The kick off meeting of the Sharing, Inspiring and Reframing: New Tools for Motivation in Adult Education project took place in Vigo from 28 January to 1 February 2019.
Hosted by the Escola Oficial de Idiomas de Vigo (EOI Vigo), our first meeting was designed to set the vision of the project and be ready to move into execution mode. After the initial uncertainties derived from the resignation of one of the founding partners, these five days together have helped us not only to define best practices, processes and expectations for the project but also to build a shared understanding of what is to be accomplished in the next two years.
The project team gathered in Vigo eager to define the necessary milestones that would set the project in motion and to design clear, measurable goals for the months ahead. One of the first aspects discussed was communication during the life of the project. EOI Vigo presented the project’s website, the platform through which communications will take place and the main dissemination tool for the project’s outputs and results. The partners also agreed to postpone the choice of the project’s logo as Unieda offered to provide new logo designs in the next weeks.
During the meetings, partners thoroughly reviewed the project’s management plan. Responsibilities concerning the drafting of the initial questionnaire and report were shared, dates for webcalls, future transnational meetings in Rome and Krakow and submission deadlines agreed upon, and the blueprint for both the initial questionnaire and the project’s manual created.
The transnational meeting was accompanied by three different learning activities aiming to provide insight into the EOI Vigo’s comprehensive approach to motivation, framed within the wider schematics of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). The three contact seminars, – one on TPRS (teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) another one on the use of online communities to foster interest and motivation; and one on drama-based approaches to learning languages, – showcase the multifarious strategies used in this institution to face the challenges of adult students as regards the learning of a foreign language.
We can state with all confidence that, thanks to collaborative work and the insight offered by every partner, we have now a clearer path forward that will enable us to empower our adult students by increasing their intrinsic motivation towards learning and their self-esteem.
See you in May!!! Rome here we go!