A Comparative Study and Needs Analysis Report by Nadia Circu

A Comparative Study & Needs Analysis Report A Comparative Study and Needs Analysis

Zeynep BEDİZ OYAR, İnönü Anadolu Lisesi Emine TOKAT, İnönü Anadolu Lisesi İsmail Hakkı MİRİCİ, Yakın Doğu Üniversitesi

Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Literature Review ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Needs Analyses............................................................................................................................................. 8 Results.............................................................................................................................................................. Conclusion…

…………………………………………………………………………………………..13

Referances …………… …………………………………………………………………………………14

INTRODUCTION The European Union, with its member states reflects diversity of people, culture, language, history and belief as a union relying on plurilingualism and cultural diversity. According to the common European policy, in Europe people live harmoniously and in coherence and common values are needed. Common values can be grouped as fraternity, peace, solidarity and justice, which are indispensable values. The main aim of our project is to teach our students these values through sport. Sport is deliberately chosen as an educational tool since it has potential to bring people together from different cultures, nations, origins, beliefs easily because of its nature. Another objective of the project is to understand each other better by learning our traditional games. In this literature review, we examined some sample studies teaching European values through sport. The partners of the project are Portugal, Latvia, Poland, Turkey (a High School and Sport for all Federation), and Romania. To understand the effectiveness of the study a purposefully structured questionnaire was administered before and after the implementation of the project activities as pre-test and post-test to both control and experiment groups. The results showed that the sport based activities in the partner countries had great influence on the participant students. They all scored the project with high numbers and majority reflected positive attitude towards developing European values. Likewise, the teachers who participated in the local and transnational project activities stated that the project achieved its goals and was a great success as a European project.

LITERATURE REVIEW The European Union (EU) as a highly populated organization with 510.1 million people of 28 member states (2013) employs an ideal of â&#x20AC;&#x153;unity within diversity of cultures, customs, traditions, beliefs. The union expands its borders continuously because of social, cultural, economic or political reasons, which means that the people living within its borders diversify happily (1).

Today, there is also a huge influx to the area. These immigrants, refugees also bring their cultural, traditional, social, political or religious beliefs with them and it should be accepted as a unique treasure. The union now contains countries that are geographically distant from one another, and which have experienced very different histories. However, it is not simple to find appropriate ways of living harmoniously. Living together can only be possible if people ally to some values; values of European Union; fraternity, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect, peace, justice (2) There are many different methods to teach European values to children in Europe. Sport activities provide us with some fundamental attractive instruments to achieve these values because the power of sport in all domains of life is always welcomed. As a tool for education, sport can play an important role not only for providing peace, cooperation, solidarity, understanding among the people, but also for increasing the level of communication and thus increasing the level of understanding of justice, tolerance and social inclusion. Sport also helps to achieve the EU’s strategic objectives, brings to the fore key educational and cultural values and is a conduit of integration, since it is open to all members of the public, regardless of their gender, ethnic origin, religion, age, nationality, social situation or sexual orientation. Sport is a tool to tackle intolerance, xenophobia and racism (3). However, there are very few studies concerning the sport to internalize the European values (EVs). There are a few studies investigating the relationship between EVs and Sport. Studies/projects which have already been carried out focused on only one dimension: either European values or sport games. For the educators sports can be a good vehicle especially for the ones who has multicultural students in their classes, as sport demolishes cultural, economic, religious, national barriers. Sport can now be seen as a relevant tool in development policies. There are many reasons for this: through its universality, sport transcends national, cultural, socio-economic and political barriers, which is very important in a multipolar international context. In this part of the literature review, we’ll try to summarize the studies dealing with EVs and/or sport. One of the initial and maybe the most detailed and longitudinal study focusing on EVs was the “European Study” conducted by the European Value Systems Study Group (EVSSG) in the late 1970s. It is a large-scale, cross-national, and longitudinal survey 3

research program on how Europeans think about family, work, religion, politics and society. Repeated every nine years in an increasing number of countries, the survey provides insights into the ideas, beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values, and opinions of citizens all over Europe and the effects of all social, political, economic changes and their effects on these items. (GESIS, 2017). The last wave of the project was conducted in 2016. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews. The study involved many surveys and questionnaires covering vital life domains; then, data were analyzed. Even in such a huge cross-national and longitudinal project, sport was not considered directly as one of the major domains. Another project related to EVs was completed in scope of a Comenius project with the partners from Romania, Italia (2 partners), Spain, Estonia, Turkey, Cyprus, Norway, Netherlands and France. The project "Rediscover Real European Values” focused on helping children rediscover and understand the main ethical and traditional values which stayed at the basis of the formation of the European civilization such as: honesty, respect, generosity, tolerance, kindness, family, heroism, courage, education, respect for traditions, protecting the environment. Thus, the children, teachers and parents would develop new competences in the field of cultural awareness, along with skills, knowledge and attitudes that could make them appreciate these values and increase their sense of initiative to make active these values during their lifetime, by this developing a feeling of European consciousness. The objectives of the project were; • To promote an efficient partnership between all the schools by working on the topic of common European values and intercultural dialogue within the frame of each school curricula; • To develop within students key competences, skills and attitudes necessary for a lifelong learning such as: communicational and foreign languages skills, digital competences, cultural awareness attitudes, team work, project management and entrepreneurship skills, problem solving abilities, • To raise pupils’ understanding and interest in European mentality, cultural identities and common values; • To determine within students a better motivation for learning with the help of the interesting and less conventional activities of the project; 4

• To promote the students’ interest for volunteering by participating in the project activities; • To facilitate students’ and teachers’ understanding of different educational systems across Europe; The project had a motto:” By rediscovering Real European values we rediscover ourselves and we become better persons and better citizens of the future Europe”. The frame of the project also covered cultural values, ethical values, historical values, educational values, sustainable development of values. The project activities were intended to be cross-curricular and integrated in the school curriculum, thus enriching the flexibility and interest for different school subjects (4) The third project dealing with the Values is: ‘3Rs’ Heritage: rights, respect and responsibilities. This project is designed as informal learning on the topic of the "3R Heritage: Rights, Respect and Responsibility". “3 Rs – Rights, Respect and Responsibility” aimed to make students more aware of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and help them become responsible global citizens. The five partner schools were located in: The Netherlands, Germany, UK, Spain and Italy. The participating students were aged between 12 - 16 years old. The main objective of the partnership was to allow students from the different countries to work on topics related to rights, respect and responsibilities in order for the students to understand what it means to be an active citizen in democratic Europe. This project helped students to identify and develop the necessary skills and competences which could help them to participate in social and working life effectively and constructively in our increasingly diverse society. The students who were directly involved in the project would understand the other young people they are working with better.

The teachers involved in the project had an opportunity to enrich their professional and personal lives with good practices from their foreign colleagues through contacts with schools and teachers with different backgrounds and thus bring European dimension into school.

The activities were integrated in the subjects of citizenship

(PSHE), RE, history, art, languages, music and physical education (5) 5

Another project “Developing tolerance towards cultural diversity” focused on exploring variety of cultures with the participants’ senses in order to place an emphasis on people with special needs. The aim was to develop our tolerance towards this particular social group and raise awareness about the cultural peculiarities of other European partners. The goal of the project was to create a Multi-Cultural Encyclopedia which will include the outcomes of the activities performed and presentations created during two project years. The participants experienced foreign cultures with their senses. The Encyclopedia had “Make it, Taste it, Say it and Touch it” parts that could reflect all the activities that are relevant to each sense. During the project the participants cooked and tasted traditional dishes, attended Arts and Crafts workshops where they learned how to make traditional toys and try their hand in pottery. To widen the students’ cultural competence, they attended establishments that work with people with special needs. Students visited libraries for blind people and then they had an opportunity to find out how blind people learn to acquire various skills for everyday life. In order to foster students’ conception and develop empathy towards people with special needs, the participants carried out various drama activities. The objectives of the partnership were as follows: •

to enrich educational spheres,

•

to exchange effective teaching methods and tools,

• to share effective learning methods and tools, • to develop students’ potential, • to raise students’ and teachers’ self-confidence, • to facilitate students’ creativity, • to help students integrate into European society, • to improve knowledge about European Union, • to motivate students to learn foreign languages, • to raise students’ awareness towards cultural differences, • to promote students’ empathy and tolerance towards people with special needs, • to overcome students’ stereotypes and prejudices towards different social groups and nations, • to promote teamwork among students and teachers locally and internationally, 6

• to improve contact between students and teachers, • to establish and strengthen contacts between partner institutions. The main problems to be addressed during the project were a) Lack of knowledge about the cultural diversity, b) Problems encountering people with special needs. To raise students’ empathy towards people with special needs, students carried out various drama-based activities, such as, role plays, games, sketches and discussions. In this project only one dimension of the European Value was considered. It was Tolerance. However, countries, EU or more general the globe needs more to consider living together (6). The following Comenius projects gave place sport in their implementation process. One of them was İstanbul Eyüp Anatolian High school. “Destroying stereotypes and building a new Europe” aiming to understand and know each other in different situations. One of the aims was to teach the cultural differences and try to understand each other though we have different beliefs, or culture. The project presented the activities in different areas and one of them was Sport. By doing physical activity, playing games, participating tournaments altogether with their foreign pairs, teenagers learn playing together in peace, showing tolerance and understand each other and it is expected to transfer these attitudes into their daily life. The partners were from Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Spain. (7). The other project was titled; “Olympic Games of Children”. In that project, games were emphasized because of their cultural merits. It stated the importance of playing outside. It benefits from games were examined in terms of solidarity, tolerance and understanding. It emphasizes that children playing virtual games in front of the computers or on their mobile phones are having some psychological problems. (8) The last Comenius Multilateral Project that we came across with was “Curiosity, Creativity and Competence´ were addressed to teachers and students aged 13 to 19. By providing alternative settings for learning, the partners wanted to satisfy pupils ‘curiosity about various phenomenon. The main objective of the study was to motivate students to achieve the best they can in various subjects. A seminar for teachers was organized in 7

which teachers will hear about various methods how to reach talented students in class and train them in the use of the eTwinning platform. A survey about how schools support talented pupils was conducted. After identifying talented students in school, workshops for these students both at school and at international meetings were organized. Workshop topics are: Sciences a. Production of Renewable Energy and learning by hands on experiments, b. Pollution; History a. the 1980s in our families, towns and countries - learning by doing empirical research, b. Ancient History; Arts: From looking at artistic work to practical doing, Music: The Universal Language Sports: The Olympic Idea - Fighting xenophobia by doing sports together 2. Languages: Getting to know European languages - Creative Writing, Geography: Graphs and Statistics help to interpret economy - Think globally - act locally. The results: a booklet about teaching methods, a project newspaper and a documentation of our workshops in our eTwinning space. They integrated workshop themes in the curriculum in all subjects concerned, by teaching a sequence of lessons in English in the subjects before the workshops. By promoting various talents they wanted to increase students’ abilities in creative problem solving, in developing innovation, in working together in multinational groups and in tackling general social challenges. “Curiosity, Creativity and Competence´ project used sport as a part of curriculum. The main underlying idea was actually related EVs. They emphasized

peace,

tolerance,

fraternity

while

doing/playing

sport

activities

collaboratively (9). To conclude it is safe to claim that in the literature there are few studies focusing on the teaching the EVs though sport activities. Projects such as EV&PA play a significant role in the dissemination of the European values all over Europe.

NEEDS ANALYSES In the project a questionnaire was constructed and administered to participant students and teachers as pre and posttest in order to assess the effectiveness of the project. The results of the data analyses revealed the following facts.

Tablo 1: Analise results of the Control Group

QUESTIONS 1.How important WORK is in your life?

2.How important FAMILY is in your life? 3.How important FRIENDS and ACQUAINTANCES are in your life? 4.How important LEISURE TIME is in your life? 5.How important POLITICS is in your life? 6.How important RELIGION is in your life? 7.All in all, how would you describe your state of health these days? Would you say it is 8.Which of these voluntary organisations and activities do you belong to? 9.Which, if any, are you currently doing unpaid voluntary work for ? 10.Would you say that most of the time ....... 11.How much freedom of choice and control do you feel you have over the way your life turns out? 12.Do you agree or disagree that when jobs are scarce, employers should give priority to people over immigrants? 13.Do you agree or disagree that when jobs are scarce, men have more right to a job than women 14.How much you agree that a working mother can establish just as warm and, secure a relationship with her children as a mother who does not work 15. How much do you agree that a preschool child is likely to suffer if his or her mother works? 16. How much do you agree that a job is alright but what most women really want is a home and children? 17.How much do you agree that being a housewife is just as fulfilling as working for pay? 18.How much do you agree that having a job is the best way for a woman to be an independent person?

Very important Very important Very important

PRE-TEST %49 %84 %56

POST TEST %65 %80 %71

Very important

% 64

%45

Very important Very important Very good

%3 % 18 %27

%12 %29 %40

Education,art,music or cultural activities Education,art,music or cultural activities People mostly look out for themselves Some

% 24

%38

% 16

%20

% 62

%57

% 47

%42

Agree

% 39

% 52

Disagree

%70

%69

Agree

%79

%72

Agree Disagree

%49 %41

%66 %32

Agree

%64

%65

Disagree

%51

%27

Agree

%64

%60

19.How much do you agree that both the husband and wife should contribute to household income? 20.How much do you agree that in general, fathers are as well suited to look after their children as mothers? 21.Men should take as much responsibility as women for the home and children ? 22. Here is a list of qualities which children can be encouraged to learn at home. Which, if any, do you consider to be especially important? Please choose up to five!

24.Individuals should take more responsibility for providing for themselves 25.The state should take more responsibility to ensure that everybody is provided for 26.The state should give more freedom to people 27.The state should control People more effectively 28.Immigrants take jobs away from natives in a country 29.Immigrants do not take jobs away from natives in a country 30.A countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cultural life is undermined by immigrants 31. A countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cultural life is not undermined by immigrants

Agree

%92

%89

Agree

%88

%66

Agree

%88

%87

Good manners Tolerance and respect Feeling of responsibility Independence ImaginatÄąon Agree

%45 %34

%87 %76

%32 %29 %27

%75 %25 %27

%89

%91

Agree

%77

%90

Agree

%83

%76

Agree

%52

Disagree

%54

%43

Agree

%47

%42

Agree

%48

%47

Disagree

%50

%42

Tablo 2: Analise results of Experiment Group

QUESTIONS 1.How important WORK is in your life?

2.How important FAMILY is in your life? 3.How important FRIENDS and ACQUAINTANCES are in your life? 4.How important LEISURE TIME is in your life? 5.How important POLITICS is in your life? 6.How important RELIGION is in your life? 7.All in all, how would you describe your state of health these days? Would you say it is 8.Which of these voluntary organisations and activities do you belong to? 9.Which, if any, are you currently doing unpaid voluntary work for ? 10.Would you say that most of the time ....... 11.How much freedom of choice and control do you feel you have over the way your life turns out? 12.Do you agree or disagree that when jobs are scarce, employers should give priority to people over immigrants? 13.Do you agree or disagree that when jobs are scarce, men have more right to a job than women 14.How much you agree that a working mother can establish just as warm and,secure a relationship with her children as a mother who does not work 15. How much do you agree that a preschool child is likely to suffer if his or her mother works? 16. How much do you agree that a job is alright but what most women really want is a home and children? 17.How much do you agree that being a housewife is just as fulfilling as working for pay?

Very important Very important Very important

PRE -TEST %49 %84 %56

POST-TEST %48 %85 %62

Very important

%25

%51

Very important Very important

%6 %18

%3 %14

Very good

%27

%41

Education,art,music or cultural activities Sports or recreation Education,art,music or cultural activities Sports or recreation People mostly look out for themselves Some

%51

%27

%46 %44

%59 %30

%38 %62

%44 %53

%47

%39

Disagree

% 15

%44

Disagree

%70

%72

Agree

%52

%75

Agree Disagree

%50 %47

%37 %56

Agree

%64

%57

Disagree

%50

%36

18.How much do you agree that having a job is the best way for a woman to be an independent person? 19.How much do you agree that both the husband and wife should contribute to household income? 20.How much do you agree that in general, fathers are as well suited to look after their children as mothers? 21.Men should take as much responsibility as women for the home and children ? 22. Here is a list of qualities which children can be encouraged to learn at home. Which, if any, do you consider to be especially important? Please choose up to five!

Agree

%64

%75

Agree

%91

%94

Agree

%87

%81

Agree

%88

%83

Good manners Tolerance and respect Feeling of responsibility Independence ImaginatÄąon Agree

%88 %66

%76 %77

%62 %56 %52

%77 %40 %27

%73

%84

Agree

%77

%83

Agree

%83

%77

Agree

%52

%53

Disagree

%54

%53

Agree

%47

%66

Agree

%48

%38

Disagree

%50

%34

CONCLUSION

We chose sport as our main instrument to teach values because sporting activities allow all people to channel their feelings, hopes and wishes in a constructive way, enriching them with the values that sport entails such as hard work, solidarity and cohesion. Such activities also bring physical and mental wellbeing while helping to alleviate social problems by providing positive values. Value based learning supports happy, healthy, educated students to contribute actively to society generation after generation Values make a human, a human a civilized member of a respectful society so we want to teach values. In our project, EV&PA, we want to teach, or have our younger generation acquire the common European values in sport environment and transfer them into their daily life. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sport is a lowcost, high-impact toolâ&#x20AC;?, (Ban Ki-moon, 2011) and makes it is easy to reach the children/teenagers. Sport activities, games are very attractive and moving activities for the children. For this purpose we wanted to run this project. To test the effectiveness and the success of the process and the activities, we developed questionnaires and applied to both control group and the participant of the project before the process begins and nearly the end of the project. The results showed that the sport activities had great influence on the understanding of the European values for the participant students. They all scored the project with high numbers and majority reflected positive attitude towards developing European values. Likewise, the teachers who participated in the local and transnational project activities stated that the project achieved its goals and was a great success as a European project. As a result, it can safely be stated that the project was successful and the activities were effective enough to increase awareness about the European values through sport activities.

REFERENCES

1. Retrieved from

https://europa.eu/european-union/topics/single-market_en 2. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/mar/25/whyvaluesmatterinawidere 3. Retrieved from https://www.osce.org/odihr/104301 4. Retrieved from (https://tik.edu.ee/p/543-rediscover-real-european-values 5. Retrieved from http://comeniusproject3rs.blogspot.com.tr/2013/ 6. Retrieved from http://zssucha.pl/comenius/?page_id=16 7. Retrieved from https://settimocostanzosr.wordpress.com/page/2/ 8. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/giropasco/comenius-project-

evaluation-by-pupils 9. Retrieved from https://www.up2europe.eu/european/projects/curiosity-creativity-

competence_59650.html â&#x20AC;˘

GESIS, (2017). European Values Study. Retrieved from http://www.europeanvaluesstudy.eu/

â&#x20AC;˘

Ki-moon, Ban.(2011) Speech in the 2nd International Forum on Sport, Peace and Development in Geneva. Retrieved from https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/05/374702-sport-vital-tool-peacebuilding-anddevelopment-ban-says