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Description
The project, methodically supported by Norwegian Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge, Campus Notodden is based on cooperation with four Polish universities to implement aesthetic learning processes to Polish curriculum. Five project teams (Ttl 15 ppl) are to meet in Gdansk for training and sharing experience. During the first term Polish universities will be cooperating with Norwegian specialists to create a new course implemented to the curriculum from summer term. Students subscribing for the created course will have an opportunity to participate in 10-days academic camp in Gdansk, organised to broaden the knowledge and enable networking. The project is targeted at people actively studying or working, thus able to implement the skills and knowledge gained throughout the project in their professional career. Therefore, the long-term impact of project results has been secured. The project will be summed up at the academic conference in Notodden and a reviewed publication will be published.
Summary of project results
The situation of the education system and higher education, especially in the field of social, artistic and humanities courses in Poland, is not easy. Purely professional skills are a priority in teaching and choosing a field of study, with less and less emphasis on the development of humanities. Financial issues force universities to close their faculties, reduce the amount of courses and apprenticeships. This is a problem faced by public universities in particular. However, also private ones must organize classes in terms of free market requirements.
As a theater, we have been implementing projects for teachers and educators for more than 10 years (giving them creative, innovative, modern tools to work with students and local communities). We also organize numerous projects in the field of social inclusion (for seniors, people with disabilities, children). We see an urgent need to improve the quality of teaching in this areas.
The methodology proposed by Norwegian partners is almost unknown in Poland. However, it responds exactly to the needs observed and consulted with Polish partners: it allows to combine 3 key elements:
1) teaching arts (as general knowledge) and artistic values (as particular conventions, issue of quality, social and historical context);
2) working with individual and group emotions, the ability to verbalize, express, respect, issues as ethics, philosophy, social sciences;
3) referencing these topics to the entire functioning of society (including legal systems, economics, ecology, sciences)
Thus, it gives the opportunity to develop humanities as an element of social development by building interpersonal relationships and shaping a value system based on respect and knowledge.
It will allow future generations to continue training focused on methodology implemented in our project. Written articles and publications, expected as output of a project, will provide the basis for the development of a new quality of teaching.
The project was aimed at implementing at 4 Polish universities didactic methods in which the Norwegian Partner specializes. At the same time, we tried to provide a space for systemic testing in practice of how these methods function in the Polish context and to create a database of classes based on this type of teaching, using the Shakespearean motives as a base. For this purpose, a number of bilateral visits were organised, training for lecturers from 4 Polish universities, after which the results of their work were implemented in the form of new courses established by each of the Polish universities, a science camp for students (participating in these courses), as well as 5 events promoting project effects. Among them, e.g. international scientific conference in Norway, after which the collected papers were published in a dedicated issue of the scientific journal by Universitas Gedanensis.
The actions taken were particularly important because they supplemented the formal education of universities in Poland with methods based on working with emotions, transferring not only knowledge, but also artistic values and reference to the entire functioning of society.
All events and activities, as well as the goals and effects planned in the project have been implemented. A completely unintentional and very valuable moment was the encountered difficulties, which resulted in long conversations with partners, evaluation of activities and proposed solutions related to the difficulties and threats of introducing aesthetic teaching processes. Two articles included in the final publication are devoted to this subject.
Our main goal was to share knowledge and skills with each other, as well as to look for new inspirations. It certainly succeeded. Polish universities and the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theater are perfectly networked with each other. And cooperation with the Norwegian Partner gave us all the grounds to ask questions that never appeared in our work at the time of writing the project. The experience of a different style of teaching, other methods of work, juxtaposing them with the Polish realities and the needs and expectations of students (and lecturers) is a value in itself. And they taught us all - not only what was assumed in the project, but also showed us what to watch out for in the future. They also indicated a number of hitherto unknown needs, such as the necessity and methods of ensuring the emotional safety of participants during classes and events.
Summary of bilateral results
The difference was fundamental. The project would not have happened in any form without the Norwegian Partner. In Poland, the concept of aesthetic teaching processes does not actually function at all. Yes, various artistic methods are used, art is a teaching tool. But it is unsystematized, there is no consistency in these activities, the methods are very different and very individual. The successful attempt we made in this project - systemic introduction of these methods - presented in detail and supervised by the Norwegian Partner, enabled not only the development of common scenarios, topics and tools, but also consulting them on an ongoing basis, confronting each other, discussing and drawing from this process whatever works best in practice. At the same time - as we wrote earlier - we do not believe that the difficulties encountered in the project were any loss at all. On the contrary. The fact that all universities and their students faced similar doubts and fears during work (especially during the Shakespeare Science Camp) - shows us what we need to work on in particular. What to watch out for. How to introduce these methods in the future in a safe atmosphere, in the most effective way. This was made possible thanks to the collaboration with a scientific team from Universitetet and Sørøst-Norge. There would be no change if we tried to achieve similar results ourselves. Nor would we be able to come to any new conclusions. We all need a break at the moment. Especially becouse research teams in Poland plan to keep the courses created as part of the project and continue to work on them at their universities. In the future, however, we do not rule out the second stage of this process. This will be most appropriate when the Polish side has gained some practice in using these methods when teaching at the higher education level.