Abstract:

Introduction:
In this article, we are going to make an inventory of the European policies and strategies to help teachers and schools become aware of the importance of data collection and action research, due to the importance of developing competences in today’s education. Therefore, we will present a few successful initiatives of using Action Research and Project-Based Learning as means of raising awareness about topics such as Sustainability and cultural heritage. We will also list the Web 2.0 tools used to collaborate as part of the Erasmus+ projects held in our school.

Research questions:
During this action-research, the following questions have been explored:
- Does the systematic and complementary involvement of lower secondary school students in eTwinning / Erasmus + projects lead to the development of competences and skills?
- What competences were the secondary school students able to develop through the Erasmus+ projects?
- How can Action Research help our schools to assess where we stand with learning in the digital age?

Literature review:
“Action Research” is defined as a “process for improving educational practice. Its methods involve action, evaluation, and reflection. It is a process to gather evidence to implement change in practices”(Clark, J. Spencer; Porath, Suzanne; Thiele, Julie; and Jobe, Morgan., 2020).
Our work on eTwinning and in the classrooms targeted the gathering of evidence and had the purpose of generating changes in terms of competences for students (in all our schools).

Research methodology:
The research methods used in the Eco-Herit@ge Matters eTwinning/Erasmus+ project were observation, analysis of students’ work and a questionnaire-based survey. At the end of the project, respectively at the end of the 2021-2022 school year, a questionnaire elaborated by the coordinators of the project was filled in by 100 students involved in the Eco-Herit@ge Matters (2019-1-PT01-KA229-060791_6) eTwinning/Erasmus+ project, in order to assess the perceived impact of the projects` activities on their competence development, as reported by themselves. While applying these methods and data collection and interpretation we noticed changes in terms of our students` collaboration, English language skills and digital competences.

Results and discussions:
Through a series of questions for teachers, school leaders and students, we measured the way action research is used for teaching and learning in our school through Erasmus Project-Based Learning approaches. Questions for school leaders from all the six participating schools focused mainly on practices at the school level improved as part of the Erasmus project. The questions for teachers focused on students` and teachers` competences and their experience regarding this international collaboration. Students answered questions regarding the Erasmus competences developed as part of this project. All the observations, the feedback, the surveys, have helped our schools to make important steps towards integrating new pedagogical approaches and improving the pupils’ performance and skills.
We are raising students to become part of a beautiful, sustainable European school community, where we can make a difference, but only together. Our schools used the data collected through this study as a basis for the further initiatives on school level, as a basis for the following eTwinning school activities.

Keywords:

Action Research, Competences, eTwinning, Erasmus+.