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REPORTS - POLAND - 1st report
Cultural Vehicles in Education
Grodzki Theatre Association
6th February 2008
Pilot workshops. Please describe the profile of
the group and the recruitment process
Profile of learners: people
with physical and mental disabilities and senior citizens,
aged 23-75, men and women (in equal proportions). They
include beneficiaries with motor skill disabilities, mild
mental disabilities, blind people, mentally-ill people
as well as elderly citizens.16 participants were recruited
in October, but only 7 decided to commit themselves to
attend the course. Other participants stayed for a few
classes as to see how they felt about the course, but due
to their mental and psychological constraints did not decide
to stay. Two new participants joined the group in December
and three participants in January. The total number of
participants is 12.Some beneficiaries work at our Vocational
Rehabilitation Unit (a Printing House and Bookbindery),
others are unemployed. They are people who feel socially
excluded and often lack motivation to introduce changes
into their lives. They spend their free time at home with
little to do and no-one to visit. Most of them have a low
level of education and no experience of further education
courses. The few that finished universities or did A-levels
bring their knowledge and expertise into the class, giving
encouragement to the rest of the group.Expectations: they
want to spend their free time in an interesting way, learn
things useful in life, gain some knowledge and find friendsWe
recruited beneficiaries from our Vocational Rehabilitation
Unit, from daily care centres for mentally-disabled people
and from senior citizens clubs. At the recruitment stage
we decided to mix the educational activities with the artistic
ones so that the educator and the artist were both present
at the first few workshops. On 15t October we organized
our first recruitment workshop - a combined education and
theatre class with Piotr and Jan, our instructors, assisted
by our monitoring expert, Renata. It was attended by 10
beneficiaries (out of 16 on the registration list). The
next recruitment workshop took place on 29th October, and
regular classes started on 5th November 2007. We also recruited
in December to achieve the planned size of the group.
Please describe the main activities
taken at this stage of the project
1) recruitment (two pilot workshops in October - see above)
2) employing project staff (October)
3) organizing and running 1st partners' meeting in Bielsko-Biała on 22-24th
November
4) writing the programme and key competences for pilot workshops (November,
modified in January)
5) implementing pilot workshops: November, December, January - two separate
modules: the educational one (4 hours a week) and the artistic one (4 hours
a week), closely related
6) designing and establishing project's website - www.cve.com.pl (at the beginning
operating at www.teatrgrodzki.pl/cve.html before the registration of the web
address)
7) generating key documents (reports structure, structure for pilot workshops
documentation)
8) A monitoring visit to Ostrava (24th January) - a meeting of the Polish and
Czech team, including monitoring experts/researchers
Please describe any problems or
difficulties at this stage of the project and the actions
taken to overcome them
The main problems was the low frequency of beneficiaries
in the first month of pilot workshops (November). Only
3-4 beneficiaries attended some classes. This problem was
overcome through organizing some group events (celebrating
St Andrew's Day, preparing for the Christmas Eve for the
group) and adjusting the programme of the course to the
needs and expectations of beneficiaries (introducing the
elements of local traditions, for example St Andrew's Day
and combining them with the previously introduced European
heritage, for example writing the story of the meeting
between St Andrew and Christ). The numbers increased and
from December onwards there have been 8-10 beneficiaries
at most classes (out of 12).A serious problem was generated
by expectations of beneficiaries, who wanted the course
to last longer than 8 months. This issue was given some
time and thought during the workshops - beneficiaries expressed
some fears of parting, losing the group, of loneliness.
The instructors tried to point out to various possibilities
of continuing such meetings by beneficiaries themselves,
for example informally. One participant expressed an interest
in taking up a further education course in art, which is
a very positive step. Another difficulty is the diversification
of the group in terms of their knowledge and skills as
well as constraints. To address this problem, the instructors
adopted a person-centered approach in teaching, encouraging
the participants to do individual presentations and praising
any positive developments to improve self-confidence of
all members of the group.
In what way did the educational
and artistic activities interact? Please give some specific
examples
1. During one educational unit the participants listened
to a fragment of Beethoven's IX symphony and practiced
reciting "Ode to Joy" (the Polish translation
of Schiller's poem). It helped them to interpret the meaning
of the poem and made them more involved in learning about
German and European history (Beethoven's times) and the
literary genre of ode (8th key competency - Cultural awareness
and expression - The ability to understand and respond
emotionally to some European cultural works)
2. Drawing and designing buildings in different styles (for example the Gothic
style) enabled the participants to learn basic information about European architecture
and discover how we can draw inspiration from the past (5th key competency
- Learning to learn - The ability to combine old information with new and with
one's own experience)
3. Artistic activities made the participants more open towards learning and
more interested in acquiring information. Discussing the literary figures of
Svejk and Faust introduced good atmosphere for learning about heritage buildings
in the Czech Republic and Germany. Acting out theatrical scenes about the Lithuanian
Prince Giedymin made the group more interested in the history of Lithuania.
How did the arts-based educational
activities help the participants to:
a) acquire certain competences and skills
b) facilitate knowledge assimilation
(learning specific information)Please give some specific
examples.
a) Cultural, social and civic competences
were developed as well as communication in the mother tongue
(Lisbon key competences no 1, 6 and 8). In terms of cultural
competences, for example expressive skills, beneficiaries
created some theatrical etudes, literary stories, theatre
scripts, and paintings. They developed the ability to understand
and be involved in European culture (drawings based on traditional
architectural styles, reading and listening to Ode to Joy
and composing their own version of the text). As for communication
in their mother tongue, they were able to do individual and
group presentations during the workshops (talking about themselves
and their interests). The most successful activity concerning
presentational skills was the public performance of the group
in front of the local Town Council during the annual Christmas
Event organized by Grodzki Theatre on 11th December 2007.
The workshops group sung a Polish Christmas carol for about
100 citizens of Bielsko-Biała. The participants named themselves
as the Artists of the United Vehicle, which shows an involvement
in the project. Also, social and civic competences were developed
- the group designed some logos for the project in the context
of life-long learning and the EU.
b) Arts-based educational activities helped
the participants to learn about European cultural heritage.
Through creative writing (dialogues between historical figures),
they learned how to do background research (using the internet)
and acquired some information on European history (the lives
of St Andrew and St Catherine). In their stories the participants
managed to maintain historical realism as well as psychological
credibility of the characters. They also obtained some knowledge
on European architectural styles and were able to draw designs
of buildings in a given style. The participants discussed
current culture of post-modernism and were able to write
their own protest against some negative social implications
of it (against relativism).
Please reflect on progress made
by individual persons (for example, increased motivation
of a reluctant learner or better social skills of a shy
participant).
One of the participants - a reluctant learner, living
in his own world (a mentally-ill person), who claimed that
he couldn't do anything, was encouraged by the arts instructor
to do some puppet animation. To his great surprise he managed
to do an etude and the group understood it. He turned out
be very good at fencing (with a toy sword), while practicing
for a theatrical scene about the Lithuanian Prince Gediminas,
which made him more active and involved. He was encouraged
to present his favourite music and left his own world for
some time. A shy and intimidated person (in his twenties),
mentally-disabled, who felt very inferior in the group,
started speaking up and volunteering to do presentations.
A middle-aged participant, physically disabled (on a wheel-chair),
who felt her contributions were not interesting, became
more active and started arguing her point of view. A very
dominant and loud member of the group (an artist, who suffers
from a mental illness), noticed his hyperactivity and entered
into the role of a host, who looks after the other members
of the group (makes them tea and coffee). A retired person,
who was very reluctant towards artistic, expressive activities
and never drew before, started doing so and claimed that
it made him feel better.
Attachments:
- Workshops
- 17.01 and 31.01.2008 >>>
- Photos/Videos
from pilot workshops >>>
- Curriculum >>>
- Competences
of pilot workshops beneficiaries >>>
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