ETraining Adults Learn Exploring Native Talents GRUNDTVIG LEARNING

E–Training Adults Learn Exploring Native Talents” GRUNDTVIG LEARNING PARTNERSHIP 2011 -2013 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission

PARTNERS in alphabetical order BELGIUM FRANCE ITALY ROMANIA SPAIN TURKEY

Catholic University College Limburg, Belgium KHLim

“to learn differently, to build solid reference marks” ADPI Pédagogie Gattegno Association pour le Développement de la Pédagogie de l’Individualisation Association for the Development of the Pedagogy of Individualization 94, rue Haxo 75020 PARIS & 88/92 rue Philippe de Girard 75018 PARIS

ECIPA Umbria is a node of the network ECIPA ITALIA Perugia: Centro Direzionale Quattrotorri in Via Corcianese 234/C 06074 Perugia

MODERN LANGUAGE AND COMPUTER CENTRE ASSOCIATION GALATI, ROMANIA

Lifelong Learning Centre “Siete Villas”, Spain

KONYA PROVINCIAL DIRECTORATE OF NATIONAL EDUCATION PROJECTS COORDINATION DEPARTMENT KONYA, TURKEY

General idea In our organizations we have a number of very heterogeneous target groups: adult learners, immigrants, low educated students, students with disabilities, women and men in rural areas and young people at risk of social marginalization, etc. . Due to lack of skills and qualifications they were often unsuccessful in former training and education. Taking into account these findings we want to explore and emphasize personal talents and abilities of adult learners instead of only focusing on the needed competences. We want to try to raise the self-esteem of disadvantaged adult learner groups and help them find hidden resources in themselves for finding new challenges in life and work. We plan to search and develop ways and specific methods of exploring and integrating own talents in the learning process of our adult students. The emphasis is not only on viewing the gaps and weaknesses but viewing the possibilities and strengths. By this we want to increase the role of adult learners in their own learning process. We will implement strategies in order to detect the specific talents and needs of the target groups and involve them in the planning, implementation and evaluation of the process. ICT (etalents)will have a very significant role within the process of improving the abilities of adult learners to adapt themselves to a changing society and to the requirements of the labour market.

Definition of talent Talents are different than skills or competences, in that they tend to be innate rather than learned. In development of competences we start from the idea that the learner knows almost nothing and must acquire and achieve the necessary competences for the job or life situation. In development of talents/gifts and abilities we are starting from the idea that the person has a lot of capacities already, but he/she must try to figure them out. Once the talents are found, they can be nurtured and developed, but finding them can be tricky. It's partly a process of self-observation and honesty. The rest is learning and practice. Talents can come in many varieties. They may be artistic or technical, mental or physical, inwardly or outwardly directed. They need not be profitable, useful, or conventional, but they will always be your own and a part of what makes you 'yourself'. The objective of the accent on talent is to create an innovative total concept for education and development, which includes improving the integration of the educational system and professional life for disadvantaged social groups. With this in mind we want to develop another more integrated vision for the reassessment of technical and technological professions and education. Our diverse and varied partnership, geographical and professional complementarities and synergetic collaboration assures a high standard project in working with disadvantaged adult learners.

Objectives • • • The main objectives to which the action/project ETALENTS will contribute: -Exploring and development of talents and abilities of adult learners, in addition to their competences using e-technology -Encouraging adult learners to determine their own learning process by using flexible learning paths (learn when and where they want, use individualized learning methods and the variety of didactics, and choose their own speed of learning, learning on demand, communicating while learning) --A research about training needs of talented persons -To create an educational toolbox (database) with different good practices and methods of finding personal talents and researching new methods of exploring talents and abilities of adult learners. (Online handbook of good European practice) -The tool that we propose is a Personal Talents Interview (P. T. I. ) to detect the abilities, capacities, skills, prior experiences and knowledge of each learner of the target group. Aside the PTI, we will use a questionnaire in order to know the personal attitude to face different situations under the framework of a work environment -Sharing experiences and raising the willingness in staff members to cooperate with talents and stimulating students to explore what they already can as a base for integrated life long learning. -Stimulate adults ( both trainers and learners) to use new e-techniques and new etechnologies for appropriate and individualized teaching and learning. To facilitate the development of innovative practices in adult education and their transfer, including from aparticipating country to others (GRU-Op. Obj-4

Approach • • -Designing an electronic toolbox with methods we already use and new developed methods -Designing Personal Talents Interview (P. T. I. ) -Sharing ideas, good practices, experiences in finding & developing personal talents -The learning methods and good practice examples will be tested, discussed and adjusted in project meetings by learners, trainers, developers, associated partners -To train staff in applying tools in practice -Involving local partners -Organise ICT courses to develop basic skills oriented to the labour market(f. i. prepare a CV or a job interview) How : workshops, visits, e-social communication platform (social network), leaflets, common web site

• • • We will make an online questionnaire to help people exploring own talents and develop a toolbox/database with new learning methods and identify good practice examples in acquiring and development of talents and abilities for a personalized use. These are pedagogical goals, conceived and developed by the staff of each centre. The trainers, the staff and the headmasters of each centre are those who will work out the pedagogical activities. Besides this issue, we work with the active involvement of learners. The learners will not only actively test the proposed methods of exploring personal talents but they will also participate in creating good practice examples, they will locally participate in meetings and discuss together with all the learners in face-to-face meetings the project topic in which they are actively involved. The project will be based partially on the input and feedback of the learners. We think this is an innovative way of increasing the volume of cooperation between organizations involved in adult education throughout Europe. Putting accents on talents of disadvantaged adult learners emphasizes and facilitates the development of innovative practices in adult education and their transfer from one participating country to another. We will actively involve new learning techniques and new learning technologies (ICT) for improvement of our project. By this we will support the development of innovative ICT-based content, services, pedagogies and practice for lifelong learning.