Methodologies for BUILDing Teaching BRICKS for primary schools

In several programs, CSCI and &LEARNING observed how teams of teachers prepare and build meaningful and interdisciplinary teaching projects with the use of many different activities, methods etc. related to the school subjects. Based upon the observations of teachers at work, it emerged the idea to create a didactic tool supporting teachers in their preparation. With further inspiration from the plastic construction bricks made by the Danish toy company LEGO, it came up the idea to develop, gather and make easily accessible a number of ‘didactic bricks’ that can be chosen, used and combined by teachers in various ways. The bricks consists of creative teaching activities, methods, etc. that can be put together by teachers into meaningful teaching sequences. They can be used as flexible elements that fast and easily can be assembled into unique learning projects. While the bricks themselves might not all be innovative, the way they are structured and combined is innovative. Flexibility and accessibility is the key. The bricks have the potential to serve as the focal point of such a community, where professional development takes place almost unnoticed through the use, adaptation, and further development of bricks.

In line with the proposal expectations, the general objectives we achieved are: 1. to increase the skills of teaching staff in respect to the use of inclusive, differentiated and varied methodologies for learning; 2. to increase the inclusion of pupils (6-13 years old), both those with special educational needs and all other pupils, through their active and explorative participation in their own learning pathway; 3. to support teachers in using teaching activities, methods etc., where pupils are engaged in exploring and solving real world problems related to environment and climate (SDGs). These objectives are closely linked to the needs identified by the partners inside their organizations, at the level of national school systems and European priorities in the field of education. The specific objectives we have achieved are: 1. to support teachers in primary and lower secondary schools through easy access to creative and clear structured activities, methods etc. (didactic bricks) developed, tested and communicated by teachers; 2. to increase pupils' engagement, co-determination and active involvement supported by didactic bricks; 3. To increase the internationalization capacity of the partnership.

A.1 RESEARCH AND MAPPING OF NEEDS, BARRIERS AND CURRENT STRATEGIES: The first step of this activity was a DESKTOP ANALYSIS of European success case histories. Partners collected up to 5 national Best practices on the topics covered. In continuation of the Desk Research, 6 FOCUS GROUPS were conducted. 3 focus group meetings in Denmark and 3 in Italy. An ONLINE SURVEY was carried out identifying the needs of teachers and their colleagues - and mapping existing resources used by teachers to be inspired and to adapt new ways of teaching A.2 CO-CREATION WORKSHOPS WITH TEACHERS: co-creation groups with participation of a total of up 6 teachers in each (2-3 teachers from each partner country per group). The bricks were created and written in English. A.3 THE BRICKS GUIDELINES AND RECOMMENDATIONS: A manual was developed to communicate the methodology, as well as recommendations on how to use content and bricks in an efficient, inclusive and creative way. A4. MANAGEMENT, MONITORING AND EVALUATION: The project was managed on a day-to-day basis by both the partners. The partnership adopted Logical Framework Approach (LFA) and Project Cycle Management (PCM) logics. A5. DISSEMINATION: Dissemination was promoted at all levels.

• Collection of good practices: 10 good practices • 23 didactic BRICKS that created with the aim of fostering inclusion and diversity in all fields of education and, at the same time, to strengthen in meaningful, differentiated, and participative learning processes the learning of all pupils regardless of their educational starting point. The BRICKS were created to deal with two fundamental goals of the 2030 Agenda: o Goal 5 – Gender Equality o Goal 2 – Eradicate hunger • A survey to comment on Bricks • 3 Newsletters • 1 e-learing platform • 1 dedicated website • 1 dedicated FB page