Where to find inspiration? We recommend educational platforms
13.05.2020, Anna Kudarewska
Krzyżowa is a place whose heart is education. However, as we already know from the previous post on " The Pedagogue's Blog", the most important is the process. And we want very much, at different stages, to support participants of this very important and interesting process - students, teachers, parents - by showing new ways, unconventional solutions, interesting methods, inspiring materials.
The important areas in which the IYMC in Krzyżowa is active are - besides historical education and civic education - intercultural and global education. For several years now, we have been working and implementing tools that broaden, complement and enrich formal education in these areas, as well as providing ready-made materials, scenarios and training, thus supporting teachers and educators who then pass on their knowledge to children and young people.
We would like to recommend you two educational platforms - created or co-created by us - which can be a support during the period of e-learning forced by pandemic . What is important for us is that they address a very important issue in times of social isolation - global and intercultural education.
- Reflection: education for critical thinking, inclusive society and dynamic civic engagement.
The Krzyżowa Foundation is one of the organizations which have created the EduSkills+ platform (https://eduskills.plus/en). The aim of this project is to promote critical global education in schools. The platform offers teachers educational strategies as well as guidelines for the practical application of these strategies during lessons. The EduSkills+ platform is, among others, a collection of free and creative teaching materials, films and scripts. The website also contains a me diatrix containing tools for workshops teaching critical thinking.
The platform includes three main elements:
- Ready-to-use modules for teaching on diversity and global issues and for implementing philosophical questions in class
- Multilingual media library with a collection of resources, materials and model projects from different countries
- Multilingual media library with a collection of resources, materials and model projects in different countries
- Online tutorials for teachers on how to use and implement the materials
Additionally the project offers off- and online teacher training for educators in schools and institutions providing formal and informal education for youth in order to introduce them to the underlying ideas and prepare them to most effectively implement the project materials in their classrooms.
The project was realised with the financial support of the European Commission. All materials and information are available in six languages: German, English, Italian, Polish, Slovak and Slovenian.
- Our common world - global education of children.
Global education is an element of civic education that places particular attention on:
- Explaining the causes and consequences of phenomena.
- Showing the influence of the individual on global processes and the influence of global processes on the individual.
- Overcoming existing stereotypes and prejudices.
- Shaping critical thinking and changing attitudes.
Global education was included in the core curriculum of general education in 2009/2010 and thus became an element of formal education. The Krzyżowa Foundation has been strongly involved in the development of this area of education since 2018 by implementing (with co-financing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland) the project "Our common world - global education of children". Since then, we have conducted a number of training courses for pre-school and early childhood education teachers and students of pedagogical faculties.
The project has also resulted in the website http://edukacjaglobalna.krzyzowa.org.pl, where you can find lesson plans for kindergartens and classes 1-3, visual materials, a description of the methodology and good practices, and a reading room with recommended books for children to explore global topics.
