Reducing early school leaving:

the very first step of any success story

Laura MaffeiTeacher – eTwinning AmbassadorScuola Secondaria di Primo grado «Arnolfo di Cambio»Colle di Val d’Elsa (SI) – Italylaura_maffei@yahoo.com

2016: where is the EU?

Source: Education and Training Monitor 2015

...where are European Countries?

…and where is my school?

• lower secondary school (800 students, 11-14)• set in Colle di Val d’Elsa (around 21.000 inhabitants)• internal and external immigration (16% of students have foreign born parents)• fourth mosque in Italy• near the Chianti area• industrial area• high tourism and occupability

…before the CRISIS

«Arnolfo di Cambio»

breaking the cycle• 7% of students failing in 2012-2013• of whom, 45% with foreign born parents• and 30% under the care of Social Services• local professional Institutes report ESL at 16/17%• youth unemployment in the area: 18.4 %

Early School Leaving DEPENDS on where you come from

and DETERMINES where you are going to be in society

Our Project: POSSO, VOGLIO… RIESCOI can, I will… I make it

• Step 1: DETECT learners at risk• Step 2: SELECT among a range of activities• Step 3: MONITOR the progress• Step 4: EVALUATE• Step 5: DISSEMINATE results• Step 6: ADJUST/RETHINK

DETECT

We defined a set of criteria for identifying students at risk of dropping out:

- scarce involvement of the families in the pupil’s school life

- students with high rate of negative marks in the different subjects

- students failing in the previous school years

- students with personal, social, economic, gender disadvantage

and for boosting the chances of success in the whole keeping-in process:

- students with (almost) regular attendance

- no major behavior issues

- interest for different aspects of school life: art/ICT/technical-practical activities, etc…

quick detection and identification of learners at risk of early school leaving is crucial to success

SELECTif the everyday lesson doesn’t apparently work for some students,

it won’t help giving them the same kind of lesson twice

We offer the pupils two different pathways. Teachers choose the more suitable pathway for them, but the families have to approve of it.

• Activities A: competence development support (English, Maths, Italian)

• Activities B: inclusive and coordinated workshops and lessons from both educational and non-educational stakeholders: Art/Music/Theatre workshops, hands-on workshops at the local Professional Institutes, seminars, counselling services.

What kind of lesson?

• Students work in small groups, out of their classes (controversial decision, but with a reason)

• Activities A can easily fall back into the catch-up-lesson standard

• To avoid this, we have the students step out of their comfort zone and take a different role

• eTwinning is perfect here:

• by meeting foreign partners, new to everyone, they can be «new» as well: they can redefine themselves, how they learn, what they need, and discover their talents.

Hint: here comes eTwinning

Giving reasons to stay• Personally, I involve these students in my running eTwinning

projects

• they are my «experts» (in whatever I find them expert… and they always are)

• every frontal lesson is linked to an aspect of the project they will later work on

• I let the students introduce their work during school meetings and other events

• I encourage their collaboration with each other and with the foreign partners

• I try to make them feel important, useful, competent

it’s not only a matter of knowing or doing, but also of feeling

EVALUATEThe evidence collected during these three years shows

that students following these pathways perform better also in national tests

non-traditional strategies + a collective approach to learning work well also for traditional tests

The key to success is INVOLVEMENT – of teachers and students first, then parents, local community, authorities and companies

Surprise: it works!

The chocolate bar

• students need motivation

• a good mark is often not enough to engage them

• all of them can get to the competences, but along different pathways

• …all of them can get to the biscuit, but some of them need extra

chocolate

Add some chocolate to your teaching

Still curious?• Strategic framework – Education & Training 2020

• Expert Groups 2011-2013

• Reducing early school leaving: Key messages and policy support - Final

Report of the Thematic Working Group on Early School Leaving

- November 2013

• POSSO, VOGLIO… RIESCO

• The Book Lovers eTwinning project and blog

• Eat Pray Love eTwinning Project and blog

Why don’t you read…

laura_maffei@yahoo.com