 Innovative Practice in Adult EducationParticipating institutions AJŠ ČR, os. (CZ), NYESZE (HU), OPTIMA (BG),PASE (PL), QUEST (RO) are invloved in adult language education at naional level in the respective countries and represent members who directly provide foreign language training.
This Partnership Project aims at facilitating the development and implementation of innovative practices in adult education and at fostering lifelong learning, sharing experience internationally. The applicants are national associations with member language centres providing adult education. Through this project, a wide pool of educators and adult learners, representing local communities, will have access to cutting-edge developments at European level. Priorities include:
These will be achieved by providing a platform for cooperation, exchanging institutional experience and sharing best practice among partners, disseminating locally and internationally through their networks, creating synergies and putting into practice effective approaches to adult language education in a multilingual and dynamic Europe for better career opportunities and international mobility. website of an international project IPALE 26th to 28th NOVEMBER 2009: FIRST PROJECT MEETING Venue: premises of AJŠ ČR member school IH AKCENT, Bítovská 3, Praha 4, 50°2'46.816"N, 14°27'11.383"E
21st to 22nd MAY 2010: SECOND PROJECT MEETING PARTICIPANTS: Coordinator AJŠ ČR o.s.: Andrea Křížková (Chair), Kateřina Topinková (board member), Michaela Vrátná (member school)Project partners: Julia SIPOS NYESZE Secretary General David ABONYI NYESZE Varbinka HADJIMITROVA OPTIMA Board Member Yordanka ANGELOVA OPTIMA, Chair of Asec Nina KRUMOVA OPTIMA member school Boryana KOSTOVA OPTIMA, Varna Free University Jacek CZLONKOWSKI PASE Chair Magda KIDYBINSKA PASE Vice Chair Ewa Rączka PASE Laura MURESAN QUEST Radadiana CALCIU QUEST Anca COLIBABA QUEST and many other QUEST members MAIN THEMES: 1. New approaches in applied research and education e.g. in linguistics, cultural studies, literary studies, education research, interdisciplinary studies 2. Integrated language and intercultural competencies for career development 3. Teacher Development and Lifelonglearning- a forum for sharing ideas, expertise and project outcomes 4. Innovative practices in LSP teaching and learning e.g. language teaching methodology, using on-line resources for greater learner autonomy, CEFR-inspired course design and (self-)evaluation, incl. LWULT-languages (e.g. BG, CZ, HU, PL, RO) 5. Quality Management in language education Quality Assurance in Higher Education - implementing European projects, e.g. QualiTraining (ECML Project)National and European quality assurance systems - learning from each other Implementing self-assessment and the European Language Portfolio - with special reference to the EAQUALS-ALTE version of the ELP for adult language learners: o The Bulgarian partners presented their experience with implementing the European Language Portfolio which helps students improve their awareness of their role in the process of teaching and learning and helps them set specific and achievable goals in their learning (presenter: Yordanka Angelova); all Optima schools use it; o Harry Nikolaides (QLS, Greece) illustrated how they introduce in Greece; o Laura Muresan shared the experience of introducing the ELP in Romania; o Suggestion: a task for the nat associations to popularise it among the state schools, to work towards the development of a state policy/strategy for its implementation on a wide scale; Innovative projects and the relevance of the valorisation process to IPALE: o the Romanian partners (with Anca Colibaba and Cezar Vranceanu as main contributors) presented outcomes of successful projects they coordinated or participated in such as LeTS GO, OfficeInterActors, LaProf, InClass, ELSTI. TOOL TIPLD (www.eurobusinesslanguageskills.net); they gave examples of how projects can be joined in various forms and can be linked with IPALE objectives and activities o On behalf of QUEST, Laura Muresan, the local organiser of the event, offered all the IPALE project partners the CD ROM For a Better Quality of Intercultural Dialogue - Highlights of Quest Romania International Conferences, which comprises a variety of project descriptions for inspiration and sharing of expertise in this field, and includes a description of the IPALE project for dissemination also beyond the immediate project constituency; CEFR descriptors in use: o On behalf of AJSCR, Andrea Krizkova and the Czech participants distributed a DVD demonstrating CEFR in Use - Illustrating the 6 CEFR Levels for Czech as a Foreign Language, i.e. effective implementation of language competence descriptors for adult learners´ objective self valuation by presenting non-natives speaking Czech at 6 CEFR levels, which should help adult language students assess their foreign language speaking competences and help them realize how they can function in a foreign language; o Suggestion: to explore possibilites of developing similar CEFR-based illustrative instruments also for other LWULT languages, e.g. for one or two more languages represented in the IPALE project Self-evaluation for teachers, Teacher Development and Mentoring: o Nina Krumova (OPTIMA) shared the experience of the Prestige Language School (OPTIMA member) of implementing a European Teacher Portfolio, as a useful instrument for Teacher Development and the annual performance review; o Julia Sipos (NYESZE), Angela Cotoara and Marina Cristian (QUEST), Yordanka Angelova and Nina Krumova (OPTIMA) shared the experience of mentoring activities unfolded in their countries and volunteered to contribute materials with examples of good practice to be shared among the project partners Consolidating networking among national associations in a structured framework o The Polish partners (Jacek Clonkovski) presented an idea of emphasizing the role of the partner national associations in life-long learning and the importance of sharing expertise on a regular basis, suggesting the founding of an international federation, to maximise contacts among similar organisations and their member schools; o Romanian partners, seconded by Bulgarian partner representatives suggested exploring project opportunities, to make the most of constructive initiatives and to stimulate cooperation among partners, giving as an example the ECML projects (Quality Management in Language Education and QualiTraining), in which almost all the national associations involved in the current project had participated; it was suggested that the current project as well as similar cooperation opportunities and professional networks could be capitalised on to the benefit of all the partners and their member organisations; o It was agreed among the project partnership that on returning home, they would explore pros and cons of such cooperation possibilities (e.g. a federation, future projects, existing networks, etc.), so as to be able to present their institution's point of view at the next project meeting, for a documented further discussion. Quality assurance organisations and enhancing their role at national level: o Hungarian partners shared their experience of promoting quality in language education at national level, giving examples of how an NGO such as their national quality assurance association could contribute to decision making at the highest policy-making level in the country in relevant issues / domains; o All partners expressed their interest in learning more on mechanisms that can be developed in this sense, and Julia Sipos offered to share this experience through a presentation and/or an article. 28th to 30th OCTOBER 2010: THIRD PROJECT MEETING co-organised with NYESZE HUNGARY and IH Budapest 1) Visit at Studio Italia Introduction to the school, a school history overview presented by their Marketing Director, the school has been operating for 20 years, is staffed by 19 teachers and each teacher has to undergo a special training before he/she is allowed to start teaching (regardless his/her qualifications), which means 48 guided observations within 2-3 months followed by feedback sessions; classes are of maximum 12 students each; project partners were introduced to their method at the Prague 1st IPALE Meeting; short pre-discussion of the school’s method and pre-observation task: participants watched a DVD and were explained in details what each method presented meant and were thus provided with a deep insight into the method, e.g. students repeat a certain structure as long as they get it perfect; tasks are designed so that everyone makes a step forward - but an individual approach is always a vital issue as everyone understands to a certain extend according to his/her abilities; then a lesson observation by all partners followed;evaluation – partners appreciated being directly exposed to the method and shared their points of views and came with sharp analyses afterwards; the Studio Italia direct method was originally started in DILIT school in Italia and has been applied in Studio Italia for 10 years The presentation came from a collection of presentations organized by the Polish association PASE. These presentations are organized for teachers of private schools. However, the organizers found out that 20% of people attending their sessions are public school teachers. According to the organizers the sessions have been so far very successful with the number of approximately 100 participants attending each of them. Since the sessions have been designed for all language teachers the presentations are given in Polish. 3) Erika OSVÁTH – INTERNET in Language learning and teaching Erika Osváth introduced in her presentation possibilities of using Internet tools in ELT as well as in creating the final product of the IPALE Project. Among the tools she presented were worldwide known and used social network services such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition, she also presented her blog she uses as a meeting point for students and parents of one of her groups she teaches. 4) Andrea KŘÍŽKOVÁ – Czech Language Market Status in Adult Language Learning This short presentation dealt with the current situation of Czech association. Its aim was to find ways how to improve the position of the association in the Czech Republic. As a tool to get the crucial information from the participants the presenter used a questionnaire which was filled by the members of all associations participating in the project. 5) Nikolay NIKOLOV – Creativity and Artistry – The Key to Promoting Language Schools Sucessfully Nikolay Nikolov introduced his presentation, which focused on the issue of promoting and advertising, by five short spots presenting five important events in his language school. The spots were used to demonstrate the power of successful marketing and promotion. Subsequently, the presenter explained what the main secrets of his success are. 6) Gaya MATEVA – OPTIMA’s Recent Developments The Bulgarian association consists of 25 member schools and its Chair Gaya Mateva presented new projects of the association such as Leonardo da Vinci MuITMo, mogamnogo project (a free online test), or Energy Boost which is a set of seminars for teachers. She also mentioned a new inspection scheme of the association together with the best teachers awards. 7) Jacek CZŁONKOWSKI – Language Learning without VAT The Chair of the Polish association PALE presented rather recent success of the organization. The organization with a great help from its member schools managed to enforce a new law which released all Polish schools from the duty of paying VAT for language learning. 8) Luminita Andrei COCARTA – On Public-Private Cooperation As a representative of a public school the presenter introduced to the participants e-learning tools - ELSTI (www.eurobusinesslanguageskills.net) and Office InterActors (www.officeinteractors.eu) - which are used at her university mostly for blended learning. ELSTI is a platform which the university pilots. The presenter talked also about the ways the platform is used to help the students communicate with students from other countries. 9) Angela COTOARA – Talk on Mentoring Angela Cotoara in her talk discussed implementing quality assurance in mentoring. She talked mostly of mentoring in the private sector and dealt with a position of a mentor and benefits of mentoring. 10) Larisa OANEA and Andrea HITTER-KOVACS – On Innovative Solutions in Language Teaching The two presenters introduced a new website containing Europass Language Passport www.sec.ro/elp-desk/ . Completing the passport online is supposed to be less tiresome for learners than its original version. Moreover, the learners can print out a certificate stating what their language level is. 12th to 14th MAY 2011: FOURTH PROJECT MEETING co-organised with PASE POLAND in Warsaw Scope of the meeting / event: During the 4th project meeting the participants focused on sharing expertise and information on methods and techniques of MOTIVATION and expertise in Quality teaching and learning used within the member institutions of the individual organizations. Almost all participants contributed by a presentation. A broad discussion re: the final product of the IPALE project was hold and TASKS for all project partners were set. Background work, in preparation for the 4th Project Meeting: Prior to the meeting, a Needs Analysis was carried out among partners, to elicit their interests and expectations and in particular from this project meeting. An overview of the interests and expectations expressed was sent out to all the partners, as a basis for proceedings at the 4th Project Meeting. In addition, the local organiser has sent information re: PASE conference.OPTIMA team partners presented a Presentation titled: “Motivated teachers-motivated learners!!” in which they shared expertise in “Quality teaching and learning”, approaches applied by OPTIMA schools as far as MOTIVATION is concerned as well as experience with managing inspections, inspection training and teacher training. The interdependence between students' and teachers' motivation in the Foreign language classroom was considered and participants got acquainted with some good practices of motivating teachers and learners in some Optima schools. Zsuzsanna Blashke-NYESZE presented “The Use of Language Competencies when Working” and demonstrated how to enable students to successfully overcome the widest possible range of situations that may occur in the respective fields through the necesssary competencies. Lenka Doležalová Pavilková-ACERT presented her school project titled “Learning Educators” -Some Useful Tips On How to Work with the Portfolio and a project titled „Innovative Learning Methods in Adult Education.“ Partners received a DVD with the project results and a printed version with a detailed description of the projects concerned. Martin Hejhal-ACERT presented “Motivating in-company students to take responsibility for their language development” in a way of a workshop where participants discussed effective and not so effective ways of motivating students-professionals to study languages, shared experience on setting up motivating SMART language goals (including reference to CEFR,) analysed motivation of different groups of students (management and staff, carrot vs. stick, will and habit), specified the „turning point,“ i.e. the moment when a student is able to motivate themselves without any need of external control. ALL PARTICIPANTS took part in PASE CONFERENCE “New Directions of Growth in a Modern Language School” on Friday and Saturday: http://www.konferencja.pase.pl/en/conference-programme and joined firstly our project partner representative IONA SONEA-QUEST presentation titled “Multicultural Environment: “Standardizing Teaching and Assessment “ that dealt with practical issues encountered by academic staff of her school during the several stages of the still ongoing standardizing process.
8th to 10th JULY 2011: FIFTH PROJECT MEETING co-organised with OPTIMA Bulgaria in Sofia Scope of the meeting / event: During the 5th project meeting the participants focused predominantly on final evaluation of the final product sources presented during the preceding meetings. Participant finalised project outcomes in the form reviewing the scope of work and concentrated on the ways of dissemination and training materials. IPALE sources include PPT-Presentations and conference presentations; descriptions of the project experience and examples of good practice, and dissemination activities and project valorisation events. Participants paid careful attention to each suggested chapter introductions. Detailed wordings were prepared. OPTIMA contributed with a presentation of the Teacher profiling Grid. IPALEproject participants contributed to the OPTIMA “Energy Boost” seminar for teachers of English: Jacek Cłonkowski: Silence is Golden and Laura Muresan: teacher Development through Self-reflection, Observation and Peer Cooperation, thus disseminating the IPALE projects outcomes and best practice. Background work, in preparation for the 5th Project Meeting: Prior to the meeting, a general evaluation framework took place at individual level (self-evaluation), at institutional level (within each partner association) and at organisational level (within the project as a whole) and partners assessed the activities organised and implemented within the project. This framework enabled partners to carefully prepare the product of the project. 7th to 9th APRIL 2011: PRAGUE EXTRA PROJECT MEETING co-organised by ACERT within the EAQUALS Conference One of the most important activities of IPALE partnership is the spreading of the information produced. Partners used the INTERNATIONAL EAQUALS CONFERENCE as one way of disseminating the experiences obtained at this project. Personal presentations are the most effective dissemination actions. the IPALE Project existing outcomes were broadly discussed with the conferennce participants (local organisations, authorities and other guests) and incorporated into IPALE PROJECT partners presentations. see: http://www.eaquals.org/news/item/?n=12843, which enabled us to disseminate the results of the project amongst participating institutions and the international community.
Running Quality Language Services AssociationsThis section contains the profiles of the five National Associations of Quality Language Schools participating in the IPALE project. It also includes examples of networking and sharing best practices which took place during the IPALE project.
2. Quality and Innovation in Teaching, Learning and AssessmentThis section focuses on high standards of teaching, CEFR and ELP-inspired curriculum design and self-evaluation for developing language skills for better career prospects in the spirit of lifelong learning. The presentations have been contributed by language professionals / practitioners involved in adult language education in all five project countries. They include methods and learning mechanisms to faciliate innovative practices in adult language education (including LWULT-language).
3. Teacher training and development - innovative solutionsThis section includes presentations, articles, links to on-line materials for continuing teacher development and encouraging greater learner autonomy. It capitalizes on IPALE partners' participation in European projects relevant to lifelong learning concepts and best practices.
4. Dissemination of IPALE Activities and EventsThis section presents a number of events and activities which contributed to dissemination of the project ideas and products in all the project contries and beyond, reaching a wide international audience.
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