Share the Music for Inclusive Learning in Education- SMILE

SMILE introduces music as an effective and inclusive education tool

  • The main objective of this project is to help pre-primary and primary school teachers to effectively use music as a teaching and pedagogical tool for inclusive education
  • - Possibility of acquiring new knowledge through the 'SMILEs Teacher's Guide'.
    - Access to educational materials and ready-to-use tools for integration into teaching, by "SMILEs Repository".
    - Ability to acquire new skills by participating in asynchronous training "SMILEs Training", through SMILEs MOOCs.
    -Raise awareness among EU citizens about the effective integration of music into inclusive education.
    -Personal development at European level.

RESULTS / DELIVERABLES
The project work program is conceived for the effective achievement of the following outputs:

  • A transnational survey on teachers' attitudes towards the use of music as a tool for inclusive education and the classification of needs for the material to be developed during the project.
  • A digital repository of songs, activities, methods and examples that can be used as an educational tool for inclusive education. The repository will also include activities, instructions, lesson plans, and music techniques that will help teachers effectively integrate music into their daily teaching
  • A guide including research on the relevance and importance of music in intercultural learning and inclusive education. It will include information on inclusive education and methods of integrating music into formal and non-formal education. The results of the PR1 needs analysis will be applied and the material from the PR2 Digital repository will be utilized.
  • The development of an online education designed as a MOOC, giving the opportunity to more teachers, from Europe and beyond, to be trained on how to use music in classrooms, in terms of inclusive education

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHERS

  •  Teacher training:
    Primary school teachers from the 5 partner countries will participate in 4-day training/education in Cyprus. The training will focus on ways to use music in their daily teaching as a pedagogical tool for social inclusion.

    Teachers Training LTTA in CYPRUS

    The ERASMUS+ project SMILE-Share the Music for Inclusive Learning in Education introduces music as an effective tool to inclusive teaching methods.

    On June 26th to 29th 2023, the Training activity for teachers of primary and pre-primary education took place in Nicosia, Cyprus as well as the Transnational meeting of the partners of the project. The Training was organised from the partner AMusEd, an organization that specializes in training children, youth and in-service teachers through Music, Drama and Dance.

    23 Selected teachers of the partner countries of the project (Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of East Macedonia and Thrace from Greece, A.MUS.ED. AMALGAMATE MUSIC EDUCATION LTD from Cyprus,  Fundacja Rozwoju Aktywnosci Miedzynarodowej i Edukacyjnej -FRAME from Poland, UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI CATANIA from Italy and Viksjöfors skola from Sweden), they had the opportunity to get to know the results developed in the project (SMILE Teacher's Guide, SMILEs Repository) and get to know practical applications of using music as an educational tool.

    Τhe Training activity included the following:

    1. The presentation of the general objectives and goals of the project,
    2. Training on the basic elements connected to music to its multicultural dimension. This training had the form of a workshop where the participants experienced the music in various forms. This helped the trainees to break any possible barriers of expressing themselves and experiencing new forms of art in order to reinforce their confidence to apply these methods in the classroom.
    3. Introduction on research that highlights the impact of music into the development of a more multicultural approach and acceptance of others.
    4. Workshop on some parts of the training modules. This was the part of the training where the participants challenged to explore the methods applied for inclusive education.
    5. Feedback and discussion. Trainees discussed their experience and give the feedback to the trainers, a procedure that will help the consortium develop the further PRs.

    The results of the project will soon be available to all teachers and interested parties at the program website http://smile-pr.eu/index.php/en/

     

  • Pilot phase:
    Teachers participating in the training will also participate in the pilot phase. It will be conducted after the completion of PR1, PR2 and PR3 according to the instructions described (PR3 Teacher's Guide) and using the material (PR2 Digital Repository) proposed. At least 3 activities that will be implemented in their classroom, recorded and presented as good practices in the PR. Best practices will be recorded/recorded for the purposes of the PR4 MOOC.<br>
    The teachers will give valuable feedback on the difficulties/challenges they faced in their classes during the implementation of the activities and the consortium will then proceed with improvements to the PRs.

     

    PILOTING IN CYPRUS
    1. Smile Piloting Phase Call and Response Download
    2. Smile Piloting Phase - Music Activity for Teambuilding using Technology Download
    3. Smile Piloting Phase Download

    PILOTING IN GREECE
    1. Smile Piloting EMTh RDE Download
    2. Smile Piloting EMTh RDE Download
    3. Smile Piloting EMTh RDE Download

    PILOTING IN ITALY
    1. Lesson Plan Download
    2. Music and nature Download 
    3. Smile Piloting Guidelines ( Campochiaro- Monastra) Download

    PILOTING IN POLAND
    1. Smile PL Download
    2. Smile PL Download
    3. Smile PL Download

    PILOTING IN SWEDEN
    1. Smile Piloting Download
    2. Smile Piloting Download
    3. Smile Piloting Download

     

  • Multiplication activity: Finally, teachers will be asked to share their experience during a multiplierevent, which will take place at the headquarters of each partner country.

    ME IN ITALY

    Name of the multiplier event:  Final Conference
    Date and place:  Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, Via Ofelia, 2 Catania, Italy
    Organiser:   University of Catania
    Country: Italy

    The final international conference of the Erasmus+ SMILE project brought together a diverse group of participants, reflecting a wide range of expertise and backgrounds in education. The event attracted both local and international participants, contributing to a rich exchange of ideas and experiences in the field of inclusive education through music. 50 local participants attended in person, comprising a mix of university professors, teachers from pre-primary, primary schools, as well as university students from the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Catania.

    10 international participants joined in person, representing experts from research centers, and university students 

    31 participant participants attended the conference virtually (international educators, researchers, and students)

    ME IN CYPRUS

    Name of the multiplier event:  ME in Cyprus
    Date and place:  15/6/2024
    Organiser:   AMuSed
    Country: Cyprus

    On June 15th, 2024 AMuSed organized the dissemination event of SMILE project in Cyprus. At the event we had 45 attendees in person coming from different backgrounds. They audience was multicultural, having both Cypriots and expats in Cyprus from different countries like Korea, China, Palestine, Israel, Greece, Lebanon, Russia and Romania. Attendees were teachers in pre-primary, primary and secondary school, academics, parents of children and music educators.

    ME IN GREECE

    Name of the multiplier event:  ME in Greece
    Date and place:  6/6/2024
    Organiser:   EMTh RDE
    Country: Greece

     The final multiplier event in Greece was organised by EMTh RDE at 6th of June 2024 at the conference room of hotel Dimocritus in Komotini. The total number of face to face participants was 24 and the virtual participants were 23. The participants were teachers involved in all parts of the project (training and pilotings), headmasters of primary and pre-primary schools, primary education councelors of the region and directors of primary education.

    ME IN POLAND

    Name of the multiplier event:  Conference “Music unites from kindergarten. Inclusive education through music in preschool and early childhood education.Effects and experiences of the SMILE project"
    Date and place:  21.05.2024, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Lodz, Lodz, 46/48 Pomorska St.
    Organiser:   Fundacja Rozwoju Aktywności Międzynarodowej i Edukacyjnej FRAME
    Country: POLAND

    The final Multiplier Event in Poland was organised in the form of a Conference called: “Music unites from kindergarten. Inclusive education through music in preschool and early childhood education. Effects and experiences of the SMILE project "and it was held on 21st May 2024 at the Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Lodz

    The conference was aimed at preschool and early childhood education teachers.