Abstract:

This paper investigates the impact made to students’ motivation and participation in lower secondary and upper secondary school environments in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, France, Austria and Turkey through the delivery of a collection of 21 non-formal learning (NFL) techniques as a collaborative learning strategy to innovate classroom practices and inform intervention measures to address early school leaving (ESL). It examines the results of an inclusive assessment model applied to monitor students’ learning progress using the principles of the NFL method - the Reciprocal Maieutic Approach (RMA) of Danilo Dolci which analysed the impact on students and also reviews the impact on the skills and competences of teachers in delivering collaborative learning (CL).

The benefits of CL have been the subject of various research studies and analysis with more than 50 benefits identified for delivering CL. The methodology of applying NFL techniques as a CL strategy has been designed as a consolidated process to establish and transfer innovative teaching methods to secondary school teachers from all teaching disciplines and students aged 11-18 and those identified at risk of ESL. NFL techniques as part of the experiment included and not exclusively, The Petal Debate, The Box of Emotions, Learning by Coding. RMA of Danilo Dolci, a dialectic method of inquiry and “popular self-analysis” for empowerment of communities and individuals, defined as a “process of collective exploration that takes, as a departure point, the experience and the intuition of individuals, was used as a collaborative formative assessment by teachers to monitor and evaluate the impact on students’ learning after delivering NFL techniques in the classroom. In order to follow the experimentation, a Teacher’s Diary was used as a self-led tool to support teachers to effectively record what happened in their classroom and their thoughts about their teaching delivery. As part of the evaluation, eight specific indicators were created to define the learning outcomes to be measured which analysed the impact on both teachers and students.

Data was collected from 26 school teachers and 3038 school students in 7 countries who tested different NFL techniques and RMA. Teachers’ skills in the delivery of CL was strengthened and enabled them to measure their students’ progress and gain a deeper understanding of the impact of CL on their own teaching through RMA. The results from the experiment has provided evidence that NFL methods can be effectively used in schools to increase the motivation of students at risk of ESL and make a positive change to student engagement. The teachers involved in the testing expressed high levels of classroom interaction among their students, the level of participation and motivation of their students especially the ones who normally do not participate massively increased. Learning from the methodology and the results from the experimentation have been used for the development of a framework for delivering NFL in formal school settings which can be applied within different teaching contexts. As a final result, the development of training and assessment tools to facilitate collaborative learning environments in schools to particularly address educational challenges such as ESL and poor attainment of students were delivered which have further encouraged the need for providing professional development for teachers in CL and non-formal education.

Keywords:

Non-formal learning, collaborative learning, Reciprocal Maieutic Approach, early school leaving, student motivation and participation, inclusive assessment.