Project Keynet

 

Best practice in the education system - Pilot projects

 

Best practices in the education system have already been presented in section III for the cases of the "Informatics-Technology" subject in the lower secondary school and the "Technology" subject in the Comprehensive Lyceum.

5.1. Best practices in pilot projects

5.1a. The Integrated Multivalent Lyceum

The Integrated Multivalent Lyceum (IML) was an upper secondary education school concept, which was introduced in 1985 as a national pilot project. Its major scope was to achieve parity of esteem between general and vocational education through the integration of academic and vocational subjects in the curriculum. One of the subjects which was introduced as a required subject for all pupils, regardless of professional orientation, was "Technology and Production". Through this subject pupils for the first time in the history of the Greek education system, using a modern student-centered instructional design, were guided to develop in project-based learning activities such basic skills as information retrieving and processing, planning, decision making, problem solving, oral and written communication, team work and learning how to learn. Although in the design stages of this subject there was a lot of skepticism at the Pedagogical Institute on whether such an instructional design was feasible in a school system in which the teacher-centered "chalk and talk" learning approach prevailed, a summative evaluation research (Foundation for Technology and Research, 1993) conducted in 1993 showed, among other findings, that the "Technology and Production" subject was the most popular subject among the pupils and the most successful as far as fulfilling learning outcomes.

 

5.1b. The "ARIADNE" project for school dropouts in Evros

Evros is a region in Thrace hit hard by high student dropout rates, as documented by the Pedagogical Institute survey (Paleocrassas et al, 1997). The Institute of Training and Vocational Guidance, in collaboration with the Pedagogical Institute, OAED and the General Secretariat for Adult Education (and other European partners {Wakefield College/England; Noris Arbeit, NOA/Germany; IAL/Italy}), conducted a pilot project in the framework of the European program "Youthstart" for school dropouts of age 16-24 years old, who were identified by the Pedagogical Institute survey in Evros. The scope of the project (ARIADNE, 1999) was to help these young people return to school and through special training programs to be placed in worth while jobs. The training was delivered by OAED and had three components: A pre-vocational component, which was found necessary to compensate for the educational deficit (mainly in Mathematics and Greek) of the trainees (this had to be individualized), a highly occupation specific component (in catering), which followed upon successful completion of the preparatory part of the course, and a component for developing life skills. The total course was 700 contact hours, of which 350 were in theory and 350 in practice. Diffused in the instructional design were three principal aims: promoting gender, cultural and religious equity; extensive use of informatics; and infusing a European dimension.

The pre-vocational component aimed towards the development of basic written and oral communication skills and basic numeracy skills.

The occupation specific component aimed towards the development of skills necessary to perform the tasks of bread preparation (three different types), flour pastry making and preparation of 5-10 basic Greek dishes. The life skills component aimed towards the participants personal development, development of career planning and managing skills, promoting a European identity and developing communication and team skills. The practical part of the program was performed in a real work place in the form of apprenticeship training and the graduates of the program were placed in regular jobs.

 

5.1c. The Elefsina project for school dropouts

Elefsina is a heavy industry area at the western edge of greater Athens and hard hit by long term unemployment during the last decade. The National Institute for Work (E.I.E.) conducted a survey recently among 81 participants in the pre-vocational training programs offered by the local Working Youth Centre (KENE), with the intent to identify their skill deficits and in turn to design and deliver special accelerated vocational training courses. According to this survey (Theodoropoulou, 1999) the large majority of this youth had not completed compulsory education (primary school and lower secondary school), which is a prerequisite to enrolling in any formal initial training course in the country. In fact 69% of those surveyed had only completed the six years of primary education (Demotiko) and 28% had finished a few grades of primary education! The age distribution of the sample was: 52% between 16 and 18 years old, 36% between 12-15 and 12% between 19-24. The majority were unemployed (68%) and of those 73% had never held a job. Not having any employable skills was their most frequent answer (28%) to the question why they could not find a job. Lack of any work experience (17%) followed.

The level of their skills demand was compatible to their educational deficit. They showed interest for courses in hairdressing, beauty caring and industrial sewing (the girls who were 46% of the sample) and the boys expressed interest for developing skills as pastry chef, cook, hand craftsman, jewel maker and decorator.

On the basis of the findings of the survey the local Youth Centre designed special training courses, which had two major components. A pre-vocational component, which was found necessary to compensate for the educational deficit of the trainees (this had to be individualized), and a highly occupation specific component, which followed upon successful completion of the preparatory part of the course.

As basic skills, in the context of the KEYNET study, one could identify in the curriculum such skills as arithmetic, literacy, reading skills, basic communication skills, social skills, elementary computer skills, and minor problem solving skills.

The instructional design included team projects, personal development exercises and class discussions.