Context/Background:Political education is the subject of appropriate disciplines at school. Arts and music are not among these. Nevertheless, people on the far edges of the political spectrum - as much as unscrupulous people on the music market – apply increasingly inherent mechanisms of music to manipulate social values of the youth. They rely hereby on the subliminal transmission of contents. This project aims therefore at underlining the potential of arts and music for political education not only at school, but also for youth organisations. The purpose is to develop a pro-active programme that integrates systematically and in an interdisciplinary way teaching of music, languages, dance and theatre to learn more about democratic culture. The European Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture as adopted in 2016 by the Council of Europe will set the guidelines for the project (https://www.coe.int/en/web/campaign-free-to-speak-safe-to-learn/reference-framework-of-competences-for-democratic-culture ).Aims: The participants of the workshops are meant to create an event integrating all elements of artistic expressions (music, theatre, dance, language) based on the manipulative patterns they will discover during the workshops. Through this analytical process the young people come to understand the principles of propaganda in arts and music and learn how to explain their own creation under these terms to the public.A second aim is the development of a coaching project for teachers, educators and music teachers based on the experiences of the workshops. A documentary about the process and the subject in large is to be produced as audio-visual didactic material.Number of participants/ Profile:The project aims at young people from 14 years upwards and at school teachers, educators in the youth sector and music teachers. Each country participates with 15 young people.10 resource persons will be present at each workshop academy to guide the youth. The participation of impaired young people is possible. Description of the activities:Two 5-day academies will be organized. Resource persons from music, dance, theatre and communication context will work out with the young participants how to apprehend the five basic emotions (joy, rage, fear, disgust, sorrow). Experiential education will lead the participants to transforming their thoughts creatively into an artistic presentation.At the second academy the young people will elaborate in more detail what they have already worked out at the first academy. The resource persons will help them to finalize the public presentation. The latter will be staged the day after the end of the academy as an official event of the “Aktionstage politische Bildung” (an initiative of the Council of Europe, developed in 2004 and since then organized in German speaking countries of the EU), together with a public debate on the subject of music and politics. A training based on the experiences of the academies will be conceived and tested with the help of an e-twinning network during the multiplier event at the end of the project. At the same event a conference will be held to introduce multipliers from the school and youth sector as well as representatives from the ministries of education from the Great Region, the CDPPE (Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice of the Council of Europe; (https://www.coe.int/en/web/education/cdppe )) and the centres for political education of the German federal states to the results of the project and to discuss possible future perspectives. At this occasion parts of the audio-visual material can be shown.Methods used:Experiential education will be used during the five-day academies to develop creative outputs with the young people and also to gain the necessary insights to produce the didactic trans-disciplinary handout. The latter should be applicable as much in a school as in an after-school context.The production of an audio-visual means as tool box for pedagogical aims offers a creative and innovative way to deal with the subject.Expected Results:Production of didactic materials for sustainable use of the results in political education in arts and music.E-Twinning-network; coaching project for educators in the youth sector, music schools and schools; audio-visual material for didactic purpose. Sustainability:The didactic materials will continue to be used in political education training for arts and music after the project. They will also be available online on the webpages of the partners to be freely downloaded. The audio-visual material will be available with the worksheets.Also the e-twinning network will continue to be active after the project and keeping the training updated by regional inputs.The 4 week event „Aktionstage politische Bildung“ will contain a regular feature entitled „Music and Politics“, where also in future new presentations of young people can be integrated

The everyday care of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) places complex demands on the accompanying persons and institutions. The daily work is carried out in the area of conflict between the professional demands of individual support and dealing with possible challenging behaviour. The theoretical knowledge about autism and autism specific pedagogical concepts is the basis for professional action. However, the diversity of individual characteristics within the entire autistic spectrum makes implementation difficult. Experience has shown that it is necessary to constantly reflect on one's own pedagogical actions and to adapt them to the client and the situation. The continuing education course with its deliberately high practical relevance is intended to meet these requirements: The selection of topics is strongly oriented towards the requirements of everyday care. Understanding the behavior of people with ASD and the possible underlying functions, the development of assistance possibilities in all areas of life and also dealing with challenging behaviour are among the main topics.The special feature of this course is that in a learning group of 20 people, each participant works with one of his clients during the entire training period. This means that between the individual sessions, work assignments relating to the client are to be carried out in the participant's own practice, which are then reflected on and developed further on the basis of the participant's own video recordings. The implementation, reflection and further development of these practical parts are elementary components of the training.The learning group will consist of a mixed group of 20 participants from the participating partner institutions. The target audience are staff members who work with people wih ASS in their everyday professional life, be it in schools or in consulting activities with people with ASS. The group will include educators, teachers and therapists. All participants have at least a bachelor's degree. The composition of a multidisciplinary team is a conscious decision, as the project builds on the experience of the participants and aims to strengthen each participant in his work by providing new tools and allowing plenty of time for reflection and practical implementation in everyday professional life.At the end of the training the participants should:- have developed an understanding of autism and the resulting implications for assistance- Know the basic principles of the TEACCH approach and take them into account when implementing them in everyday teaching,- be able to develop various options for structuring and visualization in practice in a client-specific manner- Being able to identify strengths, interests and problem areas of their clients,- be able to create individual support planning for individual areas of life,- better understand their clients' behavioural problems in their conditional structure and derive possible intervention strategies,- Understand the basic ideas of ICF and be able to apply them in the field of autism.After successful completion of the project activities and an examination of the acquired knowledge, the participants receive a certificate (CAS-Certificate of Advanced Studies) of 15 ECTS credits.The cross-national implementation is a chance for all project partners to build up an Euregional Autism Network, which will continue to exist after the end of the project. The project partners each have important competencies within the team that contribute to:- a good functioning of the project: the AHS has valuable experience in organising additional training and is the guarantor for the certification of the additional training. In addition, the AHS is regularly involved in E+ projects and also participates in strategic partnerships in the field of research, thus providing an experienced guide for the other institutions; the CTSA, as a counselling centre, has a different - therapeutic - view of ASS than the special schools; the ZFP and MLKS can contribute very practical examples and show where the challenges in everyday school life lie and how pupils can be prepared for a future after their school careers, here too there are many stumbling blocks. As the ZFP, the CTSA and the MLKS are all special schools in different countries and with different focuses, they can also use the opportunity to transfer knowledge between the countries on the fringe of the project;- on the other hand, the participants can draw on the experience of the multidisciplinary group and have external partners on an equal footing even after the end of the project to share and support each other in challenges in the care of people with ASD. Network thinking is particularly important in specific subject areas, especially since East Belgium and Luxembourg are dependent on external partners due to their small size.

"<< Background >>In the wake of the Corona crisis, successful youth participation measures were abruptly interrupted or ended. The institutions and employees of youth work and youth social work were and are not or are not sufficiently prepared for this new situation in terms of technical equipment, level of qualification and the applicability of previously accessible methodological-didactic approaches. Up to now, digital offers of youth education have only been sporadic or pilot-like, although good concepts have been developed in some cases. The transfer of physical offers to online offers also seems to succeed only in the beginning. digital participation formats will become more important (in the future).The experience of the cooperation partners involved in this project in their networks shows that the skills in digital education are usually only available in the basics of the youth work professionals and those who are volunteers in this field. As a result, youngsters and young adults are lacking high-quality services on a broad scale- especially young people from previously under-represented groups. A functioning practical transnational concept has so far been sought in vain. On the other hand, the current crisis situation opens up previously untapped possibilities: digital exchange, digital offerings suddenly become necessary.The two key horizontal priorities of the project will be implemented by developing an innovative implementation concept for a transnational curriculum ""International Digital Youth Participation"" for the qualification of professionals in youth work, youth education and volunteers working in the field, including educational institutions with direct access to these specialists. The focus is on supporting the experts to transfer their expertise in the development and application of implementation strategies for youth participation from the real world to the digital space. The need for this has been around for some time - but this has gained considerable momentum in the wake of the Covid19 pandemic and the associated digitalization pressure.<< Objectives >>Against the background of the access to traditional education and participation offers on the ground, which was made significantly more difficult by the Covid19 crisis, the challenges faced by youth work/youth education professionals to implement participation opportunities for young people have once again increased. Qualification offers in the field of digital youth participation are not enough and are not subject to standards such as those of the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Teachers (DigCompEdu) - which would be necessary for the recognition of learning content and acquired qualifications beyond national borders. Target groups:- paid and voluntary professionals in the field of youth work/youth education and integrative work with physically and/or mentally impaired young people, as well as working with young people with refugee experience who have so far had insufficient access to traditional educational services. - Youth/youth education professionals in training or at studying.<< Implementation >>1) A transnational implementation concept with seminar plans (PR1) for youth work professionals will be developed to strengthen their skills for the conception and implementation of digital offerings in the field of youth participation. Based on this, country-specific expansion modules are being developed. The main focus is on training in the application of digital youth participation with highly inclusive elements (PR 1). The resulting seminar plans are permanently available free of charge after the project has been completed in the form of download materials (german/English) on the project homepage.2) Accompanying as application material is developed a seminar box with digital communication strategies, planning games and other tips and tools for e-participation (PR 2). The materials are designed in such a way that they can be used both in an accompanying way to the seminar and independently in order to achieve the highest possible dissemination in the regular structures of youth work/youth education. The seminar box is permanently available free of charge after the project has been completed in the form of download materials (german/English) on the project homepage. An accompanying transnational project homepage (german/English) bundles the concepts and seminar plans and makes them publicly accessible and usable under the creative-commons licenses OER.Further training for regular teaching staff, as well as support educators and youth workers with the results of the project can be included in the AHS training catalogue and offered there both annually and tailor-made for institutional enquiries. This also applies to enquiries from the Greater Region and the Euregio Maas-Rhine, as well as from the partner countries of the project. A constant exchange and revision of the module is to be achieved and thus lead to sustainability.3) The three learning activities in the project are expected to achieve different results: Within the framework of the learning workshop of the project partners on Digital Youth Participation (C1), employees of the partner organisations working in key positions in the field of youth participation gain in-depth knowledge about the current state of digital youth participation models and tools at European level - on the one hand for the high-quality conception of the project results, on the other hand, in order to be able to advise and support youth workers in their networks in the field of advice and support. In the Blended Mobility with 20 young people (C2), these young people are trained for the first time in the applied curriculum of digital youth participation and in the use of the tools from the seminar box and their feedback is incorporated into the further development of the project results in a value-added way. Finally, 20 professionals (C3) are qualified in Blended Mobility to use the tools and apply the Curriculum of Digital Youth Participation. Their feedback from a practical point of view is also added to the further development of the project results.<< Results >>A transnational implementation concept for the qualification of youth/youth education professionals and volunteers in the field of digital youth participation will be elaborated. The conceptual work will build on existing building blocks in the field of youth employment,digital learning and digital youth participation, which were previously exclusively nationally/regionally oriented.This concept should include the following elements:1. Target group: Who and what is to be achieved and how best to achieve this? The mediation of digital youth participation does not work ""universally"", but must be geared to the target groups of the respective professionals, who deal with young people of different social and cultural backgrounds, different image levels and different possibilities, explicitly with young people from previously underrepresented groups. Diversification of society requires flexible tools for integration work in youth work. The concept must therefore not only take into account known combinations of the above-mentioned socio-cultural divisiveness, but must also integrate pistes for future needs in order to guarantee a high degree of applicability of the concept and to act as long-term qualification offers for the target group.Therefore, it is planned to make the results - teaching materials and concrete examples from the everyday life of the participants - available online with the consent of the participants, so that those seeking advice can look for inspiration in the seminar box based on the examples for their own context. Even after the end of the project, this can be continuously and sustainably expanded after each training course, so that new contexts are continuously integrated.2. (digital) communication strategy: how do youth/youth education professionals reach the (different) target groups in times of digital communication? How are stakeholders involved beyond proven ""offline"" formats? How does the traditional communication strategy need to be renewed in order to maintain contact?A transnational curriculum will be developed to be transferable beyond the borders of the participating countries. The relevant bodies for disseminating didactic material (ministries of education, national educational institutes, etc.) will be informed about the existence of this curriculum and the results of this project will be made available on the Erasmus+ platform."

<< Background >>The education of children and adolescents with special educational needs substantially differs among European countries, both with regard to the teachers in charge (specialized teachers with subject-specific knowledge and skills, specialized teachers with interdisciplinary knowledge and skills, special education teachers, mainstream teachers specializing in continuing education, school curative educators), as well as in relation to the school system (inclusion, specialized schools, specialized competence centers, combination of different models). The different policy and practice relating to the education of children and adolescents with special needs leads to the question of the best possible education for this target group and thus the best possible basic and continuing education for the teachers in charge of them. Once the international comparison and exchange leads to an identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the respective education systems, the next step would be to adapt the content of the curricula.<< Objectives >>The objective will be to establish a sustainable exchange on an international level, in particular to illuminate and compare the basic and continuing education of teachers in charge of children and adolescents with special needs. The exchange will help to draw conclusions about the requirements for teacher education, especially in relation with specific legislation and policies in many European countries to implement inclusive education. Further, the orientation of the basic and continuing education will be critically examined in connection with the respective education systems. This includes content-related aspects such as education plans and curricula as well as organizational-structural aspects such as the timing and duration of education, the focus on specific versus inclusion-oriented contents of theoretical and practical phases, as well as the combination of theoretical and practical phases. First, the exchange should take place at the level of the professors, then at the level of the current and future teachers. Ultimately, this exchange should develop a network of relationships and connections allowing the preservation of special educational expertise in inclusive settings, which could lead to joint conferences or new education modules.<< Implementation >>The exchange takes place through different types of cooperative meetings: First, digital and in person transnational meetings within the project management framework to plan the project and the transnational learning and exchange forums: - Video conferences address the point on different issues: comparing the job description in the participating European countries or regions, analyzing the respective system of education and continuing education, determining the practical components of the education and continuing education, establishing the subject specificity relating on the education of professionals in the different fields of special education (language, hearing, seeing, cognitive development etc.), determining the contents of the education and continuing education in the different countries and regions. - Four in person meetings involving at each meeting one to two people from the core group of each institution.Secondly, learning and exchange forums lasting two to three days deepening the content of the cooperative partnership, held on a rotating basis at each participant location and dedicated to different topics (e.g. specific features of the education relating to the different fields of special education with regard to inclusion). An additional objective consists in the establishment of a resource sharing cooperative network of professionals for the transmission and sharing of subject-specific contents in connection with inclusive education and in the establishment of a network of professionals specialized in the different fields of special education.<< Results >>The exchange of professors and teachers from different countries illuminates the differences in education and continuing education. The priorities of the respective education system will be presented in an overview (synopsis) and published in digital form. Barrier-free videos are planned to give access to summaries and digital presentations. The videos should be available in German, English and French and, in taking account of the idea of inclusion, in simple language, in sign language and with subtitles, in order to provide an orientation for students interested in studying education or teachers participating in continuing education, as well as for professors and government officials. The exchange could lead to proposals regarding an adjustment of the focus and the contents of the education and continuing education of the teachers, and regarding the weighting of theoretical basics and practical components. The comparative overview of the education and continuing education system of the different partners could help to conceive and to develop transnational continuing education courses within the framework of the cooperative network.

"With the growing emphasis on sustainable and effective adaptation of the digital education and training systems, e.g., Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027), the DATADRIVE project explores innovative methods for empowering teachers and school leaders, by giving them modern tools, and necessary training to develop their skills and competencies to read, interpret and use different types of data to facilitate evidence-driven school improvement. These skills aim to help school leaders and teachers to take action based on evidence. When these stakeholders can gather and use reliable data to evaluate their schools, they can better detect and address arising problems, support their students and their families, and engage all parties to increase their performances. To support the teachers and school leaders in acquiring these skills;- The DATADRIVE project systematically reviews the materials on existing practices, frameworks, and instruments related to school quality as well as data use on school improvement; - The DATADRIVE analysis new evidence from practitioners to build a new ""school quality framework"" and new ""survey instruments"" to identify the underlying school quality dimensions as well as a data-driven school improvement framework. - To implement these new tools effectively in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)/Web-based environment, training materials, and instructional videos are created according to the identified needs of the school leaders and teachers team from selected schools. - The team of the school leaders and teachers are coached to collaborate as professional learning communities to use these frameworks and instruments to create a participatory governance structure. The DATADRIVE project is realized by 6 partners under the coordination of SCRIPT in the Ministry of Education of Luxembourg: the Ministry of Education of Croatia, the Autonomous Highschool of the German-speaking Community in Belgium, the University of Twente in the Netherlands, the SPOLECZNA AKADEMIA NAUK University in Poland, and Edurio Ltd. UK, an enterprise that helps school network leaders both in public and private sectors establish an evidence-based approach to school improvement in their organizations.The DATADRIVE first surveys school quality parameters from participating countries and data use practices in decision-making mechanisms, then uses the survey to create a school quality framework. This new framework comprises a data-driven school improvement framework, survey materials, and corresponding teaching material and videos, and a handbook on data-driven school improvement for professional learning communities. The workshops realized within this project intend to familiarize all stakeholders with methods of collecting and analyzing data and how to use project outputs in school improvements. The main objective of the DATADRIVE is to maximize the impact of the data-driven decision process in school improvements by developing content (frameworks, surveys, training materials, etc) not only that can be easily adaptable to specific school needs but also can be scalable according to the needs of larger education institutions and networks. With such a broad spectrum of applications, the impact of data-driven decisions can become observable at multiple levels. In addition to workshops, in order to facilitate the rapid dissemination of DATADRIVE outcomes among school leaders and teachers, teacher-training institutions, national departments working with schools on quality improvement, as well as national and international level education policy-makers, all project outputs are stored on the DATADRIVE's open-access website, and partners' websites. The training videos are kept publicly available on other platforms, such as YouTube, in addition to the DATADRIVE website."