INCREASING THE COMMITMENT OF STUDENTS DURING THE SHIFTS BETWEEN ONLINE AND IN-PERSON EDUCATION ON HUMANITARIAN SUBJECTS THROUGH OBSERVATION AND REFLECTION TOOLS
▶Summary
School subjects have been influenced by the shifts between online and in-person education within and after COVID-19. Lessons requiring discussion and exchange of oral information have been deeply ...
▶Objectives
The project envisaged two areas of interventions. The first one concerned development of communication and expression skills in class. The project team believed that education is also an important process that allows students to learn through interactions with their teachers and peers. The second area of intervention has been oriented towards improvement of monitoring students’ level of engagement and raising commitment. In traditional classrooms tutors often can closely monitor student’s level of motivation expressed by participation, attention to the subject, and extent of distraction. On contrary, during online teaching this was hampered. The general project objective was to address deficiencies during online education in terms of developing communication and expression skills within humanitarian school disciplines focusing on disadvantaged students falling behind and getting them closer to their peers. The specific objectives were: - Provision of guiding materials for students adapted to those with poor skills - Equipping teachers with applicable pedagogical approaches and supporting thematic sets - Raising attractiveness and efficiency of the training on humanitarian subjects by production of interactive elements
▶Impact
As a result of the development phases, the following outputs have been produced: - Student`s Booklet about communication and expression skills on social topics and the linkage with future professional realisation - Teacher` Handbook on observation and reflection techniques - Toolbox for observation and reflection in online and present education Besides the development of training materials as outputs, the project produced the following results: - Outlining areas of intervention in concrete taught subjects and lessons in compliance with the existing formal curricula. - Addressing the lack of multi-directional interaction within the class and the teacher in online environment. - Introducing and piloting techniques for monitoring engagement and stimulating commitment. - Strengthening the aspect of educational inclusion among the targeted students with main focus on the disadvantaged ones in order to prevent those falling behind. - Ameliorating the specific preparation of the students in need on humanitarian subjects and making it equal as much as possible of those not facing social or technical challenges compared to their peers. - Enhancing the preparation for keeping commitment in switching in-person and online environment by teachers and students through introducing adapted measuring applications. - Provision of tailor-made learning materials to improve social interaction aspects and specific skills and knowledge for future society-oriented professionals. - Stimulating school teachers and students to enter into contacts with people from abroad. - Establishing multilingual online platform for exchange of knowledge, advice and feedback. - Strengthening the understanding and skills of students in areas such as multiculturalism, diversity, successful employment, active citizenship, social inclusion, equal opportunities and managing of personal change. - Supporting diffusion of offline lessons and self-study approach into mainstream educational programs concerning subjects related to public speaking and audience proficiency. - Providing support by business world and experts in social field towards raising motivation and outlining the perspectives for joining such fields by future graduates. - Stimulating exchange of views on obstacles in proper qualification on social and humanity subjects.