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Grevys Internetside. Artikler og kursusmaterialer online - www.graviton.dk Carlo Grevy flytter til nyt websted: www.graviton.dk Facebook - Carlo Grevy: https://www.facebook.com/carlo.grevy Facebook - Forlaget Pendulum: https://www.facebook.com/forlagetpendulum UC Viden - publikationer af Carlo Grevy
Ny bog januar 2017: Carlo Grevy, Søren Rønhede, Henrik Kasch og Hanne Søgaard: Skole, livsverden og nye læringslandskaber. Forlaget Pendulum.
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Summary The aim of the project is to improve the writing skills (text production) of primary and secondary pupils by improving the teachers’ preparation. Firstly, the project will describe the practice of writing in the schools. Secondly, it will develop and test better ways of teaching writing for both teacher students (pre-service) and graduate teachers.
The first task includes identification of
writing practices in the participating partners’ countries. There are different
cultures - approaches - and the project intends to categorise participating
countries into homogenous groups. When describing the state of the art in the
different partners’ countries, common criteria will be developed in order to
compare experiences. This will allow us to understand educational differences
between countries in a cultural way so as promoting awareness of the European
Dimension in our work. Objectives In the modern knowledge society of today one must be able to communicate in writing and speaking in order to function both socially and in working life. Education and Training rank among the highest political priorities and acquiring and continuously updating and upgrading a high level of knowledge, skills and competencies is considered a prerequisite for the personal development and for participating in all aspects of society. In the conclusion of the Lisbon European Council (March 2000) the central role of education and training were emphasised in responding to the challenges of Europe becoming, by 2010: ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world’. An overall strategic objective is to improve the quality and effectiveness of education and training systems in the EU. The purpose of the project is to improve the practice of education on writing skills in primary school and secondary school among the teachers. European countries are experiencing a general problem concerning pupils’ understanding of their native language. Various surveys – among others the PISA report[1] – show that children in Europe do not master their mother tongue well. Their level of mastering the language varies considerably, and the achievements of some countries are extremely poor in spite of what one should think considering these countries have strong traditions in their school systems. These problems, which have decisive influence on the future European citizens’ lives, are not caused by local problems e.g. bad teachers. We take as a hypothesis the problems are caused by structural problems in the school systems in general and these are often based on school traditions or cultures inappropriate or difficult to adapt to the modern knowledge society.
The potential for structural problems within the different school systems of the European countries is high when it comes to teaching writing. However, the problems are often overlooked since there is a lack of systematic analysis to reveal them. We simply do not know how to promote good writing or what is impeding it. Some European school systems have adopted a systematic American approach (writing is here seen as a process or e.g. a collaborative work), but often the approach is adapted to the different countries and school cultures in a way that is not always the best.
In the project we want to examine the different ways of teaching writing in different European countries. The purpose is to identify and define the best practice from each country and learn from these. We also want to make suggestions for a more modern adaptation of relevant studies – both American and European. The overall aim of the project is to improve the level of writing (text production) on the primary and secondary level in schools and contribute to the development of quality education in Europe. Through trans-national cooperation, and exchanges between schools and teacher training, we believe it is possible to improve the knowledge and teaching of writing and improve the pedagogical skills of the teachers, encouraging innovative methods and materials. This will be done through an improvement of the teachers’ skills and level of preparation. Hence, the project will work on the mapping of the practices, develop courses and teaching manuals for teachers (“teachers” = teachers who have graduated and who are active teaching primary and secondary level pupils, or active in in-service training) and student teachers (“student teachers” = pre-service students who have not yet graduated as teachers). Furthermore, we will develop teaching materials to be tested at primary and secondary level in schools in the countries involved (teacher-pupil-practice analysis). Specifically, the project wants to: Identify the present situation of how writing is taught in Europe Establish a new and innovative theoretical approach based on empirical research Establish new writing practices to be used in school education throughout Europe. The project will study the contemporary status of writing and establish a new concept and a new practice for text production to be tested and used in Europe. The innovative aspect of the project is its new approach to writing. Writing is not only considered as a product or a process, but is seen as a result of the writing cultures in the different participating European countries. Writing is regarded as a cultural paradigm incorporated in the practice. Through the incorporating and the exchange of best practices from the different countries, it will be easier to prevent agendas that have a negative influence on the education in text production in each of the countries. Hence, when analysing best practice we do not only look at the best text as a piece of work itself, but also involve the practice in which this text is embedded – that is the teacher’s education – when establishing best practice. In addition, teaching text production is seen as a successive process beginning in primary school and continuing throughout life – lifelong learning. The project aims to develop a concept for education with a view to text production beginning already at the schools primary and lower secondary level, and continuing with the concept of lifelong learning. In the existing practice and research in the field of text production American studies/traditions have often uncritically been incorporated or adapted to the teaching cultures of the individual countries. This method is reassessed and a new one is developed, based on best practices from the teaching cultures in the involved countries. The didactic approach to teaching in different countries is examined both when it comes to education material and in the curricula for education. We want to examine how different American approaches are influencing European practice, and among other things the thinking of the writing process, college composition, literacy, collaborative learning etc. As part of this investigation we plan to pair teachers in schools in partner countries to share experiences of best practice and test them out in their classrooms. The target groups are teachers and pupils in primary and secondary level. We plan to produce manuals (by this we mean handbooks, guidebooks) for educating teachers. The teachers will receive material enabling them to arrange their teaching according to best practice. The pupils shall experience that text production is not viewed as ending with secondary level. Instead developing ones text production skills is regarded as an element in a lifelong learning process. They will become part of a school culture, which focuses on and has learned from the best practices in the field of text production. The results of this project will have a long-term influence on the way we think and practice writing in Europe. It is our intension to rethink the way we teach writing. The issue here is not only to make good praxis – or to make good theories on writing. The issue is to establish a new way of writing that goes beyond our ongoing praxis and theories. At present we are uncertain of what best practice is in Europe. After the end of this project, we will be able to think of writing as a process involving pupils and teachers. As a cultural process writing will include the teachers, the institutions, specific aspects according to the countries, the pupils and the writing books etc. - in a quite new way. Bad writing – or very good writing – will no longer be seen as individual features, but as an aspect of a specific writing culture. The perspective of writing will change from the examining of isolated individual features to the examining of structure. The networks we will create will: Publishing books and articles etc.; Influence the Colleges of Education; Use existing networks of teachers in colleges of education; Implement the new way of teaching teachers at the institutions involved in this project; Use the Internet - establishing websites at the involved institutions. Implement the new established knowledge in ongoing online learning colleges and schools.
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28-09-2017 / Carlo Grevy Contact Carlo Grevy: c@grevy.eu
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