CATALOGUE OF EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS FOR YOUTH MOTIVATION
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Ei YoU! - Educational Innovation facing Youth Unemployment - was a twoyear project that empowers students and teachers to cope with the negative impacts of youth unemployment in learning and schooling. The project brought together a cross-sectoral partnership to develop a catalogue of innovative solutions to address these needs. The project focused on a bottom-up approach, including co-creation workshops, short term exchanges of students, research and pilot interventions in schools. Some specific methods included prototyping, design thinking, creative learning, hackathon techniques, Edu on Tour and Montessori motivational strategies. The main outputs of the project are: Methodological Guide - a set of guidelines and resources to support local project teams to implement innovation and co-creation workshops. Online Crowdsourcing Forum - collective forum where existing members of an online network were challenged to solve posted problems. Transnational Report “Educational Innovation to tackle youth unemployment” - describes problematic situations in schools and proposes solutions obtained from all the sources of the project. Impact Report on the piloting in schools - evaluated the difference in terms of self-esteem, learning achievements, future expectations and school motivations caused by participation in Ei YoU! Portfolio/Catalogue of educational Innovations – an open portfolio of solutions that have been tested and found to actually produce results. This is an open and dynamic resource that teachers can use freely. “Info-kit” impact of the project - policy recommendations and multimedia products for dissemination and exploitation. Ei YoU! has reduced drop-out, discouragement and lower achievement in schools. In the long term, the reuse and multiplication of these methods will contribute to achieve early school leaving rates of less than 10%, supporting the goals of Europe for 2020. More information can be found at www.eiyou.eu and https://www.facebook.com/EiYoUproject/
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
This Catalogue was produced within the consortium of organizations established for the project Ei YoU! Educational Innovation Facing Youth Unemployment:
Fondazione Hallgarten Franchetti Centro Studi Villa Montesca Italy
Agrupamento de Escolas Figueira Mar Portugal
Future Balloons, unipessoal, Lda. Portugal
Hrvatska Udruga Mladih Croatia
Kindersite United Kingdom
Nigde il Milli Egitim Mudurlugu Turkey
presente! Austria
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 6 What does it mean “Educational Prototype”? ................................................................................. 6 About the workshops ........................................................................................................................ 6 INNOVATIONS .................................................................................................................................... 10 Emotional Support A ....................................................................................................................... 12 Emotional Support B ....................................................................................................................... 16 Positive Experiences........................................................................................................................ 18 Alternative Learning Paths / Subject for the Future ....................................................................... 20 Guidance Office............................................................................................................................... 22 Alternative School ........................................................................................................................... 24 Dream Workshop ............................................................................................................................ 26 Interaction School-Family ............................................................................................................... 30 Teacher Mediation .......................................................................................................................... 32 Network Model ............................................................................................................................... 36 Valuing Experiential Learning for Motivation ................................................................................. 38 Cooperative Learning ...................................................................................................................... 40 Leadership Coaching ....................................................................................................................... 42 Learning Environments ................................................................................................................... 44 AGORA – 100 Children, 100 Learning Styles ................................................................................... 46 Testimonials .................................................................................................................................... 48 Empowerment ................................................................................................................................ 50 Creation Time.................................................................................................................................. 52 Critical Thinking............................................................................................................................... 54 Positiveness..................................................................................................................................... 56 Gamification .................................................................................................................................... 58 Young Leaders ................................................................................................................................. 60 Getting Outside of the Comfort Zone ............................................................................................. 62 Gap Time ......................................................................................................................................... 64 Making Connections ....................................................................................................................... 66 Finding Talents ................................................................................................................................ 68
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation Personal Development.................................................................................................................... 70 Trying the Future ............................................................................................................................ 72 Impact in the Surrounding Context................................................................................................. 74 Teachers´ Training ........................................................................................................................... 76 Common Expectations .................................................................................................................... 78 Small Actions in Schools ...................................................................................................................... 80 Final note ............................................................................................................................................ 80 Regards ............................................................................................................................................... 82
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Introduction This catalogue matches the results of different activities held within the Ei YoU! Project at national and transnational level, involving all Partners of the Project (from Italy, Austria, Croatia, Turkey, United Kingdom, Portugal). It compiles tested prototypes of innovative proposals that were developed in workshops1 with teachers and those that came out from the crowdsourcing platforms applied along the project Ei YoU! (Facebook group, Babele, Makesense).
CROWDSOURCING PLATFORMS FOR THE Ei YoU! PROJECT FACEBOOK
BABELE MAKESENSE
https://www.facebook.com/groups/eiyou.discussion/ https://babele.co/#/project/2247/discussion http://beta.makesense.org/challenges/875
What does it mean “Educational Prototype”? The term “educational prototype” was used along the whole Ei YoU! project implementation to define a Model of Intervention applied in the educational contexts. “Prototyping” means a new solution to test. Teachers and Researchers were asked to find new ways and solutions to the negative impacts that the youth unemployment has in schools. Creating some “prototypes” allows to verify the feasibility and the significance of the Educational Innovations designed.
About the workshops The key topics of the workshops were the characterization of visible impacts of youth unemployment in students’ motivation/demotivation and the role of school to face those facts. Teachers, educators, mentors and youth workers met to describe real situations each school challenges, from the teacher and classroom perspective. Two main questions were raised and the trainers and trainees worked to find a common ground in order to reach results which would be useful to find the answers to the questions:
1 See details on
the Transnational Report ”Educational Innovation to Tackle Youth Unemployment”. Available in: http://www.eiyou.eu/web/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Transnational-Report_FINAL-EN.pdf
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Problems: How are the effects of youth unemployment made visible in my school/ classroom/ students? Solutions: How might we tackle the effects that youth unemployment has in students/schools?
Therefore, the aim of this catalogue is to deliver some possible answers to these questions, bearing in mind the results obtained in the different activities proposed to the group. The details of the development process of educational prototypes are described in the Transnational Report “Educational Innovation to Tackle Youth Unemployment”. After this stage, participant teachers were given a period of time to test the prototypes in their classrooms. They chose the innovations that best fitted to their context and they have conceived concrete adaptations. This catalogue presents these examples of implementation as a demonstration for other teachers. The project team followed the implementation processes using simple qualitative research tools. The results of the implementation were collected via the mobile application Experience Fellow2. Therefore, research was based on mobile ethnography. Mobile ethnography makes it possible to get direct user information which is not just recalling experiences and giving feedback to them afterwards, but reporting experiences online at the time of the experience, on the very spot or location of the experience and in the mental space of the experience itself based on the genuine feelings generated by the experiences. Stickdorn and Frischhut3
36 teachers in 10 secondary schools tested different educational prototypes in their classes and reported their results. More than 600 students, in all, were involved in the application of educational prototypes. The way students’ participation changed their attitudes towards schools, social acquisition and the psychological effects were verified and are published in the Impact report of the project4.
2 Available here:
http://www.experiencefellow.com/ Stickdorn, M., Frischhut, B. & Schmid, J. (2014). Mobile ethnography – a pioneering research approach for customercentred destination management, Tourism Analysis, 491-504. 4 Available here: http://www.eiyou.eu/web/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Impact-report1.pdf 3
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
The aim of this Catalogue is to give ideas to all teachers that struggle to motivate students. It is mainly directed to secondary school teachers, targeting students from 14 to 18 years old. However, each of the presented ideas can be adapted to different groups. These ideas are dynamic: they can be adopted in different ways, they can be combined with others and they can also derive in new ones. Each of the Innovations in this Catalogue is presented featuring Goals, Challenges, Guiding Principles and Examples.
Goals: What the purpose of the innovation is and for what it can be used. As motivation is configured from different social, psychological and cultural aspects, higher levels of motivation can be reached by working in different areas. The goal of the innovation presents that focus-area. Challenges: represents the visible “symptoms” of targets in that focus-area. Guiding Principles: are the fundamentals for the application of that innovation; it presents, in a very simple and concrete way, the theoretical basis of the innovation - the roots of the idea under pedagogy, psychology, sociology, … Activities: the concrete actions evoked by the Innovation. From these any teacher can start to adapt to an own version of the solution to apply in their school, community, … Example: the examples were taken from the implementation reports sent by teachers. For the purpose of the Catalogue, the experimentation processes are summarized with the intention to clarify the possible practices of each Innovation. However, the full report and details of the teachers’ experiences are published in Output 5 - Impact Report on the piloting in schools. In the cases when the solution was not experimented by the teachers in Ei YoU! Project, there is an empty space that allows the reader to develop his own example.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
INNOVATIONS Proposals to Change the Classroom and Improve Students’ Motivation
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 1 - Emotional Support A Goals
Allow students to benefit from an informal contact space with teachers; Enable teachers / school to collect more detailed and personalized information; Getting students to find in the school a space of motivation based on emotional/affective support. Challenges
Guiding principles
The challenge is to help students to find motivation in school; Students need to be supported before they are lost to the system (dropping out); Available measures in school aren’t enough or aren’t adequate.
Give the students a comfortable zone to share their feelings; Emotional support at school engages more the students; Teachers act as listeners and as guides, they encourage and challenge the students; The actions shall be concrete; It is important to keep the frequency; Parents or other important parts can be invited.
Activities
Establishment of an office/room where students have free access, without an appointment, where there is a tutor/teacher that can listen and try to help; Development of a different approach in the teaching/learning process that encourages students to speak about themselves in a comfortable and friendly way; This place is open to all the school community and teachers can be supported by the school psychologists, professional counsellors and others. It shall be multidisciplinary; The room shall be informal and decorated in a cosy way. It can be more or less sheltered, but giving the sensation that users are not exposed. Example (Italy)
Students answered the questionnaire “Professional and vocational fitness” in English so that they could also practice the language. The majority of the students turned out to be not mature enough to target a future job. During a conversation, the students expressed a desire to travel. The teacher told them about one of her experiences abroad; this helped them to talk more about themselves and their wishes and also to develop open mindedness.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Another day, an activity on the use of adjectives describing one's personality was done. This made the students feel subjectively involved and talk about their vision and awareness of themselves.
The teacher asked the class to answer the questions written on the board. The questions had the objective of practising the use of the "will future" structure and to another level of encouraging students to think about their individual qualities, attitudes and behaviours, namely about their personal traits. The students were asked to define themselves and their personality by choosing three or four adjectives. That enabled the teacher to convey other meanings, aspects or structures of the English language as well as to establish a closer contact with them. The whole activity was planned and conceived in the form of a game; the aim of having students pay attention and interact in the English language was totally achieved. 5 days of new activities in a separate room A separate room in the school building (Multidisciplinary Educational Playful Office) was arranged in order to welcome and work with one or two students at a time. Thanks to the collaboration and support of Prof. R., a particular activity was planned and carried out: a psychological game in English as a trigger to start and develop a conversation with one or two of them in the separate room (this activity was just a starting point or better a strategy). It took about 4 hours during which the teacher "interviewed" 6 students (two at a time). The next days more students joined the room to participate in the activity. They showed real interest and eagerness to start it. They said that was a rare occasion to do something they need; they could speak freely with a non-judgemental attitude.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Prof. R. and the teacher met to analyse the results. She really didn't expect the students would reveal so many things about themselves in such a short time. Both teachers arrived to the idea of special areas/wings inside the school and to work in “isles” inside the classroom. Then the experience was discussed and analysed during the English lesson with the students. Another day, they watched the video "Emotional intelligence" (British Council5). The teacher helped the class go through linguistic and emotional meanings of key words like "thought" and "feeling". The importance of recognising and “labelling” their feelings, of taking responsibility of them, turning them into productive energy, paying attention to the respect and care for the others' feelings through empathy and understanding was discussed. Students went through a final discussion by asking them the questions on personality traits and on their ideas and hopes for future. The majority of the class demonstrated a higher level of attention and concentration than usual. During the final phase of the experimentation, students answered the same questionnaire given out on the first day. The comparative analysis with the first results shows that half of students have improved their level of maturity. As a consequence, teacher motivation has been stimulated too; more than on other occasions they have been fostered to reflect upon some standard ways of teaching.
5
Available here: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/professionals-podcasts/emotional-intelligence-0
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 2 - Emotional Support B Goals
Create a positive atmosphere among all members of the educational community (mainly within the families); Strengthen the bounds between school and family, and between teachers, students and family members. Challenges
Guiding principles
All the parts face a stressful situation in their role; Teachers are also suffering from psychological struggles; Students struggle with their family and their culture. Activities
Systemic perspective of the educational community (students, teachers, families and culture); Support is focused in the improvement of the interaction of all parts.
Organize informal visits by the teachers/school representatives to the family, so that the family can understand culture, believes and daily organisation of the school; Create opportunities for teachers, students and families to do activities together. Example (Austria)
A student was having substantial academic difficulties. As his academic challenges increased, so did his behavioural problems. The teacher reached out to his family, and discovered that there were ongoing, substantial tensions in his family life. His parents were interested in establishing better supports for their son. After consulting with other teachers, the teachers noticed that several students and families were in similar situations. They met with a group of parents to collaboratively establish goals for their children. The clear shared goals for students at home and at school provided increased consistency for students, and behavioural problems decreased.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 3 - Positive Experiences Goals
Motivate students by positive reinforcement; Demonstrate positive experiences; Create positive expectations for the future. Challenges
Guiding principles
Students are surrounded by negative context; Perspectives for the future are based on the present reality; School is most time closed. Activities
Resilience and positiveness can be learned by role modelling; The closer the contact with models the more effective learning is.
Bring to school former students / young entrepreneurs with successful paths; Promote visits to companies - future employers; Boost trade shows / training workshops in different areas; Assist in the bureaucratic part of the job application; Send CVs to the largest possible number of employing institutions (do not be selective in the company, let the company select); Teach the student how to deal with the silence of companies (lack of company response towards the application of the student). Example (Turkey)
The idea was to gain higher expectations for the students. People who had graduated from the Niğde Vocational High School and the students who are still studying met with each other. The guests were: Mr. X who had graduated from the electronics department of their school and who is selfemployed now on security systems and industrial automations. Mr. Y who is working at Niğde Municipality who had graduated from the computer department of our school. Students were directly informed about the business experiences of the alumnus (former graduated) and the advantages of graduating from vocational high school at business life. So the teachers wanted to show that their vocational education (training) directly related to their future successes and their possible jobs. With this attempt, it was accepted that the relations and motivations of the students to their school would increase.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
To consider the expectations of the students about subjects such as school, work, employment, the same questionnaire (survey) was implemented to the same students before and after the meeting.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
INNOVATION 4 - Alternative Learning Paths / Subject for the Future Goals
Give opportunities for student to learn new capabilities; Allow transversal competences to enter in the school curriculum; Prepare the educational programmes towards the demands of the future. Challenges
Due to the development of technology, there have been new ways of working and personal development areas are becoming more important than the scientific areas of study; The school is not yet able to follow the market tendencies.
Guiding principles
New capabilities to work with students:
Flexibility: we must be versatile to adapt to change; Entrepreneurship; Persistence / Perseverance; Lifelong learning; Creativity: think outside of the box; Identity: Who am I? What do I want to be?; Responsibility: critical thinking, open mind; Healthy self-worth; Communication and networking skills.
Activities
Exercises on the self: what does it mean to be successful? What are my talents? Which things make me happy?; Job lab: develop experiences of job simulation: bake pizza, selling stand, contact with clients, …; Development and presentation of a business plan: find an innovative business, invite a mentor, convince the investors, …; Example 1 (Turkey)
4 teachers, the school psychologist and a group of students came together in a meeting room. Some teachers had prepared a set of questions to help the student to think about their future and their willing. The questions were:
-
- What are your future plans? - What do you want to be? (as profession) - Why did you choose this job? - What are the shortcomings in our educational system? The students wrote freely, without the need to write their names on the papers.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation Example 2 (Italy) The teacher has decided to apply this prototype in the school section of “mechanics”, that foresees the alternation school-job and in the third class of the “mechanics-mechatronics”. Title: "School & Industry Me(e/l)ting Point Activity" (SIMPActivity) Steps: 1- To single out in the Class Board the skills and abilities needed to be provided to the students and to the school tutors; 2- Select the partners (Companies relevant for the sector); 3- Establish/Re-establish the contacts with the reference persons within the companies, illustrate the modalities and purposes of the experience; 4- Activate agreements School-Companies (training contract, insurance and company tutors); 5- Course on safety in job environments: rules, behaviors and protections; 6- During the month of May the experience has been conducted; 7- Monitoring, control and assistance by tutors, of the school and of the company; 8- Report by the company and by the student (logbook); 9- Assessment of the job experience in the Class Board. The choice of the stage period has been done considering that in this period the students would have had more competences to spend in the stage experience. Positive feedbacks can be seen in the "logbook” and the reports on the students’ work made by the companies’ tutors, all positive.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 5 - Guidance Office Goals
Deliver vocational orientation to students, focusing on the analysis of the individual conditions and context (family, community); Conceive orientation based on the data (e.g. statistics) and observations from the labour market; Increase the connections between school and local business. Challenges
Guiding principles
Students have difficulties in defining their choices due to the lack of proper information; School are sometimes disconnected from the job market and therefore these are not able to give proper vocational orientation.
Vocational orientation shall consider both: individual intentions, talents and possibilities (e.g. to move to another place); economic conjuncture (job vacancies, evolution of industries, business opportunities).
Activities
Establishment of an office to guide a group of students specifically as a pilot implementation; The students will be guided according to statistics and observations with negotiations between teacher-student and family; The families of pilot intervention students will be served by the consultancy services that will be founded at schools via this project; Prepare informative materials or fairs for the students, based on the collected data; Peer learning activities will be organized; Personal improvement seminars will be organized; The determined pilot-implementation student groups will be recorded with their data and progress of their personal project stages pedagogically.
Example
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 6 - Alternative School Goals
Create an alternative school/programme for drop-out students with the help of entrepreneurs, experts who are themselves drop outs and therefore have a strong sense of what is missing in the public school system. Challenges
Guiding principles
Many students who are in danger of dropping out or have already left school do not recognise their learning style in the current curricula and school activities; Drop-out people can consider themselves as outsiders.
Alternative education based on what works for drop outs, because it is organised in collaboration with past drop outs; Drop in vs. drop out: self-discovery of passions; Bottom-up approach: from students to students.
Activities
Network with earlier people who drop-out, to evaluate the requisites of an alternative programme; Organise the school/programme as a project from the students to themselves: it shall be self-governed / self-organized (democratic education); Support the development of a curriculum based on self-discovery, including collaborative projects, experiences in the “world” and knowledge for life; Follow the achievements and revise accordingly. Example
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 7 - Dream Workshop Goals
Develop personal skills that are key to a strong character that will be more resilient: - Morality; - Judgement; - Critical Thinking; - Knowledge of self; - Knowledge of the environment. To weave values into the fabric of our education system. Challenges
Guiding principles
The individual’s attitude can hinder their ability to take initiative. A general aimlessness and a feeling of being lost among students coupled with them being expected to know what they want to do. This leads to students resorting to looking for jobs which they don’t find emotionally fulfilling; Social Darwinism – “survival of the fittest”. It’s a dog eat dog world and if you want to make it you have to be the best. Activities
These value lead aims should benefit the individual and the wider community, thus gaining an ecological dimension; Collaboration and healthy competition should serve as means of achieving the aims; Teachers lead by example in a non-conformist way; Start at 10-13 years old.
Organise workshops to develop personal skills that are key to a strong character that will be more resilient; Work on the perception of self: find mentor – old (e.g. retirement homes) & students; sharing experiences towards building trust; let the people work in groups, with autonomy; give them agency (I create my world). Support the discussion of the questions: what nourishes me? who can help me, who can I help?; Guide in the setting of personal goals. Example 1 (Austria)
The teacher worked with 25 mixed gender students of mostly immigrant backgrounds from the ages of 11-13. Firstly, the terms, aims, obstacles, values were clarified.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Then students chose an aim from their student-teacher lectures or something they wanted to achieve and the teacher helped the students derive their values from their aims individually. Students were very receptive, interested and engaged. Many of them, would like the teacher to come again. Example 2 (Italy) The teacher has worked on this project with her class (16 years old). The work lasted for a month, 15-18 lessons, and it involved different subjects, but mainly History. The teachers took inspiration from a contest organized by a local historical society, whose topic was: Young people of many years ago. Poverty and welfare, town and country... They worked in small groups (4-5 students) and firstly they looked for information about the way of life of the '50 and '60. They started interviews with elderly people. Many students made interviews to their grandparents, but this was not possible for the foreign students (there are students from Albania, Romania, China...) so they asked questions to their old neighbours, friends and associates. This was very important. The teacher’s aim was, in fact, to connect the values, the projects and the dreams and the previous generations with the today generation way of living. The second step of the work was an image search. They used the website www.archiphoto.it, which is an important database of historical images of their town and country, from the beginning of '900. The teacher thought that it would be important, in this phase, that students felt deeply involved in this search, so she suggested to search pictures connected with their life. For example, a student is a good soccer player: he had to find old photos of football match or player, along the years. He gave the class even a picture of his grandfather, who was a player on major league. He was very proud of him.
Example 3 (Italy)
Target: motivate pupils to achieve their goals; think about the future without fear of being as they wish. Subject: Spanish language. Work methods: brainstorming, projects, cooperative learning, work in pairs.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
The teacher chose the first high school class for this prototype. The class consists of 12 pupils, little motivated and convinced of being too "normal" to do great things. She decided to talk about "Geniuses": scientists, writers, architects and artists... analysing their daily routine. Initially she thought of a brainstorming on the word “genius”, asking the class what came to mind. The words that the students associated with genius were: grande, idéas, talento, educaciòn, riqueza, estraordinario, inventos, trabajar... everyone made their own contribution and then the teacher gathered her thoughts: It’s widely believed that a genius is an extraordinary person with a very different life from ours ... and” if I told you that geniuses have not too different lives from ours?” So the teacher told her students to form groups and she assigned to each one of the 6 groups a different character from Charles Darwin, Haruki Murakami, Maya Angelou, Pablo Picasso, Frank Kafka, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She gave them a paper where it was written the daily routine of each character and asked them to write a short text about their character for their next lesson. Her students met, in pairs, to make little researches on the various artists. In the next lesson, every group organized a workshop to present the routine of each character and they had personal reflections on their lives. The teacher asked them if there were many differences between their lives and those of a genius by closing the lesson saying: why stop to normal when all of us can do great things?
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 8 - Interaction School-Family Goals
To increase the interaction school-family in the educational action of professional and vocational orientation; To support building a personal and social identity of the student in an adequate project of life; To ameliorate the relation climate within the class, aimed at offering, in the students, the learning process and in teachers the empathetic and communication competences with students; To connect parents, students and teachers. Challenges
Guiding principles
Lack of interest of families in school and educational affairs; Need to overcome difficulties of dysfunctional families; Low educational level within the family; The workload parents have doesn’t let them forge strong bonds with their children.
The orientation action is qualified as a permanent educational modality; It is addressed to all the characters: teachers, students and parents; Parents, administration of schools and teachers should trust and approve each other through the process of educational implementations. Close connection with families. Family has the most important role, rather than teachers; Therefore, families need to be analysed. Cooperative and supportive work atmosphere at school is conducive to good learning practice; Administration should always be ready to help when teachers have problems.
Activities
Help desk for parents to speak with teachers / school administration about any possible problem regarding children at school – problems with the school tasks, behavioural problems or of difficulty to adapt to the school reality; Group work with parents. Intervention addressed to groups of parents on specific themes regarding the parenthood and the psychological development of kids, the relations with school, the learning and behavioural problems, emotional, physical and psychological growing. Different topics can be proposed by the parents on specific themes; Home visits to families. Observational support; Cultural and social activities.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation Example (Austria) A student was having substantial academic difficulties. As his academic challenges increased, so did his behavioural problems. The teacher reached out to his family and discovered that there were ongoing, substantial tensions in his family life. His parents were interested in establishing better supports for their son. After consulting with other teachers, teachers noticed that several students and families were in similar situations. They met with a group of parents to collaboratively establish goals for their children. The clear shared goals for students at home and at school provided increased consistency for students, and behavioural problems decreased.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 9 - Teacher Mediation Goals
To beat the obstacles that teachers find in doing their role, such as lack of trustworthy professional training, continuity and stability in the job, gaps in the organization and setting of the studies path; To re-establish a link among knowledge, concepts and culture.
Challenges
Guiding principles
Need to stimulate relations between knowledge and culture; Need for teachers to have a more authentic relation and be moderators.
Getting experience through close interaction between subjects, knowledge and action. Finding aspects of interest hidden in the school subjects; Coordination among all users; Active-listening in the communication between teacherstudent. The active listening can be easily used in the school context in order to enhance the communication competences of teachers (in fact often the dynamics and the relations within the class can be difficult to manage, making the work of teachers really onerous and risk to oscillate between authoritarianism and tolerance. Activities
Stimulating students’ interest and curiosity in order to be aware of the close relationship between knowledge, culture and the real possibility to be successful in life through: Fun learning; Critical learning and critical thinking; Activities which make sense for both students and teachers. The ‘active listening’ path presents various rules to comply with:
1. Do not be in a hurry to reach some conclusions. 2. What you see depends on your point of view. 3. If you want to understand what another person is saying, you must assume that he/she is right. 4. Emotions are the fundamental tools of knowledge if you can understand their language 5. A good listener is an explorer of possible worlds 6. A good listener willingly accepts the paradoxes of thought and of interpersonal communication. 7. To become expert in the art of listening you must take a humorous approach.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation Example 1 (Italy) The challenge was making the students feel confident of their possibilities, and promoting their critical thinking. The actions focused on the themes of love, women and society in the Middle Ages in the Italian and English society. So this project crossed the subjects of Italian, English, History and ICT. The work involved the analysis of some “Novellas” from Decameron by Boccaccio and some tales from The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer and in particular the role of women in the society of Middle Ages in Italy and England. Similarities and differences between the women of today and the women of the past. The teacher acted as a guide, the students would be able to teach themselves. They have to become good thinkers with effective strategies that engage them in thoughtful learning. Start – the teachers of English and Italian proposed the students to see two films: one based on Decameron and the other based on The Canterbury Tales, both directed by P.P. Pasolini. The class analysed and made comments about the women and the society represented in the films. First phase – Introduction - the teachers presented the students the project and introduced the social and historical background, giving them the basis on which they had to build up their knowledge. The conditions of the project were discussed with the students and they gave suggestions. Second phase – Finding information- students divided themselves in groups of 5. Each group member worked a theme: the social and historical background of Middle Ages, the role of women in society in some tales and novellas of the different authors. Teachers gave tips about how to find information. Groups worked both at school and at home, sharing information online. Third phase – analysis and synthesis of the material - the groups worked in the classroom, they revised the material they had found, made a synthesis, and decided which computer application they would use to present their output. Fourth phase – output- students explored and then used different apps to make timelines, to make presentations… Fifth phase – presentation and evaluation - each group presented the class their work. Italian and English was spoken. The rest of the class listened to and at the end they discussed. Last phase – debate- after all presentations, students took part in debate about the similarities and differences of the role of women in the middle Ages and in modern society. The project was an opportunity for the teachers to know their students better, their expectations and representations, so the teachers could be able to help them better to find their ways in life.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation
Working in team (cooperative learning), guided by teachers, the students had the possibility to think by themselves, to become aware of their personal features, to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. By the end, they presented their personal output using ICT, they were satisfied, confident and proud of what they had been able to do and surprised that ICT could be a useful means to learn too. They were aware they had taken in their hands their learning process. At the beginning the students were skeptic and a little frightened to be the protagonists of their learning, but at the end they knew they were able not only to be independent but also proactive, and in the future they could face new challenges. We could see a very different attitude towards their future: more awareness, more self-esteem, they were less frightened of the challenges of the future.
Example 2 (Italy) The teacher applied this prototype focusing in particular on the following objectives: fun learning, critical learning, developing critical thinking. She applied it in a first class level (14-16 years old) because this is the class where the majority of dropouts happens and when meeting new disciplines, such as Latin and Greek (apparently not usable) the students need to find a sense to what they encounter. The teacher handed out the questionnaire (the students were curious but had some doubts about some questions still a bit far from their interests, e.g. references to University, etc. ‌) and the teacher asked an initial question: can the study of Latin be useful? Given the positive answer of the class, she made this second step, asking: “how is it possible to motivate the study of Latin today and what is its utility according to you? Would you introduce different modalities of teaching?â€? In the second lesson, a group of six students set the work. They thought Latin would be useful for Medicine. Other students gave examples about Latin used in jurisprudence. Two students have parents working in Law and they interviewed them to collect Latin expressions in use. Other students added examples of words with Latin stems used in the prayers, collected from grandparents who were young when the Mass was in Latin. In the third lesson another group explained how Latin is useful to understand the traces of their past that are still present in the scenery that surrounds them and the immense artistic heritage. Their explanation was accompanied by pictures of famous archaeological sites in Italy and by references to places they personally visited.
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In this stage they paid their attention to the study of Latin as culture, given they decided to approach the subject proposed by the teacher by, each one of them, taking in consideration some aspects of the subject, the ones where they have identified a particular value. In another lesson, a student organised a discussion about how a lot of words of the Italian language has Latin roots. So if people know Latin, they can understand the meaning of these words and they can improve their language. Secondly, using Latin, they can develop their capacity of rational thought they showed through some slides divided into subjects. At the end a group of five students analysed the benefits of studying English when people look for a job or practice something new. They interviewed their parents, who studied Latin, and read some information about famous people and their opinion. They discovered that all people agree about the benefits of Latin because they were good at learning everything new using the ability of thinking developed with Latin. Then they showed a poll of an American university about the ability of young people and they underlined that persons who studied ancient languages can understand everything quickly and so they have successful whatever they do. The application of the prototype proved to be an important moment of comparison, reflection, growth of a new point of view and, for some, development of their own point of view. Pupils, usually more accustomed to listen and re-elaborate the transmitted knowledge, demonstrated to be persons fully participating in the project and to carry on with conviction their assertions, to place themselves with a critical attitude in front of the proposed theme and, to the possible extent given their age, to evaluate with precision the value of the discipline studied.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 10 - Network Model Goals
To assure the best continuity between the first and the second levels of education: network model among the secondary level schools, the high schools and the other stakeholders relevant for education. Challenges
Guiding principles
Motivational’ dispersion, and so a dispersion of talents, chances, perspectives. Need to build synergies and competences that go beyond the traditional boundary of the school system.
The purpose is to let the young feel protagonist of his/her own training process and proud of the professional contribution he/she can do to the development of the country. All identities and competences of the students are a value and a resource that must come out for their global growth. Value different identities, different learning styles.
Activities
Define a training project must accompany the student along all the levels of study so to prevent the difficulties and critic situations encountered in the passage between the different school levels. Develop an orientation culture that favour the training and operative dimension more than the informative one and that welcomes students since their entrance in the secondary school and accompany them along the whole path of studies. Projects of alternation school/work are fundamental because they propose to students captivating activities, and diffusing the use of active methodologies and experiences in practical contexts. Example
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 11 - Valuing Experiential Learning for Motivation Goals
To teach oriented towards the learning by “discovering”; To base learning on the “making” and on the “making together” instead of on “transmitting/receiving” the knowledge.
Challenges
Schools and teaching methods don’t value experiential learning; The need to improve students’ power of observation and increasing their critical thinking; Encourage responsibility in their style of learning.
Guiding principles
There is always one point on which to hinge in order to raise curiosity and encourage responsibility (maybe in sport, music, manual activities, family, etc.). Independently of the subject that is taught, it is necessary to start from experience to realize about its relevance; A student who has made a step forward is a strong motivational impulse not only for him/her but also for the teacher; Problem resolution strategies can also be applied to the problems that cause drop-out, absence to school. Activities
Participative dialogues, cooperative learning, peer to peer, problem solving, didactic visits, flipped classroom. Example 1 (Italy)
The students have shown this year a good level of motivation and interest in the world of young people’s jobs and careers. As a teacher of English it often happens to the teacher to choose with them articles of news related to today’s world. The students have been interested in some important articles concerning Italy and young people. They were concerned about the level of unemployment in their country and they asked the teacher to learn more about it. They read the articles from some magazines. They were impressed by the way people look at Italy from outside. At first they analysed all the possible causes of unemployment in their country and identified with the young people who talked about themselves explaining what it is like to live (even at 33) at home with their parents, seeing no opportunities for their future. Working in groups and using their smartphones they were curious to look on the Internet and find blogs related to Italian young people well qualified or not who find better opportunities abroad. The teacher was very much involved in their interest and willing to find solutions to the problem.
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At home they gave complete freedom to their creativity by making Power Point Presentations: each group decided to develop an aspect of the Italian Exodus. After reading articles and surfing sites in English with a lot of interviews, their ability of SPEAKING improved and also the weaker ones got better results and felt less insecure. They made and learned lists of new words related to jobs and careers. They also revised the adjectives of emotions because they felt a lot of different feelings: sense of anger, lack of faith, sense of rebellion against a system that offers little hope. Finally, they are still working on the importance of ENGLISH for their future and in particular to find a good job. Example 2 (Austria) The aim is to demonstrate that Chemistry is not just knowledge of organic molecules but there is a relationship between chemical proprieties. Underling the rule of chemistry in our everyday life. Goal is to give the students the bases to build up their knowledge to go on with the work. Phase 1 - Viewing of the film "Perfum: The story of a Murderer" directed by T. Tykwer (2006). Phase 2 - Brainstorming about the film, focusing attention about the film on odorous substances and extraction techniques. Phase 3 - Goal is to guide the students to find useful information in a critical way for the work up their knowledge to go on with the work on the web. Finding information through the web quest about sense of smell and sense of taste, the physiology of olfactory organ explaining why only some molecules are odorous substances. The different activities in this phase are: task assigning, team building, web quest selection and evaluation of elements. Phase 4 - Goal is the connection between the information acquired and the relationship between structure and fragrance. Olfactive experiment: students, in the class completely dark and quiet, smell three samples in three different test tubes. For each sample, students complete a table about relationship between structure and fragrance. Phase 5 - Goal is learn to present their outputs. Assessment and evaluation: in turn, 5 each team shows to the rest of the class the final output giving reason of choices made selection the criteria adopted. Phase 6 - Goal is peer to peer and problem solving activity: Each team proposes and plans a method of synthesis of this molecule - “musk celestolide� (4-acetyl-6-tert -butyl-1,1dimethylindan). Phase 7 - Goal: evaluation of the process, reconstruction of the path explanation of the results by each team. This work has motivated the students and they have worked with enthusiasm and have faced all the phases of this project with critical thinking and creativity. During the different phases students made a lot of suggestions. They were the real players of their knowledge. They improved their ability to ask the right questions and to solve a problem. Discovering by themselves and not receiving the information by the teacher was particularly motivating and effective for their learning.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 12 - Cooperative Learning Goals
To change students' and teachers' roles in classrooms. The ownership of teaching and learning is shared by groups of students, and is no longer the sole responsibility of the teacher; To share the responsibility of setting goals, assessing learning, and facilitating learning; To give more opportunities for students to actively participate in their learning, question and challenge each other, share and discuss their ideas, and internalize their learning; To help students to engage in thoughtful discourse and examine different perspectives; To increase students' self-esteem, motivation and empathy.
Challenges
Both teachers and students are resistant to changes and they stay “comfortable”; Competition and individual based achievements affect social dynamics in the classroom and avoid common goals; More and more businesses search for employees with the skills necessary to be a "team player.
Guiding principles
Cooperative Learning, sometimes called small-group learning, is an instructional strategy in which small groups of students work together on a common task. There are five basic elements that allow successful small-group learning:
Positive interdependence: Students feel responsible for their own and the group's effort; Face-to-face interaction: Students encourage and support one another; the environment encourages discussion and eye contact; Individual and group accountability: Each student is responsible for doing their part; the group is accountable for meeting its goal; Group behaviours: Group members gain direct instruction in the interpersonal, social, and collaborative skills needed to work with others occur; Group processing: Group members analyse their own and the group's ability to work together. Activities
Assignments in small groups - the task can be as simple as solving a multi-step math problem together, or as complex as developing a design for a new kind of school; Problem resolution of conflict resolution (debate).
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation Example 1 (Austria) Students were given a group project and assigned to groups at random. This required not only collaborative work in the classroom, but more importantly, collaborative homework. Students had a week to complete the project, which culminated in a group presentation. Every student had to participate in the presentation. The teacher made this a requirement so that each student had a responsibility to their own learning. Some students took the project more seriously than others. The teacher noticed that some shy students built confidence during the week. Example 2 (Portugal) In a 12th form class, the students should do a work about Portuguese dialects and the measures implemented by the Portuguese government to implement them. This was supposed to be a group work. Each group constituted by 3 students and the students didn't know who the spokesperson would be. The students gathered the necessary information at home, in the school Library, and while they were doing their work, they were able to share what they were preparing. There was a sense of respect for the others' opinions, an increase in their self-confidence as well as a gradual desire to enlarge their own knowledge, as everyone had something new and relevant to give. While each group was presenting their work to the class, not only could the teacher evaluate the work, but she could also notice a gradual increase in the students' self -confidence. The groups didn't see themselves as an addition, a new or new elements inside the group, but a multiplication of ideas that, joined together, would end up in an effective output. A very important information about this work to be stressed is that a group really went beyond what was expected them to do: they looked for the meaning of the word "dialects" in the dictionary and applied it to a different level of knowledge, interest, showing their motivation in general. They presented a work about sign language, which can, one day, represent their future life, their future job, their future career. They could earn social skills like respect, tolerance, acceptance of difference because "TO BE DIFFERENT IS TO BE NORMAL "'
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 13 - Leadership Coaching Goals
To transform the teachers’ body into a strong team with a common goal, helping and coaching each other, each with their unique talents; To overcome obstacles and to find ways to support pupils, with the contribution and best-practices of the different teachers; To develop creative systemic solutions. Challenges
Teachers lack of time to work together; Lack of cooperation and teamwork between teachers; Problem of domination between the teachers; Lack of management support; Lack of motivation and care.
Guiding principles
The gathering must be programmed and agenda of meetings shall be distributed; Activities must regard continuity and frequency; A leader must be established (voted); Those who participate must be willing to reach the aim and, willing to collaborate; Achievements shall be shared with management and with other teachers.
Activities
Meetings between teachers (at least one time per month); Establishment of working groups for specific challenging topics; Teambuilding activities; Discussion forums and seminars with experts/consultants. Example
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 14 - Learning Environments Goals
To change the perspective from teaching environments to learning environments.
Challenges
Guiding principles
The promise of our current education system cannot be fulfilled, because more knowledge does not guarantee better work/life conditions.
Learning environments shall contribute for individuals to find what matters in their life instead of getting into a predefined path of growth; A learning environment also encompasses the culture of a school or class – its presiding ethos and characteristics, including how individuals interact with and treat one another; Learning environments filled with sunlight and stimulating educational materials would likely be considered more conducive to learning than drab spaces without windows or decoration, as would schools with fewer incidences of misbehaviour, disorder, bullying and illegal activities. Activities
Conducting classes in relevant natural ecosystems, grouping desks in specific ways, decorating the walls with learning materials, or utilizing audio, visual, and digital technologies. Example (Austria)
1. Students were assigned a project to present a leader of their choice. They were given guidance in class as to what to include in their biographies - e.g. Who it is, achievements made, leadership traits, why this leader was chosen. Everyone presented someone who personally inspired them and the students learned from each other. Fit into what they were learning in English, History and Geography. 2. Presentations on an industry of choice. Pre-requisite: has to be an Austrian company. Students presented a range of small to large companies and were highly motivated due to the element of choice and the opportunity to research independently, as well as learn from each other. Self- and peer- assessments were carried out for each presentation. Success criteria was given to the students before they started their research.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 15 - AGORA – 100 Children, 100 Learning Styles Goals
To give students the maximum according to their learning style, motivation, attention, focus on the student, giving the students tools to learn, teach them to discover their style and how to use it. Challenges
Guiding principles
Large class sizes; Knowledge of all the learning types; Teachers’ workload; Lack of motivation for teachers and students; Lack of support in the classroom; Lack of understanding, standardisation.
Diversity, understanding, empathy, relation teacher – student; Partnership and cooperation with other teachers and parents, constantly adjusting within limits; The time distribution in the class: 50% active teachers and 50% active students.
Activities
To have materials and learning resources as diverse as possible; Diagnostic questionnaires to verify types of learning; Introducing a teacher's assistant; Meetings with parents. Example (Turkey)
First of all, the teachers talk about the achievements of the previous lessons with students. Unclear or missing parts are completed. Students contribute to class by preparing tasks they have been previously given. The topics are discussed in a more permanent way by using smart boards and visuals. Each student can ask questions to the teacher as they wish. Each student must receive a response to all asked questions. The students are guided according to their interests and abilities. Occupations and workshops in their school are presented to the students. Observations and conclusions: one of our students said that that we must give more space to prepare visual presentations for the lessons to be more effective. Thus, she prepared a presentation herself. It was confirmed that she could answer the questions about that presentation correctly and without thinking. And we found out that those who listened to the presentation also answered the questions easily.
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Another student prepared cardboards, pictures and documents and gave a lesson for her classmates herself. She got a good grade, as well. And the others answered the questions correctly with the help of the visuals. And it was seen that the students answered the questions easily and correctly after watching the videos. The teacher asked the students to prepare a few questions about the subject as another learning activity. Each student attended the course by preparing a question. After eliminating similar ones, the questions were answered by the students. And it was understood that this was an effective way of learning.
Result: It is understood that learning by seeing, living and practising is more effective than expository teaching.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 16 - Testimonials Goals
To let teachers share their experiences and that those experiences serve as examples for other teachers; To collect best-practices from colleagues in the same school; To give and take feedback about own methods, choices, …; To motivate teachers so that they can motivate others.
Challenges
Lack of motivation within the teaching body; Loss of good practices because those never got told or collect in a reusable way.
Guiding principles
Those who participate must be willing to reach the aim and, willing to collaborate; The guidelines for the interview must focus pedagogic issues which are challenging for that school/class; Teachers that give their testimonials must keep the conversation limited to keep students’ privacy and ethics. Activities
Make interviews in audio or video to other teachers on a specific topic; Make a collection of testimonials, available for consultancy in the teachers’ room or in the school website. Example (Turkey)
For this prototype, the teacher interviewed 3 department chiefs. The teacher asked 2 questions and the teachers answered them in the interviews. The first question is “What will the students do after they graduate from this department?” The second question is “What can they do to improve themselves?” Interview 1 – Department chief of Information Technologies. The department includes the sub-branches of Web design-programming and Technical service and network. After they graduate, the students can start their own businesses with the licence they are given in this school. They can also work at companies related to their sub-branches. For those who want to get higher education, there are a few options. They can study at two-year vocational schools without an examination. Additionally, they can choose Computer Engineering and Computer Teacher departments at university if they can pass the exam. Moreover, unlike other engineering departments, there is a system called METOG. In this system, students can study engineering with a separate quota and with lower examination marks.
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Only vocational high school graduates can apply to this system. As known, Information Technologies is a constantly evolving field. Thus, you have to follow all innovations. Students should follow the innovations and developments in the labour market. In 12th grade, the students go on a training course and they have the opportunity to see the labour market close. To sum up, the students can have large job opportunities if they improve and keep themselves up-to-date with the latest developments. Interview 2 – Department chief of Clothing and Manufacturing Technologies. In this department, the students learn designing, styling and manufacturing. Textile industry has been growing rapidly, thus they can get a job easily in this sector. If the students fail the university exam, they can find a job as soon as they graduate. They also get a licence to start and operate their own businesses. Our government supports financially especially woman and they can get micro credits or government assistance. Moreover, the students can study at university. The training courses help students enter the labour market and learn the innovations and developments in this field. Clothing and manufacturing technologies do not only mean clothing. They also include producing medical and veterinary equipment. All the things related to clothing are involved in this department. Furthermore, our students take applied courses and in each grade, we concentrate on different subjects such as designing, styling, etc.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 17 - Empowerment Goals
To empower students according to their potential while including their community. Challenges
Guiding principles
Lack of knowledge and information about the companies and about the possibility of their interaction with students; Lack of will and motivation of the companies, teachers or parents to involve students into the project; Bureaucratic tasks (allowances, insurances, etc.) can be very tiring.
Responsibility, diversity, introducing something new, opportunity, variety, facing reality, applying theory in practice, new experience, try to know themselves, to see that school is not that bad, to open their minds, socialisation.
Activities
Organised trips to parliaments, factories, courts, office building, start-ups incubations; Social projects within the community: volunteering, actions for celebration of special days; Periods of training between classes. Example 1 (Austria)
Social Project in collaboration with a local Home for the Elderly. First, they had a visit from their contact person from the home who explained to the students the idea of the project: to connect two generations and learn from each other. The students were told facts about the home and its residents were encouraged to ask questions to dispel their fears or concerns. Students made a card about themselves including a photo to give to an elderly person and thought of questions they would like to ask. The following week they went to the Home. First visit: students & elderly residents swapped cards and shared info about themselves. Preset questions were on each table to guide conversation. Second visit: shared experiences of Christmas and the difference between toys then and now. Sang Christmas carols together. Third visit: talked about spring. Made fruit salad and had a picnic together. Students remained with the same resident they swapped info with during the first visit. Each visit lasted 1 hour. Result: students felt fulfilled and extremely interested in the lives of the elderly. Some of them would consider working in the care sector. The residents gave wonderful feedback about the students. Overall a success.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation Example 2 (Turkey)
This prototype was carried out with 13 students within the context of the project. (Six of them were 12th grade and five of them 11th grade). Thirteen students’ interests, ability and free-time activities were listed. According to ‘Vocational Competency Scale’ carried out by psychological counselor of the school, students were divided into various groups. These groups and the studies carried out before are below. Group 1: The first group consisted of students who were interested in sport and physical activities. Volleyball and tennis activities were organized with these students. The students went to swimming pool and wanted to take swimming course in the province. The students joined in the tours of Youth Club in the province and had the chance of seeing some popular touristic places. Group 2: This group consisted of the students that were interested in music. In this group, a group using music instruments were formed and a concert was organized for students in Youth and Sport Day. The students who wanted to play a musical instrument had the chance of studying with the teachers. Group 3: This group consisted of the students who were interested in cinema, theatre and art. Movie days were organized by forming film lists that were worth to watch. A drama rehearsal was carried out to be performed at various kindergartens. The students who were not interested in art were directed to art courses and by this way they could do something in their free times.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 18 - Creation Time Goals
To allow time in the class for students to develop talents, personal identity and innovation skills; To promote creativity, self-expression; To widen the interests of students in school; To support the definition of personal projects. Challenges
Students are too much occupied in studying and don’t have time or space for own projects; Students recognise their talents and interests but they have difficulties in planning where and how to apply them.
Guiding principles
Embrace creativity as part of learning and think of creativity as a skill; Make emotional connections; Encourage curiosity and “going deeper” into their topics; Find ways to incorporate and integrate art, music and culture.
Activities
Organise with the classroom a participation in a contest: arts, science, business ideas, environment… choose one with an interesting price. Or organise a school contest; Apply a creativity model to facilitate the planning of the projects (for example the Osborne-Parnes model, design thinking or creative solving problems model); Show inspirational projects. Example (Austria)
The teacher allowed students to choose their own project topic. He provided students with a clear list of guidelines well in advance. These guidelines explained exactly what they would be evaluated on, and how. Each student had to have their topic approved by the teacher. Students were initially hesitant, but grew very excited about their topics. They were proud of their work when they presented their projects.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 19 - Critical Thinking Goals
To spur critical thinking, enabling rational thought, is one of the most foremost attributes to successful education attainment; To guide students though reasoning and decision making processes. Challenges
Guiding principles
With today's technology students can easily assess information with a blink of an eye, but they don’t evaluate the quality of that information; Complex problems, as those in life, request critical thinking skills.
Be an example by making your own thought processes explicit in class explaining your reasoning, evaluating evidence for a claim, probing the credibility of a source, or even describing what has puzzled or confused you; Develop the habit to introduce Socratic questioning encourages students to develop and clarify their thinking.
Activities
Assigning non-search engine lessons; Rise complex questions where a variety of answers is possible; Deliver a problem and ask students to "think out loud" in order for classmates to observe how they reason through a problem. Example (Italy)
The teacher applied it in a first class level (14-16 years maximum) because the first and second level classes are those where the majority of dropouts happen so it is more necessary a strong motivation to the study - meeting new school subjects, such as Latin and Greek, apparently not usable in the immediate future (according to the ideas of the nowadays society), the students need to give a sense to what they encounter – it is necessary that they see the study as an instrument useful to build their future. So the teacher handed out the questionnaire (they were curious but had some doubts about some questions still a bit far from their interests, e.g. references to University, etc.) and she asked an initial question: can the study of Latin be useful? Given the positive answer of the class, she made this second step, asking: how is it possible to motivate the study of Latin today and what is its utility according to you? Would you introduce different modalities of teaching?
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After a moment of brainstorming, where they gathered their ideas, the core themes were singled out on which they would base their next discussion in the next few days. In the meantime, the teacher had only a coordination role. She listened with interest to what they were saying because often, when they choose the high school to attend, they are not aware of what they want for their future or of what they will be studying at university. So, at the end of the first level year, they can already have reached an own idea about this and discovered if the choice they did is really their path or if it does not correspond to their expectations.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 20 - Positiveness Goals
To reinforce the positive aspects of all situations; To improve self-esteem and confidence in students; Create a cycle of positive expectations between teacher and students. Challenges
Many time feedbacks given to students focus on their mistakes and misbehaviour; Negative thought feeds negative results.
Guiding principles
Be positive all times; Give feedback about the good points in their work; Don’t focus on the error, but see it as opportunity.
Activities
Cover the walls of your classroom with positive messages: posters with motivational pictures and words; inspirational quotations from great people; positive paintings, drawings, prose, poems, done by your students; Embed more positive words in everything that you write and talk about; Create a class dictionary of positive words. Start with an A - Z template and get your students to add positive words to the template. Make it big and put it on the wall. Example (Austria)
The teacher wanted to encourage students to be more positive about their work and followed the 3:1 rule (3 positive feedback comments to 1 corrective feedback comment). Implemented the prototype throughout the day and observed distinct improvements in student behaviour and work ethic. She decided to incorporate positiveness into her general teaching.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 21 - Gamification Goals
To harness the motivational power of games; To augment the sense of community within the class by playing together; To stimulate students to focus on results; To transform learning into a playful activity. Challenges
School content can be boring for students; Lack of connection between content and real life; Lack of opportunities to simulate problem solving.
Guiding principles
Games gives live tractions of the results and comparison with others, be sure to manage the level of competition in the class; Choose a game that you know well; Playing is voluntary; Games can be high-tech or low-tech, depending on the available technology. Activities
Choose a game that can be adapted to your content or method and let it be played in the classroom. Example Austria
The students really enjoyed this prototype. The teacher had fun with it too! In preparation for an exam, the teacher had the students create flash cards which they used in a round-robin type "game show." This allowed students to review while reducing their stress levels through friendly competition. It also ensured that studying was happening! Students looked forward to these review sessions. Each student did well on their exam.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 22 - Young Leaders Goals
To find the most talented young professional and train them to become education leaders; Set role models for youngsters. Challenges
Students don’t identify themselves with their learning leaders (teachers).
Guiding principles
Young leaders can demonstrate to others to become leaders themselves: helping young people develop leadership competencies makes them more able to solve community problems and enhances their civic participation. Activities
Invite young leaders from the community to school; Create mentorship programmes with pairs of leaders-students with motivational needs; To make partnerships with universities in other to organise co-fraternization events. Example
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 23 - Getting Outside of the Comfort Zone Goals
To get young people out of their comfort zone and let them face challenges outside of school for a week. Challenges
Guiding principles
The learning environment doesn’t change enough to be stimulating for students, over the time one might feel overwhelmed and trapped by boredom and fear.
Select the challenges that are possible and add risk according to the feedback; Know that the worst thing that can happen when you try something new is that you might fail.
Activities
Let students tour their city in search of initiatives and entrepreneurs, from whom they can learn something new; Suggest challenging projects (contests, science fair, photo exhibition) to your class and celebrate them; Scholarships, partner school for an exchange of students6 outside the country/ in a different cultural set. Example (Portugal)
The students of the professional course Psychosocial Support Technician are finishing their schooling and are about to start a career that can go through the integration in a kindergarten as auxiliary technicians, for example. They were invited to organize and produce a small show, directed to students of a kindergarten. In the classes the students chose three traditional children's stories, built the sets, accessories and rehearsed the drama. The students were so hard-working and eager to perform that the show could only be a complete success. Children accompanied the stories with enthusiasm and it was gratifying to see the commitment and interaction of students with children. The kindergarten teachers praised the work of the class and asked for more activities of this type to be promoted by this group of really motivated students. These young students were taken out of their comfort zone (their school) and faced challenges outside their school. Now they may be aware of some peculiarities of their future life and career.
6
Some nice examples: Students from Portugal went to Vienna for this project and Turkish students to Croatia. The aims: too see how schools work in another country, to practice English and to see that English is really necessary to talk to foreigners.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 24 - Gap Time Goals
To take a break from education and have a job experience or go away for a while could be a positive idea; To learn a new skill and gain a qualification, pursue an interest, hobby or passion; To explore and enrich your knowledge in a personal way, rather than follow a curriculum; To add new dimensions to the Curriculum Vitae; To provide a renewed vigour to study and a more focused approach to learn. Challenges
Guiding principles
For many, the educational path is straight forward academic route, not allowing a reflection period for decision taking; It might be difficult to know own skills and capabilities without experiencing them.
There are on-line tools and companies that inform and organise gap periods for students and youngsters; Organise and get as many information as possible; Short versions of the gap year can be sufficient.
Activities
Use the levels gap to stop education for some months - a summer break or a year before university; Use these months to explore new things, try a job, travel or do some community work. Example
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 25 - Making Connections Goals
To improve connections between educational levels using educational guidance. Challenges
Guiding principles
The change of academic levels (implying a change of school, city, …) can be stressful; Difficulties in selection of a course or a scientific area might demotivate students.
A good educational guidance is the best way to: limit the number of drop outs at the end of school level; re - integrate early school leavers; motivate students to increase their knowledge and skills.
Activities
Psychological counselling including testes of vocational orientation; Organising fairs/exhibitions with education and training offers in the region; Demonstration of different professions (on tour or in school).
Example (Turkey) The idea was to gain higher expectations for the students. People who had graduated from the Niğde Vocational High School and the students who are still studying met with each other. The guests were: Mr. X who had graduated from the electronics department of their school and who is selfemployed now on security systems and industrial automations. Mr. Y who is working at Niğde Municipality who had graduated from the computer department of our school. Students were directly informed about the business experiences of the alumnus (former graduated) and the advantages of graduating from vocational high school at business life. So the teachers wanted to show that their vocational education (training) directly related to their future successes and their possible jobs. With this attempt, it was accepted that the relations and motivations of the students to their school would increase.
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To consider the expectations of the students about subjects such as school, work, employment, the same questionnaire (survey) was implemented to the same students before and after the meeting.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 26 - Finding Talents Goals
To find own hidden talents; To find a professional path that better adapts to own talents; To network with the professionals in different areas. Challenges
Lack of time within education to explore artistic opportunities; Need for experimentation of professional roles and responsibilities.
Guiding principles
Adaptation of the German concept “Talenthaus” - a mobile structure with a variety of workshops in many professions. In those workshops, participants can try the daily tasks of the represented profession.
Activities
Distribute the class with “clubs” (photography, cinema, cooking, gardening, …) and let a day per month when each club presents activities for the full class; Urban arts: for young people to paint. Like BOA MISTURA activities; Make a theatre play and allocate each person a role (acting, script, scenario, direction); Organise a bank of time in the school, to exchange skills and learn from each other. Example (Austria)
During a study of English literature, some students were having difficulty connecting with the material. They were becoming frustrated with themselves and with the classwork. The teacher invited a creative arts professional to come give a multimedia presentation to the class on some of the themes from the literature we were studying. The presentation involved photography, music, theatre and graphic design. The students connected with the literature much more easily as a result. The students' final project for the unit required them to draw inspiration from this presentation. Students' only complaint was that they would have liked to have more time to work on their final projects. In future, the teacher will take that into account.
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 27 - Personal Development Goals
To focus on the personal development of the youngster; To learn to be assertive and self-confident; To strengthen weaknesses of personality. Challenges
Businesses struggle to find graduates who are selfmotivated, flexible, and who have strong work ethic; Teenagers are in constant stress to fit the social groups, while going through emotional and physical changes.
Guiding principles
Let the student find its own away of being, while reinforcing skills such as: Flexibility and adaptability; Resilience; Assertiveness; Self-confidence and entrepreneur spirit; Sense of self.
Activities
Contact associations working on personal development to work with kids and teachers; Allow little moments of Mindfulness practices, yoga sessions and meditation every day; Invite experts to make activities to think about SWOT, dreams, abilities, personality; Educational games from the start until the end with personal goals to promote social skills. Example (Portugal)
The teacher was so amazed when she visited a new famous place called LX Factory in Lisbon that she immediately thought of sharing my experience with my students. It’s not easy to be a student nowadays, knowing that the future might not be a bright one, knowing that there won’t be easy job opportunities for everyone. So, she thought that the LX Factory could be visited by the students to make them aware of the opportunities they may have available for them if they are given some ideas, if they can become entrepreneurs. The first “visit” was the first day at school after her weekend. She showed them some pictures of the place and asked them if they knew it. Some of the pictures shown are presented below.
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After some discussion, some “trying to guess” the place, she told them the following information: “It all began in 1846 when a threads and fabrics Company called “Companhia de Fiação e Tecidos Lisbonense”, one of the most important manufacturing complexes in Lisbon, moved to Alcântara, a quarter located on the way to Belém. Other companies moved as well to the 23.000 m2 industrial site during the golden industrial age. Alcântara was a busy place that time, but not anymore… Now, and since 2008, a new urban fragment has been born again in one of the most industrial abandoned areas of Lisbon. If Lisbon’s metamorphosis started with the Expo98, the next step was the LX Factory – It’s a giant atelier full of galleries to discover with traditional restaurants, design shops and even concert halls. This new creative island in the ruins of a gigantic abandoned industrial site reminds us little of Tacheles in Berlin. Of course, it’s not an underground place, and everything has been renewed and the buildings are not falling apart. After much work renewing the whole space, the new factory was occupied by corporations, new brands, start-ups and wanna-be-artists. The place is decorated with huge, colourful graffiti-style murals on the exterior walls. Lx Factory is a creative mini-city. From architecture to music, it’s now the home of design companies, galleries and artists’ studios. There are small trendy restaurants, hipster shops, visual and performing arts, music, fashion and one of the best ice creams in town. The students did like the place and were invited to “the second visit”, their visit to the factory, to take next school year. There they will directly appreciate the work carried out and implemented by young people. They could also meet or learn about inspiring people and the success stories from people like them and invite some to present what they do. I finished the lesson with the following suggestion … What are we waiting for? Let’s check when the next open day is and get on the train to the LX and advice … If you haven't been at this local flea market, you're missing it out! Under the 25 th of April bridge (Calvário, Alcântara), at Lisbon's old fabric factory, now all recovered with amazing artwork, every Sunday (from 12pm to 7pm), there's a type of flea market, with 2nd hand clothing items, or new ones, decor items, books and food delicacies! Not only you can buy/sell your old clothes there, but there are lots of online shops who have their own unique items and showcase them at this market. It's a fun program to do, to visit this historic fabric and to get something by a bargain. The teacher wanted to show the students that... 1. Flexibility (we have to be versatile to adapt, change, to have skill in different areas); 2. Entrepreneurship: join and create their own jobs; 3. Persistence/ Perseverance: not give up, seek diverse training; 4. Creativity: networked thinking, think outside of the box. ...are important factors that can contribute to their future success in life.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 28 - Trying the Future Goals
To allow students to learn from experience, by experimenting different professions before choosing a career. Challenges
Missing connection between schools and labour market; Choices based on theoretical information and not on “real” facts.
Guiding principles
Based on the concept of experiential learning (Kolb, Dewey) where the experience is the source of learning and development; Learning can be defined as the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.
Activities
Make partnerships with companies/other organisations in order to promote small “internships”; Search for companies with “open days” and job shadowing offers; Meet or learn about inspiring people: like success stories from people like them; Invite companies and employees to present what they do, with some practical exercises. Example
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 29 - Impact in the Surrounding Context Goals
To encourage environmental and community awareness; To support others while feeling useful and needed; To train team-work and responsibility.
Challenges
Youngster inertia; Needs in the community not met by any service; Need to understand own role in the change of the world.
Guiding principles
The activities must be volunteer; Provide background support and supervision, especially in the beginning; Evaluate the results in the perspective of the target group (it is important to confirm that the students’ intervention made some change and it was important).
Activities
Environmental awareness; Create games around their city where they need to mix sports, math, history, sciences, etc. to win, like treasure hunts; Activities to help neighbours; Workshops to solve social issues; Get involved with old people by volunteering and doing little talent shows with them. Example (Portugal)
The students of the professional course Psychosocial Support Technician are finishing their schooling and are about to start a career that can go through the integration in a kindergarten as auxiliary technicians, for example. They were invited to organize and produce a small show, directed to students of a kindergarten. In the classes the students chose three traditional children's stories, built the sets, accessories and rehearsed the drama. The students were so hard-working and eager to perform that the show could only be a complete success. Children accompanied the stories with enthusiasm and it was gratifying to see the commitment and interaction of students with children.
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The kindergarten teachers praised the work of the class and asked for more activities of this type to be promoted by the group of really motivated students. These young students were taken out of their comfort zone (their school) and faced challenges outside their school. Now they may be aware of some peculiarities of their future life and career.
Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 30 - Teachers´ Training Goals
To train teachers on the motivational aspects of youth; To involve teachers in the definition of new strategies to tackle youth unemployment and school drop outs; To establish teachers’ networks. Challenges
Solitude on teaching professions; Need for specialized training offer for teachers; Deficiency of opportunities and time for innovation.
Guiding principles
Select training offers that bring added value to the participants (e.g. certification…); Share the results of training in the school community and to the management board; Apply learnings in the classroom as soon as possible.
Activities
Organize practical workshops on how to motivate students and improve their social skills; Search and apply for on-line courses; Negotiate with trade unions the inclusion of motivation, vocational orientation and personal development of teens and youngsters; Create “innovation” groups within the school. Example
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Catalogue of Educational Innovations for Youth Motivation INNOVATION 31 - Common Expectations Goals
To identify the common expectations for the class for a limited period (during this lesson, until the end of semester, until the end of the year…); To help students defining specific goals based on their expectations. Challenges
Students are not aware of what is expected from; Different students might be in different perspectives, causing difficulties in the teaching approach.
Guiding principles
Focus the class in realistic expectations; Keep track of the new expectations and achievements. Share feedback regularly; Challenge the class to stretch their expectations.
Activities
Brainstorm with class and select the most relevant expectations; Make a scoreboard for the classroom where the progress in achieving aims is visible to all; Formulate a team motto; Write a classroom agreement/contract they all students sign and comply with. Example (Austria)
Teachers are coming up by some words to determine expectations. They ask the class these 3 questions and write down their answers on the blackboard. The questions proposed to the class should be: 1. For you to get the most out of this session, what would this session have to be like? 2. For you to get the most out of this session, what would you have to be like? 3. For you to get the most out of this session, what would we have to be like? The teachers liked the idea and they think it's easy to apply. Also, it's good to do that activity in the beginning of every semester to avoid confusion and misunderstandings related to the expectations that are different.
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Small Actions in Schools Sometimes teachers might not be able to settle an innovation in the classroom or in the school, whereas because it is a long process, because of their workload or lack of assistance from other teachers. Still, there are small actions that already can make a difference. Below are some examples of such actions:
Implement digital education in their homework (mobile assignments); Masterclass for teachers about a topic that students know well (connect interests); Learn how to code; Promote free learning platforms with self-taught subjects were students can choose a topic they want to get deeper insights; Learn about body and health by doing healthy recipes; Start classes with games; Develop everyday life needed skills; Practical activities to apply what they learn in class. Like mechanic class about bicycles; Class in the outside; Debates about topics seen at the news or at documental watched in class; Working groups to do homework to help each other; Participate in international projects to practice language exchange and use internet tools to learn new skills and meet people; Skype with a class somewhere in the world.
Final note We hope that the ideas in the previous pages can help teachers to be more effective in their motivational approach to students and, as a result, that those students be empowered to pursue their careers. We believe that there are many other ways to achieve such a mission and therefore, this catalogue has an open end. We would like each reader to add “innovations” of their own, having ours as a starting point. If you feel comfortable to share those innovations, the Ei YoU! team would be happy to hear them. Please go to the www.eiyou.eu and join the crowdsourcing forums.
Have fun!
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Regards The compilation of this catalogue was only possible due to the volunteer work of many teachers, who connected with the Ei YoU! and gave their experiences back to the project team of researchers. Our special thanks to the committed teachers and students from the following schools/institutes:
Agrupamento de Escolas Figueira Mar; Bundeshandelsakademie und Bundeshandelsshule Steyr; I.I.S. 'Patrizi - Baldelli - Cavallotti'; I.I.S. Polo Tecnico 'Franchetti – Salviani'; Istituto San Francesco di Sales; Liceo Classico - Scientifico - Scienze Applicate 'Plinio il Giovane'; Nigde Ataturk Anadolu Lisesi; Nigde Hudavent Hatun Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi; Nigde Mesleki ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi; Teach for Austria.
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