DeCRIT’s kick-off meeting took place on the 21st of December last year. Unfortunately, this first contact between project members had to be online due to the present pandemic situation, but the meeting developed according to a clear-defined agenda and all important aspects regarding the initial stages of the project were addressed.
IES Legio VII, as the coordinating institution, welcomed partners and thanked them for their willingness to take part in DeCRIT. After that, all partners presented their institutions, the people who will take part in the project and described their work and expectations concerning the project idea and priorities.
As a fundamental issue, partners in the three high schools (Pasvalio Lėvens pagrindinė mokykla – LT; Peyami Safa Ortaokulu – TR; IES Legio VII – SP) discussed about the specific age group of the students which will be involved in the implementation and piloting stages, especially for Intellectual Output 1 (IO1). The three high schools agreed that the target age will be 12-14 years old. In this respect, there is no doubt that infusing students of that age with critical thinking attitudes and strategies is highly beneficial for their personal and academic development.
Furthermore, Collegium Balticum (PL), as leaders, described Intellectual Output 1, which consists of developing a Training Curriculum and its related methodology to improve Critical Thinking as an essential life competence within the framework of innovative learning methods. This methodology will be divided into 5 specific Modules, distributed as follows:
- M1 (Turkey) – Debating / Reasoning Techniques and Models
- M2 (Poland) – Decision-making and Active Citizenship through Gamification
- M3 (Lithuania) – Critical Reflection on Iinformation (Fake News and Ethical Journalism)
- M4 (Spain) – Confronting Views and Discrimination on Social Media
- M5 (Italy) – Sustainabilty Awareness to Enhance Democracy through Storytelling
In addition, several aspects were discussed concerning management and administration (partnership agreements, financial reporting, etc.), partners responsibilities and duties, IO1 tasks and deadlines, dissemination strategy and activities (led by Associazione NET – IT), etc.
This kick-off meeting made it clear that the diversity and nature of the institutions involved in DeCRIT is a superb asset to achieve project objectives and results. Of course, we all expressed our hope for future face-to-face meetings and mobilities because, even though online communication may be completely effecient for basic meeting purposes, it can never replace in-person communication when it comes to motivation, better results and establishing a good rapport between participants.
