Federation of Adult Education Associations
Paseo Fernando el Católico Nº 29, 1º Izda. E-50006 Zaragoza
Phone number: +34 976 553 773 Fax: +34 976 552 842
http://www.faea.es e-mail:faea@faea.es

English

| Español

Grundtvig LEARNING PARTNERSHIPS. Skills.

Web del proyecto

Summary of the project

SKILLS wants to improve Learning to learn competence in Adult Education using a tool in order to assess the adults starting point on how they organize their learning, how they manage time and information, and how they motivate themselves. Next, using a bank of descriptors for each section, they check their level of competence and they propose activities associated to the descriptors in order to improve it.

Each partner has worked on 1 of the 4 sections:

Time management
Organization of the information
Motivation for the learning process
Team work

designing with adults -in workshops- a model of activity for self-assessment at the beginning of each section, a bank of descriptors and activities. Also the responsible partner will recommend formative reading for educators.

In the process, the participants have exchanged their materials in English and they have assessed them and put them into practice.

As result of this process, the participants have become aware of the learning to learn skills and they are able to self-evaluate. The teaching staff has a tool to evaluate learning skills, to plan tasks and learning strategies. A CD-ROM collects the final products in the partners’ languages. They are also available on the project's website.

Target groups

Adults, especially:

Migrants / travellers / ethnic or other minorities
Other economically or socially disadvantaged groups, unemployed persons, persons in prison
Young adults (15-25 age range) at risk of social marginalisation

Aims of the project

To design a tool to assess the Learning to learn Competence in adults.
To elaborate a bank of learning skills Descriptors.
To design activities in order to visualize the descriptors in a context of use.
To elaborate a Skills Notebook in which the adults will be able to self-evaluate and the teachers will use it to evaluate learning skills, to plan tasks and learning strategies.
To exchange experiences on learning skills between the partners about different targets groups: adults, young people, minorities, and adults with special needs…
To promote Lifelong Learning and to improve the learning to learn capacity, and the adults educational possibilities.

Adults without or with very little educational experience, use their own learning strategies and very often, they are not aware of them or have a lack of strategies since they have never learnt to learn. In order to support their learning process it is important to identify and improve their learning skills.

SKILLS has elaborated a tool to identify adult skills and to value in which situations and for what objectives are each of these skills are more appropriate, and to improve them if necessary. Also, the adult can acquire new skills which facilitate an effective and significant learning. As result of this process, the participants improve their educational possibilities, increase their effectiveness and efficiency in the learning process, and are able to transfer this competence to their professional and social life.

Outputs

The impact on

1) the learners and staff directly participating
2) the organisations / institutions participating in the Learning Partnership as a whole
3) where relevant, on the local community / region where each institution is located.
4) teaching/learning in the chosen subject area

is the following:

They improve their skills in the use of learning strategies: they will manage efficiently their learning, will be able to persevere, concentrate and reflect about the objectives of their learning.
They learn their skills’ strengths and weaknesses.
They use tools that will allow them to increase their learning efficiency and effectiveness.
They improve their skill to identify their own needs and aims.
They increase their self-esteem when exchanging experiences with other people from other countries in their situation.
They improve their learning autonomy and self-control.
They learn to better work as a team and share their knowledge.
They improve their self-evaluation during the learning process.
They increase their skill to overcome difficulties and solve problems.
They increase their curiosity to learn and apply what they learn in all contexts.
They participate actively in the learning process, identifying the strategies they use and being aware of their learning process.
They improve the conscious planning of learning strategies, memory, problem-solving, decision-making.
They improve their planning and organization skill.
They increase their learning autonomy.
They improve all their learning activities, because they will be supported by their learning to learn skill.
They increase their motivation in lifelong learning.

Participating institutions

FAEA, Federación de Asociaciones de Educación de Adultos http://www.faea.es

FAEA is a non profit - State ambit - Social initiative organization dedicated to promote a critical, open and participative model of adult education. Operation principles: To respect the autonomy of each one of the 55 entities that form FAEA; to take strategic decisions in a participative way; Technical staff to advise and to coordinate the combined actions.

Objectives:

(1) to create opinion through the analysis of educational and social politics and the dissemination of information and documentation about adult learning in the framework of interculturality.

(2) To innovate through: the realization of projects and investigation actions; the development of didactic materials and the development of learning strategies adapted the necessities of each entity and its professionals.

(3) To give services of quality and organizational consultantship for the professional change, guided to the associations in such questions as planning, management, projects, evaluation and technical support

Link Consulting

Link Consulting was founded in 1997 by professionals in the field of education and subsidized finance. It offers to private enterprises, public institutes, confraternities, and non profit associations innovative and integrated services according to the needs of the own specific organizational context. These services are grouped into 7 fields of interventions:

• Consultancy
• Training
• Research
• Services to enterprises
• Improvement and marketing of products and services
• Informative and cultural activities
• Informative reports

Until now Link Consulting has realized different projects regarding professional formation, various researches and databanks.

Finally Link Consulting has acquired experience in international cooperation through projects of different kinds.

Associazione Formazione 80 http://www.formazione80.it/spagnolo/index_spa.php3

Formazione 80 is a non-profit organisation, established in 1984. The Association was founded by a group of teachers and researchers working in the field of adult education. Over the last 20 years it has gained considerable experience as a point of reference for research, teaching methodology and adult education projects, whilst learning new skills regarding career guidance and integration in work environments, social research and job-placement of disadvantaged people. Since 1984 we work in the production of didactic materials specifically for adult education as well as materials to learn Italian as language 2; we are co-operating with various organisations for the implementation of European programmes (Leonardo da Vinci and Socrates Grundtvig 1, Grundtvig 2, Lingua).

Society Fenix

Fenix- The Prophylactic - Educational Society is a non - profit organisation that from 1997 is engaged in substance abuse treatment for children and adolescents, non-violence activity and generally saying resocialisation of young people. We cooperate with the Resocialisation Centre for boys in city Lodz.

The work they have been doing up to the present is concentrated on group sessions during weekend and holiday departures and after-care individual assistance. They are interested in the youth that is at risk of social exclusion. They are organizing a long-term residential treatment centre for children and adolescents with special educational system called Second Chance School.

End of project

On 30 July, 2007, Grundtvig 2 project Skills officially finished. In FAEA we assess very positively our contribution to the project. We have developed our assigned tasks in ime, we have tested a methodology and its didactic materials on a new forum: our collaborative learning e-platform, we have improved our practices in European projects partnerships: management, coordination and communication with different partners..., we have strengthen further our local dimension, working closely with some of our associations and using ICTs. There has been an excellent level of communication, pedagogical understanding, educational point of view and coincident approaches between the partners.

The learning partnership has also assessed the work very positively, both at each partner local level as in the team work. The working atmosphere and synergy between partners has been outstanding, everyone has profited at all levels during the project's life.

Products

Portada del CD Skills

The product resulting from the learning partnership process was put together on a CDROM. It gathers all the process developed, duly systematized and documented, so it can be used in other realities, plus the result of the participants’ work. All participants have copies of it. All the materials are also available on the project's website.