VALUEBOX:Promoting Fundamental Rights and Inclusive Education in European Schools through Gamification

Education is the pillar of our societies, helping to shape the future and the minds of the next generations. It is important that our education systems are based on principles of tolerance and democracy. It is in this context that the VALUEBOX consortium applied for this project, which aims to promote a more inclusive approach to our education system by integrating the common values of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into the current school curricula. VALUEBOX responds directly to the need to integrate active citizenship and democratic values by providing tools as presented in the project's three outcomes (Competence Framework for Teachers, Self-Assessment and Recommendation Tool and Gamified Online Course). However, the VALUEBOX project also enables transdisciplinary integration of value education by providing examples and good practices of activities to be included in subjects other than civic education. The need for professional development opportunities for teachers and educators was also largely met. Such training was strengthened through the involvement of schools. The use of gamified strategies has enabled a more interactive learning process for teachers, who are thus more inclined to engage with the materials.

The priorities and objectives of the Valuebox project were aligned with the results achieved. Firstly, it aimed to promote inclusion and diversity within school environments by providing quality materials to teachers and school staff to foster more inclusive environments. The consortium developed COFT to achieve these objectives and enable a structured framework on teaching methodologies and value education. Secondly, the aim was to support teachers and their ability to self-assess and monitor their own progress and competences, so the consortium developed the Gamified Self-assessment and Reccomendation tool that allows an interactive and fun way to self-assess competences on values education. Finally, the consortium set itself the objective of enabling teachers to better understand the framework of common European values, thereby strengthening their understanding of how to integrate this knowledge into their classrooms through the Gamified Open Online course. Furthermore, these objectives were characterised by the desire to adopt gamification as an learning element that would allow for a more innovative approach, which simultaneously advances the digital skills of the users and facilitate the learning process.

VALUEBOX project activities focused on the development of the three project outcomes and their dissemination through offline and online channels. For each project outcome, there was a preliminary phase of needs analysis, which investigated the current needs of teachers with respect to the specific project outcome, with the aim of contextualizing the materials to the current educational environment. Then, the materials and content of the project results were developed. For the two online platforms, these also included the technical development of the tool based on the system design agreed upon by the consortium. Then, for each project result, the consortium implemented a multi-level evaluation process that included internal and external feedback, with the goal of improving the quality, usability, and applicability of the project results. Finally, all of the project results were translated into five languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish, and Dutch) to enable dissemination and availability of the content to all teachers from all backgrounds. To disseminate the project objectives, the consortium engaged in online communication, dissemination and through seven dissemination conferences organized in four partner countries.

The three concrete outcomes are intended to complement and build on each other. The first outcome is the Competence Framework for Teachers, a framework outlining the principles of value education, online and offline teaching methodologies, the guiding principles of the VALUEBOX project and the overview of the Valuebox Gamified online course. Accordingly, the second result is the Self-Assessment and Recommendation Tool (SERT) which is an online platform designed to enable teachers to test their competence and readiness to teach European values in the classroom. By integrating game elements, it also allows for a more interactive and fun experience. Based on the results of the self-assessment and recommendation tool, teachers will be recommended to follow a specific section of the gamified online course. The third result is the Gamified Open online course structured in 6 modules, each of which focuses on the 6 values included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and includes respectively a theoretical sub-module, a sub-module illustrating tools and activities focusing on a specific value and a third sub-module presenting good practices. All the project results have also been translated in French, Italian, Dutch, Turkish and Spani