Active Citizenship and democratic education: The Values and Knowledge Education Approach

Intro

Have you been wondering how to enhance students’ problem solving competencies, critical thinking, autonomous and self-regulated learning? Have you managed to scaffold students concerning the transferability of their knowledge? Have you pondered the question of how to support your students in order to enhance their collaboration, communication and argumentation skills? Then, this course will satisfy your needs. In particular, in this course, participants will be acquainted with the state of the art in citizenship and values education. In addition, they will familiarise with the Values and Knowledge Education (VaKE) teaching approach and will exercise their design skills of teaching learning sequences exploiting VaKE. VaKE is a teaching method, which combines values education and knowledge construction. With VaKE, participants will be able to conduct democratic education in specific subject matter lessons without not only limiting the content of the curriculum, but also enhancing students’ critical thinking among others. Thus, participants after the end of the course are expected to add a useful arrow in their teaching quiver for the 21^st century education.

Course Modules:

Each teaching day consists of a theoretical part and mainly practical workshops. Workshops are designed to engage participants in experiential and hand-on learning. The precise length of each section will vary by topic. Literature and handouts will be provided each day, and participants will have the opportunity to develop their own materials within the workshop. Participants are encouraged to bring their personal electronic devices (e.g., laptops, tablets, smartphones) during the course for information search.

1. Citizenship and democratic education in the 21st Century: Why Values Education?
2. Citizenship and democratic education in the 21st Century: What kind of Values Education?
3. Values and Knowledge Education
4. How to design a dilemma for VaKE
5. VaKE for Critical Thinking
6. How to assess students during a VaKE Teaching Learning Sequence (TLS)
7. Design a VaKE TLS
8. Presentation of the VaKE TLSs & Reflection

Attendees will receive handouts and self-evaluation forms as well as feedback forms on the course, per se. Social networking will be set up to maintain contact after the end of the course. Social networking will allow scaffolding for the design of dilemmas for VaKE and the implementation of VaKE TLSs. Additional modules could be available for the implementation and reflection of VaKE in specific subject matters via webinars.

Learning Outcomes:

Participants will be able

– to outline basic arguments regarding the need for citizenship and democratic education.

– to acknowledge the importance of values and democratic education.

– to prioritize values that could be promoted in their educational context.

– to identify the theoretical approaches as well as instructional methods and strategies in moral and values education.

– to experience and reflect on the steps of the VaKE approach.

– to design a dilemma that could be exploited for the implementation of Va

– to determine how VaKE can be enhanced in order to promote explicitly critical thinking.

– to design a teaching learning sequence exploiting the VaKE approach.

– to identify students’ assessment methods for a VaKE teaching learning sequence.

– to review teaching learning sequences exploiting the VaKE approach.

Destination:

Corfu is a beautiful green island, which enjoys a mild Mediterranean climate. Corfu is a very popular tourist destination. Up until the early 20th century, it was mainly visited by the European royals and elites. It is still popular with the global elite. The island’s history is laden with battles and conquests. Corfu was long controlled by Venice and repulsed several Turkish sieges, before falling under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars. Corfu was eventually ceded by the British Empire along with the remaining islands of the United States of the Ionian Islands, and unification with modern Greece was concluded in 1864 under the Treaty of London. Corfu is renowned for its long tradition and rich culture which is unlike any other Greek island. In 2007, the city’s old city was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here you will also discover a compact world of beautiful beaches and stunning mountain peaks, ancient ruins and picturesque villages. There is something for everyone on the island, whether you prefer peace and quiet or a lively cosmopolitan destination.