3.5. Apprentissage et évaluation

Essunga, a Swedish municipality, transformed the ranking of its schools from the bottom to the top of the national school league tables between 2007 to the top in 2010. Essunga has three elementary schools and one lower secondary school (grades 6-9). With 5,500 citizens, it is one of the smallest municipalities in the country. The increase in levels of achievement is attributed to a research-based approach of inclusive education. For years, the three elementary schools in Essunga had consistently experienced low educational levels. An increasing number of students were refugees or in “family placements”. In 2007, only 76% of students were eligible for upper secondary school and 20% of these were placed in special education classes. These results compelled political and school leaders and school staff to identify targeted measures to address these challenges. The municipality focused on interventions at school and in the local community to prevent school absence and increase attendance.

Les groupes interactifs sont l’une des actions éducatives couronnées de succès illustrées dans le projet de recherche INCLUD-ED. Ce projet a analysé les stratégies éducatives qui contribuent à surmonter les inégalités et à promouvoir la cohésion sociale, et celles qui engendrent une exclusion sociale, en se centrant surtout sur les groupes vulnérables et marginalisés. Les groupes interactifs permettent d’améliorer l’éducation des enfants et des jeunes dans différents contextes. Ils regroupent les apprenants en petits groupes hétérogènes dans une salle de classe, et chaque groupe est encadré par un adulte. Chacun de ces groupes est composé de quatre ou cinq jeunes, et est hétérogène du point de vue du niveau, du sexe, de la culture, de la langue et de l’ethnie. Cet exemple permet de comprendre les groupes interactifs et les conséquences de cette pratique.

In the school year 2015/16 the Schulzentrum Ybbs (a school center consisting of three vocational upper secondary schools) introduced a concept called IndY, which involves that 20% of the teaching time is intended for individualized learning. IndY aims at improving students’ expertise, motivation, self-responsibility, self-management, collaborative skills, emotional intelligence and learning methods.

The learning hub was implemented at the TGM (an upper-level secondary technical college) as a school experiment in the school year 2016/17. It has been implemented in the school’s Information Technology (IT) Department in two of the four classes in the first year (i.e. grade 9).

In the learning hub students study self-regulated 20 hours per week. Of these 20 hours, 9 hours relate to general education subjects (German, English and Mathematics) and 11 hours involve vocational education subjects (Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Media Technology, Network Technology). The other 6 school subjects (Geography, History and Political Education, Natural Sciences, Religion, Sports, Computer Workshop), which encompass 13 hours per week, are still taught by using traditional methods of teaching.

The aim of the report Nordic Projects to Combat School Dropout is to improve and inspire new initiatives for young people, and to create enriching contacts between actors and organisations in the Nordic region.
The Nordic Web Resource on Dropout from Upper Secondary Education was a project commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers and run by the Nordic Welfare Centre between 2012 and 2015. The aim of the project was to compile good examples of initiatives aimed at increasing the proportion of young people in the Nordic region who complete upper secondary education.

Le projet PRINED concerne l’intégration d’enfants et d’élèves issus de milieux socialement défavorisés. L’objectif premier de ce projet est de renforcer la bonne mise en œuvre de l’enseignement obligatoire.

This project was set up more than 10 years ago to reintegrate students who refused to go to school. Since 2007, the programme has focused solely on students who suffer from school phobia, anxiety disorders or depression. The programme is unique in Austria and is publicly funded.

The school’s philosophy in relation to teaching and learning is focused students’ active understanding of and participation in the learning process. The school’s curriculum is based on the principles of progression and coherence.

‘The Bridge’ is one of the key innovative practices implemented at the school. It consists of a curriculum innovation established to provide a conducive and supportive learning environment for students entering secondary education at age 11. Learning is project-based and delivered by teams of teachers from different areas of the curriculum, which enables students to engage with a small number of teachers, and to work on clearly defined and cohesive learning objectives. The five principles underpinning the Bridge are: Achievement; Belonging; Celebration; Discipline; Enrichment. The students are empowered as independent learners – throughout their time at the school – and beyond. A rewards system enables students to earn points towards prizes at the end of the year.

This intervention is an educational approach aiming at holistic pupils’ development, aimed at nurturing both cognitive and non-cognitive competences, and bring education closer to the real life context, creating space for children with different capabilities to discover themselves and experience success. The intervention has been developed in Salduves pro-gymnasium (primary and lower-secondary school) in Šiauliai, Lithuania and has been gradually implemented and embedded into school culture starting from 2008, when the new school leader came to school.

The intervention includes (among others):

• Individual Achievement Tracking (AIT) system, aimed at helping every pupil identify learning difficulties at an early stage and improve their academic, but also social, development, through constant mentoring and multi-level monitoring;
• Social competence development system, focusing on engagement of students into social activities and continuous self-reflection and assessment of the results of these activities for pupils’ and for the community around them;
• Educational projects with social partners, the goal of which is to nurture pupils’ non-cognitive competences through learning in alternative environments (e.g., galleries, university labs, etc.).