants en Février 2011
Essay about the international week (short Comenius exchange) for teacher-students in February 2011
You must visit this town! I totally agree.
We were a group of 9 foreign students –
three students from Vienna (one of them
came originally from Romania), two from
Liege (one of them from Quebec), three
from Mechelen, Belgium, and me from
Haderslev, DK. We reached Timisoara by
different means: the Belgian students by
plane, the Austrians by bus and me by
train.
The international week started on a Sunday evening. The Austrian students arrived
in the morning by bus and visited the city
already on their day of arrival. I reached
Timisoara in the evening and so I went to
a hotel close to our hostel to have a dinner.
A complete dinner with salad and a beer
in a middleclass-hotel was only 23 Lei
(€ 5.50). It was a good perspective for my
purse. Everybody can finance this journey
– it’s more expensive to stay at home! The
very convenient accommodation (actually
Comenius Journal
September 2011
for teachers) with 24 h reception, clean
sanitary facilities, TV and internet was free
for us for the whole week!
My first walk in the morning was to a
little shop around the corner with a kind
Romanian seller. Here, I could use my first
Romanian words: Good morning is Buna
dimineata, milk is lapte, butter – unt, bred
– pâine, thank you – multumesc or merci
and good bye – la revedere or simple pa!
After a delicious breakfast together with
Matthew from Liege and Sophie from
Quebec we started the second day. Our
guides through the whole week were five
students from the faculty of psychology of
the West University of Timisoara.
Our first lesson on Monday was about
learning some important Romanian
words: The numbers from one to ten are:
unu, doi, trei, patru, cinci, şase, sapte,
opt, nouă, zeche. We also changed our vocabulary, for example cheers means norok
41
Travel Experiences
in Romanian, in Danish skål, in German
zum Wohl or simple Prost and in Dutch
gezondheid. After this lesson we were well
prepared for our first city tour.
We understood why the capital of the
“Banat” was called “the little Vienna”The historical buildings in the city
centre reflect a rich period in the end of
the 19th and the beginning of the 20th
century. Wikipedia writes: The Banat is
a geographical and historical region in
Central Europe currently divided between
three countries: the eastern part lies in
western Romania, the western part in
north eastern Serbia (the Serbian Banat,
mostly included in Vojvodina), and a small
northern part in south eastern Hungary.
It is populated by Romanians, Serbs, Hungarians, Roma, Germans, Krashovans,
Ukrainians, Slovaks, Czechs, Croats and
other ethnicities. The Banat is a part of
the Pannonian plain bordered by the River
Danube to the south, the river Tisza to the
west, the river Mures to the north, and the
southern Carpatian Mountains to the east.
Its historical capital was Timisoara.
Timisoara has always been a multicultural and peace-loving town. It’s difficult
to find a city in central Europe with so
many traditional ethnic groups. Timisoara
has carried the multicultural reality in its
heart for centuries. In the city centre you
can find churches from different religious
congregations, for example the Catedrala
Romano-catolica (Dom), the Biserica
Lutherana, the Biserica Greco-catolica,
the Catedrala Metropolitana Orthodoxa
and two Synagogs. At the same time
Timisoara is a modern European town
with six universities, huge shopping malls
and many leisure amenities. In the West
University we saw the modern library and
a very modern lecture hall, which is not
42
only used for lectures, but also regularly
for film demonstrations.
On the second day we visited a German
Montessori school. After the revolution
in 1989, different private school alternatives in Romania arose. Some examples
are Waldorf-schools, Freinet-schools,
Jenaplen-schools and others. The atmosphere in the Montessori school was very
child-orientated, with fantastically good
learning material. The teachers spoke
German to the pupils, and sometimes the
pupils answered in Romanian. Most of the
pupils come from Romanian families.
Until the Second World War most of the
inhabitants of Timisoara were Germans.
Today they represent only 2,25 % of the
entire population of the town. German is
still an important language here. Vienna
is the gate to Western Europe and there
are many connections in the educational
system between Timisoara and Vienna. At
the Montessouri - school most teaching
material came from Austria.
On Wednesday we visited the School Center for Inclusive Education: “Paul Popescu
Neveanu”. It is a school for children with
special needs. The first impression was a
quotation from the Danish philosopher
Søren Kierkegaard in the Romanian
language at the entrance of the school.
Danmark is also very famous here for the
fairytales by H.C. Andersen. Every Romanian child knows these fairytales.
I was impressed by the good relations between the teachers, the therapist and the
pupils in all institutions. In “Paul Popescu” we only saw small groups of children
and no room was overcrowded. All pupils
followed their individual program.
The cultural highlight of the international
week was the international evening in the
house of our university lecturer and host
Cosmin Goian. We celebrated the evening
with Romanian food, Romanian and
international drinks, presentations of our
countries and national and international
games and dances.
On Thursday we visited a regular Romanian school with special orientation on
sports and IT. One of the biggest impressions I got was from the non-governmental organisation “Centre for support and
counselling for parents and children ‘For
help’ “, we visited on Friday. The aim of
Comenius Journal
September 2011
this organisation is to offer everyday support for children in social difficulties.
The motto for their work is the following
quotation by Dorothy Law Nolte:
Children live what they learn:
If a child lives criticized,
He learns to blame/condemn.
If a child lives in hostility,
He learns to fight.
If a child lives ridiculed,
He learns to be shy.
If a child lives in shame,
He learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives in tolerance,
He learns to be patient.
If a child lives encouraged,
He will learn the self esteem.
If a child lives in correctness,
He will learn to be just.
If a child lives in approval,
He will learn to like himself.
If a child lives in acceptance and friendship,
Then he learns to find love wherever in the
world.
We went home with a great respect for
this very active, competent and hospitable
team which does an important job for the
children.
The five Romanian students, who guided
us throughout the week, were door-openers to all these institutions. Their hospitality was overwhelming.
Every time a small group of students in
the international week started to speak in
their mother tongue, somebody called: In
English, please! with a smile. The international week gave us good progress in using
the English language as lingua franca. At
the same time we got an impression of
how valuable it can be to have an international orientation at school.
The beautiful, hospitable, open-minded
and peaceful multicultural city Timisoara
in the heart of Europe is one of the best
places to become acquainted with the new
Europe.
Christoph Haufe
T r a v e l E x p e r i e n c e s
How to organise an
International Seminar in
10 steps
The Curriculum as
Cornerstone of Creating
an International Learing
Environment
Lia FREDERICKX
Lecturer Music
International Coordinator
Lessius Mechelen.
Step 1
Look for a nice little town in a well known
country as the setting for your international seminar
Step 2
Take time to get to know each other : explore the different professional contexts of
your participants (coming from different
teacher trainings) by sharing ideas on what
kind of teacher they are educating in their
home university
Step 3
Invite the participants to build their own
curricula with LEGO-material using colours, forms in 3-D constructions in order
to talk about content, courses, teaching
practice and organisation
Step 4
Discover existing actions on internationalization in each other’s curriculum and use
the blackboard and post-it’s in order to get
a glance of how all kinds of international
actions already are integrated in different
teacher trainings in Europe
Step 7
Invite a keynote speaker to share his expertise within the field of the seminar and
challenge your audience to think, drink
and discuss a theme like ‘International
learning in the curriculum of teacher
training’
Step 5
Let students guide your guests through
the city of Mechelen in an evening walk so
they feel at home
Step 8
Make sure to have enough inspiring workshops with interactive challenges for the
participants and concrete conclusions after
the sessions
Step 6
Make sure to spoil your participants with a
lovely dinner in the evening somewhere in
a small restaurant
Step 9
Dream about future: plans and actions to
internationalise the curriculum and make
sure participants have concrete ideas to
take back home
Step 10
...
With thanks to all participants in the seminar, held in Lessius Mechelen University College in February 2011
Comenius Journal
September 2011
43
Travel Experiences
Philosophy at School
A Tool to Develop the
Critical European
Citizenship
A B S T R A C T
Irene Verde PELEATO
Department of Theory
of the Education
Faculty of Philosophy and Sciences of
the Education
Universitat de València (Spain)
Antecedentes no muy
lejanos
La preocupación por enseñar-aprender a
filosofar ha estado muy presente en las
últimas décadas (Matthews, 1994; Tozzi,
2001; Lipman, 2003). En 1950, la Conferencia General de la UNESCO decidió
realizar una encuesta que se llevó a cabo
en los dos años siguientes para saber el
lugar que ocupaba la enseñanza filosófica
en los diferentes sistemas educativos del
mundo y qué influencia ejercía ésta en
la formación del ciudadano. El informe
final presentó un análisis general de los
problemas surgidos de la enseñanza de la
filosofía y acompañada de una declaración
común de expertos en la materia. En el
año 1953 se publicó el primer estudio
sobre la enseñanza de la filosofía en el
44
Au cours des dernières années, nous avons assisté à une demande sans cesse croissante de
moyens pour favoriser la participation citoyenne. La philosophie pour les enfants est un domaine qui prend de l’importance dans de nombreux pays. Beaucoup pensent, en effet, qu’il
s’agit d’une étape importante dans l’éducation de base des enfants (âgés de 3 à 12 ans),
car il s’agit d’un moment-clé pour éveiller les enfants à la pensée réflexive. Cette thématique
rencontre également un intérêt grandissant dans la formation des enseignants et dans la
recherche sur la méthodologie et la didactique de la philosophie. Ceci se marque à travers
diverses associations et publications, qui ont été générées par des initiatives enthousiastes
d’enseignants. L’Ecole Normale Catholique du Brabant Wallon (Belgique)a organisé cette
année un programme intensif autour de ce thème.
Over the past few years we have been reacting to a growing demands of means to help
citizen participation. Philosophy with children is well received in many countries where one
believes this is a crucial step in the basic education of children (ages 3-12). The reason is
that this is the basic moment to have children wake up to reflective thoughts. There is also
a general interest in training teachers as well as research in methodology and didactic in
philosophy via associantions and publications that were incited by the enthusiastic initiative
of many teachers. L´École Normale Catholique du Bravant Wallon, Institut d’ Enseignement
Superieur Pedagogique de la University of Louvain-La-Neuve (Belgique) organized this year
an intensive programme about this topic.
mundo, llevado a cabo por la UNESCO
y que ponía el acento sobre el papel de la
filosofía en la toma de conciencia de los
problemas fundamentales de la ciencia, la
cultura y en la incipiente emergencia de
una reflexión argumentada sobre el futuro
de la condición humana.
En 1978, los estados miembros de la
UNESCO piden a la Organización la
elaboración de estudios sobre la enseñanza y la investigación filosóficas en
Comenius Journal
September 2011
cada una de las regiones del mundo. Esta
consulta regional que se demoró una
década tuvo como objetivo realizar una
gran encuesta sobre prácticas interdisciplinarias en el mundo. A continuación,
presentamos los resultados de cada una de
las cinco regiones tal y como figuran en
las actas del Congreso de ese mismo año.
En 1994, se completó la encuesta iniciada
en 1950 con un interesante estudio llevado a cabo por Roger-Pol Droit sobre
las contribuciones de personalidades de
Travel Experiences
Tabla 1.- Resultados más destacables
de la encuesta en cada una de las 5
regiones del mundo
Región África Reunión en Nairobi
(1980) en la que se recomienda una
“descolonización” conceptual en
materia de filosofía para eliminar los
problemas ligados a la enseñanza de la
filosofía que ha arrastrado el periodo
colonial.
Región Asia-Pacífico Reunión en Bangkok (1983) centrada en la profesionalización de la filosofía. Se recalca
la impregnación de la filosofía de la
Religión y la Historia. Se habla de la
necesidad de restablecer un diálogo
entre sociólogos y filósofos para evitar
la separación de ambas disciplinas en la
resolución de problemas sociales.
Región América Latina y Caribe Reunión en Lima (1985) en la que como
resultado final se solicita: la elaboración de un estudio interdisciplinar
sobre las relaciones entre filosofía y
las otras ciencias; la promoción de
estudios sobre la historia de las ideas y
sus influencias; promover una bibliografía contemporánea de la filosofía en
la región; promover las traducciones
de obras filosóficas de y al español y
fomentar la participación de filósofos
de la región en la revista “Diógenes”.
Región Árabe Reunión en Marrakech
(1987) que bajo el tema “La enseñanza y la investigación en filosofía en
el Mundo Árabe” permite hacer un
retrato de la enseñanza de esta disciplina a nivel secundario y superior; así
como en el campo de la investigación.
Se aprovecha la reunión para celebrar
la conmemoración del pensador Ibn
Tufayl con una mesa redonda.
Región Europa Los resultados de la encuesta concluyen con la publicación en
1993 de una obra sobre la filosofía en
Europa: datos, tendencias e interrogantes de la filosofía país por país, necesidad de un diálogo entre pensadores e
intelectuales más allá de las fronteras
nacionales y culturales.
sesenta y seis países, con la idea de abrir
una cantera de reflexiones y de debates
sobre el lugar de la filosofía en las culturas
actuales y de qué manera influye en la formación del juicio libre de los ciudadanos.
El estudio culminó en una publicación
titulada “Démocratie et philosophie dans
le monde” que ha sido fuente de trabajos
posteriores en la línea de educación para
la ciudadanía crítica.
En 1995, se organizan en París unas
jornadas internacionales marcadas por la
“Declaración de Paris para la Filosofía”
en la que se recoge que “la educación
filosófica, en la formación de espíritus
libres y reflexivos, capaces de resistir a
las diferentes formas de propaganda, de
fanatismo, de exclusión y de intolerancia,
contribuye a la paz y prepara a cada uno a
tomar responsabilidades ante los grandes
interrogantes contemporáneos…”. Esta
misma Declaración subraya la necesidad de que la enseñanza filosófica debe
preservarse dónde ya existe y crearse
dónde no está presente. Debe ser impartida por profesores competentes y especialmente formados en la materia. Recalca
la Declaración que la enseñanza filosófica
debe ir asociada a todas las titulaciones
universitarias o profesionales y no aparecer
yuxtapuesta.
Después de 1995, el programa de la
UNESCO en materia de Filosofía
continuará con la creación de redes
regionales, particularmente activas en el
Sudeste de Asia, en Europa, en América
Latina-Caribe; así como en África. Otras
dos acciones puntuales que se han llevado
a cabo y que, a nuestro juicio, merece
la pena destacar porque responden a la
popularización de una cultura filosófica
internacional son:
Incremento del material para trabajar la
filosofía con niños que, desde principios
de los años noventa, ha cobrado especial
interés de la mano de Lipman, filósofo y
pedagogo norteamericano, fundador junto
con Margaret Sharp del Institute for the
Advancement of Philosophy for Children
(Lipman, 1977).
La creación de la Enciclopedia multimedia de ciencias filosóficas, herramienta de
enorme utilidad.
Situación actual de la
enseñanza de la filosofía
En una sociedad que, sometida a continuos cambios, delega cada vez más sobre las
Comenius Journal
September 2011
instituciones educativas la adquisición y
práctica de valores que garanticen la convivencia respetando las diferencias (Puig
Gutiérrez et al. 2010:87), la filosofía en sí
misma y su enseñanza también exigen ser
implementadas en el currículum escolar
(Hand y Winstanley, 2008) con nuevos
planteamientos; Hemos recurrido al
estudio que nos presenta a nivel mundial
aspectos relevantes de la enseñanza de la
filosofía en todos los niveles educativos
(UNESCO, 2007).
1. La filosofía y los “jóvenes espíritus” en
los niveles de Educación Preescolar y
Primaria.
2. La filosofía en la edad del cuestionamiento (Educación Secundaria).
3. La filosofía en el terreno universitario.
Su enseñanza a nivel superior.
4. Descubrir la filosofía de otras formas.
Su práctica en la ciudad.
Del estudio se desprenden muchas ideas
interesantes que, habiendo sido previamente abordadas, cobran una nueva perspectiva: la importancia de innovaciones
en materia de pedagogía de la filosofía, la
formación inicial y continua de los maestros que imparten la filosofía, la evaluación sobre la eficacia de prácticas y la
necesidad apremiante de filosofar a partir
de la cotidianidad iniciando esta práctica
en los primeros años de la vida. Cuestiones todas que, a nuestro juicio, cobrarán
sentido cuando se inscriban en un proceso
educativo bien pensado e integrado en el
que cada disciplina juegue su rol y, a la
vez, sea complementaria de la otra.
Queremos destacar aquí una de las ideas
clave extraída del estudio anterior que
más adelante abordaremos con detalle: el
individuo posee “educabilidad” (Aznar
Minguet, Gargallo, Garfella y Cánovas,
2010) y la educabilidad filosófica es
posible desde la aparición del lenguaje
a partir de cuestiones vivas (Tozzi et al,
2001) surgidas de lo cotidiano.
La enseñanza de la filosofía:
reto para el futuro
Uno de los grandes desafíos que se ha propuesto la UNESCO en un futuro inmediato es ayudar a que la disciplina filosófica
se desarrolle en el mundo como forma de
favorecer el diálogo internacional entre
las comunidades o, dicho de otra manera,
45
que la filosofía juegue el rol de catalizador de ideas, de plataforma de cambios,
de espacio de diálogo libre y liberado;
Para ello, se han lanzado propuestas de
acciones concretas tales como: desarrollo
de manuales filosóficos y de programas de
intercambio que, a través de la movilidad faciliten el encuentro entre personas
de diferentes lugares; refuerzo de las
cátedras UNESCO de filosofía, promover
las olimpiadas internacionales de filosofía,
promoción de actividades de investigación
y publicaciones científicas en la materia, difusión de materiales que ayuden a
filosofar, etc.
Se trata de conseguir el “derecho de la filosofía” que reclamaba el filósofo Derrida
para todos y que muy bien plasmó Edgar
Morin como algo habitual de la vida de
las personas en su película “Chronique
d’un été”.
Consideraciones Suscitadas en el Programa
Intensivo A Partir de la
Enseñanza-Aprendizaje
de la Filosofía con Niños
(Educación Infantil Y Primaria)
se hacen los niños (suscitadas por la
lectura de historias adaptadas a su edad) e
igualmente, supone una mejora de la competencia comunicativa oral para expresar
lo que se piensa.
Uno de los grandes beneficios de aprender
a filosofar es la apertura hacia el otro en el
respeto, la escucha y el debate.
Es necesario un cambio en la didáctica de
la filosofía. El método de dilemas morales
basados en el fundamento teórico de
Kohlberg permite que la primacía de la
“cultura de la pregunta” se convierta en
una costumbre escolar, como bien señala
Tozzi (2001), profesor Emérito de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación de la
Universidad de Montpellier III y teórico
del movimiento de Nuevas Prácticas
Filosóficas en Europa.
El maestro es el animador de la comunidad de búsqueda filosófica poniéndose al
servicio del cuestionamiento del grupo.
No existen malas ni buenas respuestas
por parte de los alumnos. Toda palabra
o intervención contribuye a construir la
reflexión común.
Los niños son capaces de pensar por ellos mismos como actores de sus propios
aprendizajes si se les sitúa en las condiciones buenas para hacerlo y ésta es la mejor
forma de fomentar el espíritu crítico para
la participación ciudadana.
Proponemos la mirada hacia prácticas ya
existentes de “filosofía con niños” en los
niveles de Educación Infantil y Primaria.
La revolución en el método Lipman
(2003) parte de su afirmación respecto
a que lo verdaderamente importante
es filosofar por sí mismo y “CON los
otros” más que aprender la filosofía. De
aquí surge la idea de crear comunidades
de búsqueda filosófica cooperativa. La
opinión de cada participante contribuye a
construir la reflexión común.
Hay un movimiento general y universal
a favor de fomentar la filosofía con niños
apoyado por instituciones de reconocido
prestigio a nivel internacional como el
Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC) o L’International
Council of Philosophical Inquiri with
Children (ICPIC) y por el incremento de
publicaciones en la materia: “Thinking,
Childhood and Philosophy, Critical and
Creative Thinking, Aprender a pensar”
entre otras. Existen algunos casos en el
mundo, no muy comunes pero edificantes,
en los que la filosofía con niños está institucionalizada o en camino de institucionalizarse. Tal y como hemos expuesto en
el apartado anterior, sugerimos el análisis
El alumno que aprende a filosofar gana
confianza en sí mismo como sujeto pensante, mejora su autoestima.
Aprender a filosofar supone además una
cultura de la pregunta: el cuestionamiento
debe partir de las mismas preguntas que
46
Prácticas A Nivel Internacional
Comenius Journal
September 2011
de cuatro casos concretos: el francés, el
noruego, el australiano y el español como
ejemplos de prácticas que pueden orientar
el desarrollo oficial del currículum de la
Filosofía en los dos primeros niveles de la
educación (Infantil y Primaria) en países
que deseen hacerlo institucional.
Promover oficialmente la innovación: el
caso francés.
En Francia no existe una reforma institucional en lo que concierne a la filosofía en
la educación primaria; pero, sin embargo,
hay un entusiasmo colectivo por realizar
una práctica innovadora en la materia.
Los artífices de dicho entusiasmo son los
propios representantes de la institución
educativa quienes ven la necesidad de
cambiar la vieja tradición de la enseñanza
filosófica francesa.
En el sistema educativo francés, la filosofía
no existe oficial y significativamente
hasta el último curso de la Educación
Secundaria en el que tiene una fuerte
tradición únicamente en el itinerario
literario con una duración de 8 horas
semanales (Eurydice, 2010); sin embargo,
se vienen realizando prácticas de filosofía
con niños de 6 a 10 años desde 1996 y,
a partir del año 2000, el fenómeno se ha
ido acelerando significativamente. Las
iniciativas que se sustentan en diferentes
corrientes (el método Lipman, la corriente “democrático-filosófica, el método
socrático de Oscar Brenifier y la corriente
de Jacques Lévine) han tenido buena
acogida entre los responsables de la educación primaria porque se ha constatado
que favorecen aspectos tan relevantes
como: la competencia en la lengua materna, aprendizaje en materia de ciudadanía; aprendizaje de la argumentación; y,
aprendizaje del espíritu crítico.
El hecho de que las prácticas innovadoras
en filosofía con niños hayan dado buenos
resultados ha sido la razón por la que
muchos inspectores educativos hayan
animado a las instituciones universitarias
de formación del profesorado a incorporar propuestas para el desarrollo de las
mismas si bien no hay un programa oficial
Travel Experiences
en los niveles de Educación Infantil y
Primaria.
En todos los programas de lengua francesa
de 2002 se contempla con carácter obligatorio establecer debates en el tiempo
de clase a partir de obras de la literatura
infantil y juvenil; y, posteriormente, de una
manera más descontextualizada continuar
la discusión a partir de problemas de
fondo que los textos plantean a los alumnos. Igualmente, tiene carácter obligatorio
organizar en clase media hora de debate
reglado en el marco de la convivencia
(educación para la ciudadanía).
Concluimos afirmando que el caso francés
muestra la posibilidad de innovar lo que
favorece grandes orientaciones sin agredir
al sistema ya establecido.
El caso noruego: desarrollar oficialmente una
experiencia piloto.
Los primeros filósofos noruegos que
realizaron un trabajo sistemático con niños
en 1997-99 en las escuelas de Educación
Infantil de la región de Oslo fueron
A. Schjelderup y O. Olsholt desde una
entidad privada denominada Children
and Youth Philosophers Centre (CYP)
cuya finalidad es ayudar a los educadores
y alumnos a tomar conciencia de que
la filosofía se encuentra en el corazón
de todas las materias (www.buf.no/en).
Desde 2005, el gobierno noruego tomó la
iniciativa de realizar una experiencia piloto
en las escuelas a partir de la filosofía con
niños. Este programa abarca 15 escuelas,
43 profesores de Educación Primaria (a
partir de 6 años) y hasta la Educación
Secundaria (16 años).
Son varios los objetivos del programa
entre los que cabe mencionar:
Desarrollar competencias éticas
Fomentar el pensamiento crítico
Promover la capacidad de dialogar colectivamente en una perspectiva democrática
Un punto interesante del programa es la
formación del profesorado. Los maestros
disponen de dos días de formación al
trimestre con visitas a las escuelas para
realizar observaciones externas y obser-
vaciones mutuas. Son ellos mismos los
que crean los materiales didácticos que se
van actualizando sobre la práctica. Todos
los meses los maestros participantes en el
programa elaboran un informe a partir de
unas cuestiones específicas.
Es cierto que el programa cuenta con
detractores que ven la falta de tiempo uno
de los grandes problemas para incluir la
filosofía en los curricula escolares.
Australia: institucionalización de la filosofía en
la escuela primaria.
El caso de Australia es el único que, más
allá de la animación o la innovación,
ha integrado la filosofía en los planes de
estudio de la educación primaria a partir
del método Lipman.
Lipman plantea que los niños son capaces
de pensar por ellos mismos si se adapta el
método para ayudarles a hacerlo. “Su” método que ha sido revisado continuamente
se sustenta pedagógicamente en los métodos activos de Dewey, psicológicamente
en la Teoría del desarrollo del niño de
Piaget, filosóficamente sobre el patrimonio
reflexivo occidental (la lógica aristotélica y
la razón cartesiana, etc.).
El material didáctico del método Lipman
consta de siete historias acompañadas de
una guía del maestro y abarca las grandes
cuestiones filosóficas. Va dirigido a los
alumnos desde la Educación Infantil a la
Secundaria. La guía propone ejercicios diversificados con varias propuestas dejando
toda libertad a la iniciativa del docente.
Los tres puntos fuertes del método son:
Desarrollar en la escuela la cultura de la
pregunta a partir de las preguntas de los
mismos niños.
Proponer recursos escritos y, al mismo
tiempo, narrativos para facilitar la identificación de los niños con personajes y
situaciones.
Institucionalizar dentro del aula un espacio organizado de palabra democráticamente compartida y de intercambio sobre
los problemas humanos.
Comenius Journal
September 2011
Millett, director del Center for Applied
Ethics and Philosophy de la Universidad
de Curtin, Perth (Austalia) cuando se
le pregunta por la experiencia, la resume
con estas palabras:
“Ha sido una tarea difícil hacer aceptar a
las autoridades en materia de educación,
la idea de la filosofía en la escuela. Los
beneficios aportados por la enseñanza
de esta disciplina son diversos pero más
difíciles de cuantificar que los de otras
innovaciones pedagógicas…algunas de las
ventajas de la filosofía con niños pueden
medirse en términos de una mejora de
las capacidades de la lectura y el cálculo
aunque si bien las más importantes se
sitúan en las áreas que se prestan más a un
estudio cualitativo”.
El proyecto Filosofía 3/18
en España: una aventura
entusiasta.
En Cataluña un grupo de profesores ávidos de renovar las técnicas de la enseñanza
de la filosofía, deciden en 1987 traducir y
adaptar por edades la obra de M. Lipman
“El descubrimiento de Harry Stottlemeier” para alumnos de 3 a 18 años; de ahí el
nombre del proyecto. Más tarde formarán
la asociación Grup d’Innovació i Recerca
per a l’Ensenyamet de la Filosofia desde
donde realizan tareas para la promoción
de la filosofía con niños tales como organizar cursos de formación del profesorado
y sacar publicaciones sobre el tema entre
las que destacan “Aprender a pensar” y
el “Boletín Filosofía 3/18”. El proyecto
“Filosofía 3/18” está fundamentado en
la idea de que hay una estrecha relación
entre pensamiento y lenguaje y se apoya
en cuatro tipos de actividades: escuchar,
hablar, leer y escribir.
Hacia 2004 más de 300 instituciones
públicas y privadas (escuelas e institutos)
estaban implicadas en el proyecto que ha
ido derivando en otros proyectos europeos
tan interesantes como el interdisciplinar
“Ecodialogo. Educación ambiental y
diálogo filosófico” (www.grupiref.org) que
ha sido traducido a cinco lenguas.
Conclusiones Finales
47
Travel Experiences
Los niveles educativos de Educación
Infantil y Primaria son determinantes
porque son la base del despertar de los
niños y de los alumnos en el pensamiento
reflexivo. Si queremos que los alumnos
aprendan a pensar (Aznar Minguet, Gargallo, Garfella, Cánovas, 2010), debemos
iniciar la práctica desde los primeros años
de vida escolar descartando viejos tópicos
de que la filosofía es difícil para los niños
o que la reflexión no es tan importante
como la expresión espontánea.
De acuerdo con la investigación en psicología evolutiva, cognitiva y social y en
el campo de las ciencias de la educación,
aprender a filosofar es posible desde
edades tempranas y es muy deseable por
muchas razones entre las que queremos
destacar las educativas ya que consideramos que engloban otras tantas como las
políticas, éticas o, cayendo en la redundancia, las filosóficas, etc.).
de comprender el sentido y los principios
del saber, de actuar para desarrollar el
sentido crítico, baluarte por excelencia
contra toda forma de pasión doctrinaria.
El método Lipman en concreto tal y
como vimos en las dos semanas que duró
el programa intensivo liderado por el
equipo de investigación de Louvain-LaNeuve, ofrece una gran oportunidad para
partir de cómo enseñar a pensar con niños
ya que postula la educabilidad filosófica
de la infancia desde la convicción de que
es posible aprender a filosofar oralmente y
en comunidad.
I r e n e Ve r d e P e l e a t o
References
La práctica de la filosofía con niños
(entre 3 y 12 años) está cobrando auge en
muchos países tal y como hemos expuesto
anteriormente que ven en su práctica la
vía para enseñar a ejercer la ciudadanía
crítica; Del mismo modo, hay un interés
generalizado por la formación cuidada de
los maestros en la materia y ha aumentado recientemente la investigación en
pedagogía y didáctica de la filosofía a
través de asociaciones y publicaciones
a partir de la iniciativa entusiasta de
muchos maestros y profesores.
Cierto es que falta mucho por hacer
para que estas prácticas lleguen a todo
el mundo, pero no se trata de exportar
un único modelo universal ya que la
pluralidad de prácticas es deseable ya
que acogen la riqueza de la alteridad.
Del cuestionario de la UNESCO (2007)
sobre las prácticas filosóficas con niños se
extrae que apenas hay presencia de ésta
en las zonas de África y del Mundo Árabe
donde quizás a través de proyectos de
cooperación internacional podamos llegar
desde la Asociación Comenius.
Concluyo estas líneas tal y como lo
empecé, revindicando la necesidad de
enseñar a filosofar porque pensar implica
el ejercicio de la libertad gracias a la reflexión. Se trata, por ende, de juzgar sobre
la base de la razón y no de expresar meras
opiniones, no sólo de saber sino también
48
The first time that I had occasion to
participate in an European project within
the frame of the Comenius Association
was few years ago in Liège. The “Intensif
Programme: L’Europe dans the Formation interculturelle des maîtres. “Aborder
la violence pour l’éviter, défi éducatif
européen” very well led by Mrs. Martine
Chevalier gave me an opportunity to be
part of the this international team. My
tribute of gratefulness to a great woman
and a sensible colleague to the internationalization of our Higher Education
Institutions.
Martine Chevalier IN MEMORIAM
Comenius Journal
September 2011
AZNAR, P; GARGALLO, B; GARFELLA,
P; y CÁNOVAS, P (2010) La
educación en el pensamiento y la
acción. Teoría y Praxis. Valencia.
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LIPMAN, M.; SHARP, A.M. y
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LIPMAN, M. (2003) Thinking in
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MATTHEWS, G. (1994) The
Philosophy of Childhood. Harvard UP.
MÍNGUEZ, R. (2010) La escuela
hoy en la encrucijada. Hacia otra
educación desde la ética de E.
Lévinas. Teoría de la Educación.
Revista Interuniversitaria, 22, 2,
43-61.
MORILLAS, M.D. (2006)
Competencias para la ciudadanía.
Reflexión, decisión, acción. Materiales
12-16 para Educación Secundaria.
Madrid. Narcea.
TOZZI, M et al (2001) L’éveil de la
pensée réflexive à l’école primaire.
Montpellier.
CRDP. Hachette.
UNESCO (2007) La philosophie. Une
école de la liberté.Enseignement de
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philosopher : état des lieux et regards
pour l’avenir. París.Unesco.
www.eurydice.org
www.buf.no/en
www.grupiref.org
Announcements and upcoming events
Training Visit
The Multiplicity of Playing,
March 2012 Kolding, University
College South Denmark
You are kindly invited to spend a week
in March 2012 being a guest teacher for
highly motivated Danish students. At the
same time you take part in activities and
events with other visiting colleagues and
the Danish hosts. You will also have a
unique opportunity to experience Danish daily life in kindergartens and day
nurseries.
The overall theme of the week is “The
multiplicity of playing”
We will explore the qualities of plays and
games in different professional contexts?
We will arrange five lessons for you so as
to comply with the specifications of the
Erasmus guest teaching programme
Participate in a week of play, mutual
inspiration, and experience sharing.
There will be sessions on play in theory
and practice, outdoor activities, visits to
institutions, and an introduction to the
Danish concept of institutions – a more
detailed program will be ready in January 2012
Location
University College Syddanmark
Dyrehavevej 116, 6000 Kolding
Denmark
Dates
Arrival on Sunday 25.03, departure
Friday 30.03 2012
Accommodation
Participants are accommodated right in
the center of the town next to the castle.
Participants are expected to book individually referring to UCSyd, Kolding at
www.kolding-byferie.dk
Meals
Breakfast and lunch at the canteen at
Campus Kolding
Information and confirmation
Ib Groth, MIH,
International Coordinator UC Syddanmark, Kolding
D +45 7322 7341 - +45 2616 1279 [email protected] and cc
Gitte Fevre Christensen [email protected]
www.ucsyd.dk
Training Visit
UiS Staff Exchange Week 2011
Hold the dates!
UiS Staff Exchange Week will be arranged again in Stavanger between 1721 October 2011!
international student admission, student
advising or internationalization in general. The language of communication
will be English.
The University of Stavanger would like
to invite your university staff members
to Staff Exchange Week in Stavanger
(Norway). The event will offer you a
perfect chance to build your professional
network, share experience and create
new opportunities for international
cooperation.
Dates
The UiS Staff Exchange Week will be
arranged in week 42, between 17 - 21
October, 2011. The programme will
commence on Monday at 09:00. During the first two days and the two last
ones, we will organise common activities for the participants. On Wednesday
the 19th, between 08:00 – 15:00, each
participant will have the opportunity
to visit a faculty/department/division.
These visits are to be organised by the
participants before arrival (preferably
before registration, in order to be sure
Target group, suitable background and
language of communication
Participants should be staff members
from UiS partner universities, working
with international issues, e.g. mobility,
of the availability of the counterpart).
We will naturally assist you with contact
information (upon request).
Online registration and submission of
abstract at www.uis.no
The temporary deadline is 20 September 2011. Registration after the deadline
might be possible if any vacancy occurs. Please contact us at:
[email protected] or
[email protected] for further information.
www.uis.no
Other international
staff training weeks
• March 2012: Hradec Kralové
• June 2012: Pädagogische Hochschule Swchäbisch Gmünd
Info
Monika Becker
[email protected]
www.ph-gmuend.de
Comenius Journal
September 2011
49
List of contributors
International Weeks
Intensive Programs
Karel de Grote Hogeschool - Antwerpen
13/2 – 17/2/2012
Haute Ecole Léonard de Vinci - Catégorie Pédagogique
30/1 – 3/2/2012
Haute Ecole Libre Mosane, HELMO
13/2 - 17/2/2012
University of Stavanger
12/3 – 16/3/2012
Escuni - Escuela Universitaria de Magisterio
12/3 – 16/3/2012
Universitad Catolica de Valencia San Vincente Martir
5/3 – 9/3/2012
University College Syddenmark
26/3 – 30/3/2012
Lessius Mechelen
26/3 - 30/3/2012
Haute Ecole de Namur-Liège-Luxembourg
26/3 – 30 /3/2012
Escola Superior de Educacao de Santareém
16 - 20/04/2012
Inholland University School of Education Noord PABO
Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara
tbc.
27/2 – 2/3/2012
Apor Vilmos Katolikus Foiskola
23/4 – 27/4/2012
Universidad Ramon Lull
March 2012
1. “Philosophy and Citizenship”. Louvain-la-Neuve
The third edition will take place from 27/2 –
9/3/2012 in Haute Ecole Léonard de Vinci,
Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.
Contact
Geneviève Laloy
Head of International Relations
[email protected]
Haute Ecole Léonard de Vinci - ENCBW
www.vinci.be and www.encbw.be
2. “Early years: Discovering, Learning and Creating
with all the Senses”. The first edition will take
place from 11/3 – 23/3/2012 in Haute Ecole
Namur-Liège-Luxembourg - Département Pédagogique Champion
•Discovering an environment through all senses
and creativity for future early years teachers and
in a second step with children under 6.
•Creating a “tool box” (list of description of
activities for children) Reflecting on one’s personal development throughout the project
Contact
Chantal Muller
[email protected]
50
Comenius Journal
September 2011
Contributors
List of Contributors
Anita Furger
Erasmus student at University of Stavanger
[email protected]
Teacher Training University of Central Switzerland
www.luzern.phz.ch
Irene Verde Peleato
Lecturer Department of Theory of the Education
Faculty of Philosophy and Sciences of the Education
[email protected]
Universitat de València (Spain)
www.uc.es
Anna Megyeri-Runyó
Lecturer
[email protected]
Apor Vilmos Catholic College, Natural Science and
Mathematics Institute
www.avkf.hu
Christiaan Roos
Media consultant: Media Centre
[email protected]
University College – South Denmark
www.cfu.dk
www.rug.be
Jan Brauer
Coordinator: Media Centre
[email protected]
University College – South Denmark
www.cfu.dk
Joke Simons
Researcher and coach Teacher Training Lessius
Mechelen
[email protected]
CIMIC
www.cimic.be and www.lessius.eu
Cristoph Haufe
Student teacher training Campus Haderslev
University College South Denmark
www.ucsyd.dk
Denis Rogister
Maitre Assistant en psychopédagogie, Coordonnateur de la CEI Préscolaire, Responsable du Service
Qualité HELMo
[email protected]
HELMo Sainte-Croix
www.helmo.be/sainte-croix
Gerry O’Reilly
International Affairs Coordinator and Senior Lecturer, Geography Department
[email protected]
St. Patrick’s College
www.spd.dcu.ie
Gunilla de Graef
Coordinator CIMIC, Centre for expertise on Intercultural Management Lessius
[email protected]
CIMIC
www.cimic.be and www.lessius.eu
Hans Schachl
Rector at Private University of Education Linz;
special field Neurosciences and Learning
[email protected]
Private Pädagogische Hochschule der Diözese Linz
Roger Standaert
Director of the Flemish Department for Educational
Development (Untill sept 2011),
Professor University Ghent, Chairman CIDREE
[email protected]
University of Ghent
Ruth McManus
Head of Geography Department,
St. Patrick’s College
[email protected]
St. Patrick’s College
www.spd.dcu.ie
Shashi Rekha Berglund
Student, participant SILVER project
Högskolan i Gävle
www.hig.se
Kia Kimhag
Lecturer, International Coordinator
University of Gävle
[email protected]
Högskolan i Gävle
Tessa Schellens
Lecturer Music Early Childhood
at Lessius Mechelen
[email protected]
Lessius Mechelen
www.hig.se
www.lessius.eu
Kim Op De Beeck
Lecturer Multimedia Literacy Early Childhood at
Lessius Mechelen
[email protected]
Lessius Mechelen
Violaine Hacker
PhD, European Department Studies
[email protected]
Université Paris-Sorbonne
www.paris-sorbonne.fr
www.lessius.eu
Lia Frederickx
Lecturer Music Bachelor Primary Education
at Lessius Mechelen
[email protected]
Lessius Mechelen
www.lessius.eu
Patrick Dejarnac
Lecturer Multimedia
HELMo Sainte-Croix
www.helmo.be/sainte-croix
Rémy Thomas
Student International Certificate Haute Ecole
Léonard de Vinci
Haute Ecole Léonard de Vinci
www.vinci.be & www.encbw.be
www.phdl.at
Comenius Journal
September 2011
51
Institutions
Partner Institutions
Austria
Germany
Spain
Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule in Wien
Pädagogische Hochschule Schwäbisch-Gmünd
Centro Superior de
Estudios Universitarios
La Salle
www.kphvie.at
www.ph-gmuend.de
www.eulasalle.com
Belgium
Hungary
Arteveldehogeschool
Apor Vilmos Katolikus Foiskola
www.arteveldehs.be
www.avkf.hu
Haute Ecole Léonard de Vinci Catégorie Pédagogique
Ecole normale Catholique du Brabant Wallon
www.encbw.be
Escuni - Escuela
Universitaria de Magisterio
www.escuni.com
Universitad Catolica de
Valencia San Vincente Martir
www.ucv.es
Ireland
Universitat dè Valencia
www.uv.es/filoeduc
Saint Patrick’s College
Institut Parnasse Deux Alice
www.spd.dcu.ie
www.parnasse-deuxalice.edu
www.url.edu
www.blanquerna.url.edu
Haute Ecole de Namur Departement Pédagogique
www.henam.be
Universidad Ramon Lull
The Netherlands
Haute Ecole Libre Mosane, HELMO
Inholland University School of Education Noord
PABO
Haarlem and Alkmaar
www.helmo.be
Karel de Grote Hogeschool
www.kdg.be
www.inholland.nl
Sweden
University of Gävle
www.hig.se
University of Örebro
Lessius Mechelen
(former Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen)
www.oru.se
Norway
www.khm.be
www.lessius.eu
University of Stavanger
www.uis.no
Switzerland
Haute Ecole Pédagogique
du Canton de Vaud
Denmark
University College Syddenmark
Portugal
www.ucsyd.dk
Escola Superior de
Educacao de Santareém
France
www.eses.pt
CFP Emmanuel Mounier
www.hepl.ch
United Kingdom
Kingston University
School of Education
www.kingston.ac.uk
www.cfpmounier.net
Romania
Universitatea de Vest din
Timisoara
www.uvt.ro
52
Comenius Journal
September 2011
ISSN: 2033-4443
No. 20
September 2011
www.comeniusassociation.org