Promoting Cross-Curricular Teaching And Learning With Erasmus Projects

Cross-curricular approach is a teaching strategy that allows educators to unite concepts and skills from various disciplines. It offers numerous advantages to teachers and students; therefore, it is one of the leading principles of modern pedagogy. How to raise awareness, stimulate and implement successful cross-curricular practices in primary schools? One of the efficient ways is participating in Erasmus projects. With a lot of previous experience in the international youth and staff exchange programmes, our primary school has recently participated in an Erasmus+ KA1 project in which we were implementing cross-curricular link between art and several other subjects (languages, science, sport). During the process it was possible to identify several positive connections between Erasmus project work and cross-curricular strategy. We can divide them into 3 groups: 1. Motivation: since the Erasmus project activities correspond to a concrete school problem that needs to be solved, the teachers of different profiles share the common goal; opportunity of professional training in another culture’s environment also raises the attractiveness of such a project. 2. System and management: since the school receives a grant for organising the project and all the activities are written in the annual work plan, it can offer to teachers the proper surrounding environment with adequate material and time. 3. Didactic and pedagogical knowledge: international experience gives the participants access to a greater variety of teaching methods. The questionnaire for teachers participating in a project revealed a great appreciation for both Erasmus and cross-curricular activities: they both encourage collaborative working and development of key competences for a better understanding of the world.