Skills Workshops: What will be taught in the new compulsory course – Subtopics by class, examples

The Skills Workshops (ED) is a new, innovative course that is part of mandatory schedule of kindergartenτου elementary school and his gymnasiumie in all compulsory education.

The Skills Workshops innovate in 4 areas:

1. Expected learning outcomes – Emphasis on skills

• EDs focus on cultivating skills, so that students are not just passive recipients of knowledge, but learn how to use their knowledge, how to discover new knowledge, how to set goals, how to collaborate, but also to receive initiatives.
• Specifically, through ED, the student develops 21st century skills – life skills, mild skills, digital skills and

• strengthens on an individual level (eg gains self-confidence and self-esteem, cultivates critical thinking, makes decisions, solves problems, learns how to learn),
• learns to participate actively in groups (eg acquires communication and collaboration skills, cultivates empathy and mutual respect),
• is evolving into an aware and responsible citizen of society, with an emphasis on understanding, interpreting and addressing the challenges of the 21st century.

Example: In an ED program for sex education, the goal is not for students to simply memorize information, but e.g. to learn how to set boundaries, to distinguish the “positive” from the “negative” touch, to understand the meaning of consent, etc.

2. Organization of educational content  Themes and interdisciplinarity

• The EDs are organized based on 4 thematic and sub-thematic:

1. I live better: Health: Nutrition – Self-care – Road safety / Mental and Emotional Health – Prevention / Knowing my body – Sex Education
2. Taking care of the environment: Ecology – World and local natural heritage / Natural disasters and civil protection / World and local cultural heritage
3. Interested and active: Human Rights / Volunteering – Mediation / Inclusion: Mutual respect – Diversity
4. I create and innovate: STEM – Educational Robotics / Entrepreneurship – Career education – Getting to know professions

• During a school year, each department comes in contact with all 4 thematic units. Each hypothetical is implemented in a period of 5-7 weeks. Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students “do” Skills Workshops for 3 hours / week, 3rd and 4th grade students for 2 hours / week, and, 5th and 6th grade students and of High School do 1 hour / week.

• The structure of the subjects by class is as follows:

Example: In an ED program on climate change, students are asked to “adopt” a fire-affected area and monitor its development with aerial photography, digital applications and on-site forest watchdog • These themes promote the Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations and educate aware and responsible citizens of the world, with an emphasis on understanding, interpreting and addressing the challenges of the 21st century.

• EDs do not draw from a single field, but from different scientific and cognitive fields, as the activities enrich the knowledge obtained from the “classical” courses “. Thus, ED promotes interdisciplinary / interdisciplinary thinking.

Example: In an STEM ED program, students explore the water cycle and the problems caused by it due to climate change through algorithmic tools for orienting and calculating distance – drawing on Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics , Informatics.

3. Educational tools – Combination of resources and experiential knowledge

• The “lesson” in ED is organized on the basis of educational programs, not a textbook. In other words, the use of multiple sources and media is promoted and combined knowledge is enhanced.

• The educational programs enhance experiential and collaborative educational approaches, as they emphasize educational actions and activities, such as e.g. constructions, theatrical play, organization of research or interview, participation in educational radio or educational television, laboratory creation of virtual business, organization of events.

Example: In an ED program for the local natural heritage, students through motor games and role-playing games make a simulation of the trapping felt by animals trapped in garbage and sensitized.

4. Philosophy of education system – Autonomy, decentralization and extroversion

• The educational programs used in the Skills Laboratories have been evaluated and approved by the IEP, but are based on the know-how of various institutions, e.g. teachers, academics, researchers, civil society organizations, international organizations, local government.

Examples of organizations that have contributed to ED programs: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Amnesty International, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Action Aid Greece, EKPA Department of Philosophy

• The teachers themselves choose the educational programs they want to use in the course (based on the register of approved programs), listening to the interests and needs of their department.

Example: In the context of the sub-theme “Inclusion: Mutual Respect – Diversity”, if the school is in a multicultural neighborhood, it may choose a program for pluralism and the prevention / treatment of racism instead of a program for accessibility for the disabled.

• The educational programs promote the interaction of the school with the society, the organization of actions and events, the participation in events of the local and wider community and the interaction of the school community with national, European and international forums or individuals.

Example: In an ED program on climate change, students are asked to draw up an Action Plan on how their neighborhood can become more environmentally friendly and present it to local agencies.

From design to universal application: how is the successful integration of EDs in the school ensured?

The factor that ensures their smooth and successful integration into school life is their integration into a wider reform ecosystem of complementary and mutually reinforcing actions, with emphasis on:

• In the pilot application of ED:

During the year 2020-21, EDs were piloted in a representative sample of 217 schools across the country.

• In teacher training:

Specially designed training program for ED supports teachers to adapt to the new educational reality of ED by providing them with the appropriate tools to be informed and familiar with the educational design of ED. The approximately 75,000 teachers who were invited, during the school year 2021-22, to implement the ED in the classroom have enrolled in the training of the IEP.

• In the new Curricula:

The 166 New Curricula change what is taught in each subject of each class, from Kindergarten to High School, as well as how these subjects are taught, with an emphasis, among other things, on acquiring skills, focusing on the essence of knowledge (fighting parrot / memorization) in interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity and in the connection of theory and practice.

• In the new textbooks and the free choice of textbook:

As of the 2023-24 school year, students and teachers will have access to more than one textbook per lesson, as well as a wealth of complementary digital educational materials, an emphasis on the use of multiple sources and media and the combined knowledge introduced from the ED, will be established in all courses of all classes.

• In the digital transformation of education:

Teachers and students are empowered, both in terms of infrastructure and skills, to make the most of the digital tools provided by the EDs and to achieve digital literacy, in an inclusive way, without being left behind.

Discrimination

On 19/05/2021, the EDs were awarded by European Network for Global Citizenship Education GENE (Global Education Network Europe). The EDs were selected for innovative educational design and their alignment with the definition of the Maastricht Declaration on Global Education as “an education that opens people’s eyes and minds to the realities of the globalized world and awakens them to pursue a world of greater justice, equality and human rights for all.”

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