Introduction

Welcome to the SPIRIT project’s in-service teachers’ training module called “Activating Learning Activities to Develop Transversal Skills.” This module is about the capacity of learning activities, meaning active learning techniques and methods, to develop SPIRIT transversal skills of the 6-10 years old elementary students.

The SPIRIT “learning activity” approach (as the project partners interpret it) is an interactive, purposeful, curriculum-implementable short activity – meaning it can be used in any lesson – that involves student activities in individual, pair, small groups, or the entire class, which teaches through experience-based activities and joint discovery rather than passive knowledge transfer, thereby developing students’ skills. For the 6–10 age group students, this method is highly recommended and extremely effective because active participation builds a bridge between concrete experience and the understanding of concepts that are still abstract to them, while successfully focusing their easily distracted attention on the given lesson topic.

Beyond subject-specific connections, this method also fundamentally develops transversal skills: during group activities, students unconsciously practice paying attention to one another, emotional communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and problem-solving. They can develop their creativity and flexibility while becoming more open and tolerant of others’ thoughts and values. As a result, children not only understand academic material more easily, but their empathy and sense of belonging to the community also strengthen, shaping them into confident, open, cooperative, and mentally and emotionally healthier, happy people in the long run. In addition, well-designed activities provide an immediate sense of success, which in the long run motivates primary school children and makes them confident and open to further learning.

What to Expect

Like the other modules of the SPIRIT teachers’ training, this one is also designed in a blended way and includes both face-to-face workshops and online self-learning materials and activities. The module is also structured in three parts: Before the Workshop, Workshop Activities, and After the Workshop

In the Before the Workshop section, you will prepare through Read, and Do tasks. In the reading materials, there will be a clarification of learning activities. These materials will help you to enter the face-to-face workshop, to actively participate in the face-to-face workshop, and to get the most benefits for yourself.

In the Workshop Activities section, you will take part in a series of practical and reflective “active learning” experiences. These activities are designed to help you experience learning activities from the learner’s perspective, analyse them from the teacher’s perspective, and reflect on how they can be used strategically in your own classroom. You will explore how learning activities/active learning techniques can support the development of the 10 SPIRIT Skills, and how they can be linked to curriculum content.

After the workshop, you will also be asked to do some individual activities, such as choosing and adapting a learning activity and trying it out with the children in your class.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this preparatory study, you will be able to:

• Understand the meaning of learning activities and the wide variety and recognize that you already using it as part of your practice
• Understand that learning activities are perfect for developing transversal skills and that they develop transversal skills in a complex way (not just one skill).
• Understand the role of the teacher during the learning activity in order to effectively support the development of the targeted skill.
• Understand the logic of the template and be able to use it effectively.
• Understand that learning activities can adapted to different contents
• Adapt and implement the learning activities in the toolbox in line the need of the children
• Reflect and assess the success of their application of the LA in real life and be able to improve and refine their future practices