General Info
The CODINC Erasmus+ project aimed at fostering STEM education of disadvantaged youth through an inclusive educational approach based on a peer-learning pedagogical method for formal and non-formal educational contexts in Europe. CODINC was coordinated by ALL DIGITAL and implemented in 5 European countries (Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Italy and Spain) from January 2018 until January 2020. The project specific objectives are:
- Increase and improve teachers’ and trainers’ capacity to foster the STEM education of disadvantaged youth through an inclusive educational approach based on peer-learning
- Empower disadvantaged young people in the acquisition and development of IT and collaborative competences as well as problem solving, self-confidence and creativity through a peer-learning training programme on Coding
CODINC website: http://codinc.fun/
Audience and Educational Framework
Educational Details
CODINC methodology covers the widest range of topics including computational thinking, algorithmic thinking, programming, and robotics. What makes CODINC particularly unique is how it not only engages in computational thinking and coding but how it does so with a structured peer-learning methodology.
- The CODINC Methodology gives guidance to trainers and teachers on how to deliver the CODINC peer-learning training of 15 hours with primary and secondary school students and gives some background on supporting STEAM education and computation thinking.
- The CODINC Toolkit offers a database of exercises which can be delivered according to the structure of the toolkit. The toolkit allows for flexibility and adaptability to local circumstances and curriculum. It allows the teachers and trainers to select and adapt modules according to their capacities and needs of students.
The piloting of CODINC took place in schools identified as disadvantaged in Berlin, Leipzig, Barcelona, Nicosia, Ghent, Brussels, and Naples involving 222 secondary school students trained in coding and learning pedagogies in 15-hour workshops in and outside school hours. The secondary school students then went on to teach 481 primary school students in peer-to-peer workshops with students in 8 schools and 20 teachers involved in 7 cities in 5 countries.
The CODINC project resources are available in different languages (Catalan, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Italian Spanish) on the project website: http://codinc.fun/
The CODINC project resources (methodology, Toolkit, Pilot Evaluation report, policy recommendations etc.) are available in different languages (Catalan, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Italian Spanish) on the project website: http://codinc.fun/
Implementation
(where and how the practice was implemented)
In practice CODINC developed a Methodology and a Toolkit (both as a document and a online platform) based on the "Capital Digital" good local practice developed and implemented by project partner Maks in Brussels in non-formal training centres. CODINC gave the best practice a formal structure which helped to bring it into formal education (both primary and secondary schools). CODINC was piloted in the spring of 2019 in schools across five European countries. The methodology of evaluation used sociometric surveys, self-efficacy, and teacher’s self-efficacy, and intrapersonal technology integration scales. The surveys compared to controlled groups taken at pre-and-post points in the CODINC intervention and demonstrate a clear result that the CODINC does promote inclusion and social cohesion, demonstrating that its methodology and toolkit do reach the aims of the project to promote inclusion to young people in disadvantaged areas at risk of exclusion.
As stated in the CODINC Experimentation Report and in the CODINC Policy Recommendations (both available at http://codinc.fun/evaluation), the project achieved the objectives set and was generally evaluated positively by its different participants. The CODINC methodology is received as an innovative and inclusive approach for education of coding and computational thinking and for its flexibility and adaptability to various contexts including disadvantaged groups.
What makes CODINC particularly unique is how it not only engages in computational thinking and coding but how it does so with a structured peer-learning methodology. While peer learning is used in many contexts, it is rarely used in a structured way. This turned out to be well suited in the work with young people and, sometimes, even more effective than traditional teaching. Furthermore, students who engaged in peer learning as ‘teachers’ learned to appreciate the role of being a teacher more.
The Methodology gives guidance to trainers and teachers on how to deliver the CODINC training. The Toolkit offers a database of exercises which can be delivered during the training and allows for flexibility and adaptability to local circumstances and curriculum. It allows the teachers and trainers to select and adapt modules according to their capacities and needs of students.
The short duration of the training, just 15 hours is short enough that can be easily adapted into most school situations without taking too much time away from core curriculum and subjects. Whether participants had no experience in Coding or were advanced coders, the CODINC Methodology and Toolkit proved to be relevant. Students with not much of a background in Coding learned with the approachable methodology, advanced coders appreciate how the offline and online exercise helped them better understand the relationship between programme elements better.