"The partnership consisted of 6 secondary vocational schools (Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey and a coordinator from Slovakia) and two special institutions playing an active and important role in the field of vocational training and education permanently (The State Institute of Vocational Education in Slovakia and 21 knowledge from Portugal). They both were helpful to achieve a common project objective to enhance the quality of VET including foreign languages via producing a CLIL in VET portfolio and an international curriculum for a specific subject called ""Virtual Training Company"". All participating institutions entered the project as institutions missing relevant support to launch foreign language in VET as well as common educational contents for training companies. The CLIL approach (Contents and Language Integrated Learning) in this project was understood as a tool for professional development of foreign languages having a power to link theoretical education with practical education while strengthening the position of training companies in the process of VET. The partnership succeeded to create an international curriculum considering different possibilities of participating countries, needs of the open European labour and trade markets. Project activites were open to all teachers in VET and to students who decided to be educated within a training company subject. There participated a big number of students and teachers who produced a lot of materials and tested them in the process. Testing was realized during planned learning/teaching/training activities in international environment and during unexpected remote learning that created some environment suitable to develop international cooperation of training companies in virtual space. The State institution of vocational education as a leading institution was a guarantee to achieve the objectives with the top quality project outcomes. There were held 2 transnational project meetings focused on monitorig, evaluating and planning the project activities, Learning and teaching/training activities were aimed at creating, collecting and testing materials, whilst two of them were blended activities for students and the 3rd one was focused on teachers and the CLIL approach. During interactive workshops participants attended CLIL lessons, tested materials, evaluated results, shared experience with other teachers. Students organized virtual skype and real business meetings to develop cooperation with training companies abroad, invited special guests and experts to discuss with them, attended CLIL lessons, worked on different tasks. We even succeeded to organize an international trade fair for training companies. Our participants disseminated project ideas and results in it as well as in the multiplier event in Portugal. This was held with strict epidemic measures, but it completed the goal to inform participants about training companies implementation hand in hand with the CLIL approach. The project was evaluated by the partners as having positive impact on all of them. Students acquired new Business English skills, they improved their entretreneurial and social skills, gained experience to make international business. They were highly motivated to study by interesting activities and showed better study results. Participating teachers enhanced their foreign language skills, learned a lot of facts about different school systems, international business rules and ethics, acquired valuable experience in creating a curriculum on international portfolio. The project has had an extra added value for partners from Turkey and Portugal where the concept of training companies was totally unknown before the project. Creating international curriculum the partnership created environment suitable to implement the training company subject with the CLIL approach, flexible enough to be used in any country. The fact, that it was made by all the partners is a guarantee of its flexibility and wide usage. From the long-lasting time horizon it will be possible to update and add its contents regarding needs of the market and trends in international business. All project outcomes are accessable on the internet (and social media) freely."

<< Background >>Aiming to foster more fair and tolerant societies, the Council adopted the Recommendation on Promoting common values, inclusive education, and the European dimension of teaching in 2018. Inclusion is one of the six dimensions of European Education Area,introduced by the EC to establish a reinforced approach to ensure the objectives of Europe. In the light of the Paris Declaration on Promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education, the UN set SDGs to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning, and the European Pillar of Social Rights. The EU partners underline that the promotion of shared fundamental values in education needs to include democratic citizenship principles.It is paramount to underline that the EU is based on common values. They form the fabric of the Union binding countries, communities and people together, as outlined in Article 2 of the Treaty of Lisbon. Education plays the most important role in preserving the values of our European family for generations ahead. Human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities, are values which are shared by EU Member States. Value education and inclusion in schools provide for character and personality development and a more effective citizenship education for teachers and students as well as the whole community. With the integration of these into the regular teaching framework, moral awareness, enhancement of the insights related to shared values and the thinking ability of all people can be improved. The conscious planning of values education and inclusion is necessary initially for teachers and institutions in Europe as well as the policy makers.Decrease of humane values within social structure poses a serious threat for future generations; therefore, relevant precautions should immediately be taken so that education can achieve its goal of raising effective and responsible citizens. Value education should be systematically administered through elaborate plans in order to establish a society in which individuals have gained various values. Education should go beyond equal opportunities and ensure the inclusion of the diverse range of learners and values need to be shared by teachers and learners. Values are part of the ‘whole-school approach’, where learners, parents,teachers and the wider community are all actively involved.The results of the preliminary needs analysis we conducted as a consortium clearly specifies that the integration of common values into education has neither been exploited enough nor do the teachers think they have enough competences/expertise in doing so. Out of the 90 teachers who took part in the survey, 57,3% stated that teachers do not have the knowledge and resources to deal with the issue and 54.6% said the curriculum does not include common values. The results also showed us that 66,7% include common values into their lessons between 0 to 1 hours a week although 86,6% of them agree that it can easily be integrated in various lessons. With this project, we aim to address the needs specified by the teachers in a broad and complete manner and to strengthen Inclusive and high quality education and training to develop and implement innovative methods and practices to foster inclusive education and promote common values by training, coaching and guiding teachers.To achieve this, VALID will provide teachers1)An Open Online Course to provide teachers with the competencies and tools they need to make Common Values a part of their teaching. 2)A teacher community to share good practices to train, coach and guide to strengthen inclusive and high quality education in European Schools grounded on Common European Values.<< Objectives >>How should values be treated in education? What are the possibilities within education for teaching values, the role of the teacher therein, and the influence of the school culture? Given the subjective quality of values as personal choices and expressions of one’s personal view on the ‘good life’, teaching values is not easy. Values cannot be transferred in a mechanical way; students need to be able to understand and accept the values. Developing values thus requires active cognitive and affective activities engaging the students themselves, in which students enter into a dialogue with their teachers as well as their fellow- students. Many review studies and comparative studies show that dialogic teaching and learning methodologies help students to develop moral values and citizenship attitudes.Schools should give attention to democracy and tolerance in different activities as part of the curriculum. The content should be addressed in specific disciplines/subjects and in cross- curricular activities (projects). Teaching of common values should be concentrated in value- oriented subjects like civics or value education, or be part of other subjects like history, social studies, geography, or religion and world view studies. It can also be part of subjects like languages, culture and arts, economy, biology, etc. In any case, it is an undeniable fact that value education should be actively incorporated within every level of formal and non-formal education.Considering all of the above, this project aims to provide schools and other educational institutions as well as teachers the resources, competences and tools they need to make Common Values a part of their curriculum in order to create a more inclusive environment and to embed these values both in the school culture and the lives of all their stakeholders. Teachers will also learn the most effective methods that can be used for values education and inclusion (classroom learning activities, practical activities, socialized techniques and incident learning) both in face-to-face and distant environments.By educating the teachers into transferring this awareness to the students, VALID aims to ensure sustainable development in the lives of the teachers and students to:- Promote common values at all stages of education- Foster more positive attitude towards the the EU values- Provide opportunities for professional development support to teachers and educational institutions- Enhance the acquisition of social and civic competences,fostering knowledge,understanding and ownership of values and fundamental rights;- Encourage a European dimension of teaching, while strengthening the competence of national administrations in this field- Offer a diverse range of support to teachers and educational institutions especially in the field of distant learning<< Implementation >>The activities of our project will be national and transnational. The national activities will be planned and held by the partner organizations in close cooperation with all partners. Most of these activities will be simultaneous and the results will be shared on the common platforms of the project. The national activities will include but not be limited to:Project team meetings in relation to the implementation and evaluation of the project as well as informatory meetings with the school community (A1)Preparation and training of the staff and the participants for the transnational activities(A2)Dissemination and visibility activities(A3)Creating and updating the website, blog and social media platforms of the project and providing the appearance of and information about the project on the websites of each organization(A4),Logo competition and selection(A5), Quality assessment activities (A6), Monitoring and evaluation of the participants’ development(A7), Carrying out the communication and cooperation between the partners(A8), Providing information to the relevant stakeholders and the appearance of the project activities on local media(A9),Project evaluation and sustainability activities (A10).The international activities have been carefully planned at the application period and they will be as follows:3 transnational project meetings at the beginning, middle and end of the project aiming to monitor the implementation of the project, production of the Project Results, transfer of knowledge and good practices and evaluation of the project. In addition to the face to face TPMs, we are going to have monthly online TPMs dedicated to the different phases of the project, different Work Packages to be accomplished and the development of the Project Results. 3 Learning Teaching Training Activities for Staff and one Learning Teaching training activity for the Learners. Participating teachers will work and learn together about the best practices and the innovative methods used in terms of common values, inclusion and conflict resolution by the partner countries. This exchange of good practices will shed light to the common activities and national activities to the partner organizations. LTT activities will be used as building blocks to build the Project Results. While the staff of the participating organizations will be working on the modules and research, the students will be giving feedback about their needs and expectations. Each module of VALID Project Result 1 (O1)will be based on these needs and expectations. 1 Multiplier event with the participation of 100 people and 100 online participants for the launch of the Project Results. We will also have a wide range of dissemination activities and tools for our project, including seminars and workshops at the national level to inform the stakeholders and locals about the project; media appearances, etc. As for dissemination tools, we will use a variety of online tools: Facebook site, Twitter, website, blog and a YouTube channel. We will also produce brochures and booklets for the learners and the institutions for further and sustainable use.During the whole project cycle, the partners commit to stick to “Green Erasmus” principles in each and every activity. To ensure this, we will use online resources in all activities, dissemination included, in order to avoid paper waste. When printing is ultimately necessary, we are going to resort to environmentally friendly resources at all costs. For the transnational activities, green travel will be used when possible and when not possible, we are going to make sure that the travels to and from the airport to the destination will be by train or other sustainable and low emission vehicles. We are going to use direct flights to ensure lower emission. When local travels are necessary for national activities, cycling will be encouraged and if/when not possible, low emission vehicles will be utilized.<< Results >>The strategic result the project will accomplish is an increase in understanding of values, increase of civil responsibility and activity among the target group and development of personal and interpersonal competencies. The vision of the project is to provide sustainable prevention of conflict, lack of values, improve the inclusiveness of education and teacher and student competencies. All team members from the partner organizations believe that education is the main and most sustainable way to deal with these. In addition the project aims to increase practical skills which will be measured by the partnership related to values education, global citizenship and inclusion such as but not limited to:- Critical thinking and understanding- In depth reflection on cultural differences- inclusive education- Skills for civic engagement and activity The objectives will be achieved by providing adequate high quality education materials, education courses, activities and training for trainers in which the target audience is also engaged as an active creator and not a mere receiver consumer of the service. As a result of the project, the partner organizations - 6 in total from 4 different countries - will have grown their capacity for values education as practitioners. They will have created the capacity to provide systematic and high quality inclusion and values education training and further partner with other organizations to expand this capacity. The partnership will create an online training system and toolkit for educators of different fields.The project will raise awareness and in-depth understanding of the problem of intercultural barriers and the sustainable solution among stakeholders (schools, universities, NGOs). After case studies and training, a report will be created and disseminated in all partner countries and the EU using the networks of the partners, associated partners and media agreements. We anticipate the findings of our research will inform both local and transnational policies in terms of values education and its promotion; inclusion and distant learning.Finally the major impact of the project will be a new vision of values education as practical, valuable and a must-have in all curricula, policies and educational practices. Our vision is to create a working, effective method, activities and course which provide useful skills, critical thinking and are seen as a must in all compulsory education.TANGIBLE RESULTSR1:An online training course aiming to train the educators of the target audience in the field of values education and the tools, resources and approaches related to it as well as the importance of inclusion in educationR2:An Online Teacher Community which will bring together teachers in many countries for exchange of good practices and experience sharingR3: A deep research and needs analysis about the place of global values in education and how better to incorporate it into educational systemsR4: A website for teachers and students alike to learn about the project activities and all project related materialIntangible ResultsAll students, young people and teachers taking part in the development of the methodology and the course will:- Acquire in depth understanding of cultural values, reasons for conflict and prejudice- Understand the value of civic responsibility and activity- Experience the value of values and inclusiveness- Understand what values are on personal, interpersonal, local and global level- Develop mediation and negotiation skills- Reflect on and create their personal values and standards- Learn how to stand for and defend global values and their own values in assertive yet collaborative manner

"In education, computational thinking is a set of problem-solving methods that involve expressing problems and their solutions in ways a computer could execute (Wing, J, 2014). Computational thinking can be used to algorithmically solve complex problems in a very efficient way (Repenning, A. et al, 2010). Besides critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration, computational thinking can be seen as an important part of 21st century learning. At this moment the importance of ‘computational thinking’ is still underestimated in curricula for elementary and even secondary education throughout Europe. The aim of the project is to strengthen teaching and learning computational thinking skills from pre primary to lower secondary (3 years-14 years old) by integrating the learning of these skills within ‘real life’ STEAM contexts. The integrated approach of STEAM will help to make computational thinking more concrete and connected to the real-world and therefore more understandable for children. The focus will be on the process of problem-solving instead of the use of (expensive) technological tools and materials. So teachers will be supported to teach ‘computational thinking’ with easily applicable and accessible materials and tools. The partnership is a combination of universities (teacher training) and primary and secondary schools which means that the consortium will stimulate the cooperation of researchers and practitioners, which is one of the key elements of educational design research. The Universities are the University College of Vives of Belgium, the Universidad de Valladolid of Spain and Vilniaus Universitetas of Lithuania. 21 Knowledge, Unipessoal Lda of Portugal is a training center. The innovative primary and secondary schools are Vendelsömalmsskolan from Sweden, Kummun koulu Outokummun kaupunki from Finland, GO! basisschool Ter Elzen Wijtschate from Belgium, Laude Fontenebro School from Spain and Istituto Comprensivo Statale ""G.Giardino"" from Italy. The partnership between universities and primary and secondary schools is a perfect foundation for carrying out 'design-based research' since researchers work together with pilot teachers (Mc Kenney & Reeves, 2012). This leads to a shared theoretical understanding and a strong implementation and dissemination of the developed materials. In this project the first aim is to develop a didactic model to help teachers to teach ‘computational thinking’ to all children. The STEAM-CT-model will show that 'computational thinking' is not an isolated topic in the curriculum but that instead it needs to be integrated (Result 1). Therefore the didactic model will be accompanied by a learning line for computational thinking skills, starting from pre primary till lower secondary school settings (3y-14y old). Based upon the didactic model, a STEAM-CT-scan will be developed (result 2). This tool will provide transparent and easy to use guidelines on how to build and assess the STEAM-CT-projects and the model with integration of computational thinking skills. The tool can also be used to recognize and scan suitable STEAM-CT-projects. In order to illustrate the model and its learning line, and based upon the STEAM-CT-scan, 20 good practices will be developed within 10 different STEAM contexts, which are meaningful for children and teachers (result 3). Examples of contexts can be linked to the city, the environment, space, energy, communication, transport, household, ... . The projects will be developed and tested in cooperation with pilot teachers from the different partner countries. The didactic model, the STEAM-CT-scan and the learning line with STEAM-CT-projects will be presented on a web platform (result 4). This web platform will be an open access platform that will also be a learning environment as it offers concrete teaching guidelines for implementing good practices into the classroom practice and to develop STEAM-CT-projects on their own. The different outcomes will be used during several training activities organized by the partnership during the project period (result 5). Also online courses (e-course) will be available and will give access to the outputs of the project for teachers, teacher trainers, STEAM educators,..."