Reflective Methods

for School Partnerships

Tools for
ESD-Schools

on Education
for Sustainable
Development

SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT
THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION

Reflective Methods
for School Partnerships
on Education for

Tools for
ESD-Schools

Sustainable Development

A document by the SEED network as a contribution to COMENIUS

and other school partnership projects
Collaboration between Mariona Espinet, Michela Mayer,
Franz Rauch, and Johannes Tschapka

Table of Contents
Imprint:

Introduction

Tools for ESD-Schools

Reflective Methods for School Partnerships on Education for Sustainable Development.

Phase 1 approaching

September 2005
ISBN 3-85031-064-7

a joint partnership through finding project partner schools, deciding

on a project topic and considering a development goal.

Authors:
Mariona Espinet, Michela Mayer, Franz Rauch, Johannes Tschapka

Phase 2 planning

School advisor:
Martin Scheuch

a range of project activities and writing a work plan that includes school visits,
planning meetings and project products such as booklets, CD-Rom or a website
to provide material and experience.

Publisher:
Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture
Dept. V/11c Environmental Education Affairs
Minoritenplatz 5, A-1014 Vienna / Austria
E-mail: guenther.pfaffenwimmer@bmbwk.gv.at

Funded:
By the European Commission through the EU COMENIUS 3 Network
100530-CP1-2002-1-AT-COMENIUS-C3,
School Development through Environmental Education (SEED)
The COMENIUS contact seminars and thematic workshops have been supported by the respective
National Agencies of Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy,
Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, as well
as by the Educational Authorities of Austria, Hungary, Italy, Norway, and Sweden.

Phase 3 acting

Photo: Johannes Tschapka / Austria

Design: reiterergrafik / Austria
Print: radinger-print / Austria

No copyright restrictions as long as an appropriate reference

of this original material is included.

24

taking part in one's own school activities, visiting partner schools and creating
new material by collecting photos, methods and experiments which
contain new knowledge about learning and teaching.

Phase 4 reflecting

32

on the actions taken through creative ways that permit teachers to share
and learn from each other and to explore their specific new interests
and teaching innovations.

Phase 5 reporting
In collaboration:
with the international network Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI)
www.ensi.org

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40

on the variety of activities undertaken during the three-year international

project to promote the lessons learned as viable alternative approaches
to professional teaching.

Acknowledgements

47

COMENIUS school partnerships

48

SEED Network

50

Tools for ESD Schools can also be downloaded from

2

www.seed-eu.net

Introduction
This booklet is intended to serve as a guide for teachers involved in school
partnerships and school networks that are considering the use of exchange and
dialogue amongst schools for school development through environmental
education..
It offers methods to investigate classroom issues that may pose particular concerns
in regards to running a project on Education for Sustainable Development and
international partnerships. Both areas offer teachers a deeper understanding on the
triangle of teaching subjects, developing multidisciplinary projects and changing
teaching styles for a more situated learning. On the other hand students gain a wide
range of concrete topics to learn about systemic global relations and to act in their
local community.
A main feature of such under takes is to report the processes and results. Teachers
can use the booklet to become familiarised with reflective methods of Action
Research in order to conduct their own project and to mentor partner schools. In
addition, the booklet serves as a guide to foster communication among the various
project partners and as a resource to share the findings and results of the respective
school development processes.
Action Research is seen here as a way to:
1) investigate practical situations with the goal of improving them,
2) construct new knowledge that will be useful for similar future situations
that teachers may encounter, and
3) make use of international exchange so that teachers can distance themselves
from on-the-ground action and reflect on their practices with help from partner
schools.
We therefore we see a school-to-school exchange in international school
partnerships, such as the European COMENIUS school partnerships, as an
opportunity for self-development in teachers and principals. Participants are invited
to reflect critically on their organisational school arrangements and their teaching
practices. COMENIUS school partnerships on school development are also
characterised by making teachers' knowledge and experience available to other
schools and by inserting individual findings into a professional discussion.
4

Such two-year projects in schools face several phases. These sometimes run
chronologically, one after another. Other times the phases are mixed up or the general
idea is revised, and the cycle begins again.

Project phases that

have been identified are:

implementing/reporting

reflecting

approaching

planning

acting

These cycles have characteristic features because the school partnerships are carried out
by people directly concerned with social situations that they want to improve. The
COMENIUS school partnerships start with practical questions that arise from everyday
work in the field of education. Such educational knowledge can only be constructed
through an individual process by teachers who give value and meaning to experience
and communication. This context-linked knowledge is meaningful because it is useful
and can be applied in actual classroom situations. Instead of just being part of a
programme, 'objective,' or detached from reality, this kind of knowledge involves value
judgements, expectations and all that which makes an experience important and
meaningful.
The five chapters of the booklet follow the cycle above and offer a repertoire of simple
methods and strategies to research and develop practical knowledge on how to, for
example, do an analysis, keep a diary, conduct interviews, observe, report, and make use
of simple questionnaires.
From 2002- 2005 COMENIUS school partnerships that were facilitated by SEED were
conducted through thematic workshops in Reichenau (Austria), Szeged (Hungary),
Frascati (Italy), Kassel (Germany), Barcelona (Spain) and Palermo (Italy). By facilitating
school partnerships we were interested in supporting professional school development.
SEED brought in academic researchers who had experience with Action Research so that
the latter would provide support in the innovation process by assisting in the

formulation of a development goal, offer methodological training to collect data,

and organise exchange and communication between teachers running an
international project to encourage networking.
The booklet compiles lessons learned as well as resources from that SEED network.
SEED provides the sources, and the methods are also available on the SEED website:
www.seed-eu.net

Phase 1 approaching
... a joint partnership through finding project partner schools,
deciding on a project topic and considering a development goal.

A central feature in building knowledge is collaboration within school networks and

partnerships, and compiling experiences. Teachers and principals who participate are
able to critique and to contribute to each other's developing school projects.
With this booklet we emphasize steps that need to be taken to encourage and
implement school development. Schools starting school development through an
international project should note the following five items:

The project should focus on:

a clearly-stated interest in improving a teaching practice

a school community mandate for action over at least two years
an intelligent project which can lead to an achievable result
a school-relevant topic that touches on the interests of pupils and teachers
providing an in-depth view into the school life to the project partners

Start small, beginning with your classroom practice

Many examples from international school projects have shown that a whole school
approach right from the start can overburden teachers. An insular concept in which
the development process evolves over time might be a useful alternative. There are,
however, many ways to develop as a school and to start. At the beginning there
could be a vision or a guiding philosophy to make a school more sustainable. One
could start with an analysis of the current situation and build on strengths, which

are already present. Another way to begin could be to start with a project which is
of interest to a group of teachers. If a school development process should arise out
of a single project, transparency and communication are of utmost importance.
For project planning this means that school development must tie in with existing
conceptions of teaching, school life, and the relationship of the school with its
environment. Dealing with the topic then becomes appealing and worthwhile from
the interior perspective of a school, as it not only implies new, additional tasks, but
also promises results in actual solutions to current problems.
Besides the learning of facts, rules and principles, a worthwhile school project
requires a focus on the dynamic qualities of the pupils, teachers, head teachers and
other involved persons of the school community. Deciding for a project, especially an
international one, means dealing with complex, real-life, unstructured situations
which often raise controversial issues. The active generation of knowledge by pupils
and teachers in the local contexts of action is, therefore, necessary to augment a
pro-active shaping of the school environment. Through such interdisciplinary inquiry
and controversial discourse, a group of teachers can promote a critical, reflective
attitude towards given stocks of knowledge.
There is evidence in COMENIUS school partnerships, that school development
processes which are supported by colleagues from other countries allow and
encourage: the negotiation of binding rules, the assignment of responsibilities to
pupils, support of team work and social continuity, as well as individual and joint
reflection on the quality of teaching, learning and life in school.

Worksheet No 1
Change exercise
The following exercise is quite well known. It rapidly symbolises real change and is
thus worth doing. So give it a try yourself or let others in the project o it: Take a
piece of paper and draw nine points as in the figure below. Try to connect these 9
points together, using only four line segments. Do this without interruption and
without raising the pencil from the paper: where one line ends, another must start.

For result see page 52

This short exercise leads us to two different kinds of changes.

"Changes 1" are changes within a given framework, that is, within a set of
implicit or explicit rules which might exist in a school and you may or may not be
aware of.
"Changes 2" are changes of actual frameworks. Being aware of the existence of
such frameworks in a school's culture allows you to look not only at solutions, but
also at the construction of the problems. One of the conditions for a meaningful
change in any situation is that there is a shared representation of problems. This is
because a quick solution to certain problems could initially save time, but the
problem might reoccur if it is not discussed and understood enough beforehand.

Education for Change

Not only do projects dealing with Sustainable Development deal with behaviours,
they also look at a vision of the world. Reflections on sustainability issues will
automatically challenge the assumptions of everyday life in classrooms as well as of
the school culture in which we are often unconsciously immersed. The kinds of
changes required by our Risk Society to make a real difference do not simply lie in
the range of problem solving, but instead demand changes in the conscious and
unconscious rules that frame our behaviours.

Intercultural projects are tools for change

School development with sustainability as the orientation and goal requires a
Change 2. To engage ourselves in a Change 2 means to leave the known for the
unknown, and to find new frameworks and new meanings for our behaviours. We
need tools and friends to support us if anxiety arises and to help us monitor such
change. International projects, the presence of friends and using joint reflective
methods can provide a way to maintain control over the processes while we are
attempting to change contexts and contents.
How can an intercultural project take the best from the cultural differences that are
present between schools from different countries? Your intercultural context is your

Worksheet No 2 Getting to know other international teachers

yourself, and take notes (mental and then in your diary) of any differences and
feelings (if any) of embarrassment or uncertainty.
Such intercultural encounters can show you what implicit frameworks are present
and also raise ideas about possible changes. Even embarrassment and anxiety
can be supporters of change: we cannot be sure about the rules we must follow,
and this uncertainty is a sign that we are exploring other frameworks and other
rules. So take a good look and good luck!

Contact seminars

School development means change

Before schools start international co-operation, teachers or head teachers from

different countries generally meet in seminars. Such contact seminars happen all
over Europe. Ask your National Agency for a list of contact seminars or look at
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/static/en/overview/comenius_overview.htm

A new look at frameworks within your school and your teaching practice aligns
with a change of the teacher's role as someone who transmits knowledge, to
someone who must learn to construct significant contexts and ask legitimate
questions within which students can then actively create their own meanings.
Confidence thus shifts from having confidence in contents, such as established
rules, data, and methods, to gaining confidence in processes that allow us not to
eliminate, but to keep error under control.

new framework and support for Change 2. The attempt to communicate with
teachers and pupils of different languages and cultures means that another way to
see the world becomes possible. You can explore these differences, and after each
international meeting or school visit you can come back looking at your school and
your teaching practice with other eyes.

You and your school can also request a preparatory visit, asking colleagues from
other countries to meet at your school and to prepare a joint project. Again, you just
need to contact your National Agency for support.
Before joining a seminar, clarify which topic you want to choose for a project that
will last two years. The contact seminars are dedicated to specific overall themes,
such as Intercultural Understanding and Peace, Against Violence, Sciences,
Environment, and Health. Experienced schools in their wisdom use current topics
which are shared among most of its stakeholders.

Such schools become a focal point for knowledge production that is useful in
their respective neighbourhoods; not just a library in which to find past
information, but a centre in which the community can come together to debate
and deal with real problems.
Schools thus become learning organisations.

Learning from cultural differences

Arriving at an international seminar like the COMENIUS contact seminar is always
thrilling. Who is everyone, where do they come from, do they speak in a language I
can speak or maybe just barely understand?
Before you engage in new encounters we invite you to reflect on the following:
Be aware of your behaviour when you meet a person you are acquainted with from
your culture. Are there differences if the person is a man or a woman? How does it
look like between you and your headmaster or your colleagues?
Use the reflection on these behaviours when you greet persons at the beginning of
an international seminar. Converse with people from cultures which appear to you
to be very different from your culture, background or sex. Do not try to adapt
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11

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as a useful agent

for school development

Worksheet No 3 Fostering motivation in ESD projects

Motivation to run international projects
The UNESCO document on ESD asserts that schools need innovation processes to
deal with the use of more active and dynamic methods in schools. It is thus
important that interested teachers are able to transmit to other colleagues, students
and community members the motivation to participate.
Ask the teachers of your project to bring a picture from their own school on which
school participants are shown. One after another, explain to the other group
members what motivation strategies are used to motivate colleagues, the head
teacher, pupils and parents, and what seem to be the successes and the failures in
the motivation strategies you have applied.
Encourage the group to make a poster that shows which motivation strategies work
and which ones do not work. Collect issues, such as the emotional dimensions of
motivation, and figure out the most important ones to engage schools in. How can a
local context be important in developing motivation in schools when doing ESD in
international projects?

School quality groups

School quality groups support commitment and motivation at school. The tasks of
quality groups are: interpersonal feedback on instruction, joint analysis of data, and
mutual assistance in drawing consequences for the improvement of instructional
quality. Periodical reports to the steering group on activities and consequences also
make up part of a quality group's work.

From our point of view, a focus on ESD can help a school improve itself for the
students. A central agenda has to be the construction of new ways of envisioning
our common future, experiencing our planet, and participating in the resolution of
societal problems and issues to achieve a lasting quality of life for all. The
publication on Quality Criteria for ESD-Schools with guidelines to enhance the
quality of Education for Sustainable Development is available in different languages
at: www.seed-eu.net
ESD offers a 'global', 'systemic' and inter-disciplinary approach because it facilitates
dealing with concrete real issues without simplifying them beforehand. ESD is also
seen as an education for citizenship, for critical participation and for taking personal
responsibility in actions and decisions concerning the natural, social, cultural and
economic environment.
It comprises school initiatives at three levels: at the pedagogical, at the
social/organisational, and at the technical/economic level.
At the pedagogical level, schools aim at creating stimulating and meaningful
learning experiences, and involving pupils in sustainable ways of thinking,
acting, and feeling at school, in their families and communities.
At the social/organisational level, schools aim at building and cultivating a
culture of communication and decision making, and developing a social climate
which is characterised by mutual recognition and respect.
At the technical/economic level, schools aim for an ecologically sound and
economic use of resources.
Such schools become focal points for knowledge production that is useful in their
respective neighbourhoods; not just a library in which to find past information, but
a centre in which the community can come together to debate and deal with real
problems.
Schools thus become learning organisations.

Steering group
The composition of a steering group is the head teacher plus delegates from each
quality group. The task of the steering group is the co-ordination of, and the
exchange between, the quality groups. The steering group supports collection and
analysis of available statistical data and peer reviews from pupils, parents, teachers,
those leaving school etc. It utilises the results of school-focused investigations and
of reports from quality groups for developmental initiatives.
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Worksheet No 4 Getting an ESD focus for our project

Finding a starting point - In-depth reflection
1. Think of your own practical experience as a teacher:
Is there any question which you have been wanting to investigate for a
long time already?
Which of your strengths would you like to develop further?
Are there any aspects of your work that you find puzzling and that you have
already been reflecting on?
Are there any situations which cause difficulties and which you would like to cope
with more effectively?

Phase 2 planning

Let your thoughts flow freely and write down your first spontaneous associations in
the form of catchwords (brainstorming). Don't spend more than 6-8 minutes on this!

a range of project activities and writing a work plan that includes

school visits, planning meetings and project products such as
booklets, CD-Rom or a website to provide material and experience.

2. Choose one of the catchwords and write it in the centre of a blank sheet. Note
down all the associations that arise in relation to this core word as word-chains,
starting from the central concept and displaying your associations in various (linear
or branched) graphic arrangements. A core word plus word-chains is called a
'cluster'.

Each project needs a clear work plan that outlines who is doing what where, by
when and with what expected result or product. A COMENIUS school partnership
application, or any other project application for that matter, generally forms the
basis for planning. Such project sheets can be used as a guideline for the planning
phase.

3. Choose a colleague from your school or an international partner and tell him/her
about your cluster, your associations, questions etc. Your partner should then ask
questions to understand more fully what you mean. This should help you discover
the main focus of your project and your development goal!

In educational projects like COMENIUS projects, which are dedicated to the

exchange of educational practices, we want to emphasize some additional aspects.
These projects search for a deeper understanding of educational processes that
might lead to changes in the daily practice in schools.
Problem Analysis offers planning instruments that can help identify educational
goals in your project:
Planning talk - planning walk;
SWOT - Analysis;
Analytical Discourse
Subsequent Data Collection describes two momentums which can facilitate the
project process and support change:
Triangulation
Critical friends

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15

Experienced network schools recommend some central aspects for planning

processes:
Build a small, but motivated group of schools to ensure partnership maintenance
Make sure that the tasks will be shared among the partner schools
Save energy by efficiently combining project goals with your teaching
curricula.
Integrate the project into the school profile or your school's development process.
Ask your colleagues and head teacher for their commitment and seek out a
core group of colleagues to support you.
Involve a highly-motivated group of students from the school to join in on the
project actively.
Decide on some practical methods of documentation, which you will actually use
(photos, video, diary, portfolio of pupils, a.s.o.).

Problem Analysis
You are interested in shaping your everyday teaching at school through international
co-operation. The project group can help you identify the potential of your school
actually improving.

Worksheet No 5

b) What methodologies do you currently use in your project?

Bring some photos or artefacts from home, material files or educational materials
that represent different activities from your own school projects. You could also take
material from activities that did not work and from ones that did work in order to
feel the tension and dynamic pull of a possible development direction. Exchange
these school stories verbally among the group members with the support of the
materials you bring along. Clarify how well these stories are substantiated. How can
you be sure, which data gives evidence to your stories? From there you could ask
each other to identify which didactical approach is guiding those school stories. Try
to articulate some sentences, which specify the positive or negative values
underlying the stories told.

c) Which methods of documentation fit with our development goal?

This third step shifts the focus to the future of the project and asks which additional
information you need in order to accompany your project with valid documentation
and to touch the persons involved in your development goal. Go about this like an
investigation or exploration. You want information. So how can you make the
project accessible and have enough evidence from different points of view? A
multiple approach to information leads to the question of Triangulation (see below)
and the need for a regulatory instrument, such as Critical Friendship (also see
below).
This step can be included in the above step (b), depending on the stage of your
project and the time available for face-to-face communication.

Planning talk - planning walk

In the planning phase it might help to communicate intensively in pairs - either face
to face or by email - or in contact seminars, to identify some development goals.
Three major questions could lead to a clearer vision of project goals.

What is our problem area?

a) What are we interested in developing?

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What do we want to find out? What do we want to change or influence?

Select an issue, which is important enough to be dealt with in the context of your
school practice and of the project topic, such as eco-sustainable school
development. Try to briefly outline the issue in a short situation, which symbolises
your interest (including your emotional interest) in the subject area of the
problem/question. Ask your companion to formulate the interest in this particular
development in a few vivid sentences.

Worksheet No 6
SWOT - Analysis
By reflecting on the areas of Strengths - Weaknesses - Chances - Threats
(=SWOT), the group becomes aware of the current conditions of the school
institution or the classroom situation. Based on the perceived strengths, the further
development and progress of a project can be visualized, and this may lead to an
actual improvement of the status quo.
The SWOT analysis follows two major steps.
1) Situational Analysis
Think of your school or of one specific class and its present status, for example, the
services you offer to students, involvement of other people interested; the internal

17

relations with your colleagues, how your daily work is organised/structured; the
public image of your institution and other important aspects about your school.
Which strengths and weaknesses do you see when considering these aspects?
2) Future Presumptions:
Think of the environment of your school and imagine future trends, for example, in
educational and social policies, cultural developments, the demographic situation
and technological development.
Which opportunities and threats for your school do you see when considering these
trends?
Take a sheet of paper and fill in a grid such as the one below with your school's
current strengths and weaknesses. Now imagine any future opportunities or threats
that might arise.

Strengths

Opportunities

Weaknesses

Threats

For a fair and efficient procedure, adhere closely to the following steps:
1) Presentation: (5-10 minutes)
One teacher or a teachers' group of one school presents basic information on the
issue that is to be analysed, without interruption of the audience.
2) Questions: (approx. 30 minutes)
The other partners ask questions to gain a comprehensive and consistent impression
of the situation. In order to ensure an accurate result, the audience is only allowed
asking questions, without making any critical remarks or suggestions (even hidden
ones in any of the questions asked). Three types of questions are suitable:
* Ones that ask for a more concrete impression (i.e. ask you to give an example or
provide more details)
* Ones that ask about underlying theories (i.e. ask you to give reasons for any
action described)
* Ones that inquire about the expanded system (i.e. ask you to give more
information about people or events who may be related to the problem, but have
not been mentioned so far)
3) Sharing: (approx. 5-10 minutes)
All participants, the presenter and the audience may give now comments, share
reflections etc. (guidelines for question period do not apply here anymore).
An additional goal of this phase is to help each school focus and decide on one
specific development goal to be achieved through a project!

Worksheet No 7
Data Collection
Analytical Discourse
In a partner meeting you can sometimes not imagine the real situation in your
school. The posters generally presented are colourful, and the schools seem quite
perfect. Such displays of schools at COMENIUS seminars are great for encouraging
lively exchange, but make it hard to identify necessary development goals.
The analytic discourse combines good performance as well as deeper insight.

You visit other schools or want to look at your own school from different
perspectives. You observe school activities, you take pictures, and you collect
drawings of pupils or their essays. These materials are data to help you in your
efforts to improve your teaching.

Worksheet No 8
Each partner school should have the chance to present and allow time for questions
and feedback. Someone from within the group (or an outsider) can moderate the
analytical discourse and determine the time frame. He or she is also allowed to ask
questions. Additionally another person should report on the presentation, questions
asked and the final discussion. This report will serve as a basis for further planning!
18

Triangulation
Triangulation is a more general method for bringing different kinds of evidence into
relationship with each other so that they can then be compared and contrasted. In
the schools the three points of the triangle correspond to the three main
perspectives: teachers, students and observers. The observers can be teachers from
19

other schools; this corresponds with the opportunity of COMENIUS and other
projects to use partnering school-teachers as observers.
External observer/critical friend

Teacher/actor 1 in the situation

Students/actor 2 in the situation

The basic principle underlying the idea of triangulation is that observations and
accounts of a situation are collected from a variety of angles and perspectives, and
then compared and contrasted with one another. As a teacher, for example, one can
compare and contrast accounts of teaching acts in the classroom from one's own,
the pupils' and an observer's point of view.
When comparing different accounts, the points where they differ, agree or disagree
should be noted. In cases of disagreement one can check against evidence, have
discussions on points of disagreement between the various parties involved, and try
to understand the different implicit frameworks and value systems present.
Triangulation also refers to triangulation of data that is, for example, elicited
through interviews, the submission of written reports and photographs, etc. The
choice of a specific data collecting technique depends on the objective of the
exploration and the situation in the school. Every technique has its particular effects
on the data, and care must, therefore, be taken to constantly and carefully check the
data collection. Be aware that neither interviews, nor photos, nor any other data are
fully objective.

Critical friends
In joint projects you share ideas, plans, feelings, and your impressions with teachers
from other schools that are sometimes located far away from yours. You can ask one
of your partners to be a critical friend of the actions taken during your joint project.
20

Critical friends are persons to whom there is a relationship of trust, who are
friends, but who at the same time are willing and able to communicate their
perceptions in a differentiated and constructive form (i.e. who are critical in the
original sense of the term).
To establish critical friends in project teams like COMENIUS requires negotiation and
clear communication about the conditions and limits of a critical friend's role. The
partnership might begin with a preliminary conversation in a relaxed atmosphere so
that you can explain your development interest in an actual project.
In the following are excerpts from a correspondence between two Italian teachers,
when Isolina asked Arnaldo to be her 'critical friend':

Isolina: I would like you to be my critical friend in the following research

project
Arnaldo: Before saying yes or no I would like to ask you some questions:
Why me? What do you think my role should be?
Isolina: Well reasoning' in early Italian means profound communication
through words, speaking and reflecting together, only by 'reasoning'
with someone can I see the horizon of my research, and I can reason'
with you, because over these years you have asked the right questions at
the right time.
Arnoldo: In any case I inform you of some methodological
conditions: I wish to know beforehand what it is all aboutI wish to take
part in the planning process in order to have the roles clearly defined.

The next step would be to talk over ideas for the various stages of the project and
at which points in time you would like your critical friend to contact you, for
example, at a school visit or in a monthly phone call.
To find a critical friend for your project takes the same time as finding real friends.
Thus establishing a critical friend system in COMENIUS project groups should take at
least till the end of the first project year to accomplish. At a project meeting you can
arrange pairs and practise how to act as critical friends. We recommend that you
reflect together on how to incorporate individuals or the group to act as a critical
friend within the context of your COMENIUS project, and also that you accept that
some of the partners may decide against being a critical friend.

21

The role of a critical friend can be rather complex. His or her prime task is to provide
support through encouragement, listening, observing in Triangulation, reviewing
reports, and the sharing of emerging threats and opportunities.
Teachers of COMENIUS 1 projects summarised their experiences of Critical friends as
being an active listener, pointing out the good and weak points, and respecting
each other as persons.
As a general rule they pointed out the importance of taking time for the necessary
exchange, being loyal and looking at the whole spectrum of a problem. Critical
friends should avoid judgement and imposing ideas. They should not interfere or
take decisions, rather they should keep a distance from the situation, and help
analyse and improve the educational tasks.

Worksheet No 9
Critical Friends: We would like to engage with you in a shared
reflection on the role of critical friends in ESD projects.

Developing the role we would like critical friends to hold

Within the context of the Comenius project groups, write down on one poster what
you would like your critical friend to do.
What tasks would you ask your critical friend to do?
What rules would you ask your critical friend to follow?

Practising critical friendship

Project groups becoming critical friends:
Comenius project groups can be critical friends for each other. Build pairs of project
groups and ask one group of each pair to act as a critical friend. We recommend
that you sit in front of each project group's poster so that it is easier to remember
things or point at issues. The critical friend group asks questions to the other group,
and vice versa. This activity can also be done within the same Comenius project
group so that partners can practise critical friendship.

Implementing the idea of critical friends in our ESD project

Think of ways in which you can incorporate individuals or the group to act as critical
friends within the context of your Comenius project group.

Developing ideas on critical friendship

Sharing our understanding of who a critical friend is:
Write down in your personal diary or on a sheet of paper, who you think a critical
friend is. We would like you to engage in a conversation on your ideas of what a
critical friend is with the participant sitting next to you. Write on a piece of paper
the answers to the following two questions based on your experience, prior
knowledge, intuitions and the following:
I would like a critical friend for
I feel a critical friend should not

Telling stories about critical friendship

Ask participant teachers to share their own experiences on working with critical
friends when they engage in ESD projects: They will tell their personal stories on
critical friendship.

22

23

serve as the host's helpers . This is not an inspection! The visit forms the basis for
further co-operation and possible further visits.

Quality Criteria for a good Comenius school visit:

A sample of COMENIUS schools worked out some quality criteria for what they
called a good school visit.

Related to cultural differences:

Phase 3 acting
taking part in one's own school activities, visiting partner schools
and creating new material by collecting photos, methods and experiments which contain new knowledge about learning and teaching.
This chapter is mainly dedicated to the use of Data Collection in the action phase of
a school development process.
School visits are one of the main features in data collection. Especially in
COMENIUS projects, visiting schools in other countries greatly influences the results
of the school development projects. Taking photographs, looking for traces and
sharing interviews enhance the efficiency of such travels.
we also describe two additional kinds of documentation that can be used amidst
face-to-face communication: the field book and the virtual knowledge-building
portfolio.

Participating teachers should be aware that the systems are different. The hosting
school should therefore present its country's culture through art such as singing and
dancing, sharing local meals and giving lot of time to in-depth cultural exchanges.
As you visit a variety of schools in different countries, a common goal should be that
everyone ends up gaining a clear vision of one another's educational system.

In regards to the suggested and

recommended methodologies and activities:
Before the visit:
The group can achieve a high level of acceptance and satisfaction by jointly
designing the programme of what will take place during the visit. Host and guests
must ensure communication about the visit before, during and after the visit. For
good data collection in light of school development, the visitors are asked to
prepare clear questions that are useful for their colleagues and pupils at home, as
well as being helpful for the host school. Don't forget to inform colleagues and
parent-groups at your school about the idea and purpose of the visit. This is
important in order to deal with any expectations they might have and to avoid any
misunderstandings, for example, that these visits might be seen as additional
holidays. Make it clear that school visits are work!

School Visits
During the visit:
School visits provide an opportunity for head teachers and teachers to share ideas
and experiences with their visitors. It appears that this kind of critical friendship,
which school partnerships offer to each other, is one of the most effective methods
of disseminating ideas and strategies for teaching.
Learning from each other: both the teacher who is being visited (host) and the
visiting teacher (guest) have the chance to benefit from this technique by gaining
new insights, perspectives and impulses. No one holds the whole truth! The guests
24

The host school should involve all the teachers, pupils, as well as parents and the
public in general (also local and educational authorities). You can also organize
visits to local projects or invite certain local associations in order to get professional
help.
Allow for plenty of time. Don't pack too much into the short time together. Less is
often more! Schools who have had the experience of doing such COMENIUS visits
25

propose a balance between: working time, acquiring knowledge of the culture and
country you are visiting, plus some time free.
The main condition for a successful school visit is that the host school opens its
doors to the visiting group. This enables the visitors to experience a variety of
methodologies in different lessons dealing with the local school reality.
Visitors observe the students in a real context, and collect information through
observing and interviewing. Thus the visits can be used to work with the hosting
school's problems: the visitors may offer advice, serve as a critical friend, and
exchange ideas, insights and experiences with the host school in order to enrich
each other's perspectives and encourage common reflections.

After the visit:

The visit can be used to bring back collected information about different ways of
learning. Back at home the visitors should therefore present all the gathered, useful
experiences to the school community and to the parents' association. For school
development purposes make sure that you take sufficient time to summarise clearly
and completely, and also to decide on how you will integrate the new information
and experiences into your classroom and school culture.

The teachers of the host school must explain to the guests which aspects of their
school and teaching they are interested in getting feedback on. The guest teachers
must understand exactly what the host is looking for. A short group discussion can
determine who needs to be involved in these questions for collecting data in order
to construct a possible proposal for the host school. The group should also select
together which lessons are to be observed and discussed.
Observers have a clear role. They shall begin with pure observations and allow the
host teachers to respond. It is important not to present observations as the better
truth. Visitors have a very subjective point of view and should therefore encourage
the host teachers to give his/her interpretation. The idea of data collection in school
visits is to jointly develop an interpretation of the observations made. It is advisable
to be careful with making suggestions and to ensure that they are constructive!
The following range of data collection serves precisely for such school visits. The
methods chosen make use of photos, traces and interviews.

Worksheet No 10
Through the pupils' eyes - photos from school visits

Data collection

26

School visits can serve as a collegial audit. An important basis for this is trust: Trust
that the visitors are coming as friends - as critical friends, who will look at the
practice of the school and its teaching methods and styles.

Photos provide an opportunity to get in contact with pupils, and they work well as a
start-up or ice-breaking activity. Talking with pupils about a real situation based on
photos offers valuable data. Photos might therefore also be a good starter for
interviews.

In order to ensure and encourage as much efficiency as possible for such short visits,
the host and guest should jointly define the main key questions to be looked at
during the visit.
Example of questions that could be posed:
1. How can we improve the communication within the school, between teachers,
and between teachers and parents? Could a new portfolio-based assessment
methodology improve communications with the parents?
2. Due to the fact that more than 80% of teaching methodologies are still based on
a transmissive model, how can the school change in the direction of learning by
doing?
3. Could teaching through the use of laboratories that are based on class curricular
work be a way to foster this change?

As a teaching method you can invite a group of pupils to take photos of their
school. Offer them instant cameras because these kinds of cameras give pupils
photos that are ready in a few minutes. The main task for children can be to take
photos according to different topics, such as:
Please take a photo of a place where you think you might learn something.
Please photograph a second picture from a place which is hiding a secret.
Finally, please shoot a photo of a place where you believe that your teachers
think that you might learn something.
The children should go off in pairs without any further facilitation from the staff or
visitors. As they spread out without accompanying teachers, the results are
frequently photos that offer up surprising perspectives. The students will need time
to orient themselves and to choose viewpoints. Twenty minutes is enough time to

27

complete the task and not too much time to loose interest and concentration. Once
they are done, they can come back with their photos to the agreed-upon meeting
point, and together analyse their chosen images and share their ideas on the
requested issues. Young children especially are fond of explaining and narrating
concrete images. Children enjoy this kind of investigation, which gives them a clear
role and takes them seriously. They approach the task with an understanding of
themselves as explorers. The aim of using such a photographic investigation is to
make images, which the pupils hold implicitly about their school as a system,
explicit. It is based on the idea that children develop a specific idea - a mental map of the system school as soon as they enter school as a social phenomenon.

In a final reflection before the visitors present their observations, they should
critically ask themselves: What does it mean to look for traces? There is also the
ethical dimension to consider: Are we being voyeuristic observers or critical
friends? Are we using our observations to put pressure on teachers who,
comfortable with their old methods, are unwilling to change? These and other
questions can help us interpret and qualify our observations in the context of the
host school's headmaster and teachers, of their questions and realities.

Worksheet No 12
Sharing Interviews

Worksheet No 11
Finding traces
The core activity of this form of data collection is observation and to find traces that
hold answers to the questions the headmaster and the teachers of the hosting
school raise. The first task could be to come up individually with questions, and the
second step to identify those that could be answered just through observation in
exchange with the whole group.
Through discussion the visitors' group develops a guideline. What are the observers
aiming for? Are they, for example, looking at the communication directly (e.g.
speaking time of the teacher in the classroom) or are they looking for graffiti
throughout the school (an example of an implicit trace of communication)? Another
example of observing traces is to look at teaching aids: Is there a library? Do the
teachers of the host school have enough technical support in their classrooms? The
group should divide into pairs, and every pair should focus on one particular
question that it will seek to answer by looking for traces/signs.
This kind of exploration will bring issues to the fore that are often not considered by
school users or visitors. Walking around the staircases and classrooms we can see
the actual terrain/landscape and signs or tracks of the system school. We can also
reconstruct something of the history of the building over the past centuries. The task
is to find out as much as possible about the real owners of this environment. We
collect everything, which we think can help us reconstruct the culture of the
respective school.
28

The goal of an interview during school visits or in a joint school project is to get a
deeper understanding of a situation. It is important to note that an interview does
not only provide the interviewer with information. The interviewee - the teacher,
pupil, or headmaster of a school - also learns more, as s/he is encouraged to think
about her or his situation.
Some basic rules for interviews may help to achieve reasonable results:
Inform the interviewee before the interview why you are doing the interview
Give the interviewee the freedom to answer a question or not
Emphasize listening instead of speaking (70:30)
Keep your agenda in mind, but do not interrupt abruptly, and allow for a change
of topic if the interviewee wants this. Pick up your key questions at a later point.
Avoid leading or suggestive questions and take care of your interviewee's feelings
Ask for details and for illustrative examples until you have a clear idea and
understanding of the situation requested
Endure pausing, because some of the interviewee's thoughts need time to be
expressed
If a whole group of visitors wants to run interviews, the questions can be discussed
in the light of the 'basic rules for interviewer' above. Such a discussion can help
match together similar questions and improve them if needed. Subsequently the
group can split into subgroups with different tasks:
interviewing pupils in small groups of 2-3
interviewing the various teachers of the same class of pupils
interviewing the head of school and the staff
29

Each subgroup must be aware that they will need a translator in international
school projects!

small data bank. Such a web environment can easily be used as a portfolio for the
planning and documentation of the project.

The sub-questions posed on, for example, the communication among the
stakeholders in the school could sound like this:
Pupils as interviewee: Do you know that your teachers collaborate with your
parents in following your daily work? How do you feel about that?
Teachers as interviewee: How do you think the relationships between teachers and
parents could be improved in your school? What are your main fears about the
introduction of a portfolio system in your school?
Head of school as interviewee: What kinds of strategies are you using in order to
prepare the teachers to change their methodologies and the pupils (and parents) to
accept these?

Due to the cumulative nature of the knowledge being acquired and developed, a
simple design of the user interface could offer a distinctive feature for knowledge
building.

After an hour of interviewing, the subgroups meet together in order to collect the
data and to start building a common vision that is related to the main questions
posed at the beginning.

Work sheet No 13

The major benefit of such an ICT-based forum is that content, structure and
development goals of a project team can easily be traced back for recollection,
reflection or analysis due to the visual presentation and availability of knowledge.
Especially in phases between face-to-face meetings like partner meetings or school
visits such virtual meeting places where actual statements and questions can be
posed are highly recommended and welcomed. The main idea is that teaching
practices can be shared and discussed that take place in different contexts and a
variety of schools which are located hundreds of kilometres apart from each other.
Thus, a member of the project group can pose a question to such a forum. The other
project partners are requested to comment and discuss the question or to add new
experiences. The partners can post in several languages or illustrate the situations of
concern with photos or paintings.

Field Book
One of the central instruments for intercultural projects is a diary to collect
observations, interpretations and attempts at explaining observations, judgements,
emotional reactions, and side notes. You can also stick photos, articles of
newspapers or your travel tickets in your diary.
Such books support self-evaluation and -monitoring through three functions:
The process of writing shapes the implicit thoughts and emotions, and thus
encourages the a person's inner dialogue.
Continuously re-reading the pages enables a better view of the ongoing process
and also empowers the field book owner's further steps.
The fact that the book and its content exists provides important evidence to the
school development process and offers valid arguments for evaluation and report.

In addition to the data collections taking place in face-to-face meetings (as

mentioned earlier in this chapter), this kind of knowledge building leads to a joint
construction of knowledge, a collaborative form of reflection and problem solving in
the quest for deeper understanding.

Work sheet No 14
Virtual Knowledge Building
30

Most international projects and school partnerships develop at least a website or a

31

Phase 4 reflecting
on the actions taken through creative ways that permit teachers
to share and learn from each other, and to explore their specific
new interests and teaching innovations.
In the first chapter we focused on how you can clarify your development goal, and
determine and articulate your specific problematic situation that you aim to improve
in the planning chapter two. Then, in the third chapter on acting, we suggested and
recommended several methods to help you document your process, and pointed out
that critical friends and the consideration of different points of view through
triangulation can be very useful throughout the project.
In this chapter we discuss reflection as a necessary component to be able to give a
straightforward verbal description of one's practical knowledge. School visits and
dialogues amongst teachers enable you to distance yourself from the on-the-ground
action in your school for some time and to reflect on it. Reflection provides healthy
detachment from the flow of activities, interrupts the flow, and concentrates upon
the data collected during your project in order to look at your action in a more
objective manner. Projects can therefore improve your ability to analyse and
reorganise your teaching practice.

32

Reflection also helps you become more aware of your view-points and those of your
partner teachers in your COMENIUS project. You might frequently discover
differences in values, educational approaches, or ideas on Education for Sustainable
Development (ESD) amongst the partner teachers. School visits or workshops can
represent an opportunity to face such differences and learn from them through
reflective activities.

In the following section we describe an abbreviated version of how to evaluate

a project through reflecting on the ESD methodologies used in our project in order
to facilitate the implementation of project results in your school.
Contrasting Methodologies serve to identify the underlying didactical
approaches of a project, and awareness of Contrasting Values allows for greater
alignment of values within a school project.
Evaluation is also encouraged by continuously assessing the Strengths and
Weaknesses of COMENIUS project groups at meetings throughout the duration
of a project.
Finally, we deepen the reflection phase through Codification of Data, which
leads to collaborative reflection within the project group.
All four reflective activities require complete and good documentation through at
least three points of view (e.g. pupils, teacher and observer) and/or three kinds of
data collection (e.g. interview, questionnaire, photo, written reports etc.)
This documentation is important for analysis and interpretation, and is the only
guarantee that the development goal of a partner school is based on facts and
evidence for the need and direction of innovation!

Worksheet No 15
Reflecting on ESD methodologies used in our classroom
Most teachers use their routines to perform their educational task in the classroom.
Thinking and acting are not separated, and the activities generally take place
without being planned and prepared too much in advance. In COMENIUS projects
teachers are confronted through dialogue and reflection with the fact that they are
often unaware of the sources of their practical knowledge and how it was learnt.
One of the most important conclusions emerging from the UN Decade for ESD is
that education should use a variety of methodologies within the teaching and
learning processes that are being developed and implemented in schools. These
methods should be student-centred so that students are more able to construct their
own world visions on their own. School development projects in COMENIUS also
consider the need for a methodological change in schools. To do this it becomes
important to encourage the use of different languages: words, drama, art,
debates, experiences etc.

33

In order to facilitate reflection on educational methodologies, the following guiding

questions can be useful:
What were your goals for the schoolpartnership?
What did students learn?
What did you as the teacher do?
What did you as the teacher learn?
What methodologies worked? Why? (Context)
What methodologies did not work? Why? (Context)
What approach to teaching and learning was used in your project?
The above questions could be asked individually or in groups during a school visit or
workshop.
First, search in your data (photos, interviews, diary, pupil reports or portfolio files)
for clear evidence to answer the questionnaire. Let the pure facts speak for
themselves. Show your collection without.
Second, give your interpretation of the collected data along with these
guiding questions to your critical friend or colleagues.
And finally, ask the audience to give feedback on your interpretations. You can do
this by means of a poster presentation during a partner meeting, as well as
through email exchange or on your project website

Worksheet No 16
Contrasting Methodologies
To become aware of the didactical approaches underlying methodologies, partner
teachers should identify didactical approaches in their own ESD school projects.

34

1) First phase: Let's work out a methodological jigsaw!

One of the partner teachers prepares three jigsaws based on photos or material of
her or his activities related to the respective project. Each jigsaw represents one
didactical approach, for example, transmissive(front teaching), inductive and
constructivist approaches. Each jigsaw contains a picture of an activity and the
proposal of this activity written in the common project language. Each jigsaw is
then cut into four pieces that represent four different activities characteristic of
each corresponding educational approach. The total 12 pieces of the three jigsaws
then get completely mixed up, and all partners try to construct three jigsaws,
which represent three different ways of approaching classroom lessons.

b) Second phase: Let's reflect on the methodologies used in our projects!

Teachers bring from home four photos representing different activities from their
own school projects. The group should jointly identify which didactical approach
has been guiding their own school activities. Alongside the material and
documentation, the partners can discuss in which situation and context which
method serves for which didactical approach.
c) Third phase: Let's present what we have shared on methodologies!
This third phase can lead into a general text or introduction in the report, website
or product of the project group. The performance can be validated through O-tone
passages out of interviews, photos, and screen shots of group activities.

Worksheet No 17
Contrasting Values
Educational activities are not neutral. When students and teachers meet in the
classroom, the ESD activities they engage in implicitly or explicitly are guided by
important values. These intrinsic values may sometimes be different from those
explicitly stated by teachers, and thus can lead to incoherence. Education, more than
ever, needs to be oriented through values that are made explicit in action. When
values are made concrete, it is easier to examine, debate, prove and apply them in
educational settings. There exists no general agreement about what the
fundamental values for sustainable development are. In fact, these values depend on
deep Cosmo visions, on how we understand and interpret the nature of our social
and natural worlds. These values deal not only with the visible outcomes of school
interventions towards the environment (environmental values), but are also about
everyday school culture (educational values).
It is important to become aware that ESD activities are not neutral and thus
objective, but rather that they are based on values and influenced by these. An
important task within COMENIUS school partnerships is the discussion and sharing
of those value systems present so that some agreement and understanding is
possible between participant teachers. Answer the following questions in groups of
teachers within the same COMENIUS project or with teachers from the same school:
a) Are we proposing values when teaching ESD in schools?
Each participant will bring different photos of ESD activities that s/he liked the
most and the least in their own classroom and glue these on a poster.

35

b) What values are important for us? Let's construct our ESD values universe.
Each group of teachers takes one poster with the photos of one teacher, writes
down the ESD values suggested by the photos and posts them on the poster,
marking any perceived relationships between values. The values that are common
to the group are written on post-its of the same colour, whereas the values which
offer divergence are written on post-its of a different colour.
c) Teachers tell the story of their photos.
Each group of teachers invites the owner of the photos to share his/her story
behind the photos with the group members. This teacher's values are written on
a different colour post-it and posted on the poster.

Worksheet No 18
Strengths and Weaknesses
The COMENIUS school partnerships are very unique amongst the existing
international projects due to their specific dependency on the decisions of the
national agencies. In other areas they can easily be compared with other
international school networks or school partnerships.

The use of computers for communication depends on many factors

(language, computer skills, availability of computers), so ICT alone is hardly a
possibility at present to extend communication between schools.
Working with different cultures means considering different views and
interpretations of the same common aims: it is very important to take time to
explore cultural differences.
Beginning with a common agreement on the meaning of used terms in the
different educational cultures is highly recommended.
A good COMENIUS school partnership can be a teachers' project, but also
needs strong support from the headmaster.
Comenius school partnerships open up possibilities to involve parents and pupils.
A Project Book, a kind of diary of the project that collects feelings and pictures in
addition to reporting on activities, can be used for internal communication
within the school and also, if a synthesis is translated into the common language,
for communication between partners.

Worksheet No 19
Codification of Data

A project group might use 20 minutes per partner meeting or school visit to
evaluate the project, in other words, to get a qualitative sense of the participants'
feelings and different experiences, and to clarify and understand how the group
members work together. A project group that implements project evaluation
continuously will, over the duration of the project, receive more detailed answers
and arguments on any open questions of their process.
COMENIUS schools that experienced such partner meetings came up with some
common suggestions:
Accurate planning and time for reciprocal knowledge is very important:
proceeding straight to action can cause difficulties and misunderstanding.
It is very important to inform the whole school, and especially the students, of the
project and of the work done through the use of posters, public presentations,
and exhibitions.

36

Project partners will collect piles of documents and material over the two-year
period of a project. This is why we ask that the real documentation is reduced to
three perspectives (see Triangulation). But even such a downsized form of
documentation needs a clear structure to deal with efficiently and effectively.
What does the project mean to me? You can answer this question now, for this
moment. But was your answer different at the initial contact seminar, at the first
planning meeting and during the first lessons when you confronted your pupils with
the project, a.s.o.?
A codification of your material and documentation gives meaning to the process
beyond momentary feelings or thoughts. This enables you to realize what changes
you have made through your project and to map the innovation(s) clearly.
In the following steps we ask you to prepare the documents you have (written,
photographed or sketched) and to try to arrange these artefacts around your major
project idea or development interest.
37

Each project partner should take a big sheet of paper or a poster, write the
development goal at the centre of the sheet, and try to group sentences, photos or
thoughts around this centre, like in a mind map. You can ask each member to help
identify some keywords that emerge out of the material. It is like taking a walk
through a foreign country and searching for some familiar structures to help orient
yourself. Keywords should relate to the development goal in the centre. If your sheet
gets too small, add another one, enlarge the table, or work on the floor. It is better
to have all the material in sight at this stage.
As soon as you have identified three or four or maximum five keywords, write them
on the paper around the centre. These might be the first codes that lead to the
structure of your documentation.
In an interim step you can have a look at the sheets of the other partners to get a
feeling of how keywords can be found. Coming up with keywords is a difficult step
in a project, and group members can, therefore, be a great help to one other. You
can, for example, ask for comments on your keywords or you can try to find
evidence for one keyword in your documentation in pairs, to make sure that you are
on the right track.
As a next step you use these codes around the central development goal and try to
group typical situations or the momentum of your project around them. Look
through all your material and feed the codes.
In a final step you can write down the results of your grouping efforts, take a photo
or document it in a way which allows you to develop a report or reflective paper
(see reporting chapter).

perspective, quality criteria should provide orientation and inspiration, but should
not be confused with 'performance indicators' or the like. In fact, a set of criteria
may be considered as a 'translation' of a set of shared values that are formulated in
more explicit terms and more closely related to practical application, but not as
prescriptive and limited as performance indicators. As such, the proposed list of
criteria is aimed at facilitating discussions within the school and amongst all
stakeholders to clarify:
1) the main goals and changes that shall orient a school's development toward ESD,
and
2) to develop a school's own list of quality criteria, that are adapted to the school's
own situation and plans for change.
Use the Quality Criteria for ESD Schools and read the 15 areas. Choose those
areas you feel more comfortable with and invite other teachers to think about them
and propose specific criteria in relation to these areas.
First, the teachers are invited to think about criteria that will apply to their own
school, paying attention to their specific needs and development plans.
Second, they are asked to discuss and contrast their criteria with the ones other
teachers from other schools in the same group have chosen, and to reach an
agreement on some criteria that are relevant for all the schools. Criteria can be
enriched with short examples, pictures or descriptions of 'what they mean for
good quality'.
At the end the group will prepare a poster where the common set of criteria are
presented. The final 10 minutes will be devoted to reading and responding to the
posters produced by the different groups of teachers.

Worksheet No 20
Reflecting on the quality of a work project

38

There are different ways to reflect on the quality of a COMENIUS school

partnerships . A recent SEED publication was printed on Quality Criteria for ESD in
Schools. Quality criteria' is an instrument which summarises an ESD philosophy: it
must be jointly constructed and accepted by all school stakeholders; it cannot be
considered as a tool for 'quality control', but rather as an opportunity for 'quality
enhancement'; and it is subject to ongoing debate in a participatory way. From this

39

dissemination is the fact that different kinds of presentations will attract different
audiences. For instance, you could report to the local community by writing a short
article for your local newspaper or a letter to the editor. For a teacher colleague, this
kind of article or letter would be too short and would not provide enough
information. Let's take a look at the different methods of reporting you could use.

Oral reporting

Phase 5 reporting
on the variety of activities undertaken during the
schoolpartnership to promote the lessons learned as viable
alternative approaches to professional teaching.
The main way of disseminating project experiences and outcomes is to turn them
into practical action in the respective schools. This can mean planning and carrying
out changes in your teaching as a result of your school development process.
Another possibility is that the findings lead to strategic and political action.
Reporting that is based on good project documentation and careful interpretation
can thus serve to encourage changes in curricula or organisational structures. A
report from a project group might be useful in order to raise a specific issue in
discussions on educational policy within a school or school authority.
In this chapter on reporting we focus on various methods of reporting. The
range of reporting possibilities reach from a simple poster presentation in school to
more elaborate ways of reporting, such as exhibitions, discussion rounds and written
reports.
Under Written Documents we go into more detail in order to introduce the
methods of reflective papers, portrayals, key statements and case studies.

Methods of Reporting

40

Teachers usually underestimate both the degree of likely interest in their project
results and the size of their potential audience. Important when thinking about

An oral report is the most familiar way of communicating an experience. From your
experience of in-service courses, you may think of a stimulating and effective
presentation you could give. Sometimes a workshop might work better to help
others understand your approach, as they can then learn through doing. It could
also be useful to make use of the project duration and the pool of teaching
expertise from different countries to develop many of the skills needed to become a
teacher trainer or an in-service course provider.

Audio-visual presentation
Audio-visual methods of presentation have proved to be a valuable way of reporting
to pupils and parents. For reporting to pupils, parents and colleagues, it does not
seem to be necessary to produce finished products that stand by themselves without
a commentary. It actually seems to work better to present clips from a video and
talk about them, followed by a discussion, rather than spending a lot of energy on
producing a perfect video or slide show. For example, on one occasion we found
that it worked well to present experimental teaching strategies with the help of a
rough-cut video without sound. This video was given a live' commentary by one of
the project teachers, who afterwards took questions from the audience.

Exhibitions
To prepare an exhibition about your project you need to analyse and think carefully
about what it is you want to communicate and who your audience is. An
appropriate occasion for an exhibition could be at the beginning of an in-service
course, whereby a selection of teaching experiences and insights are presented on
posters. Exhibitions by teachers for parents or pupils are often limited to presenting
teaching products in the form of students' work. It is much more seldom to find
notes and commentaries on the teaching process, perhaps because teachers tend to
think that this will not be of any interest to others. This need not be the case. A
description of the context in which teaching methods and classroom activities are
developed is sometimes much more revealing than viewing an end product.

41

Written reports

Reflective Papers

Written reports are obligatory for all projects the likes of the COMENIUS school
partnerships or national network programmes. Sometimes these reports have a very
clear structure in order to deal with the many aspects they are required to cover:
objectives, the educational approach, a description of the products, a financial
statement, and an evaluative or reflective section. Even in these kinds of reports,
however, you still have the freedom to describe your findings based on the
development goals you held.
Written documents can also come in very different sizes and forms, including letters
to the editor in local or regional papers, notes on the staff-room notice board, short
articles in a magazine or journal of a professional association, or longer papers in a
journal such as Educational Action Research, to give a more comprehensive report of
the research and its findings. In our cultures there are various implicit and explicit
rules on how to write a report. The rules are not the same, and whoever has tried to
submit an article to a journal that is written in a different language will know from
experience just how different they can be!
Because written reports currently hold such importance, we will deal with how to
write and design them in the next section.

We can distinguish three general attitudes present in writing about an event, an

action or a project:

Written Documents

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We start this section with a short synopsis on quality criteria for any kind of written,
reflective document:
All papers are requested to deal carefully with ethical principles of writing, for
example, all persons referred to in a paper must be given the opportunity to
comment on the text, and their references must be confirmed as well as any
photos by the individuals shown.
All interpretations must be based on observed data which derive from different
perspectives and a variety of sources, as shown in the section on Triangulation.
This fosters the validity of interpretations and avoids blind spots in data which do
not support the author's own conclusions.
All conclusions should use a problem-oriented style and should present new
questions in order to enable readers to check on their own practices and to
stimulate further reflection.
Finally, all results should contribute to the aims of the project undertaken and
must have justifiable consequences for actions that have been derived from
reflecting on the experiences.

1. Writing a report that focuses solely on facts, and tries to eliminate values,
emotions, and embarrassments. The implicit paradigm here is that the factual
reality is of utmost importance and that emotions are an obstacle. Cultural
frameworks and values are not considered to interfere or influence the vision
and perception of facts.
2. Writing a report as a narrative of success, emphasising what went exactly as
planned or better, and minimising obstacles and difficulties. Values and emotions
are reported on when they are consistent with the message of success. The
implicit paradigm here is that only successful stories are interesting and will be
awarded. COMENIUS project reports often adopt this style of writing.
3. Writing a report with the understanding that obstacles and embarrassments can
serve as opportunities to learn. Thus values and emotions are reported as being
important, especially if they are conflictive. The implicit paradigm in this approach
to writing is that emotions are part of cognition, and that differences and
dissonances between values and implicit frameworks form the very basis for
change and evolution.
Knowing of these varying approaches to writing a report, we ask schools and
project partners to integrate alternative perspectives in order to gain more critical
perspectives and to increase their project's validity. Not surprisingly COMENIUS
school partnerships are encouraged to use a discursive approach to enable change
and innovation. This kind of double-loop learning reflection is not limited to the
relationships between means and ends, but also includes the further development of
the values underpinning any action.

Worksheet No 19
The game of parallel tales
Ask your project group to divide into three pairs or single persons to write three
different short reports (one page max.) concerning a partner meeting or a school
visit. The rule in this game is centred on the underlying style of story telling. Each of
the three report teams must write in a different style:
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1. One team reports only facts, no judgements or emotions;

2. Another team reports only those events that are connected with positive
emotions - what you know or think will be appreciated by your audience;
3. The third team reports both positive and negative feelings, tries to connect feeling
and value with different kinds of data and points of view, and reflects on the
difficulties encountered as well as the opportunities present for change.
After this, compare the three styles of writing and discuss how they worked and
how much of each of the three approaches your final project report should ideally
contain.

Portrayal
In a portrayal, an event - for example, a part of a lesson or an episode during a
school visit - is described vividly and in great detail, without much analysis or
interpretation. The idea is that the reader should able to gain an understanding of
the situation and bring his or her own judgement to bear, without becoming
dependent on the interpretations and value judgements of the author(s). Texts of
this kind can be developed in the virtual phase of projects, between face-to-face
meetings, in order to stimulate exchange and discussion amongst project partners.
Although the interpretation is not made explicit, portrayals are in fact analytical.

Key Statements
Key statements are an alternative to voluminous and elaborate reports. They are a
lot shorter and require that teachers summarise the outcomes of their project into
one page in order to condense an account into brief and carefully worded
statements. Considering the duration of a project, the brevity of this form of report
retains the analysis and interpretation, but cuts out any vivid or illustrative
descriptions. If it is possible to master this conceptual challenge and present the
main insights gained in a brief, but clear and intelligible way, this can be an
important and useful achievement.

1) describes the situation, its context and starting point;

2) argues the methods of data collection;
3) presents the different perspectives held by the involved persons of the
Triangulation;
4) explains the steps of analysis and interpretation; and
5) presents the findings. There are many different ways of structuring a case study
and no fixed rules, but here are some suggestions:
Following the chronological sequence of events
The most simple and safe way to write a case study is to communicate your
experiences and findings in the step-by-step sequence in which they occurred. It can
help with writing (and reading) if you also illustrate the chronological sequence in a
diagram or a list. A work plan of your project, or a timetable using project meetings
and school visits as the milestones, is suitable for this approach.
Be aware that a chronological form of presentation does not include the whole
process. Certain links, which appear logical but not chronological, may be difficult to
describe when using this approach.
Developing a case study based on an issue
Many teachers do not report on a whole project, but instead focus on the specific
momentum of their development interest. Such a case study describes the process of
clarifying the development interest and collecting data all the way to analysis and
interpretation. This allows for a more in-depth view and presents the data that
emerged during the project.
Be aware that a report based on issues is particularly appropriate when reporting a
specific interest in development, which is usually directed, but that this kind of
report can miss describing and reflecting on the sequence of knowledge acquisition
and the path of learning.

Case studies
With a clearly-defined development goal, a case study is the best way to report on a
school development project. A case study does not follow the best practice idea, but
reflects on a specific situation, namely a case, with which the audience is familiar. In
a case study, a project partner:
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Acknowledgements
This paper has taken into account documents and results of two series of SEED
thematic workshops from 2002 to 2005. The authors and workshop presenters are
gratefully acknowledged for their valuable contributions. The persons involved were:
Christine Affolter, Switzerland; Mauri Ahlberg, Finland; Christian Burger, Austria;
Denis & Jacquline Charron, France; Theresa Franquesa, Spain; Maria Merc Guilera,
Spain; Kate Henderson, Australia; Martina Jelinek, Austria; Reiner Mathar, Germany;
Jrg Minsch, Switzerland; Jarkko Myllri, Finland; Gnther Franz Pfaffenwimmer,
Austria; Peter Posch, Austria; Rosa Maria Pujol, Spain; Ian Robottom, Australia; Birgit
Schattenmann, Austria; Esther Sanglas, Spain; Manuela Seifert, Switzerland; Regina
Steiner, Austria; Daniella Tilbury, United Kingdom.
Special thanks to Martin Scheuch, Austria, for facilitating the COMENIUS school
partnership involved as well as the SEED member schools.
A number of principals and teachers have participated in this three-year process of
exchange and reflection through thematic conferences and workshops, and have
provided us with much appreciated feedback. Among the many, we especially want
to thank the following schools for their extraordinary contributions:
Volksschule Pls, Austria; ECO-Hs Schweiggers, Austria; Sonder Pdagogisches
Zentrum 2, Wien, Austria; Sorrilan koulu; Valkeakoski, Finland; Mahnala
Environmental School; Hmeenkyr, Finland; Lyce du Diois, Die, France; Lyce
Champollion, Grenoble, France; Grundschule Petermoor, Bassum, Germany; Primary
school of Moni, Heraklion; Greece; Algyi ltalnos Iskola, Algy, Hungary; Scuola
Elementare Pallavicino, Palermo, Italy; Scuola Media Statale Galileo Galilei,
Acireale, Italy; Roligheden skole, Faervik, Norway;
Sand skole, Mortenhals, Norway; Skatval skole, Skatval, Norway; Fosslia skole,
Stjordal, Norway; IES lvaro Falomir, Almassora Spain

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COMENIUS school partnerships

In Europe the member states offer exchange among teachers and principals through
the COMENIUS actions.
This booklet especially promotes COMENIUS school partnerships on school
development. The aims of School Development in COMENIUS school partnerships
are an exchange of experience and information. The underlying idea is that the
development of methods and strategies, which meet the needs of teachers and
school managers for effective practices, should be disseminated as widely as
possible.
The thematic areas in such COMENIUS school partnerships should focus on a
specific issue. Examples of such issues are: Enhancement of the quality of education;
reinforcement of the European dimension of education; promotion of the learning of
languages; promotion of intercultural awareness; encouragement of trans-national
cooperation between schools; integration of ethnic minority groups into mainstream
schooling; prevention of conflict and violence; strengthening of flexible and
personalized teaching methods and classroom management; promotion of equal
opportunities; enhancement of pupils employability; and promotion of
environmental education.

Structure
The duration of a COMENIUS school partnership is limited to up to a maximum of
2 consecutive years.
The composition of a partnership involves at least three schools from at least three
participating countries. Experience shows that it is advisable to anticipate more than
three partners from more than three countries participating. Each National Agency
has the task to examine the eligibility of applications. Therefore the decision of one
single agency resulting in the absence of one single school could disable a whole
partnership.

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Mobility
Mobility granted by the national agencies during the project period involves:
Project Meeting for teachers and principals to plan activities and joint products,
to outline school visits and documentation
Study Visit to explore the teaching practices in the respective partnering schools
Teacher Exchange or Teacher Placement

Funds
The national agencies offer grants for COMENIUS school partnerships to up to
maximum 2 years and depending on the number of mobilities.
Inquire with your national agency about the lump sums provided for COMENIUS
school partnerships

COMENIUS thematic workshops

COMENIUS schools can participate in so-called thematic workshops and
conferences that are put on by thematic COMENIUS networks. Interested schools
can:
obtain information on networks from the Executive Agency
apply for a preparatory visit grant to take part in a network contact seminar
apply for mobility funds within their project to participate in network activities
and events
http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/index_en.html
http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/static/en/overview/comenius_overview.htm
General Link to the Homepages of the National Agencies

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SEED NETWORK
The European COMENIUS network, School Development through Environmental
Education (SEED) is a group of educational authorities and institutes who promote
environmental education as a driving force for school development.
Within the 14 European SEED partner countries and the 6 SEED member countries,
environmental education fosters an innovative culture of teaching and learning that
promotes education for sustainability.
SEED invites schools, educational institutes and educational authorities to work
together, to learn from each others' experiences, and to accumulate their knowledge
in their quest to work towards sustainable development.
TARGETS
Because of the creation of the COMENIUS networks, SEED is able to encourage
co-operation amongst its stakeholders by working on existing, completed and
prospective COMENIUS projects. Stakeholders associated with the network benefit
from these environmental education developments.
SEED also facilitates a close dialogue and better understanding amongst policy
makers and practitioners in the various educational systems. The ultimate target
group is the pupils who benefit from innovative teaching practices, and modern
teaching and learning pedagogies.
COMENIUS school partnerships
SEED initiates COMENIUS contact seminars for European School Development
Projects, and organises thematic conferences and workshops on Environmental
Education and School Development. In the workshop series, teachers are given the
opportunity to increase their abilities to use reflective methods from action research.
SEED wants to encourage change and reflection in schools through collaborative
COMENIUS school partnerships. Different methods address specific action research
processes that are considered important for teachers in schools, such as framing
problems, collecting data, interpreting results, and writing narratives.

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Result page 9

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