CROSSCULTURAL WALK IN THE STREETS OF EUROPE (CC-WISE)

1. CROSSCULTURAL WALK IN THE STREETS OF EUROPE (CC-WISE) with the financial support of the European Community Socrates Program, Comenius 2.1 Action Reni Dimova , Project coordinator Comenius Contact-Seminar, Szigetszentmiklós/Budapest, Hungary, 8.-11. September 2005

2. CC-WISE Overall Aim of the Project • to create a model of practicable intercultural and interdisciplinary education based on realities from the world beyond the school; • to support the teacher in the teaching process: the teacher as facilitator vs the teacher as mere lecturer

3. CC-WISE Basic Info for the Project • 2 year project: start 2004, end 2006; • 6 partner-countries: AT, BG, GR (TR), ES, PL, RO • The third ever Comenius 2.1 project, coordinated by a Bulgarian institution • Project Ref. No 118963-CP-1-2004-1-BG-COMENIUS-C21 • Project Guarantor: Municipality of Sopot, Bulgaria

4. CC-WISE Set backs and Challenges • The project is under guarantee on the pre-financing (the New Financial Regulations); • Delay in signing of the Grant agreement; • Lack of previous experience in most of the partners – challenges to adjust the different accounting systems into common style of reporting and record keeping; • Change of partners (partially result from the requested guarantee on the pre-financing).

5. CC-WISEProject Objectives • introducing interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches in teaching and learning; • pooling together teachers’ competencies to provide richer instruction for the students; • to encourage acquisition of skills, competencies and strategies for “learning to learn” vs traditional knowledge about facts

6. CC-WISEProject Target Groups • School teachers in literature, history, geography, biology, foreign languages, etc. in the course of the lower secondary education • Teacher trainers • Experts in teaching methods and authors of teaching aids for the secondary school • Students 10-15 years of age

7. CC-WISE Project Outcomes • Methodology for multicultural educationand interdisciplinary didactic approaches (How to?) • Teacher Manual – a supporting teaching aid (printed in 6 languages) • Teacher Training Course Program • Web site • CD-ROM

8. CC-WISEMethodology and Didactics • Constructivist view of learning: • individuals acquire knowledge by interacting with the environment; • learning is enhanced by challenges • Intercultural education: fostering tolerance, mutual awareness among the cultures and understanding of the values of the cultural diversity in European and wider context

9. CC-WISE Teacher Manual • Structure: units related to the different topics; sample lessons and tasks for students’ work; bibliography on intercultural education; dictionary – a list of key terms related to the intercultural education with short explanations reference list with interdisciplinary links between the different parts of the Manual and the school subjects

10. CC-WISETeacher Training Program • Objectives to deliver information about the new methods and didactic approaches to put teachers in the position of trainees who experience the implementation of the new approaches • Testing Teacher Training Courses will take place in each project country

11. CC-WISE Further information • www.cc-wise.iccfound.org • Intercultural Cooperation Foundation (coordinating institution) E-mail: iccf@mail.orbitel.bg Phone: +359 2 8474034 Reni Dimova, Project coordinator

12. ICCFWho we are • ICCF is non-governmental, non-profit institution • performs activities for public benefit • instrument for policy changes in education • Other current projects: - European Constitution in Bulgarian Secondary Education (MATRA KAP) www.eu-constitution.iccfound.org - partner in: BRET (Bulgaria, Romania, Ellas, Turkey) – Language Bridges Encouraging Tolerance (LINGUA-L1) www.bret.cei-bg.org