A fruitful teacher exchange visit took place between the 12th and 15th December 2016 in Senegal as part of EAThink activities. An educational tutor from CARDET and a two-member delegation of Cypriot primary school teachers joined an international group of teachers and tutors from Senegal, Croatia, France, Portugal, Romania and Italy in a 4-day exchange in Senegal on educational methods and experiential learning activities aiming at the promotion of sustainable development education in their schools.
The teachers had the opportunity to present their involvement and participation in the EAThink project, interact with their European and African colleagues and increase their knowledge on alternative production food systems in the developing countries. In special workshops, the participating teachers also presented Global Learning Modules which were pilot implemented in their schools, played the sustainable fishing team game which proved to be an effective teaching tool in engaging students at the French context and shared ideas on how to improve the communication and exchange among schools through the EAThink blog.
Furthermore, teachers benefited from visits in two secondary schools. They visited the CEM Scat Urbam in Dakar and the CEM Macodou Kanghe Sall in Kebemer, where they were informed about the schools’ history, staff, structure and challenges and briefly watched selected classes in English, French, Mathematics and Physics. In addition, the group visited the central micro-gardens of Dakar, a sustainable project for the local urban production of organic fruits and vegetables.
It is noteworthy that through the exchange visit in Senegal the European teachers better understood the complexity of African countries and had direct contacts with their peers in Senegal. Based on the EAThink experience, the two engaged teachers and CARDET aspire to support the development efforts in Africa by facilitating the creation of sustainable educational partnerships or even twinning programmes between schools from Cyprus, Europe and Africa involving teachers and students as well.
Charalambos Stergiou (CARDET)
Panagiotis Christodoulou (Primary School of Kouklia)
Theophanis Hadjianastasiou (Primary School of Maroni-Psematismenos)
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- Workshop / Εργαστήρι CEM Scat Urbam (Dakar / Ντακάρ)
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- School Garden / Σχολικός κήπος CEM Scat Urbam (Dakar / Ντακάρ)
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- Teachers’ workshop: playing the sustainable fishing game Εργαστήρι εκπαιδευτικών: παίζοντας το παιχνίδι για την αειφόρο αλιεία
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- Physics class / Μάθημα Φυσικής CEM Macodou Kanghe Sall (Kebemer)
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- Teachers workshop / Εργαστήρι εκπαιδευτικών CEM Macodou Kanghe Sall (Kebemer)
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- Micro-gardens / Μικροκήποι Dakar / Ντακάρ
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- The delegation of Cypriot teachers (right: Panagiotis Chritodoulou, left: Theophanis Hadjianastasiou) Η αντιπροσωπεία των Κύπριων εκπαιδευτικών (δεξιά: Παναγιώτης Χριστοδούλου, αριστερά: Θεοφάνης Χατζηαναστασίου)