Critical thinking in the world of new technologies and the rapid flow of information takes on special significance and becomes a key competence. It consists of the ability to process information, check facts, create and evaluate hypotheses, the ability to create logical connections, distinguish facts from opinions, the ability to recognize needs and emotions, anticipate the consequences of actions, and courage in questioning the obviousness of one's own assumptions.Critical thinking can also be regarded as one of the determinants of adulthood in the intellectual sphere because it allows a person to distinguish facts from manipulation and fake news. Thanks to critical thinking, man can better understand the problems of the modern world, define his place in it, understand himself and act more efficiently.The tool for testing critical thinking in the form of a questionnaire, built during the project, will have the advantage of being prepared by a professional team of specialists who have experience in creating tests for adult education. In addition, it will be disseminated, along with a guide and basic measures in free access, as ready for use by organizations involved in adult education. Thanks to this, it will be possible to identify areas of critical thinking that should be developed during almost every educational process in every situation.On the basis of the needs determined, there will be created e-learning courses for developing critical thinking skills. The pilot will be conducted primarily for the English version, and after the feedback received and tuning up, the courses will be translated into national languages and pilot conducted.The innovate approach will be:1) to create a questionnaire for analyzing the critical thinking needs of adults learners and in the next stage to create a course for improvement of this sort of skills. It needs to be highlighted that yes, there are existing several psychological standardized tests for critical thinking. BUT such a solution is not satisfactory for the AE sector. Firstly, because those tests are paid what is a big obstacle for the many adult organizations (especially NGOs). Secondly, they comprise too many questions (like, for instance, 99 in Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test). To answer so many questions is very discouraging for elderly learners as well as the younger adults that used to the fast pace of life and short and quick messages. It's also worth to mention that the created questionnaire will be disseminated, along with a guide and basic measures in free access, as ready for use by organizations involved in adult education. Thanks to this, it will be possible to identify areas of critical thinking that should be developed during almost every educational process in every situation.2) to create an online and open access course (e-learning platform) of critical thinking development based on the real needs of adult learners defined in the survey carried out on 1000 respondents from across Europe. The final result is the creation of a user-friendly and effective tool for the development of critical thinking skills. In addition, it will be disseminated, along with a guide and basic measures in free access, as ready for use by organizations involved in adult education. Thanks to this, it will be possible to identify areas of critical thinking that should be developed during almost every educational process in every situation.The methodology proposed by the project can be implemented thanks to the collaborative work of 5 organizations from Slovakia, Poland, Turkey, Czechia and Italy. The results of the project will be exploitable on a wide basis beyond the partnership. The representatives of the educational communities, training institutions and public authorities of education policies, will be well informed about the objectives of the project. The open educational repositories with educational project’s results will be usable at European/ international level and materials produced will be available in all partner languages.

Aging puts forward the fundamental challenge, which faces modern societies. One of crucial aspects of dealing with this phenomenon is to develop and design new ways to better utilize and develop the capacity of growing part of society consisting of older adults (65+).This goal can be achieved through effective engagement in area of science, which can lead to multiple positive ends like helping to maintain both mental and physical) well-being of older adults.An method of achieving the above mentioned goal with the intended project is to engage senior adults using citizen science, which advances in diverse areas like: ecology, astronomy, medicine, computer science, statistics, psychology, genetics, engineering and many more. The massive collaborations that can occur through citizen science allow investigations at regional and even global scales and across decades—leading to discovery that a single scientist could never achieve on their own.By definition in citizen science research projects participate not professional scientists. Rather, people who are curious or concerned and want to collaborate with professional scientists in ways that advance scientific research on topics they care about. Participation in research projects under the label of citizen science can play an important role in activating senior adults, particularly those who feel that they are being left behind, since they have difficulties in understanding new developments in area of science and technology, nor how those developments impact their life and how to use some of the modern technologies.The recipients of the project will be three groups:- Senior adults - Professional researchers from universities and research institution, which are of scientific expertize can utilize citizen science- Educators working with senior adultsTo achieve its goals project consortium will develop a didactic material which will contain methodology how to engage senior adults in research projects under the label of citizen science, good practices on how to increase popularity of volunteerism among older adults, curriculum path dedicated for seniors (the description of workshops and other activities designed for senior adults indicating expected learning outcomes). The project envisages the testing phase – the suggestions from the textbook will be put in the practice in the form of a workshop training for educators.Potential longer-term project`s benefits are following:a) promotion of life - long learning among senior adultsb) activating senior adults by participating in science research projectsc) popularizing citizen science among science community in countries represented in the project.To maximize the dissemination of projects results will be organized one multiplier event in each country represented by consortium members. Important feature of the intended project is to gather institutions from countries with different experience and achievements in the area of senior adults engagement. It will allow to develop universal solution to common challenge which is a longevity revolution. Consortium members have an extraordinary opportunity to engage senior adults with science in ways that can benefit both individuals and societies.

"The aim of the ""CriThink"" Project is to share experiences to find an effective way how to work with the theme of ""Critical Thinking"" especially for people 55+. We want to find good examples from other countries, so partners from different parts of Europe has been invited to the project. In order for the discussion framework to be as broad as possible, the emphasis was on making all invited partners pay attention to this topic, but in a different way. We want the know-how to be exchanged and the synergies between partners to be found despite their cultural and historical differences. At the same time, we want to inspire each other in educational concepts.The starting point for the ""CriThink"" Project is the experience Právě teď! o.p.s. (Aplicant) from their lectures entitled ""Information and Disinformation"". During courses, the lecturers have repeatedly verified that, regardless of their educational attainment and despite their great life experience, seniors have a problem with Critical Thinking and often confuse ""critical thinking"" and ""criticize"".The primary target group of the project are seniors 55+ , who are unable to adequately process large amounts of information comes from the Internet . The secondary target group are the families of seniors, especially grandchildren (young children), who are also a very vulnerable group due to the instant perception of the world.The CriThink partnership brings togethere professionals and seniors organisations who will together work on the following outputs:1/ good/best practices when teaching to older adults;2/ methods and learning styles for that particular target group (pedagogy vs andragogy ; Kolb’s cycle, Honey and Mumford, etc.);3/ basic specification of cognitive distorsion;4/ preparation of documents and suggestions for ICT toolbox;The project partners (consortium) will do need analyze in each country, then find common starting points to work with the topic. Thus, local good practices, experience and expertise will be shared during Transnation Meetings and Skype Calls. All this information will be published by the consortium members on the project website, on their site and on social networks. The activities have an impact locally, regionally, nationally in Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Lithuania.The inability of critical thinking also leads to differences in the understanding of the contemporary world, and this leads to conflicts between generations. We believe that if we restore critical thinking capacity and the ability to argue with it in an older generation, this project can also reduce intergenerational misunderstandings or conflicts."

The project conducted a practical scientific study on the benefits of linking physical exercise with brain training to promote healthy ageing and good memory for older adults (55+). At the same time experts in the fields of sport and brain training with specific experience in creating programmes for older adults sharee their knowledge and createe a training manual based on this research. The manual was tested throughout Europe in partner’s home countries during a 10-week training course on 61 seniors. Throughout the course the participants were tested for physical endurance and cognitive capacity and the data gained from this were used to draw conclusions in the scientific study. The manual created is accompanied by videos which have been uploaded to the project youtube channel.Project background:An increasing number of studies are showing that exercise is hugely beneficial to promote brain and memory health in older adults. This project lookd into the benefits of combining mental challenges with exercise. The project combines scientific approaches together with practical knowledge needed to provide the seniors with the training. The project produced two significant Intellectual Outputs:1) Manual for the trainer - the MEMTRAIN training programme including the following chapters:- the Science behind MEMTRAIN- Safety and Psychology for Sport with seniors- Introduction to Athletics for 55+- Introduction to Zumba for 55+- Introduction to Nordic Walking- Applied Physical Activity- Memory Training -The Basics- Memory Games Workshops2) Youtube channel of the project with video instructions for the above mentioned chaptersTarget groups:1) Seniors (aged 55+) motivated towards healthy living, physical activities and mental training2) Trainers (working with seniors) taught to combine physical activity training with memory trainingThe project contributed to better understanding of the development of seniors' mental and physical skills on an European level. On local level the project extended the range of educational activities provided for the seniors. For more information see https://memtrain.eu/outputs/For the videos click https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqXImlRLBaTn5S-kQEc04XA

"Intergenerational Bridge: Connect to create is an Erasmus Plus Strategic Partnership in the field of Adult education coordinated by the Italian organization “EduVita"". The Consortium of the project is composed of 6 organizations working with elderly people from Italy, Slovenia, Poland, Turkey, Lithuania, Czech Republic.Duration of the project: 24 months.The surveys and the researches show that generation gap is a major problem of the society in Europe. Furthemore, most of the education and training systems in Europe are still mainly organized around the possibilities for young people, so the existing educational systems still don't reflect enough the elderly people' and adults educators' needs.Different generations should be connected in learning process for their mutual benefit, experience exchange and competencies sharing. Adult educators should be empowered with the tools and knowledge to organise the process of intergenerational exchange more effectively.The AIM of the project is to improve project partner organisations’ potential in development of elderly people competences through empowering adult educators in intergenerational learning approach.OBJECTIVES:1. to share good practices on intergenerational learning among project partners, through organisation of 2 international training/experience exchange meetings (C1, C2)2. to collect the best practices in the field of intergenerational learning 3. to develop the elderly people educators' competences through organisation of the Training for adult educators on Intergenerational learning (C2)4. to create new ideas of intergenerational learning activities and implement them in local communities 5. to develop and reinforce local and EU networks for elderly people' teaching and learning through intergenerational education TARGET GROUPS Direct target group: elderly people educators, adult educators from the NGOs, The Third Age Universities, foundations, associationsIndirect target groups: elderly people (55+), young people (16-30 years old)RESULTS- Two transnational experience exchange and learning events will be organised to develop the competences of elderly people educators an share the experience in the sphere of intergenerational learning- 12 adult educators from all partner institutions will participate in transnational meetings, will gain new knowledge and will develop their professional competences. - Local workshops for adult and elderly educators on the specific of intergenerational learning will be organised to transfer the knowledge to local communities of the educators (10 adult educators per country, 60 educators in total) and enhance the opportunities for active involvement in social life of elderly people. - a structured dialogue will be built between partners to create common understanding about the definitions of different concepts related to intergenerational learning and the specific of this type of learning. - the collection of best practices in the field of intergenerational learning (elderly and young people) will be created and published in Digital manual of the best practicies (at least 12). Digital manual of best practicies will be published online in 7 languages (English, Italian, Slovenian, Czech, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish). The partners will use their personal experience and the research of successful local and regional or national cases of intergenerational learning activities to contribute to the manual creation- website dedicated to the project activities and results will be created- at least 5 new intergenerational learning activity ideas will be created and developed during the project implementation.- at least 4 intergenerational learning activities for seniors and young learners will be organised in each participating organisation: New ideas and best practicies will be implemented in the local communities of all the partners.- approximately 180 local participants will be involved to these learning activities, 30 in each partner country: 70% of the elderly people (55+), 30% young people (16-30 years old)"