ProActive: Fostering Teachers' Creativity through
Game-Based Learning
Final Report
Public Part
Project information
Project acronym:
ProActive
Project title:
ProActive: Fostering Teachers' Creativity through
Game-Based Learning
Project number:
505469-LLP-1-2009-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP
Sub-programme or KA:
Key Activity 3 (KA3) ICT Multilateral Projects
Project website:
www.proactive-project.eu
Reporting period:
From
01/01/2010
To
31/12/2011
Report version:
Final
Date of preparation:
28/02/2012
Beneficiary organisation:
University of Barcelona (UB)
Project coordinator:
Mario Barajas
Project coordinator organisation:
University of Barcelona (UB)
Project coordinator telephone number:
(0034) 934037223
Project coordinator email address:
[email protected]
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication [communication] 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.
© 2009 Copyright Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency.
The document may be freely copied and distributed provided that no modifications are made, that the
source is acknowledged and that this copyright notice is included.
Executive Summary
During the last part of the 20th century and early part of the 21st, creativity has been seen to
be increasingly significant in education. Indeed, many authors suggest that creativity should
be explicitly included as an educational objective. Nevertheless, creativity still does not seem
to play a central role in the curriculum and learning objectives that teachers are asked to
follow in the European countries. Teaching creatively refers to teachers using imaginative
approaches to make learning more interesting, exciting and effective. Game-based Learning
(GBL) is a good candidate to stimulate creative teaching approaches. Indeed, games provide
challenging experiences that promote intrinsic satisfaction and offer opportunities for
authentic learning.
ProActive (www.proactive-project.eu), a two year project in the EU LLL program (Project
Number: 505469-LLP-1-2009-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP), promoted an innovative pedagogical
approach where practitioners at various educational levels (i.e. schools, universities and
vocational training) became game designers and engaged in creative teaching practices.
The game design methodology was validated through various activities. Within 13 co-design
workshops, 80 teachers and trainers distributed among 26 pilot sites in four countries (Spain,
UK, Italy and Romania) used two game editors for designing their learning games: <eAdventure>, an open source software for creating adaptable 2D point-and-click adventure
games for educational applications, and EUTOPIA, a free of charge tool for designing
multiplayer educational scenarios in a 3D environment. The GBL scenarios were tested in
real settings with students involved in hands on sessions.
In total, 60 GBL scenarios were created by the users. They are related to a wide range of
learning subjects (e.g. History, Physics, Computer Sciences, Language Learning) and
address different educational levels (primary-secondary education, universities and
professional training). They are all available for the educational community through an online
repository of GBL scenarios (www.proactive-project.eu/repository).
The project approach was validated through a rigorous evaluation methodology involving a
wide range of data collection tools used with 80 teachers, 367 students, and 20 experts.
The ProActive outcomes were widely diffused among different target groups (educational
practitioners, policy makers and scientific communities) through different materials (the
project website, leaflets and newsletters, as well as the Guidelines for Creative GBL
Practices) and channels (mailing lists, social networks, press, etc), as well as through the
major project dissemination event, the final conference (Games and Creativity in Education
and Taining - GACET’11 - www.proactive-project.eu/conference).
ProActive has proved to provide a successful methodology for promoting creative teaching
and learning practices through GBL design. All the public documents and products created in
the context of the project are available for free (holding a Creative Commons license), and
are accessible at the project’s website.
The project started on 01/01/2010 and ended on 31/12/2011. ProActive consortium consisted
of six partners in four EU countries. The partners covered multidisciplinary skills and
competences necessary for the successful completion of the planned activities. In total,
ProActive produced 26 deliverables, 14 reports and 7 products, including software tools and
a web site.
The Project objectives, approach and main outcomes are resumed in this report.
Table of Contents
1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES .................................................................................... 5 2. PROJECT APPROACH ...................................................................................... 6 3. PROJECT OUTCOMES & RESULTS............................................................... 10 4. PARTNERSHIPS .............................................................................................. 13 5. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE .............................................................................. 15 6. CONTRIBUTION TO EU POLICIES ................................................................. 16 7. REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 17 1.
Project Objectives
The main objective of ProActive was to stimulate the creativity of teachers and trainers from
different lifelong learning levels (Comenius, Erasmus and Leonardo da Vinci), by providing
them with a methodology for creating their own game-based learning (GBL) scenarios.
Through innovative ICT tools, the project stimulated novel learning and teaching strategies
embedding active learning approaches, such as creative problem solving, discovery, learning
by doing, experiential learning, and critical thinking, with teachers co-designing 2D or 3D
learning games. To achieve the stated main aim, the ProActive team set the following subobjectives:
1. To stimulate the creativity of teachers and trainers working in different lifelong learning
levels, namely school education, higher education and vocational training, by developing a
conceptual framework for integrating different learning metaphors;
2. To introduce innovative ICT-based experiences based on digital games created for the
specific context in teaching and training practice, produced with the two adapted game
editors and integrating the five learning metaphors in the game design process;
3. To implement co-design creativity sessions and pilot sites for addressing school, university
and vocational education scenarios based on games;
4. To validate the proposed approach as a means of learning and evaluate its impact on
teachers’ creativity and student outcomes. The target groups addressed by the project were:
‐
Comenius: Two of the partners (UB and DPPSS) implemented pilot sites considering
targets from Comenius sub-programme (school education). In previous research it
has been demonstrated that games have positive influence on learners’ motivation
and interest. This is especially true for certain at-risk school groups. We tackled
Comenius as a target group studying user needs, and evaluated the impact of the
chosen approach on them. Dissemination and exploitation was, among others,
directed to Comenius: for instance, one of the main outcomes of the project (D8.2 Guidelines for Creative GBL practices) contains a section dedicated to school
education.
‐
Erasmus: The university educational level (corresponding to Erasmus subprogramme) was covered by two of the ProActive partners (UNINA and UCM). User
needs were analysed and considered in the implementation phase. Dissemination
and exploitation of the project were, among others, directed to Erasmus: the
ProActive Guidelines contains a section dedicated to university education.
‐
Leonardo da Vinci: Focus on vocational education and training in ProActive was
given by two of the partners (CAST and UNIBUC) who implemented pilot sites for the
Leonardo da Vinci sub-programme. User needs were analysed and considered in the
implementation. Dissemination and exploitation of the project were, among others,
directed to Leonardo da Vinci; the ProActive Guidelines contains a section dedicated
to university education.
Through these target groups, the project aimed to create and maintain a community of
practice of educational practitioners interested in creative education and in GBL.
2.
Project Approach
Creativity has been seen, during the last part of the 20th century and early 21st, to be
increasingly significant as a skill to be covered in formal education [1]. Indeed, several
authors [2], [3] suggest that creativity should be explicitly included as an educational
objective. Nevertheless, creativity still does not seem to play a central role in the curriculum
and learning objectives that teachers are asked to follow in European countries [4]. Our work
aims towards promoting creative teaching and learning in the classroom.
Recent literature makes a distinction between teaching creatively and teaching for creativity
[5]. The former refers to teachers using imaginative approaches to make learning more
interesting, exciting and effective, which has a direct impact on the latter, as students.
Creative abilities are most likely to be developed when teachers’ creative abilities are
engaged.
Creative teaching might be achieved through the use of various imaginative approaches.
One of them is GBL. Nowadays, GBL catches the attention of educators at all levels. The
Horizon Report [6] states that the greatest potential of games for learning lies in their ability
to foster collaboration, problem-solving, and procedural thinking (p.5). Literature also shows
that games have qualities that can facilitate student learning, such as providing challenging
experiences that promote intrinsic satisfaction and offer opportunities for authentic learning
[7], [8].
Furthermore, they have proven to increase personal fulfilment and to lead to higher
performance. They also support learning by doing processes [9] and meaningful learning
experiences. In this light, GBL is considered as a powerful teaching method, which can
promote creative teaching practices that make learning experience engaging for learners,
and improve learning achievements while matching the curricular objectives.
However, some barriers to the implementation of GBL in formal learning settings by using
commercial off-the-shelf games have been identified [10], such as the lack of integration of
most games with the current curriculum and assessment framework, and teachers and
parents concerns over the content of some games. In this context, games created by
educators may be easier to integrate in the official curricula. Easy-to-use game editors allow
for not only professionals, but also teachers to design educational games.
A GBL design approach
In this context, the ProActive project promoted an innovative pedagogical approach where
practitioners at various educational levels became game designers and engaged in creative
teaching practices.
The game design methodology was validated through various activities. Within co-design
workshops, 80 teachers and trainers distributed among 23 pilot sites in four countries (Spain,
UK, Italy and Romania) used two game editors for designing their learning games: <eAdventure>, an open source software for creating adaptable 2D point-and-click adventure
games for educational applications, and EUTOPIA, a free of charge tool for designing
multiplayer educational scenarios in a 3D environment. Furthermore, the GBL scenarios
were tested in real settings with students involved in hands on sessions.
Five metaphors for learning
The five metaphors learning model [11], [12], [13], [14], is a description of different ways of
learning in different people, embedded with learning theories. It can be treated as a
comprehensive model that combines some learning models with the theories of change by
De Caluwé and Vermaak [15]. The result is a classification of the ways of learning into five
groups (one per metaphor), each one representing a preference for learning that is not
exclusive. In fact, every person is able to use all metaphors, but each one in a different
situation. The core idea is that we do not learn in only one way, but in multiple different ways
that depend on personal aptitudes, on the situation where the learning takes place and on
the content to be learnt [12].
In ProActive we are firmly convinced that we don’t learn in only one way, but in different ways
that depend on personal aptitudes, on the learning situation and on the content to be learnt.
In fact, every person is able to use a different combination of learning styles depending on
the situation. The five learning metaphors model adopted in ProActive describes different
ways of learning and is used as stimulus in the GBL design process. Each metaphor
represents a preference for learning that is not exclusive.
-
Acquisition refers to the transfer of information from one who possesses it (the
teacher) to another one who acts as a passive receiver (the learner).
-
Imitation is when the learner observes and models the behavior / attitudes of an
expert to learn a skill.
-
Experimentation closely relates to “learning by doing” processes and involves
practical activities and skills. Learning occurs through repetition and practice of a
specific skill in a safe environment.
-
Participation focuses on social aspects of learning activities, where students cocreate new meanings and learning paths by interacting together.
-
Discovery is when learners interact with mediating artefacts and combine previous
knowledge, in order to create new ideas, models and concepts. Thus, learning comes
out from transformative actions on learning materials and situations.
A scenario-based approach
In order to design meaningful GBL activities, many aspects need to be considered. Indeed,
the game should be perceived as embedded in a learning scenario that takes into account
the different parameters of the teaching and learning context.
While planning their GBL scenarios, educators considered the particular characteristics of
the learning audience, the specific learning objectives, the evaluation approach, the timespace resources and the technical requirements of the games. Moreover, they planned the
step by step organization of the learning activities: the structure of the activities before (e.g.
introductory session, presentation of the game), during and after the game (e.g. discussion).
ProActive methodology
In order to achieve the ProActive outcomes, the following steps were followed by the
consortium:
‐
Literature review – a theoretical analysis on the topics of creativity, GBL, game
design for educational purposes, and learning theories was performed as initial step
in the project. It served as a basis for developing the pedagogical framework of the
study.
‐
Identification of success factors for GBL - all ProActive partners collaborated to
exchange experiences about successful GBL examples, which were analysed and
compared to extract a set of success factors, which further informed the creation of
the framework.
‐
User needs analysis - at the beginning of the project, 15 focus groups were organized
by the ProActive consortium in the four different countries (Italy, Romania, Spain and
UK). The partners explored teachers’ and trainers’ use and interest in ICT and GBL in
their teaching methodologies, their attitude and opinion about the link between
creativity and GBL, their point of view in relation to learning metaphors, and their
adaptation to their teaching approach. The focus groups provided quality data on
current practices, as well as on practitioners’ interests and needs for developing
creative GBL scenarios.
‐
Development of a pedagogical framework – ProActive training and implementation
activities were based on an integrated framework developed on the basis of the
literature review on GBL, creativity, and the five learning metaphors, and the user
needs analysis. The ProActive psycho-pedagogical framework was used by teachers
and trainers during the project implementation phase, in order to create their GBL
scenarios and put them into practice in their educational contexts.
‐
Development of an evaluation framework – the ProActive evaluation framework,
designed within the first project year, aimed to develop and apply a methodology for
validating the proposed approach as a means of learning, by evaluating its impact on
teachers’ creativity and students’ outcomes. It set concrete evaluation dimensions,
namely the pedagogical framework (i.e. the creative process of GBL design, the use
of the five learning metaphors, the GBL scenarios created by teachers, the gamebased teaching and learning processes), the technical dimension (i.e. the
functionalities and the usability of the two game editors), and the impact dimension
(i.e. the effects of the project on the participating teachers / trainers in terms of
changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviours and participants’ satisfaction).
Furthermore, the evaluation framework provided evaluation tools and procedures
specifically designed for the ProActive contexts, such as questionnaires and interview
/ observation guides.
‐
Adapted release of the two game editors – ProActive produced an adapted release of
the two game editors, employed from its beginning – EUTOPIA, a free of charge 3D
virtual environment allowing collaborative interaction of the learners, and <eAdventure>, an open source framework for implementing 2D user-centred adaptable
scenarios. Both tools were adapted according to user needs, as identified through
ProActive focus groups, thus further facilitating and stimulating educators’ creativity.
The editors were available for free download during the whole project lifetime and will
be available for at least 5 years after the project end.
‐
Co-design Training sessions – between February and April, 2011, the ProActive
consortium organized training workshops with 80 teachers and trainers from 26 pilot
sites in four countries (Italy, Spain, Romania and UK). Participants got acquainted
with the project pedagogical concepts (creativity, GBL and the five learning
metaphors), and learnt how to use two game editors.
‐
Implementation of pilot sites, follow-up and support – after the training, an ongoing
collaboration process took place, during which the ProActive consortium provided
support to the participating teachers in the GBL design process. Support was given
through regular meetings (co-design sessions) and online (Moodle, e-mails, etc.), and
was related to pedagogical aspects (definition of learning objectives), game design
strategies (writing of game storyboards, definition of game dynamics and
mechanisms) and technical guidance (help on the usage of the game editors). In
total, 60 GBL scenarios were created among the different countries involved. They
are related to a wide range of learning subjects (e.g. History, Physics, Computer
Sciences, Language Learning) and address different educational levels (primarysecondary education, universities and professional training). A number of GBL
scenarios were implemented in real teaching settings. The data gathered within the
implementation phase fed the evaluation report.
‐
Evaluation process – partners applied the procedures and tools defined in the
evaluation framework (as described above) during the training workshops conducted
with teachers / trainers and within the implementation in the pilot sites. A report on
evaluation data summarized the evaluation data collected by the partners.
Furthermore, an analysis of the evaluation enabled eliciting results and findings,
which are presented in a final evaluation report, by answering different research
questions related to three evaluation dimensions.
‐
Dissemination - Information about ProActive and all project outcomes was actively
diffused to a wide audience, which includes teachers’ and trainers’ communities in
various educational levels – schools, universities and vocational training; educational
and training institutions, including public and private organizations; ICT specialists in
the areas of advanced software technology in the educational field; researchers in
various areas of lifelong learning and GBL; policy makers related to educational and
learning issues on National and EU levels. To do so, different dissemination materials
were produced (the project website, leaflets, newsletters, posters) and diffused
through different channels (mailing lists, web presence, press, social networks).
Furthermore, ProActive outcomes were widely diffused through scientific publications
in journals and conference proceedings.
‐
Exploitation – Through the ProActive exploitation plan, the consortium established a
strategy to exploit the project results through different products, such as guidelines for
GBL creative practices and a repository of GBL scenarios.
3.
Project Outcomes & Results
The key ProActive outcomes were the following:
a) ProActive psycho-pedagogical framework for fostering teachers’ creativity
The psycho-pedagogical framework represents a key outcome of the project’s first year. It is
based on several tasks performed within the project. First, it is rooted in extended literature
reviews on the topics of creativity, GBL, game design for educational purposes, and learning
theories. Secondly, it is based on the outcomes from 15 focus groups organised by the
ProActive consortium and attended by 90 participants, in which teachers’ / trainers’ current
practices, interests, expectations, attitude and opinion towards creativity, GBL and teaching
methodologies were explored. The workshops allowed gaining deeper understanding on
target users’ needs and taking them into account for the further activities of the project.
ProActive psycho-pedagogical framework can be described as following:
The main objective of the project is to analyse the conditions to stimulate the creativity of
teachers by engaging them in GBL design processes. As shown in the theoretical
background, teaching creatively consists in using imaginative approaches and combining
existing knowledge in some novel form to make learning more engaging, ensure the
relevance of the curriculum, and increase understanding.
GBL is a good candidate to fulfil these requirements as it provides challenging experiences
that promote the intrinsic satisfaction of the learners and offers opportunities for authentic
learning. For this reason, the study offered to teachers the possibility to use GBL as an
innovative approach in their teaching practices. Furthermore, in order to overcome the
obstacles of introducing GBL in formal learning settings, a constructivist approach was
adopted, in which teachers created their own learning games, i.e. innovative learning
artifacts that are engaging for their students. During this process, the five learning metaphors
were central, as they acted as guidelines for the project participants in the creation of
educational games. Indeed, the metaphors raised educators’ awareness of different learning
models, as well as fostering reflection on possible new ways of active teaching, thus guiding
the game design process. In fact, it is assumed that each metaphor allows for the creation of
games with different rules, objectives, roles for the actors involved, mechanics, tasks, etc.
This fosters the reflection on which model to use for teaching.
In ProActive, GBL design was carried out as a circular process with four stages, as shown in
Figure 1. During the creative GBL design stage, teachers and trainers designed an
educational game. They also planned a learning scenario, which is a more comprehensive
unit that considers the context of use of the game. The scenario includes, among other
things, the characteristics of the learning audience, the learning objectives, the evaluation
approach, and the time-space resources. As a result of the design process, teachers obtain a
GBL scenario. Then, teachers and trainers put into practice the scenario and students
experienced it. The GBL design process could start again when teachers redesign their GBL
scenarios according to feedback from students and the experience.
The following figure summarizes the approach of the project. It links the concepts of
creativity, GBL, game design and the five learning metaphors in order to draw a four stages
circle of creative GBL.
Figure 1: The circle of GBL within ProActive approach
The psycho-pedagogical framework was used in several tasks in ProActive. First of all, it
provided a basis for the organisation of the training sessions that took place with 80 teachers
and trainers in four European countries in the beginning of 2011. Furthermore, it was used by
teachers and trainers during the implementation phase, in order to create their GBL
scenarios and put them into practice in their educational contexts. Finally, the ProActive
evaluation framework and appropriate evaluation tools were designed in order to validate the
methodology.
b) The adapted release of the two game editors
The adapted releases of the two game editors (EUTOPIA and <e-Adventure>) were
developed during the first project year, according to the feedback from the focus groups and
the user needs analysis. Adaptations include translations to partners’ languages,
enhancement of the programs’ usability and appearance, new features, etc.
c) A collection of templates and libraries
ProActive technical partners have designed a collection of graphical 2D and 3D elements
(scenarios and characters that were integrated in the game editors, in order to facilitate the
design and development of creative GBL scenarios by teachers and trainers. During training
and implementation, users were provided also the Handbook with tutorials useful guidelines.
Figure 2 shows screenshots of the loading screens of both tools.
Figure 2: ProActive game editors
d) A Handbook for Production of Creative GBL Scenarios
The consortium has created a practical guide for educators participating in ProActive training
and implementation. The handbook contains general background information about GBL,
provides insight about the approach proposed in ProActive, as well as examples of GBL
experiences developed using EUTOPIA and <e-Adventure>. The handbook was widely
diffused among the ProActive learning community and beyond.
e) The final implementation report
From January to June, 2011, 80 teachers and trainers from 26 pilot sites in four countries
(Italy, Spain, Romania and UK) have participated in the ProActive implementation process.
First, they attended training sessions in order to get acquainted with the project concepts,
and learnt how to use two game editors. Afterwards, during a co-design process, teachers
and trainers created their own GBL scenarios with the support of the ProActive team.
Furthermore, from June, 2011, pilot implementations have taken place, in which the GBL
scenarios created by teachers and trainers were tested in real settings with almost 400
students involved in hands on sessions.
f) The ProActive final conference
The ProActive final conference – Games and Creativity in Education and Training
(GACET’11 – www.proactive-project.eu/conference) took place in Rome on November 1718, 2011. GACET’11 was a refereed scientific conference organized by the ProActive
partnership in close collaboration with another KA3 project: T3 (Teaching to Teach with
Technology). The Conference acted as a forum for scientists, teachers / trainers, and
practitioners to present their latest research, results, ideas and developments on games and
learning. In total, 109 participants participated in the event, attending papers’ presentations,
round tables among experts, poster sessions from teacher game-designers, and relevant
keynote speeches. The evaluation conducted among participants proved the event to be
very successful. The heterogeneous fields of participants, as well as the mix of presentation
modalities and academic / non academic content, contributed to the success of an open
event which fostered sharing of opinions on the last trends on GBL, and ensured a wide
dissemination and exploitation of the ProActive project results. As an additional activity, the
consortium organized a competition for best GBL scenario and game. All teachers / trainers
participating in ProActive were stimulated to participate. Awards were distributed to winners.
g) The Guidelines for creative GBL practices
The ProActive guidelines were created by the consortium on the basis of the results of the
project implementation. They aim to provide advice to educational practitioners who are
willing to create their own GBL scenarios and to implement them in real teaching settings.
The document provides practical examples, tales from the field and success stories.
Furthermore, it provides advice regarding creativity, GBL and the five learning metaphors.
h) The online repository of GBL scenarios
The ProActive online repository (www.proactive-project.eu/repository) contains 60 GBL
scenarios covering a wide variety of subject areas for schools, university education and
adult/vocational training. They were developed by 80 teachers and trainers in 26 pilot sites in
Italy, Romania, Spain and UK. During 2011 many of these GBL scenarios were tested in
teaching settings with pupils/students/trainees in the participating countries. The repository
enables access to the learning games and GBL scenarios created by teachers. The
scenarios are pdf files that describe the educational activities to conduct around the learning
games. The repository will remain active for at least five years after the project’s end.
i) A community of teachers and trainers interested in GBL in four EU countries (Italy,
Romania, Spain and UK).
In total, ProActive produced 26 deliverables, 14 reports and 7 products, including software
tools and a web site. Furthermore, ProActive organised a number of events (i.e. an
international conference, five project meetings, 13 training workshops and 15 focus groups)
and designed a variety of dissemination materials. More concretely, the following
documents/products/materials were developed:
4.
Partnerships
ProActive consortium consisted of six partners from four European countries, as shown in
the table below.
Table 1: PROACTIVE consortium
Partner
Nº
Acronym
Organisation Name
City
Country
P1
UB
Universitat de Barcelona
Barcelona
Spain
P2
DPPSS
Sapienza Università di Roma
Roma
Italy
P3
CAST
CAST Limited
Bangor
United
Kingdom
P4
UNINA
Università di Napòli Federico II
Naples
Italy
P5
UCM
Universidad Compultense de
Madrid
Madrid
Spain
P6
UNIBUC
University of Bucharest
Bucharest
Romania
ProActive consortium was built ad hoc to include the necessary expertise to successfully
reach the goals of the project. Skills and competences are multidisciplinary and integrated in
a consistent way with the tasks and phases of project development. Each partner introduced
a specific competence. This was strongly reflected in the consortium work.
UB, the coordinating institution, brought in ProActive pedagogical competencies in
educational use of ICT, and in evaluation. UB has extensive experience with innovative
school teachers, as well as in-service and pre-service teachers training (Comenius).
Management competencies are also demonstrated by the active role of the UB team in EU
funded research.
DPPSS introduced in ProActive the latest advances in Interaction Design and competences
directed to informing technological innovation with existing practices, participative processes
of innovation design, and user-centred methods of technology evaluation. DPPSS is
experienced with the Comenius target group from a variety of previous national and
European projects.
The expertise of the CAST is in the field of game-based environments for education in strict
connection with end-users, as well as expertise in the implementation of game-based
learning. CAST implemented pilot sites with focus on vocational training (Leonardo da Vinci).
UNINA and UCM played a dual methodological and technological role. UNINA was
responsible for the 3D framework for developing learning games (EUTOPIA), while UCM
brought to ProActive a 2D environment <e-Adventure> for creating educational game
scenarios. The two universities implemented pilot sites related to higher education
(Erasmus).
UNIBUC has experience in professional and vocational training both face-to-face and online.
UNIBUC also brought to ProActive the East-European dimension.
Within the project lifelong, the partnership experienced smooth and very productive
collaboration. Furthermore, the wide variation of expertise brought by its members proved to
be very useful, producing important discussions, profound studies and high quality results.
As seen above, the pilot sites were explored by different partners in different countries
accordingly to the expertise represented in that site: UB and DPPSS on Comenius, UNINA
and UCM on Erasmus, CAST and UNIBUC on Leonardo da Vinci.
Table 2: Implementation in the different LLP sub-programmes by partner
Comenius
P1 (UB)
9
P2 (DPPSS)
9
Erasmus
9
P3 (CAST)
P4 (UNINA)
9
P5 (UCM)
9
P6 (UNIBUC)
Leonardo
9
26 pilot sites were selected to participate in the implementation. As shown in Table 2, the
pilot sites were explored by different partners in different countries according to the expertise
represented in that site: UB and DPPSS on Comenius, UNINA and UCM on Erasmus, CAST
and UNIBUC on Leonardo da Vinci
All partners had previous experience and contact with the targeted groups. During the
project, the consortium tightened the bond with these communities through the organisation
of 15 face-to-face meetings (focus groups) in the partners’ countries (Italy, Romania, Spain
and UK), 13 training workshops, and an ongoing collaboration process in the context of the
co-design implementation phase. Active communication through various communication
channels and regular contact with people who had already expressed their interest in
ProActive also facilitated developing strong links with the targeted communities.
5.
Plans for the Future
After the end of the project lifetime, ProActive outcomes will still be widely disseminated
among the different target groups, i.e. educational practitioners, policy makers and scientific
communities through different materials (the project website, the Guidelines for Creative GBL
Practices, the conference Proceedings, the leaflets and newsletters) and channels (mailing
lists, social networks, press, etc.). Furthermore, several publications related to ProActive
approach and results are planned in high quality journals and conferences. All online
resources produced within the project are free to use and will be available at least five years
after the project end.
At an academinic level, it is expected that the results of the project will serve for designing
training modules for both undergraduate and graduate courses by several of the participarts,
thus having an important impact on the educational community. Different institutions, in
collaboration with the partnership, plan to integrate the project approach on GBL with
graduate and undergraduate programs.
The strong links built by the consortium with the targeted users – teachers and trainers from
school education, university education and vocational training will be maintained through
different communication and collaboration tools (i.e. ProActive Facebook group, Youtube
channel, repository of GBL scenarios). As a result, a community of practice of among
different European countries and various educational levels and sectors will be maintained,
by sharing good practices and building common educational projects.
6.
Contribution to EU policies
The ProActive project contributed to the development of quality lifelong learning opportunities
and to the promotion of creative approaches to learning, within three LLP levels (school
education, higher education and vocational education), various educational sectors, and four
EU countries. Different countries and regions were addressed, which assured a European
dimension, covering various educational and training systems and learning cultures.
The project addressed educators' awareness of the need for innovative teaching
approaches, and competencies on advanced ICT teaching tools. Furthermore, the project
provided a concrete tested methodology for fostering teachers’ creativity, a repository of
novel ICT-based tools (i.e. 60 GBL scenarios), and examples of innovative practical teaching
experiences that have been put in practice in real settings and validated.
Regarding students, the use of ProActive’s creative learning scenarios proved to promote
active learner involvement through exploration, experimentation, problem solving, and
learning by doing processes. Thus, the project enabled to increase the quality of learning and
reduce dropout. First results show that the project directly addresses transversal
competences needed in the information age, such as self-regulation, learning by doing,
information skills, problem-solving strategies and critical thinking, etc., thus contributing to
bridging the innovation skills gap.
ProActive leads to more effective learning throughout the LLL ladder, empwering learners by
making the most of their knowledge and competencies, and eventually contributing to
reducing dropouts. Examples of good practices among sectors, available in 4 different
languages (promoting language learning and linguistic diversity), contribute to the creation of
a new learning culture close to the digital natives across EU.
ProActive has studied the potential for boosting teachers' creativity with the help of innovative
ICT technologies, thus aiming to improve the attractiveness of the learning scenarios for
students, reinforcing the contribution of lifelong learning to social cohesion. The
implementation is based on well defined and innovative pedagogical approaches in order to
guarantee high quality of the educational methods. ProActive is, for instance, developing
learning scenarios that can be built into web-assisted education, either in face-to-face or
online learning, at school or in the workplace. This increases accessibility and promotes
gender, race and age equality, one of the key EU policies.
ProActive results are publicly available and widely distributed through the project web site.
The project has involved partners in disseminating its outcomes to a wide public, including
national and local policy makers, local interested communities and the international research
community, to encourage the best use of results, innovative products and processes and to
exchange good practice in the fields covered by the Lifelong Learning Programme. Special
attention has been paid to outcomes exploitation, including IPR issues (a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
license has been issued for all the outcomes), to increase the potential future use of the
ProActive approach by making all reports, Guidelines, Handbooks and games freely
available to the education and training community.
7.
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A. Craft, Creativity in the School, London: UK Department for Children, Schools and
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[2]
A. Ferrari, R. Cachia, Y. Punnie, “JRC Technical Notes - Innovation and Creativity in
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R. K. Sawyer, Educating for innovation, In Thinking Skills and Creativity 1, 2006.
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