| Jerzy Jarosz, PhD, Assoc. Prof. |
At the end of 2022, the three-year international educational project ‘PHERECLOS – Open Schooling as a tool supporting effective education’ ended with very positive reviews. This project was carried out by a consortium consisting of 14 European institutions and universities and a university from Colombia[1].
One of the most important activities was the Transnational Education Mentoring Partnerships (TEMP) mentoring programme, led by the University of Silesia. As part of this initiative, 10 international partnerships were established and a total of 44 partners were involved – universities, children’s universities, schools and European institutions related to the formal or non-formal education. Their activity was consulted and monitored by the University of Silesia.
The main objective of the PHERECLOS project was to develop and disseminate tools used in the promoted Open Schooling model of education in European education systems.
In the activities of the consortium, this model is perceived as a way of teaching and learning inside and outside of school, based on all existing teaching resources available in the local social environment. It enables and uses cooperation between local entities of formal and non-formal education, placing schools at the centre of the local community and allowing for reflection and response to external challenges.
The University of Silesia is part of the longest continuously operating initiative of this type in Poland, and perhaps also in Europe.
This year, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the very popular series of September lectures with experiments for schools, known as Peculiarities of the World of Physics. On this basis, the current, interdisciplinary offer of the University of Silesia for schools has grown – the University Research Camp organised by the Open University at the University of Silesia.
The idea of creating educational clusters and engaging local entities supporting formal education, as well as the essence of the University Research Camp, is presented in a short animation available on YouTube.
The PHERECLOS project, including the TEMP mentoring programme run by the University of Silesia, has been summarised in the publication ‘PHERECLOS White Book on Open Schooling – a reference guide’, available on the project’s website.
European countries involved in the PHERECLOS project and the TEMP mentoring programme
[1] Members of the consortium: Kinderbüro Universität Wien GmbH (Austria), SYNYO GmbH (Austria), University of Innsbruck (Austria), University of Silesia (Poland), University of Vienna (Austria), European School Heads Association (Austria), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Stichting International Parents Alliance (Netherlands), Snellman-instituutti ry (Finland), Lodz University of Technology (Poland), University of Porto (Portugal), Sissa Medialab srl (Italy), Universidad EAFIT (Colombia), Asociatia Universitatea Copiilor (Romania), Teacher Scientist Network (Great Britain).
