“It was nice to listen to stories related to students’ childhood. This activity has revealed that families still play an important role. New generations wonder a lot about their future but they know they can count on and be inspired by the people of their family“.
General objective
- To promote students’ understanding of issues related to the role of school and education, why it is needed and useful.
Learning objective
- To increase motivation to learn, develop self-awareness and reflection and students’ understanding of issues related to school disciplines and specific professions, discovering the skills required.
Results, hints and inspirations from the experimentation
Click on the following boxes, each one will show you the results of project experimentation in each country (and useful suggestions for your implementation).
Italy
Age:
15 years old
Subject:
English
Local adaptation:
The teacher preferred to develop only the first 2 parts of the activity, given the time constraints and the number of people involved (students involved were 27). The teacher used the whiteboard and wrote the title of three different list: “What I like, What I know, What I need”. Each student was provided with a paper and a pen, to easily implement the action. The activity led to focus more on the personal stories and connection of the students and then to make them think how all these elements can be put together under a specific profession.
How did the teachers implement the activity?
After preparing the classroom with the necessary material for the activity, participants were asked to list the name of disciplines, hobbies, leisure-time activities and interests. Then, they were invited to focus on and choose only one item of their list.
Based on their choices, students were divided in groups. At this point, the facilitator asked them to try to remember and write down everything they knew about the topic/item/discipline/field they had chosen. The facilitator made use of a variety of examples. When this second list was complete, some students were asked to come to the teacher’s desk, deliver their list to class and tell everybody some past events of their life in which they knew/discovered/learned about their current interest. Many interesting stories followed.
How did students react to the activity?
The students evaluated in a very positive way the activity. Some of them stated:
“I learnt to understand what I like, what I need and what I know. Moreover, I get to know better my classmates by knowing the professions they would like to do”
“I have learned to work better with others and to get an idea about my future”.
Others said the activity helped their teachers to know them better as well as it increased their capacity of expression. Finally, others said it helped them to start to think about their future objectives and career.
Very few students didn’t like that the activity was divided in more parts, but the time constraints of the curricular activities didn’t allow to implement it in its whole way.
Other comments:
The activity has been chosen since it increases motivation to learn, develops self-awareness and reflection, and above all, promotes students’ understanding of issues related to school disciplines and specific professions. Moreover, the activity has allowed to show the strong bond and connections of students’ family and how this can be a positive influence for the future. One of the teachers implementing the activity said:
“It was nice to listen to stories related to students’ childhood. This activity has revealed that families still play an important role. New generations wonder a lot about their future but they know they can count on and be inspired by the people of their family”
One final suggestion is to take into consideration the time used in the implementation, since it takes more than 50 minutes. However, it is an activity whose main strength is to allow both self-reflection and cooperation skills, thus students can also pay attention on what interests have been and are still important in their life. More meetings could lead to a more interesting learning path to understand own professional career.
Bulgaria
Age:
11-13 years old
Subject:
Mathematics
Local adaptation:
The teacher has implemented the activity as suggested.
How did the teachers implement the activity?
The teacher didn’t implement any adaptation to this activity.
How did students react to the activity?
The activities have a beneficial effect on students. Students expressed their dreams and imagined their realization in the future. They realize that their education is important to realize themselves in their dream future and build motivation to learn.
Other comments:
The teacher was particularly satisfied during this activity, since her communication with the students improved since she got to know her students better, with an increasing trust among her and her students.
France
Age:
13-15 years old
Subject:
Science
Local adaptation:
The teacher followed the main steps as suggested by the manual. It took one hour and half to be implemented, followed by an oral debriefing of the students.
How did the teachers implement the activity?
The teacher has chosen this activity since it is innovative and based on the cooperation between students and open-mindedness about the skills required for a profession. Moreover, it has provided further inputs to accompany students in the progression of their learning and lead them to the construction of autonomy. By involving students in this activity, teachers were supported in providing more meaning to the learning path of the students, facilitating the personal orientation towards a certain profession.
How did students react to the activity?
Students expressed enthusiasm & curiosity during the involvement of the activity. Moreover, this helped to have chance for debates about jobs and how they are represented among the students.
Other comments:
It is suggested to have at least 2 facilitators, depending on the number of students to be involved (at least 1 facilitator per 15 students). This will allow a smoother implementation of the activity. It is also important to monitor the activity, since students with no autonomy can have more difficulties in participating and contributing to each step.
Latvia
Age:
12-15 years old
Subject:
Class education, During the Career week, Social Science, Career education.
Local adaptation:
Teacher in Latvia divided the group of students in smaller ones, thus allowing to work better and in the time as foreseen by the activity, even if in some case extra-time was needed for the final steps of the activity.
The activity has been used as a good warm-up exercise at the beginning of a career week or during Class Education. In this case, the lesson covered professions corresponding to different subjects.
How did the teachers implement the activity?
As the groups were small, this has allowed a certain mobility during the activity, thus all participants could move during the implementation, adding physical interaction in the activity flow. Once the professions were selected, in the second stage of the activity the qualities needed for a good representative of this profession were written. The third stage was more focused on the subjects in which these specific skills are acquired, allowing students to figure out an ideal path starting from the school to their future profession.
How did students react to the activity?
The young people admitted that they had not thought about the skills that are indirectly acquired in the learning process. The students were interested and enjoyed working together and discover these new paths towards some specific profession.
In the case of the classrooms with younger kids, although the method seems simple and straightforward, students had some difficulties, such as formulating interests or characteristics.
Other comments:
It is better to have more than one teacher in case you divide the group of students in at least 2 groups, this will allow to support you in the implementation of the activities. Take also into account to spend time in individual conversation with students regarding their interest and skills, so be careful with the time available and the one necessary to reach the objective of the activity.