Pestalozzi Programme

“Summer School”

"Promoting Participation"

Organised by the Pestalozzi Programme of the Council of Europe in cooperation with the Academy of Bad Wildbad*

Venue: Academy of Bad Wildbad, Bad Wildbad, Germany

Dates: 29 June - 6 July 2014(Arrival 28 June 2014, departure 7 July 2014)

Summary

July 2014 Version 2.0

Professional development - Community of Practice - Training

www.coe.int/pestalozzi

*Landesakademie für Fortbildung und Personalentwicklung an Schulen

The Landesakademie in Bad Wildbad

This summary presents the Highlights of the 2014 edition of the Pestalozzi Programme Summer School. The theme of this year’s Summer School focused on “Participation”. How do we promote participation in education? How does participation support our vision of the purpose of education? What role do education practitioners play in promoting participation of all in the learning processes? The reader will find resources and perspectives on these questions.

Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard

                                                                                                                                   and the Summer School team

July 2014

Table of contents

Pestalozzi Programme Summer School 2014: “Promoting participation”.................................. 5

Introducing the basic foundations......................................................................................... 5

Structure of the Summer School........................................................................................ 5

Opening.............................................................................................................................. 6

Transversal Attitudes,  Skills and Knowledge (TASKs) for promoting participation....... 6

Open Space........................................................................................................................ 7

Base groups........................................................................................................................ 8

Courses................................................................................................................................. 10

Long courses.................................................................................................................... 10

Communicate! Foster Participation.............................................................................. 10

Ethics of participation.................................................................................................. 10

Cooperative Learning from the aspect of participation............................................... 11

Participation and democratic citizenship..................................................................... 12

Exploring participation in school................................................................................. 13

Citizenship 2.0............................................................................................................. 15

Short courses.................................................................................................................... 16

Who are I?.................................................................................................................... 16

Arts and crafts............................................................................................................. 17

Bystanders and participation....................................................................................... 17

How to enhance school development based on participation...................................... 18

Purpose of education................................................................................................... 18

Storytelling and Stop Motion...................................................................................... 19

Call for action - English and French............................................................................ 19

Teacher manifesto: The professional image and ethos of teachers.............................. 20

The Island.................................................................................................................... 20

Pestalozzi Resources: How to promote participation in my daily praxis?................... 21

Other common courses......................................................................................................... 21

Socratic walks.............................................................................................................. 22

Soap box...................................................................................................................... 22

Roundtable debate....................................................................................................... 23

Evaluation.................................................................................................................... 24

Resources............................................................................................................................. 26

Multimedia....................................................................................................................... 26

Further reading................................................................................................................. 26

Further viewing................................................................................................................ 26

CoE manuals for EDC/HRE............................................................................................ 27

The team: Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard (France-Director), Ferenc Arató (Hungary), Carolina Gonçalves (Portugal), Aart Franken (Netherlands), Višnja Rajić (Croatia), Alessandro Soriani (Italy), Andria Takkidou (Cyprus),                     Marta Viñes Jimeno (Spain/Germany), Josef Huber (Head of the Pestalozzi Programme)

Pestalozzi Programme Summer School 2014: “Promoting participation”

Introducing the basic foundations

Structure of the Summer School

The Summer School is an 8-day training event in which participants are invited, upon enrolment, to choose from a variety of courses. Common courses engage all participants as a whole group, while long and short courses can be chosen to compose a menu that best suits the individual needs of each participant, through an ‘à la carte system’ of registration. We will summarise here the courses and other activities offered during the Summer School.

56 teachers of all subjects from all types of schools (6-19) and other education professionals (school heads, school psychologists, teacher educators, administrative staff, educators from the non-formal education sector, etc.) participated in the second Summer School of the Pestalozzi Programme in cooperation with the Academy of Bad Wildbad.

Common activities throughout the eight days allowed participants to work together as a whole group, to learn together and to exchange ideas and experiences. A public round table debate offered the opportunity to reflect on important educational issues.

For the remaining time, participants had the possibility to choose their personalised learning curriculum from a wide range of courses on offer. The training activities dealt with various aspects of the overall theme “Promoting Participation”. In particular they focused on topics such as participation in social, cultural, political and economic life, etc. and in particular on what school, and teachers and educators, can do to promote the development of the attitudes, skills and knowledge which are necessary to be able to fully participate in life in a democratic society. Pedagogical and methodological issues were addressed throughout the activities, with methods and learning structure, such as cooperative learning for democratic education, innovation and creativity, fostering motivation and curiosity and promoting an education for personal development.

Opening

The Summer School opened on Sunday 29^thof June. With this opening session the team welcomed the 56 participants of the Summer School.

Summer School participants and team

Transversal Attitudes,  Skills and Knowledge (TASKs) for promoting participation

The second session focused on presenting the Transversal Attitudes Skills and Knowledge for democracy (TASKs), a resource developed within the Pestalozzi Programme through a collaborative process with 60 of its members over a period of 4 years (2009-2013). The project stemmed from the shared idea of the network of trainers involved in the Pestalozzi trainer training programme that teacher education and training (as much as all learning) should be based on specific components with a vision of supporting tomorrow’s sustainable democratic societies.

Democratic values and competences cannot be acquired through formal teaching alone but need to be practiced. They are acquired through a “learning by doing” approach, based on experience. Experience, discovery, challenge, analysis, comparison, reflection and cooperation are very effective as they engage learners as whole persons and address their intellectual, emotional and physical potential. This can only be achieved through continuous professional development opportunities and policies for teachers willing and able to try innovative actions in their school and classrooms. The TASKs have been found to be essential for developing intercultural and democratic competences with teachers and learners. This list of TASKs components is the result of a four-year process of collaborative work by practitioners from diverse backgrounds (teachers, teacher educators, researchers from all over Europe) and a variety of fields of expertise including citizenship, human rights, diversity and intercultural education, media literacy, history, language, psychology, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy of education.

These core attitudes, skills and knowledge can be subdivided into components that need to be developed by every individual in order to be able to live in and contribute to the development and maintenance of democratic societies and to fully benefit from diversity. We distinguish 3 categories of components:

●     the affective and moral dimension (attitudes, values and dispositions): savoir-être/ learning to be;

●     the cognitive dimension (knowledge and understanding): savoirs /learning to know;

●     the procedural dimension (skills and processes): savoir-faire (savoir-agir)/ learning to do.

The TASKs components are transversal in two senses of the word: transversal with regard to different “entry points” such as citizenship education, human rights education, language education, and diversity education to name a few, and transversal because they represent components every education professional, whatever subject they might specialize in, need to develop in themselves and in their learners. The TASKs list for “promoting participation”, is a selection of components taken from the TASKs list here:

                               The TASKs components apply to ALL educatorsand to ALL subject areas.                           Throughout the Summer School the TASKs list was one of the main tools for participants’ self-reflection and peer-feedback, during evaluations, base groups and debriefing sessions.

Open Space 

Aart Franken

Open Space was a chance for everyone to start any discussion, if participants had passion for the topic and were willing to take responsibility for the discussion. Through open space, participants became more aware that they are responsible for their own learning and are able to get to know other participants in different discussions. This was also an opportunity to learn about participation from different points of view. Everyone could choose to attend any of the discussion groups that started during the Open Space. Furthermore, participants were invited to join and leave discussions at any time if this suited their needs. By the end of the session we experienced several discussions, many important topics were covered, and many new people were met. As they said in Open Space: “Be prepared to be surprised”. Open Space was a very efficient way to introduce the theme.

 

Open Space: participants proposed their topics of discussion.

Base groups

Every day (not on Sunday as they had general evaluation activities), participants met in the same group of 3 to reflect individually, discuss what they had learned during the day and set out new learning goals.

               

    

  

Base groups at work

The base group was a response to the need for participants to start processing the day’s courses, to focus on their own learning, as well as their peers’. Here participants learned together and became comfortable applying the different techniques of working together cooperatively.

Groups were heterogeneous from the language aspect; all participants handled some level of working English. Participants:

●     focused on what they had learnt that day;

●     reviewed where they were at concerning the components of TASKs for participation;

●     created their common space for learning from each other and offered support for identifying new or common learning goals.

Each day, base groups session started their work with an activity that developed convivencia, and gave tools to participants to deal with any potential intragroup conflicts they might encounter during the 8 days of their collaboration. This short film gave readers an idea of such activities for convivencia: Starter Activity Youtube - Base groups and convivencia

More on base groups can be found here: Base Groups Prezi - Summer School

Courses

Long courses

Communicate! Foster Participation

Carolina Gonçalves and Alessandro Soriani

Communication course’s purpose was to make the participants reflect on the importance of communication in participatory dynamics and the participants were asked to explore and find strategies that would help all to engage in effective communication. We identified what communication means to us, what we put in communication and what are our main challenges. It was interesting for us to notice that making a distinction between these three categories wasn’t so easy. Communication never stops; it is complex and multi-layered. Managing conflicts requires attention and coherence. We explored the importance of non-verbal communication through a role-play set in a class environment. Through games and simulations, the group was able to reflect on the impact of our own individual actions in conflicts and developed abilities for lateral thinking.

To end the course, participants were asked to plan an action which tackles the topic of communication and participation, in their own professional context.

Ethics of participation

Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard and Andria Takkidou

During this workshop participants explored the role of ethics in participation by the use of thought experiments and the process of evaluation of one’s personal values. What is our moral compass? What approaches can we use for ethical reasoning when it comes to participation? Can we say that 'citizens should participate' (prescriptive statement)? How can we enhance teachers’ and learners’ capacities to confront prejudice and stereotypes by integrating ethics in the subject matters we teach in the classroom?

Activities included the negotiation of meanings, of concepts, playing card games, engaging in the moral analysis of fairy tales etc.

Here is a video of the course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yblxwnvywHo

Participants posts -in the online community- about the course:

“What does it mean “Ethics of participation”? This question motivated me to choose this course I was also conscious about the importance of ethics in participation. Participating always means dealing with other people and dealing with others needs a set of practical rules. “Practical” here is used in an ancient meaning, as knowledge, which is supposed to be applied in our relations with others.Ethics in this course was defined as a set of moral values or norms.

The topic of the first day was power and participation Power here was understood in the different senses, which was so appropriate to cover whole phenomena… It helped us to understand that every group has its own power structure. It was especially visible in workshop with chairs. Set of chairs staggered in the space was presented and we were asked to tell which chair is the most important. Then, we tried to rearrange chairs in different positions to observe different possible power structure. The topic of the second and third day was connected with values. We had the opportunity to rethink our values. The most interesting part, for me, was a discussion about freedom.

Anyway, I think that now I have more questions then I have before attending the course but I feel empowered to deal with it better. As philosophy teacher I think that a course is successful when you can find more questions then you were able to before the course”  (Miloš Jeremić)

-x-x-x-

“Pascale and Milosh, you have empowered me. I have also more questions than before attending this workshop. Yesterday evening my thoughts jumped from one question to the other. I had the value-cards came to my mind. One of the cards was ‘happiness’ that I maintained. Should I have maintained it? Around me were the people with no values on cards, they had only material things, like a good house, iPad, modern TV etc.”

Cooperative Learning from the aspect of participation

Ferenc Arató

This three part course developed the basics of cooperative learning from the aspect of equal access and participation. The group started with the questions and needs of the participants, then had the opportunity to explore, understand, and apply CL through doing by learning and learning by doing processes. During the course we reflected on personal, social, and cognitive competence development based on structurally guaranteed equal participation of the learners. Participants engaged the planning process of CL implementation.

Participation and democratic citizenship

Marta Viñes Jimeno

This course focused on the exploration of the relation between participation and democratic citizenship.

Outcomes:

·         -exploring the concept of democratic citizenship through practical application

·         -developing the sense of belonging (community)

·         -developing a sense of responsibility to help students become democratic citizens

·         -exploring Core Competences of Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC)

1.       DAY ONE: Citizenship and Democracy. Values

Questions:

What is democracy about? Are we saying the same when we talk about democracy? What do we understand as democratic citizenship?

2.      DAY TWO: Participation, Community, Trust

Questions:

Why is participation essential for good governance and therefore to the realisation of democratic societies? How can a sense of belonging be developed? How could we help students to be prepared for this age of participation?

3.      DAY THREE: Educate to participate. EDC and Action

Questions:

What does the concept of citizenship education mean? How can you assess your and your students’ attitudes/knowledge for democratic citizenship? What actions will I plan in my own professional context?

Participants posts -in the online community- about the course:

My attitude changed during the course. I was surprised of myself by getting an active attitude to Education for Democratic Citizenship.

This course was an excellent food for thought, filling the gap between theory and practice. It answers questions about the link between cooperative structures and a democratic society.

The course was well-prepared, structured, very organized, with dedication and professionalism. Positive,  encouraging, inspiring and fruitful.

Exploring participation in school

Višnja Rajić

This course focused on different forms of participation in school, stressing the need to organise educational processes in such a way that it enables opportunities for participation of all stakeholders in education. The course was planned and structured in such a way that allows development of knowledge and skills on the topic (Day 1-introduction; Day 2-understanding; Day 3- action planning/application in personal context). Opportunities for individual and cooperative work were insured.

At the beginning of the course participants received a learning plan that was structured in such a way to help participants have an overview of the course and expected outcomes.

Name:
Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
Common activity Develop positive group ethos and find out more about each other (K_SELF_3)	Common activity Develop positive group ethos and find out more about each other (K_SELF_3)	Common activity Develop positive group ethos and find out more about each other (K_SELF_3)
Ladder of participation Develop knowledge and skills to ensure participation in school (A_EPIST_1)	If I were a president of school council Readiness to take responsibility and to be accountable for my actions (A_COOP_3)	Parental and community involvement Develop the knowledge and skills to ensure participation in schools (A_COOP_3)
Learning styles Accept the fact that every individual constructs knowledge differently (A_EPIST_1)	Levels of participation: case studies Develop the knowledge and skills to ensure participation in schools (A_COOP_3)	Action planning Readiness to take responsibility and to be accountable for my actions (A_COOP_3) Ability to draw on other’s diverse expertise and experience for the benefit of the groups work (S_COOP_2) Develop the knowledge and skills to ensure participation in schools (A_COOP_3)
Classroom newspaper Aptitude to search for information through different channels and from diverse sources (S_EPIST_2) (storify.com)	Coat of arms Ability to draw on other’s diverse expertise and experience for the benefit of the groups work (S_COOP_2)
Promoting participation through assessment Develop the knowledge and skills to ensure participation in schools (A_COOP_3)	Create a classroom Develop the knowledge and skills to ensure participation in schools (A_COOP_3)
Circle time Presenting the results of role- play	Circle time Presentation of drawings of the classrooms	Circle time Discussion of AP process
Self-assessment Self-knowledge and introspection (K_SELF_1)	Self-assessment Self-knowledge and introspection (K_SELF_1)	Self-assessment Self-knowledge and introspection (K_SELF_1)
Personal comments:	Personal comments:	Personal comments:

Different social media was used for presenting outcomes of different activities.

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/542035975426015234http://youtube/0kAOo8Q607o

https://storify.com/profmisha/participation-at-school

https://storify.com/ancejaks/online-participation

Participants posts -in the online community- about the course:

“Thank you SO MUCH for this session, especially for Action planning (which wouldn’t be possible without every other activity) The best thing we can give others is opportunities to create something by themselves. You gave me an opportunity that I really needed!”

“I was thinking that I would be surprised and waited to be surprised, and it happened. But I didn’t expect that I would be surprised about methodology and ways of presenting the content of a course. So, I really liked your way of doing things. And I was so inspired. Really, honestly was….”

Citizenship 2.0

Alessandro Soriani

During this course participants started a reflection about the new dimensions of the concept of citizenship that come from the web 2.0 and the Internet. In the first part of the course, participants explored and discussed about their feelings and their fears regarding the world of social media. This helped them to better define what social media are and how virtual and non-virtual environments are connected. They also had the chance to think about the impact of the Internet in participatory processes, and on the social-political contexts in which citizens act.

We engaged in the creation of “2.0 Citizens Survival Kits”: a sort of metaphorical toolbox with all the “attitudes, skills, and knowledge” that are necessary to be a “good enough 2.0 citizen”, which means being active, careful, respectful to ourselves and to the others considering the new dimensions that come with the web, and we identified some learning objectives to work on as teachers. Participants ended the course by planning an action that they will implement in their professional contexts in order help their students reflect on their online practices and their ‘being-online-citizens’.

Short courses

Who are I?

Andria Takkidou

Identity issues can hinder participation and exploring identity from a multi-layered perspective can aid teachers in the process of creating a democratic and participative classroom that accepts difference and allows students to grow. The methodology used in the course aided the participants gain ideas on how they can use certain activities to raise awareness amongst their students.

During this course participants were able to explore their identity, prejudice and stereotypes and how these affect participation in a classroom. It is important to consider our own selves and prejudices before understanding what affects participation. Starting with self-exploration of online and offline spaces, investigating our layers of identity: who we are, how we present ourselves, how others view us, our roles, our society. The participants were able to think about the changing nature of identities and the core of what creates our identity. We explored how issues of identity affect participation. Participants were able to reflect on the existent or non-existent lines that exist between the so-called virtual -but actually very real- social spaces.

It was a very useful course for the participants to explore the effects of labelling and “positioning and thickening of identity” and many participants found the activities transferable to their own context. It was noticeable that participants realised the effects of labelling and stereotyping on participation in the classroom and the society as a whole and reflected on situations that arise in their own context. They were able to better reflect on their own behaviour in their classrooms and how these unconscious labels can decrease participation.

Participants created a  ‘board of ideas’ as to “What can I do to create an environment in my class that promotes difference and allow students to grow and participate?” and a blog was opened on the Pestalozzi online Community of Pratice platform for them to share these ideas with other members

Arts and crafts

Višnja Rajić

This short session dealt with experiencing participation by making an art project. Changing our affective/cognitive side (attitudes, values and beliefs) can sometimes be a very slow and difficult task, same as the change that we undergo when producing a piece of art. The course ensured time and resources needed for participants to present their ideas of participation in a creative way. Through individual or group projects the visions of participation took on an artistic form. The need for opportunities for student participation in the educational process was discussed. How does the feeling of mastery help enable students to become proactive in the classroom/society?

The skills and attitudes necessary for participation were discussed and compared to the skills and attitudes necessary for creating an art piece:

·         need for know how

·         need to be/feel skilled and competent

·         need for opportunity and time to develop these skills

·         need to be persistent

·         ability to deal with other peoples comments and critique

·         ability to be open minded

      

Bystanders and participation

Aart Franken

During the workshop, participants learned about ‘bystanders’ in the classroom with a main focus on bystanders who are involved in bullying. Based on a short film, participants identified different roles in bullying (next to the bully and the victim several types of bystanders). Afterwards, participants discussed these bystanders and the impact they may have on bullying, as the bully can only engage in this behaviour if there is the compliance (or even indirect support) from others in the classroom.

This idea was generalized to other processes in the classroom, where students who do not seem to act are involved in the classroom atmosphere. Afterwards, participants selected one or two TASKs per group (of 4 people) and created an activity they could use to help bystanders take a position to promote convivencia (‘living together in harmony’) in the classroom. At the end of this short workshop the different activities were shared in the whole group.

How to enhance school development based on participation

Ferenc Arató

This course focused on the institution development model (ISE) that is based on the cooperative structures and equal participation of staff members in schools. This model helps single staff members, school directors, or micro-groups of innovative members to initiate, enhance, coordinate, and improve the development of everyday practice in their schools. It helps to identify the needed development-fields, the concrete activities and supports which could help to keep the institution developmental process keep going on effectively. During the course participants saw the basic pillars and elements of this kind of participative school development.  

Purpose of education

By Višnja Rajić

The course analysed the purpose of education from different perspectives (preparation for the labour market; preparation for life as active citizens in democratic societies; personal development; development and maintenance of a broad knowledge base). The pressures from the wider society, the need to meet labour-market needs and to prepare for employment often leaves the other aims of contemporary education lagging behind. Still it is very important to differentiate education from training, stressing the necessity for opportunities in educational process that enable personal development of individuals, allowing them to become citizens of the world.

Participants posts -in the online community- about the course:

“I liked the warm atmosphere of the course “Purpose of education”, equal opportunity to participate.”

“I was amused by the varieties of perspectives you provided us with! Thank you J”

“Very stimulating (intellectually challenging) and interesting. Thank you very much, Višnja”

“As a result of this workshop I am more aware of some aspects of education!”

“I found it great. I liked the method of work very much and also the question: the purpose. It is good to ask questions!”

Storytelling and Stop Motion

Alessandro Soriani in English and Carolina Gonçalves in French

This six-hour course focused on a creative process and developed participants’ negotiation and communication skills: to mediate, listen to others, give stimuli and be open. Participants reflected and explored what is needed to invent and craft a story together with a group. Through a simple “improvisation” game participants experience that this process is not only connected to the creativity and fantasy but also, and strongly, to our previous individual experiences.

Participants were shown few examples of ‘stop-motion’ animations and were provided with information on how to use this simple and powerful technique. In groups of 5, we then practised one single technique and produced a short animation and produced a short “stop motion video” with the aim to express their meaning of the concept of participation.

Here you can find the videos produced:

https://vimeo.com/100309778

https://vimeo.com/100309777

https://vimeo.com/100309776

https://vimeo.com/100309702

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&list=UUUmFEXDR7Uf-9j8zZ95SFew&v=l7PdNp_gJ8I

 

Call for action - English and French

Carolina Gonçalves in French and Marta Viñes in English

Through a deeper understanding of the issues of power and the impact of discrimination and inequality on citizenship, this course aimed at sparking the emergence of a desire for change and identifying proposals of action. The warm up activities focused on eliciting the expression of emotions and creating a caring environment in which each participant was recognised as a unique individual capable of contributing to the group.

After the building self-confidence, the group experienced several activities that increase awareness of discrimination and prejudice. Finally, participants identified an action that could be beneficial in their context to promote participation by first stressing a problem to solve and reviewing activities that could support problem solving and sharing ideas with colleagues. The feedback the got about how they can implement this plan in different contexts was very useful and powerful.

Teacher manifesto: The professional image and ethos of teachers

Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard and Josef Huber

This course focused on a vision of education and how education will address the challenges of the 21^st century. Participants got acquainted with the result of the Pestalozzi conference “The professional image and ethos of teachers” (April 2014) and, through a role-play, were able to give critical feedback following their understanding of the “Teacher manifesto”. The course allowed for reflection on how to bring about change in schools. It highlighted how difficult it can be to influence institutions. Interpersonal dialogue will have to occur in meaningful ways for change to be promoted. Participation will be essential in this process: participants will need to develop strategies to successfully convince their peers to develop this holistic education.

The drive for change therefore may well lay in the hands and the responsibility of individuals who carry the ‘stuff of heroes’ to make change happen. Everyday heroes, you and I, who believe in a purpose of education that gears not only to preparation for the labour market, but an education that addresses the whole person, with mindfulness to how education can contribute to the sustainability of democracy in our societies. Frontal confrontations are less likely to be conducive to change, than the development of a long lasting dialogue between educational leaders, administrators, teachers, students and parents.

Here is a video of the role-play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcGddYiGli4&feature=youtu.be&t=20s

Presentations from participants of the “Manifesto” course:

Chiara Cappa: http://prezi.com/uzhrleedoyqj/teacher-recruitment/

Carmen Becker: https://www.dropbox.com/s/plmpsc745nryyqk/Teacher%20Education.pptx

The Island

Andria Takkidou and Marta Viñes

Through the creation of a utopian community based on a number of political and social factors, the group delved deeply in the decision-making processes and power structures within a group, and reflect on the existing structures of society, in order to create the ideal island. Starting with a think-pair-share on the things one likes or dislikes about their country’s political and social situations, we continued by forming heterogeneous groups with assigned roles. Each of the four groups created their own island through an intense decision making process. With the aid of some guided questions they were directed to consider aspects of today’s society that any leader should consider as well as the possibility of change and alternative collaborative structures that encourage participation and active democratic citizenship. The methodology of the session was particularly useful as  many participants expressed their willingness to use it in their class.

Through the debriefing session the applicability of the activity was apparent:

"It is good for developing student´s attitude to participate in a changing society”.

Pestalozzi Resources: How to promote participation in my daily praxis?

Carolina Gonçalves and Aart Franken

In this course, participants worked collaboratively in the community of practice and they explored the potential of both the platform and the other online resources. They discovered the variety of teaching and learning materials that have been developed within the Pestalozzi Programme by exploring the training units and other CoE materials. They worked online with the help of the Pestalozzi Community of Practice. This was a way to recognise the role of the stewards on the platform, as participants had the opportunity to interact on the chat room. They shared their discoveries with other participants, facilitators, and stewards.

As a first step, participants identified a problem related to participation in their home situation. Afterwards, they explored the resources (Training Units) online. As a third step, through the “Reflecting Teams” activity, they shared the activity that they had picked for their situation. This moment served two objectives: participants got familiar with the materials available online and took advantage of reflection teams to share their experiences in course.

“Reflecting Teams” is a dynamic approach that suited the participants well, as they could have different roles changing in each round. It means each participant could have a different role, based on the principles of cooperative learning, and each participant presented their own topic. It could be interesting to further individualize this workshop. Some participants experienced trouble navigating the Platform, while others were already familiar with both the platform and the Training Units. Cooperative structure would allow for the first group to benefit from the experienced participants skills and knowledge while the latter group could go deeper into their understanding of the CoE resources.

Other common courses

Socratic walks

Participants were given the opportunity to propose a topic of their choice for a Socratic conversation, pursued within a stroll around the Bad Wildbad grounds.

The group thus experienced the benefits of different styles of education (for example walking outside compared to sitting inside) and a more informal setting where they might talk and think about a certain topic to a greater extent than might be possible in some courses.

Groups of 4-5 participants gathered around a participant acting as “Socrates” to explore a particular issue (s)he proposed. Different walks, topics, and routes were followed, in the town, the forest for the whole morning (3 hours). At the end of the walk, each group summarised the outcome of the Socratic conversation(s).

Example of a summary of a Socratic walk

Soap box

Participants were given the chance to take the floor for short talks (5 minutes) on any topic of their choice. The list of topics was very diverse:  describing the role of an effective Pestalozzi NLO (National Liaison Officer). All soap box speeches can be found here:

 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQA6F8b2YLpk50Mx77D1dO2P26pXME_9B

Roundtable debate

The question the round table addressed this year is “No Facebook for Schools! Social media... Participation... Education?”. The debates showed a strong divide in participant’s views of the place of social media in schools and their use for supporting students learning and motivation for learning.

 At one end of the spectrum, educators show concern for the safety of teachers and students while using social media. Infringement on Human Rights and privacy are at the centre of these concerns. Yet, at the other end of the spectrum, educators see the huge potential of such tools as Twitter, Google and others and the role they may play in gaining impact and increasing student motivation to participate in learning activities. Moreover, there is one area on which all participants agree: this is the need for teachers to develop awareness in learners of the many harmful practices orchestrated by corporate entities (Google, Facebook, Amazon…) who use data-mining to store and sell personal information for commercial (advertising) or political (intelligence) use. This awareness will be the foundation for the important role active democratic citizens will have to play to protect themselves of these infringements of their Human Rights.

The reader may browse the Twitter hashtag (#sumsch2014) on the Tagboard (tagboard.com) to read the many tweets that participants shared during the roundtable: see resources below.

https://tagboard.com/sumsch2014

Evaluation

In this very intensive session, participants went back into their base groups to reflect on the progress they made towards the development of attitudes, skills and knowledge for promoting participation in democratic societies. They shared their evaluation of the Summer School and what learning took place for them, within their base group, and with the whole group, through a cooperative structure. During this session they were invited to go back to the courses of the Summer School and relating them to the topic, as well as evaluate and offer feedback on the overall Summer School programme and its implementation.

Many positive comments were shared and challenges too. The courses were evaluated very positively although:

Quotes from participants:Some stress was felt by many, due to the intense pace of activities, in a language that is sometimes the 3rd language spoken by participants:The base groups may be a time for a safe space learning:

o   “It was my family during the week”

o   “I looked forward to the base group hour every day!”

Or a time where difficulties in cooperation hinder the enhancement of participants learning:

o   “The structures were repetitive, I didn’t see the point”

o   “For me it was a waste of time”

o   “I was too tired at the end of the day to engage in any kind of reflection”

However, many participants voiced that this course was of the ‘life changing experience’ category.

Other quotes from participants:

“I feel like a super hero. I always felt that I could change the world but I didn’t know how to do it. Now I have gained 3 things that will allow me to do something: power, confidence and tools.” 

“I met shiny people there. And I really want to thank you all for the enthusiasm, energy, competence, dedication, patience that everyone put into every single moment during last week. It has been a great experience and I hope to be able to bring at least a taste of this to my school, colleagues, friends, city etc. I must admit I have attended many training courses, but no one was like this. I am deeply grateful for the gift that I have received.”

Resources

Multimedia

Tag-board of tweets:  https://tagboard.com/sumsch2014

Photos: http://www.pbase.com/hubval/image/156473154

All videos from the Summer School:

Promoting participation: 2014 Summer School: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQA6F8b2YLpk50Mx77D1dO2P26pXME_9B

Democratic participation and the challenges of social media in the classroom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9SShqbbZ7k&feature=youtu.be

Community of practice/ invitational platform:                                                                                                            http://pest-prog.ning.com/profiles/blogs/summer-school-2014-base-groups-space

Further reading

- Chomsky N., (2000), Chomsky on Miseducation, Lanham, Maryland: Roman and Littlefield Ed.

- Rifkin J., (2009), The empathic Civilization, Tarcher-Penguin Ed.

-Levine R., Locke C., Searls D., Weinberger D., (2000), The Cluetrain, Basics Books Ed.

- Bacon J., (2012), The Art of Community, Building the new art of participation, O´Reilly  Ed.

- Nussbaum M.,(2013), Political Emotions: Why Love Matters for Justice, Harvard University Press, 480pp, ISBN 9780674724655




Further viewing

On attitudes and behaviour: socio-psychological experiments on authority and peer pressure: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fCVlI-_4GZQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqp6GnYqIjQ

Noam Chomsky on participation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YIBkdTo7NDs

7 obstacles that get in the way of individuals and communities who would otherwise do their part in creating social change:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_meslin_the_antidote_to_apathy 

What do young people do in the online space?

Ø  Generation “like”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/media/generation-like/what-...

Ø  It’s Complicated

http://www.npr.org/2014/02/25/282359480/social-media-researcher-gets-how-teenagers-us...

Peer and self-assessment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OkPW_mX7Vw

Dream school: A call for ACTION!

http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school

CoE manuals for EDC/HRE                                 

                 

- EDC/HRE pack: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/edc/Resources/EDCPACK_EN.asp

 - Bäckman E. Trafford B., (2007) Democratic governance, Strasbourg, France. Available at: https://book.coe.int/eur/en/education-for-democratic-citizenship/3703-democratic-governance-of-schools.html

- Brett P., Mompoint-Gaillard P. & Salema M. (2009), How all teachers can support citizenship and human rights education: a framework for the development of competences, Strasbourg France. Available at: https://book.coe.int/eur/en/human-rights-education-intercultural-education/4238-how-all-teachers-can-support-citizenship-and-human-rights-education-a-framework-for-the-development-of-competences.html

- Krapf P. (2010) Taking Part in Democracy (2010) in  Living democracy, Manuals for teachers, EDC/HRE Volume IV , Strasbourg, France. Available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/edc/resources/resources_for_teachers_EN.asp