Kaunas Education Innovation Centre staff 2022 30 May – 2 June Visit Valladolid, Spain. The visit included visits to educational institutions working with adults. CEPA (Adult School and Vocational Training School) representatives emphasised that they pay particular attention to bullying prevention and use a variety of measures to ensure a good emotional well-being in adult school:
- Interview at the beginning of the school year. As the school said, this is the hardest part. The interview aims to find out as much as possible about the student, his/her well-being, emotional state, previous academic and emotional experiences, to “break the ice” for further cooperation with the student, to build his/her confidence, and to try to overcome demotivation.
- Cultural integration. The school is attended by immigrants from Morocco and other countries, which is why it is so important to reduce cultural differences, integrate immigrants into society and teach the national language.
- Helping students choose a learning strategy. Adult school students often face learning difficulties, one of the reasons being the inability to choose the right learning strategy. Education professionals support students with a blog where they can find a range of tips on how to study: https://www.orientacionandujar.es/
CEPA representatives pointed out that adults (pupils) are often very shy and aggressive when they start school, with feelings of academic failure, but that by taking action, pupils feel safe at school, their behaviour changes and they start to behave more positively.
IES PARQUESOL has a Positive Behaviour Team made up of students and teachers. Students act as mediators: preventing bullying, taking measures to resolve conflicts, talking to the victim and the aggressor, and making sure that all students feel safe and stress-free at school. It works with pupils aged 12-15. Student mediators are trained to conduct the interview, listen actively, respond appropriately to the information given, and maintain confidentiality. This knowledge will be useful not only at school, but also as an adult, as a student, and when entering the workforce.
During the visit to CFP idiomas and CFIE de Valladolid, various projects for adults were presented to develop emotional intelligence and empathy, thus contributing to the prevention of bullying among adults. Although we live in different countries and have cultural differences, we all share common problems, which is why it is essential to share experiences of successful solutions to problems and effective measures to prevent bullying.
The mobility visit was organised in the framework of the Erasmus+ mobility project “Bullying in Non-formal Adult Education: Increasing Prevention by Improving Skills Development Programmes”. The project aims to learn about the tools and methods used in Spain to combat bullying in non-formal adult education, to take valuable experience and put it into practice. The successful implementation of the project and the participation in the mobility activities improved the capacity of the project participants in the field of bullying prevention in non-formal adult education, as well as the methods, tools and measures for bullying prevention used in Spain.
The direct target group of the project is adult training coordinators working with adults in an adult education institution.
Ginta Tarankienė, Deputy Director of Kaunas Education Innovation Centre
