LETHE – LEarning THrough Emotions Agreement n° 2006-2888/001-001

Project n° 129937-CP-1-2006-1-IT-COMENIUS-C21 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

4th PROJECT NEWSLETTER4th PROJECT NEWSLETTER4th PROJECT NEWSLETTER4th PROJECT NEWSLETTER

THE EXPERIMENTATION PHASETHE EXPERIMENTATION PHASETHE EXPERIMENTATION PHASETHE EXPERIMENTATION PHASE THE CASES OF:THE CASES OF:THE CASES OF:THE CASES OF:

CYPRUS CYPRUS CYPRUS CYPRUS –––– IntercollegeIntercollegeIntercollegeIntercollege //// University of NicosiaUniversity of NicosiaUniversity of NicosiaUniversity of Nicosia BULGARIA BULGARIA BULGARIA BULGARIA ---- CEICEICEICEI Centre For Educational Initiatives Association Centre For Educational Initiatives Association Centre For Educational Initiatives Association Centre For Educational Initiatives Association SPAIN SPAIN SPAIN SPAIN –––– CECE CECE CECE CECE Spanish ConfedSpanish ConfedSpanish ConfedSpanish Confederation of Educational Centreseration of Educational Centreseration of Educational Centreseration of Educational Centres PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL PORTUGAL –––– IAFE Institute for Entrepreneurial information, IAFE Institute for Entrepreneurial information, IAFE Institute for Entrepreneurial information, IAFE Institute for Entrepreneurial information, support and trainingsupport and trainingsupport and trainingsupport and training

LETHE – LEarning THrough Emotions Agreement n° 2006-2888/001-001

Project n° 129937-CP-1-2006-1-IT-COMENIUS-C21 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

CYPRUS - Intercollege/University of Nicosia Dr Philippos Pouyioutas, Vice Rector Dr Emilios Solomou, Campus Director

The experimentation phase has been carried out at Intercollege/University of Nicosia, in two phases. During the first phase, one class was selected. The teacher, Ms Victoria Kalogerou, and twenty-five students participated in the project experimentation during the months of March-May 2009. Drs Pouyioutas and Solomou briefed the teacher and the students about the project. Training sessions took place in the computer labs and students familiarized themselves with the available resources. After being exposed to the “switch” students commented about their emotions and were divided into groups based on the reported emotions. They then worked in groups and produced their work that they uploaded in the LETHE platform. The first phase of the experimentation proved to be a very useful learning exercise for all the people involved in the project, since through this process, they better understood the didactic methodology and the way the platform supported the methodology. Thus, during the second phase that took place during the months of June-July 2009, they were more aware of the various issues related to the experimentation. During this phase, another class with the same teacher, Ms Victoria Kalogerou, experimented with the platform. Similar briefing about the project and training for the platform took place for the teacher and the students. Fifteen students took part in the second phase of the experimentation. The students’ work can be found in the platform. Feedbacks from the three classes were collected through focus groups with the teacher and the students, following the guidelines and documents supplied by the project coordinator. Furthermore, a discussion group was created in each class soliciting student feedback. Details about the feedback can be found in the National Report. Herein it can be highlighted very briefly the fact that both students and teachers found the didactic methodology and the platform a pleasant, useful and interesting experience. The e-learning portal presented an

LETHE – LEarning THrough Emotions Agreement n° 2006-2888/001-001

Project n° 129937-CP-1-2006-1-IT-COMENIUS-C21 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

innovative way of teaching/learning/interacting that was new to all. Both students and teachers enjoyed the experimentation process and expressed their interest in being engaged in similar projects and learn through similar platforms/environments.

BULGARIA – CEI, Centre For Educational Initiatives The experimentation phase of the LETHE Project was implemented during the second semester of the 2008/2009 school year. It was conducted according to the program’s rules: regular scheduled group meetings with differing duration (1-3 academic hours), alternating with periods for individual work on various tasks, according to the current stage of the Project. As far as participants were not familiar with the concept of emotional intelligence, the project team at CEI decided to introduce a preliminary, preparatory step to go before the four stages of the method, since it would be ineffective to use emotions for stimulation of the cognitive process, if children are not sufficiently familiar with them. The goal of this preliminary phase was for the participants to enter the general ideological framework of the Project, to become aware of the essence, the role and the importance of feelings in intrapersonal relationships and their usefulness for the educational process. The preliminary phase was conducted through a series of explanatory lectures. Appropriate reading materials were offered to the 9th graders, while 6th graders participated in the “Pirate Story” game from the students’ floor in the Emotional Land Experimentally, the method “Learning through emotions” was implemented with two groups of children. 13 students from junior high school (6th grade, 104 OU “Zachary Stoyanov) and 7 high school students (9th grade, Zlatarski IB School) participated in the project. Those are the first children to participate in a form of emotional training at a Bulgarian school. The subjects “Men and machine” and “Graffiti – art or protest” were chosen by the teachers with regard to being interesting and useful to the students, who participated in the experimental groups.

LETHE – LEarning THrough Emotions Agreement n° 2006-2888/001-001

Project n° 129937-CP-1-2006-1-IT-COMENIUS-C21 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Individually or in small groups, participants discovered and shared materials on subjects appointed, expressed their own opinions and arguments. They justified their choice with the emotions that led to it. They discussed materials through personal comments or in work meetings, led by the teacher at school. The overall evaluation of the experience acquired during the experimental phase was positive: “Everything that we did is useful for me and my classmates. It was interesting and fun!”; “The work itself was interesting and enjoyable”; “There are very interesting activities”; “I enjoyed everything about it”; “I learned many new things, which could be of use in the future”; “It shows a new side of the learning experience, which is much more interesting and approachable. Until now, there has been no such experiment (in Bulgaria)”; “I think that I learned many things from this project. I am very glad I participated”; “It was worth it”. The teachers experienced satisfaction that they had the opportunity to try a new, useful method, unknown before to them and their students. They see this as a chance to get to know the children “in a different setting, a different environment”. This experience is valuable to them also because of the trust put in them to be the first to apply “Learning through emotions” as a form of emotional training in Bulgarian schools.

SPAIN – CECE, Spanish Confederation of Educational

Centres

A student’s point of view During February, March and April a CECE´s team group had been working in Besana School with two secondary classrooms. Around 22 students in different session experimented the platform and the curriculum. Also two ICT teachers where involved in the testing phase.

LETHE – LEarning THrough Emotions Agreement n° 2006-2888/001-001

Project n° 129937-CP-1-2006-1-IT-COMENIUS-C21 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The working session included presentation of the project and the platform, materials, videos, and personal explanation regarding how to use the ICT tools in the platform.

The evaluation process was deal by Selina Martin and Luis Lizama using focus group and interview techniques. Procedure: The topics for analysis were divided into two sets of questions: the EMOTIONAL LAND and the project platform. Some questions were formulated to the students, as a focus group (there is a video about that at: http://cecedisseminateeurope.blogs

pot.com/2009/05/lethe-experimentation.html). Here are some examples of cue questions: 1. What is your opinion? 2. Have you learnt how to use the platform, and did you acquire knowledge?

3. There are some things in the Lethe platform not very well explained, or difficult to understand, or everything is fine?

Results:

We first talked about the video game “EMOTIONAL LAND” a) Video game (some suggestions from the students): - It was very slow. If we compare with other games. - The game is interesting but is not really related or close to the emotional intelligent topics.

- They like to play this game and have the desire to do it because it is a nice game.

- The idea to go to a place like a building is brilliant. - The truth is that it has been good to play this game “The game is super interesting though I have not played until the end”.

LETHE – LEarning THrough Emotions Agreement n° 2006-2888/001-001

Project n° 129937-CP-1-2006-1-IT-COMENIUS-C21 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

- It is an important part of learning because it is possible to use video text etc. … they seem to be very interesting.

- The game is a different way to support the learning activities.

b) Project platform - Some students had problems uploading images and videos - The platform was easy to use and friendly according with the opinion of the most students. - “to me the work done in LETHE platform has been very interesting, because in some way the project help us to develop and understand emotions.” - The students enjoy the communications tools. - The first video that the students watch in the technological area was awful in their general opinion.

c) Questionnaire It was prepared a questionnaire for the student’s satisfaction and asked all the students about these topics. TABLE: resume of the answers to a questionnaire about satisfaction of the students with some aspects of the project.

LETHE – LEarning THrough Emotions Agreement n° 2006-2888/001-001

Project n° 129937-CP-1-2006-1-IT-COMENIUS-C21 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

TOPICS DISAGREE NOT AGREE/NOT

DISAGREE

AGREE COMPLETE

AGREE

METHODOLOGY 0% 20% 76% 4%

CONTENTS 0% 18% 68% 14%

LEARNING IS FUNY 5% 23%

45% 27%

EXPERIMENTAL

SESSIONS

0% 9% 68% 23%

GENERAL

SATISFACTION

0% 9% 64% 27%

LETHE – LEarning THrough Emotions Agreement n° 2006-2888/001-001

Project n° 129937-CP-1-2006-1-IT-COMENIUS-C21 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Conclusions

1. The emotional land was well appreciated by the students. 2. Despite some difficulties they found it in the platform, their evaluation was positive.

3. At the beginning, it wasn’t easy to link the emotional land with the student’s emotions.

4. On the other hand the students felt positive emotions associated with creative, imagination, and they discover a new way to learn, more funny and interesting than the traditional methods.

5. The students also find out how to share emotions with their classmates.

PORTUGAL - IAFE Institute for Entrepreneurial

information, support and training

On the final months of the Portuguese scholar year, the experimentation of the Curricula developed within LETHE Project took place in the Portuguese schools. The chosen schools were INED – Instituto de Educação e Desenvolvimento, located in Maia, and Escola Secundária Tomaz Pelayo, in Santo Tirso (both in the north of Portugal). The experimentation phase of the LETHE project in Portugal involved students with ages between 15 and 18 years, already with a great knowledge of informatics and also with some knowledge of the English language, which was fundamental to understand what they were asked through the different steps of the LETHE platform. The experimentation was very useful in order to test the way the platform would work among the Portuguese schools, and the specificities of the Portuguese education system. Despite the fact that all of the teachers and students involved were very excited to take part in a European experience, and saw this opportunity as a way of improving their knowledge and also their Emotional Intelligence, some

difficulties were arisen. These difficulties related to the time spent to go

LETHE – LEarning THrough Emotions Agreement n° 2006-2888/001-001

Project n° 129937-CP-1-2006-1-IT-COMENIUS-C21 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

through this new didactic method, and also to the informatics involved, not so easy to deal with by teachers and with one of the schools having some difficulties because of software malfunctioning. However, this experience was thought to be very enriching and students that took part in it were very motivated and enthusiastic about it. This was also a way for them to express their feelings and become more aware of the feelings of their peers, because the work that they were developing in the platform was discussed in the classroom. The use of this platform, combined with the access to the Emotionland, made the Portuguese students that participated in the experimentation more capable to deal with their feelings and to open up to their friends and use their emotions and feelings to learn more in class.