Education - Shared experience: Pupilpower Plus

Ewa Wiewióra

1. Learning/teaching a foreign culture and experiencing it can be compared to looking through recipes in a cookery book and actually tasting the dish/cake prepared from it. The difference is obvious. In the first case, you can only imagine what the final result will look and taste like, judging from the usually well-known ingredients and your previous, if any, experience. But the final product may be quite different from your expectations (as various factors may appear on the way) - both in a positive and negative way. Nevertheless, you learn a lot in this way. You experience it yourself and you have the chance to “taste” all the flavours. The same is with the target culture- we may know a lot about it beforehand, all the “ingredients”, from books, films, TV and so on yet knowing and experiencing it for real is something different. When you experience something you can feel it with all your senses – And the effect is ongoing; reflections come later on when you are back home and/or confronting something similar that evokes memories.

It was so in my case, and I think in the case of my students. During the exchange we were able to experience so much and to compare it with our previous knowledge, stereotypes and beliefs. They could “experience” the living conditions in England see their houses and flats and compare them with the images presented on TV and in films. New experiences came thick and fast: food and meals including the famous fish’n’chips, hobbies and interests, sports (cricket and netball); the English weather and their reluctant attitude to it, their sense of humour; school–lessons, uniforms, class equipment and school facilities; transport –buses, trains and boats; people’s behaviour in the street (“everybody was smiling and seems to be friendly”); By experiencing so many things the students learnt a lot without realising it and such experiences will stay with them forever. So now, back at school, when we read a text or discuss something related they know more, have a deeper understanding as they have experienced the situation themselves and so can reflect on it. And it really matters- the process of experiencing something on your own.

Personally, I learnt a lot in terms of experiencing new things or re-experiencing others. First of all, the school system and how it works, the life in that particular school, attitudes to work, teachers and students alike etc. I’m going to give a PowerPoint presentation about the visit paying special attention to the school in Durham at the next conference in my school.

2. Because of curiosity, I think. And because they are encouraged by their teachers who know much more about our country and can make it look interesting and worth visiting. When they come to us everything goes quite smoothly.

It was so with our students’ exchange. The English teachers, especially the Head, knew a lot about Poland, our history and culture, and were happy to help their students understand some things. I remember Steven Harness standing in our history room in front of the map showing Poland’s partitions and explaining the situation to English students. He told them that although Poland had no longer been on the map of Europe it had been deeply preserved in the hearts of Poles.

3. Our students have established quite cordial and close relationship with their English friends. They are still in touch, sending SMS or e-mails every week and exchanging news. Some of them are planning to visit each other later this year or next. The same is with the teachers. If everything goes well they will come to us again in May or June.

4. Not many. I managed to find a student who is quite good at creating web pages and she taught another student a simple way of doing it. Luckily, my head master’s hobby is computers and he has always been willing to help both me and the students. Maybe the biggest problem was to put pictures into the texts and make them smaller without losing their visibility and quality.

5. The project could be assessed in terms of:

personal development (both students’ and teachers’)
the work done (including all the stages - discussions, preparation, role-taking, organizing things,
gathering materials, preparing them, translating, correcting etc)
language development
ICT abilities
co–operating (working in a team and being responsible for one’s tasks and for the whole)
discovering “the known unknown” - the things we take for granted in our town, region, country, yet are interesting and worth presenting

Phillipa Jenkinson

1. I teach Citizenship and not a language therefore we are not concentrating on specific cultures but more about not stereotyping and being tolerant of different cultures. Taking the students to Poland was invaluable for this; they quickly saw that Poland is very similar in many ways to the UK and that they had a lot in common in terms of dress, music and texting on mobile phones!

2. The students wanted to go to Poland as it was not a country that they would visit as part of their annual summer vacation although they had learned several things about Poland through their history lessons. As a result, they had a natural curiosity about a place that seemed to them distant in terms of culture and miles.

3. They benefited enormously, the students selected were not normally involved in school projects and felt very honoured to take part in such a high profile event. They grew in confidence and felt that travel and meeting new people is no longer something to be afraid of but something to aspire to.

4. Two of the students selected had an excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Front Page. As a result they were able to construct the pages without difficulty and iron out any problems we had. I would strongly recommend that if you were to be involved in a similar project that you have ICT help on hand.

5. I think that the factor to be considered when assessing the success and usefulness of the programme is: - how much of an impact has it made on other members of the school community? As only 6 students were involved in the actual exchange I feel that a lot of work needs to go into spreading the word about the project if other students are going to benefit.

Ewa Komorowska

1. One can learn/teach all the theoretical things yet a hands-on experience is what adds the indispensable flavour and taste to the area one is trying to master. It could well be compared to the difference between looking at a cake and tasting it - nothing can substitute the actual fact of being immersed in a foreign culture.

2. Poles would want to go to Britain for several reasons. To name just a few:

to find out how well they can communicate in English and so become more confident in using it in the future having read and learnt a lot about the country and its peoples, they would want to experience being part of the foreign culture to learn more about the problems and issues the British have to face in everyday life to see how the life of an average Briton differs from or is similar to that of an average Pole to help determine more accurately our national identity by analysing the stereotypes and facts about our partners

3. The students benefited in a variety of ways:

they now feel by far more confident using English than they used to before the exchange
they have experienced living with a British family, which gave them insight into the real lives of their partners
they participated in some lessons in Britain, which proved to be a very stimulating experience /they know how they would want to change their own school, what they would like to see added to the curriculum, what to do to make their lessons more interesting, etc/
they saw that the two nations are in fact very similar, despite the existing differences
they have learnt to appreciate their own culture

4. There were several ICT problems we experienced the original idea of having the entire group participating in the project communicate with their partners proved to be beyond our reach for security reasons on the part of British schools, therefore:

students communicated by email, which eliminated all those not directly engaged in the exchange from sending and receiving messages, and so limited the group to about 5 people only
despite the fact that the students responsible for creating the webpage had never done it before, they did not get any professional support from IT teachers in my school - the advantage here being that they had to solve most of the problems all by themselves, which meant gaining knowledge and experience in this kind of task
the process of working on the webpage was a very stimulating experience and my students are willing to experiment more

5. The most important factors for the success of the programme would be:

establish a partnership with a similar school /primary/ secondary- vocational/ comprehensive/
ensure that the age of the students participating in the project is the same
allow plenty of time for working on the project as school terms in Poland and Britain do not overlap, which may create problems in communication due to students being on holiday or out of school for prolonged periods of time
decide on a plan of action and stick to the deadlines
give students as much autonomy as possible, making sure the teacher is a facilitator rather than co-coordinator
decide well in advance on the procedures students have to observe while working on the project, e.g. acknowledging the sources
stimulate and encourage students rather than assess the outcome of their efforts while the work is in progress

Gillian Trimble

1. Experiencing a foreign culture puts it in context and gives purpose and reason. Pupils live the culture, experiencing the lifestyle, feeling the impact and making relationships.

2. To see for themselves the similarities and differences; experience and value the culture, foods, history, art/architecture; feel part of the wider community of Europe, appreciating the similarities and differences.

3. The pupils benefited by getting a truer picture of people and culture; it got them away from the narrow perspectives and thinking of their community; it widened their vision and had a maturing effect on them. They made real and long-lasting relationships.

4. As far as I know, there were no ICT related problems.

5. I think the most important factor is the contribution made to the education of a new generation of people who will live as part of a united Europe; equipping them to play a full part in their society whilst appreciating the wider dimension of being part of a European community.

Marzenna Fijałkowska

1. The crucial thing in teaching or learning culture while experiencing it, is that both the students and the teacher can observe all the details in their natural environment, not only those selected and described by someone else. The questions answered by the natives and the monuments admired give the students more than reading books about the same things. Doing things together with the students from Britain teaches more than listening to the teacher. The difference is like between eating soup and reading the recipe.

2. Because the travel itself is fascinating to them. Also they are interested in doing things together with their new friends from the other country and visiting places sometimes known only from lessons. When acquiring a foreign language, one also has to know some details from the culture of the country to understand the language fully.

3. The students learn more natural language as they can have contact with it many hours a day. They improve their understanding and speaking skills because the situation they were in forced them to use English. They also learned a lot about how to co-operate in order to complete the task which was assigned to them. It is a very important ability for their future life.

4. None.

5. The most important factors are:

he students were doing something extra which was also completely different from the things they normally learn at school. They felt especially rewarded for their work. The programme gives the opportunity to touch something distant and new as well as to break down some stereotypes felt about each other. We were for example surprised by the openness of our new friends.

The international co-operation showed that people from two different cultures are able to understand each other and do many things together without any important obstacles. We achieved the goals which were stated in the project and the students were very proud of it. We made new friends and we are still in touch with them. We exchanged Season's Greetings and souvenirs. Younger students, who were presented with the outcome of our project, became very interested in participating in a similar project in the future.

Our site is published on the Global Gateway site and can be accessed by anyone in the world. So, many people can learn about our cooperation and about ourselves, which is important to us.


Shared experience: Pupilpower Plus Answers

Ewa Wiewióra 1. Learning/teaching a foreign culture and experiencing it can be compared to looking through recipes in a cookery book and actually tasting the dish/cake prepared from it. The difference is obvious. In the first case, you can only imagine what the final result will look and taste like, judging from the usually well-known ingredients and your previous, if any, experience. But the final product may be quite different from your expectations (as various factors may appear on the way) - both in a positive and negative way. Nevertheless, you learn a lot in this way. You experience it yourself and you have the chance to “taste” all the flavours. The same is with the target culture- we may know a lot about it beforehand, all the “ingredients”, from books, films, TV and so on yet knowing and experiencing it for real is something different. When you experience something you can feel it with all your senses – And the effect is ongoing; reflections come later on when you are back home and/or confronting something similar that evokes memories. It was so in my case, and I think in the case of my students. During the exchange we were able to experience so much and to compare it with our previous knowledge, stereotypes and beliefs. They could “experience” the living conditions in England see their houses and flats and compare them with the images presented on TV and in films. New experiences came thick and fast: food and meals including the famous fish’n’chips, hobbies and interests, sports (cricket and netball); the English weather and their reluctant attitude to it, their sense of humour; school–lessons, uniforms, class equipment and school facilities; transport –buses, trains and boats; people’s behaviour in the street (“everybody was smiling and seems to be friendly”); By experiencing so many things the students learnt a lot without realising it and such experiences will stay with them forever. So now, back at school, when we read a text or discuss something related they know more, have a deeper understanding as they have experienced the situation themselves and so can reflect on it. And it really matters- the process of experiencing something on your own. Personally, I learnt a lot in terms of experiencing new things or re-experiencing others. First of all, the school system and how it works, the life in that particular school, attitudes to work, teachers and students alike etc. I’m going to give a PowerPoint presentation about the visit paying special attention to the school in Durham at the next conference in my school. 2. Because of curiosity, I think. And because they are encouraged by their teachers who know much more about our country and can make it look interesting and worth visiting. When they come to us everything goes quite smoothly. It was so with our students’ exchange. The English teachers, especially the Head, knew a lot about Poland, our history and culture, and were happy to help their students understand some things. I remember Steven Harness standing in our history room in front of the map showing Poland’s partitions and explaining the situation to English students. He told them that although Poland had no longer been on the map of Europe it had been deeply preserved in the hearts of Poles. 3. Our students have established quite cordial and close relationship with their English friends. They are still in touch, sending SMS or e-mails every week and exchanging news. Some of them are planning to visit each other later this year or next. The same is with the teachers. If everything goes well they will come to us again in May or June. 4. Not many. I managed to find a student who is quite good at creating web pages and she taught another student a simple way of doing it. Luckily, my head master’s hobby is computers and he has always been willing to help both me and the students. Maybe the biggest problem was to put pictures into the texts and make them smaller without losing their visibility and quality. 5. The project could be assessed in terms of: personal development (both students’ and teachers’) the work done (including all the stages - discussions, preparation, role-taking, organizing things, gathering materials, preparing them, translating, correcting etc) language development ICT abilities co–operating (working in a team and being responsible for one’s tasks and for the whole) discovering “the known unknown” - the things we take for granted in our town, region, country, yet are interesting and worth presenting Phillipa Jenkinson 1. I teach Citizenship and not a language therefore we are not concentrating on specific cultures but more about not stereotyping and being tolerant of different cultures. Taking the students to Poland was invaluable for this; they quickly saw that Poland is very similar in many ways to the UK and that they had a lot in common in terms of dress, music and texting on mobile phones! 2. The students wanted to go to Poland as it was not a country that they would visit as part of their annual summer vacation although they had learned several things about Poland through their history lessons. As a result, they had a natural curiosity about a place that seemed to them distant in terms of culture and miles. 3. They benefited enormously, the students selected were not normally involved in school projects and felt very honoured to take part in such a high profile event. They grew in confidence and felt that travel and meeting new people is no longer something to be afraid of but something to aspire to. 4. Two of the students selected had an excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Front Page. As a result they were able to construct the pages without difficulty and iron out any problems we had. I would strongly recommend that if you were to be involved in a similar project that you have ICT help on hand. 5. I think that the factor to be considered when assessing the success and usefulness of the programme is: - how much of an impact has it made on other members of the school community? As only 6 students were involved in the actual exchange I feel that a lot of work needs to go into spreading the word about the project if other students are going to benefit. Ewa Komorowska 1. One can learn/teach all the theoretical things yet a hands-on experience is what adds the indispensable flavour and taste to the area one is trying to master. It could well be compared to the difference between looking at a cake and tasting it - nothing can substitute the actual fact of being immersed in a foreign culture. 2. Poles would want to go to Britain for several reasons. To name just a few: to find out how well they can communicate in English and so become more confident in using it in the future having read and learnt a lot about the country and its peoples, they would want to experience being part of the foreign culture to learn more about the problems and issues the British have to face in everyday life to see how the life of an average Briton differs from or is similar to that of an average Pole to help determine more accurately our national identity by analysing the stereotypes and facts about our partners 3. The students benefited in a variety of ways: they now feel by far more confident using English than they used to before the exchange they have experienced living with a British family, which gave them insight into the real lives of their partners they participated in some lessons in Britain, which proved to be a very stimulating experience /they know how they would want to change their own school, what they would like to see added to the curriculum, what to do to make their lessons more interesting, etc/ they saw that the two nations are in fact very similar, despite the existing differences they have learnt to appreciate their own culture 4. There were several ICT problems we experienced the original idea of having the entire group participating in the project communicate with their partners proved to be beyond our reach for security reasons on the part of British schools, therefore: students communicated by email, which eliminated all those not directly engaged in the exchange from sending and receiving messages, and so limited the group to about 5 people only despite the fact that the students responsible for creating the webpage had never done it before, they did not get any professional support from IT teachers in my school - the advantage here being that they had to solve most of the problems all by themselves, which meant gaining knowledge and experience in this kind of task the process of working on the webpage was a very stimulating experience and my students are willing to experiment more 5. The most important factors for the success of the programme would be: establish a partnership with a similar school /primary/ secondary- vocational/ comprehensive/ ensure that the age of the students participating in the project is the same allow plenty of time for working on the project as school terms in Poland and Britain do not overlap, which may create problems in communication due to students being on holiday or out of school for prolonged periods of time decide on a plan of action and stick to the deadlines give students as much autonomy as possible, making sure the teacher is a facilitator rather than co-coordinator decide well in advance on the procedures students have to observe while working on the project, e.g. acknowledging the sources stimulate and encourage students rather than assess the outcome of their efforts while the work is in progress Gillian Trimble 1. Experiencing a foreign culture puts it in context and gives purpose and reason. Pupils live the culture, experiencing the lifestyle, feeling the impact and making relationships. 2. To see for themselves the similarities and differences; experience and value the culture, foods, history, art/architecture; feel part of the wider community of Europe, appreciating the similarities and differences. 3. The pupils benefited by getting a truer picture of people and culture; it got them away from the narrow perspectives and thinking of their community; it widened their vision and had a maturing effect on them. They made real and long-lasting relationships. 4. As far as I know, there were no ICT related problems. 5. I think the most important factor is the contribution made to the education of a new generation of people who will live as part of a united Europe; equipping them to play a full part in their society whilst appreciating the wider dimension of being part of a European community. Marzenna Fijałkowska 1. The crucial thing in teaching or learning culture while experiencing it, is that both the students and the teacher can observe all the details in their natural environment, not only those selected and described by someone else. The questions answered by the natives and the monuments admired give the students more than reading books about the same things. Doing things together with the students from Britain teaches more than listening to the teacher. The difference is like between eating soup and reading the recipe. 2. Because the travel itself is fascinating to them. Also they are interested in doing things together with their new friends from the other country and visiting places sometimes known only from lessons. When acquiring a foreign language, one also has to know some details from the culture of the country to understand the language fully. 3. The students learn more natural language as they can have contact with it many hours a day. They improve their understanding and speaking skills because the situation they were in forced them to use English. They also learned a lot about how to co-operate in order to complete the task which was assigned to them. It is a very important ability for their future life. 4. None. 5. The most important factors are: he students were doing something extra which was also completely different from the things they normally learn at school. They felt especially rewarded for their work. The programme gives the opportunity to touch something distant and new as well as to break down some stereotypes felt about each other. We were for example surprised by the openness of our new friends. The international co-operation showed that people from two different cultures are able to understand each other and do many things together without any important obstacles. We achieved the goals which were stated in the project and the students were very proud of it. We made new friends and we are still in touch with them. We exchanged Season's Greetings and souvenirs. Younger students, who were presented with the outcome of our project, became very interested in participating in a similar project in the future. Our site is published on the Global Gateway site and can be accessed by anyone in the world. So, many people can learn about our cooperation and about ourselves, which is important to us.