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Developing Educational Activities from Research in the 21th Century
Start date: May 1, 2015, End date: Feb 29, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

DEAR 21 gathered 18 participants, experienced trainers from 12 countries and 4 different networks of organisations: YFU, AFS, CISV and the Experiment in Intercultural Living, from the 20th - 27th of September 2015 in Mollina, Spain, in order to create educational activities and tools based on intercultural research developed in the 21st century. The idea of DEAR21 appeared in June 2014 during an ICL seminar in Hamburg, a project supported by Youth in Action, where the representatives of four networks of organisations: EEE-YFU, EFIL, CISV International and The Experiment, met in order to get to know each other and work together in the fields of Educational Resources, Advocacy & Partnerships, Training and Leadership & Participation. The organisations explored theoretical perspectives and practical applications of Diversity and Intercultural Education, Volunteering and Organisational Management. DEAR 21 emerged based on the mutually identified need to be up-to-date with intercultural educational activities provided by all 4 networks of organisations. We felt our methods are outdated and rooted in old theories, while the world has changed and the intercultural field has evolved. DEAR 21 aimed to bridge the gap between recent intercultural theories and current practice through the development of interactive/relevant educational tools, in order to better support participants of intercultural programs organized by youth exchange organizations. In order to achieve the aim, the following objectives were identified: - to create several new educational tools (activities such as games or simulations) based on the latest ICL theories, including culturally diverse perspectives - to revise existing activities and redesign them if necessary, so that they are in line with current intercultural theories - to explore and collect intercultural theories from the last 20 years, and relevant learner-related theories from pedagogy and sociology fields - to strengthen the collaboration between YFU, AFS, CISV and the Experiment - to facilitate the exchange of best practices between experienced trainers from 4 organisations active in the intercultural learning field - to explore the possibilities for further joint intercultural projects in the framework of Erasmus+ and beyond The 18 participants of DEAR21 were experienced trainers from YFU, AFS, CIVS and the Experiment, who remain active in the field of intercultural learning and designing educational programs. Since the event happened in the framework of the 16th University on Youth and Development, the participants also needed to be motivated to participate in this broader context. The flow of the seminar programme was designed according to the principles of non-formal and global education as well as following the Kolb learning cycle. The combination of experience, theory, practice and reflection provided an opportunity to reach the learning outcomes. The programme included workshops prepared by participants for participants, where the new ICL theories were presented, as well as sessions devoted to creating new and redesigning existing intercultural activities based on latest intercultural theories. Participants also had a chance to test the tools they’ve developed by delivering workshops in a local school in Mollina. The feedback they received from students as well as from invited participants of the 16th University on Youth and Development in Mollina helped them improve the activities. Different creative and learning enhancing methods, such as brainstorming, brain-writing, open space, action cafe, role playing, storytelling, visual facilitation, gamification, learning-by-doing were used. These were complemented by group coaching techniques used in the reflection groups at the end of the day. The output of this training is a practical Handbook, containing new intercultural educational activities along with intercultural theories they were built upon, which was distributed among all the participating organisations as well as participants of the 16th UYD.
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