Step - School Territory Environment Pedagogy

Scientific manager: Prof.ssa Beatrice Borghi

Step

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sector: School

Unibo structure involved: Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione "Giovanni Maria Bertin” (EDU)
Unibo Team: Dott.ssa Mirella D’Ascenzo, Dott.ssa Michela Schenetti

Website:

Project Duration in months: 36
Start Date: 01/09/2015
End Date: 31/08/2018

Budget: 333.718 euro   
Unibo Budget: 89.101 euro

Partners:

  • Coordinator: Università Milano Bicocca (Italia)
  • Alma Mater Studiorium -  Università di Bologna (Italia)
  • Università di Siviglia (Spagna)
  • Università Marsiglia-Aix (Francia)
  • Università SUPSI (Svizzera)

Description:
The STEP project (School Teacher Education Environment Program) “Citizenship pedagogy and teacher education: an alliance between school and territory” is based upon Tran sectorial horizontal priorities of basic and transversal competences development through innovative methods, strengthening the teacher profession, the research and education quality by exchanging best practices and transnational cooperation. The project’s aim is developing and improving preschool and primary interdisciplinary curriculum to create relationship between children school experience and informal education, using sustainable environmental education, starting from major social problems. Active Citizenship Education for sustainable and durable development can be integrated into all areas of the curriculum, especially into cross curriculum themes. It implies children and teachers involvement in authentic experiences  aimed at achieving a sustainable future. This also improves the connection between initial and continuing teacher training education. The action-research as methods is an experiential learning of citizenship education for all the participants, which come from Schools  University, Political Institutions, and social organizations.

This project’s purposes are:

  1. identifying analysis tools to explore territories culture, in a multidisciplinary approach.
  2. developing a research model of active citizenship education
  3. to develop teachers and pupils skills for planning across-the-curriculum learning experiences in active citizenship education for sustainable and durable development and care of the socio-cultural heritage
  4. improving interregional and international cooperation

The partnership has three core service areas:

  • active citizenship education in preschool and primary school curriculum (Bologna University and Seville University),
  • the professional development of teachers, in the CRESPI research center (www. crespi.edu.unibo.it) (Milan University and Bologna University),
  • durable development and  education focused on the relationship between school and territory ( Milan University and ESPE Aix- Marseille University), in ADEF conferences. All partners have significant expertise on this issues and they are involved in national and international networks with associations, local authorities and education political authorities.

The research project will involve 21 teachers and University researchers, 20 subject among student training, teacher researchers  and tutors, too; 1260 subjects among  teachers , tutor teachers, training students, school headmasters,  other institutional stakeholders and associations; children 3 to 11 years old, including multicultural and disadvantage context will be target of the activities organised by the project.

The Coordinator Project is Milano Bicocca University, and it provides the implementation, monitoring and the evaluation (qualitative and quantitative) of all the project activities.

The project will be developed into four main action:

A) designing a transnational curriculum

B) experimental teaching and Research Training (supported by e-twinning)

C) results dissemination at national and international level ;

D) monitoring and evaluation.

The research project will produce 6 outcomes:

O1 ) cross-media platform STEP ;

O2 ) transnational curriculum of education for a sustainable development;

O3 ) innovative learning activities: methods and tools 

O4 ) four case studies: examples of research training ;

O5 ) toolkit;

O6) publication of the project STEP

Two training activities: one project Staff workshop (C1) and one Summer School for students, researchers, teachers, headmaster. These will be the starting point to design an innovative teaching and learning activities and to disseminate content and methodologies. The results will be transferred within the curricula of initial training for Teachers, at the University.  This will promote an immediate change in  the teacher training program. The results will be disseminated 3 multipliers events : Seminar, Symposium , Conference. The project contributes to the device creations to improve communication and exchange between partners, creating a new transnational networking approach  on active citizenship between teachers, teacher educators, schools and communities.

Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union