Innovation in Language Learning

Underlying principles 

How can the question of energy sources and the development of European citizenship be related? How can CLIL methodology be a valid and useful tool for students and teachers to research and explore today’s scientific challenges in Europe in order to propose alternative solutions? How can a Comenius Regio project  (in which various stakeholders – politicians, schools, institutions and associations - cooperate) contribute to setting up an innovative way of working together at distance, through ICT and social networks?

All these questions find their answers in the Comenius Regio project: 

Science for ActiVe citizEnship in EUrope- SAVE EU 

Scientific learning paths to face future challenges (September 2013- August 2015)

in which the two partner countries are

• Italy: Provincia di Pisa (coordinating institution); 3 secondary schools; the professional association of lend-lingua e nuova didattica);

• Denmark: Municipality of Fredericia; 4 secondary schools; UCSyd, University College Syddanmark, Haderslev.

and whose expected outcomes are as follows:

• to raise the awareness of active participation in European future scientific challenges; 

• to train educators to develop innovative learning or e-learning paths on scientific and social topics; 

• to implement integrated learning paths able to convey to students the values of European citizenship; 

• to improve teachers’ and students’ communicative and linguistic skills; 

• to adopt CLIL methodology and use ICT; 

• to work - teach and learn - in a cooperative way; 

• to raise the quality of teachers’ professional profile and of the educational offer of schools; 

• to compare the educational policies in the two partner countries and raise their quality standard.

The state of art (evaluation and reflection) and future perspectives

The outcomes of the project, achieved so far are: 

• a web-platform for teachers, researchers and stakeholders to exchange opinions, experiences, materials (http://saveeu2013.wordpress.com/);

• a Facebook page for students;

• guidelines and suggestions for CLIL methodology;

• learning and e-learning CLIL scientific paths implemented at school;

• videos and reports documenting the experimentation phase;

• self-evaluation sheets for teachers and questionnaires for students (inner evaluation).

The impact on the actors of the project has been quite positive up to now as teachers, students and the regional institutions in both countries have become aware of the scientific challenges Europe has to face in the near future in particular as concerns energy sources, and have felt part of it. They have worked in an innovative way (CLIL and ICT) in an intercultural context, and have actively cooperated in view of their common objectives.

We expect that in  the second year of the project the four “threads” of it -  local autonomy and education, common scientific challenges, the CLIL teaching/learning process and European citizenship - will interrelate more closely in order to bear better fruits!