EduCardia meeting in Barcelona
The 2nd in-person meeting of the EduCardia project took place on the 1st and 2nd of December 2022 in Barcelona, hosted by the University of Barcelona (UB). All the project partners, coming from Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Romania, met together and made joint efforts to keep EduCardia’s schedule on track.
Given that we are close to the end of the first year of the EduCardia project, we exchanged information regarding the progress achieved per result of the project, reviewed the current status and set out a timeplan for the upcoming months. We were happy to manage to present and refine the EduCardia assessment methodology (Result 1) and get updated by the UB team for the preliminary release of the EmoSocio EI Model (Result 2). It should be mentioned that the EmoSocio EI Model is ready to be validated by schools in the four countries in the upcoming period and released in July 2023!!
We also took the opportunity to consolidate the Teachers Training Material (Result 3) in the form of a two days Social and Emotional (SEL) training course. Such a course will cover both theoretical aspects regarding the emotional education in schools and its positive impacts on pupils’ performance as well as practical sessions where teachers will learn how to assess and improve their students’ competences via the EduCardia software tools and didactic materials. We envisage that, by the end of December, we will have ready the first version of the Teachers Training program material to be provided for internal review by the project partners.
In addition, we put efforts into deciding the methodology that we will follow for the “Emotional competencies training program for students”. It is essential to develop a solid foundation for the didactic strategies that the proposed SEL activities will be based on, before we start designing or collecting them. Upon a brainstorming session, we highlighted a variety of learning approaches that can be applied, including the experiential and collaborative learning approach. Rafel Bisquera from RIEEB, our mentor with huge expertise in the area of emotional education in schools, encouraged us to focus on out-of-school activities to extend the duration of the emotional training of the students.
Last but not least, the EmoSociograms psychometric tool is about to get released by the end of December. Currently, the child and adolescent versions of EmoSocio are integrated into the tool and will be considered in its application in the pilot learning centers in January 2023.
Our meeting was held at the premises of the UB in the Campus of Mundet but we had the opportunity to get a tour at the historic building of the University of Barcelona, popularly known as “La Central”. Located in the University square, it housed for almost a century most of the city’s faculties and university schools, divided between the Court of Letters and the Court of Sciences. Walking through the university hallways and internal gardens and seeing the spectacular views of Barcelona city was a wonderful experience and opportunity to learn the history around the building.
Lot of work is ahead to manage to achieve the EduCardia results, however moving on upon a solid basis of initial outcomes. Stay tuned to our web page and social media channels to learn more about the EduCardia project results!
