Is it possible to motivate the students through interaction, creativeness and the mutual learning between the teachers and the students?

More than 2 years have passed since the CARMA partners met for the first time with CESIE in Palermo to get to know each other and discuss on how to introduce collaborative learning in the classroom in order to transform classroom practices. Time is flying and the CARMA project is almost at the finish line. We are excited to finalise the innovative materials and tools we have developed during the lifetime of the CARMA project .

On the 15th and 16th May 2018, the CARMA team gathered together in Matosinhos (Portugal) for the 5^th partnership meeting that was hosted by INOVA. During the productive meeting we revised the final outcomes of the project and discussed how to ensure that the CARMA impact on teachers and students will be recognised and taken into the consideration by policy makers and key stakeholders in the education sector.

The CARMA partners are currently finalising the CARMA Toolkit aimed at secondary school teachers. Its primary focus is to support understanding in collaborative learning approaches and offer a step-by-step guide on how to implement collaborative learning activities in the classroom to increase student’s motivation, participation and raise their achievement levels.  The Toolkit aims at giving teachers the tools to make the collaborative learning environment a reality in schools!

Together with the Toolkit we will offer teachers an Assessment Model that defines common standards in recognising teacher competences using the CARMA approach. This innovative model offers a teacher-led approach by which teachers can self-assess, or together with their peers assess the skills and competences they have acquired when putting collaborative learning into classroom practice.

We are also due to release our key policy recommendations for supporting non-formal learning practices and collaborative methods at schools. “Include non-formal learning in teaching curricula” is just one of the recommendations for policy makers that the CARMA partnership have put forward after the main results from testing the non-formal learning techniques with 28 teachers and more that 3,000 students across Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Turkey and Austria were collected. The policy recommendations form part of the CARMA Inclusion Strategy that will offer suggestions for fostering collaborative learning at school. The Inclusion Strategy paper will be available to download from the CARMA website in the coming months.

Planning for the CARMA Final Educational Conference is now underway which will be held on 4th and 5th October 2018 in Brussels. On World Teacher’s Day which is 5^th October, CARMA will present the results of testing collaborative learning in schools and our policy recommendations. Under the Motto Collaborative Learning as a Road towards Educational Success, the two-day conference will bring together teachers and Educational politicians and stakeholders from various European countries for fruitful discussions, learning from the CARMA impact to innovate education using non-formal education.

More information about the Conference will soon be available on our website at http://carma-project.eu/conference/?lang=it