Psychodrama on the educational stage (POTENS)
Outline of a Grundtvig multilateral project (X 2008 – IX 2010)
Abstract
The EU Grundtvig project called “POTENS – Psychodrama on the Educational Stage” constitutes a distinct phase in a long term plan to establish closer cooperation between psychodrama and adult education trainers with the purpose to improve the acquisition of key competences in lifelong learning, creative expression and social skills.
This pilot initiative is led by Teatr Grodzki (Poland), it involves partners from four countries: Poland – Lifelong Learning Centre (Placówka Kształcenia Ustawicznego – EST), Romania – J.L. Moreno Psychodrama Society (SPJLM), Portugal – Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI) and Cyprus – Cyprus Adult Education Association.
The J. L. Moreno Psychodrama Society, FEPTO institutional member, is the Romanian partner of the consortium, responsible for the psychodrama expertise: training methodology and guidelines development for the psychodrama use in adult education. The methodology is tested in pilot workshops running till end of 2009 in 4 countries (90 hours in each country).
Rationale
The idea of the project firmly grounds on the needs of adult education (AE) staff for the professional development and for introducing innovative practices. One of the most difficult problems the AE trainers have to face lies in finding and applying the appropriate and effective motivating mechanism to win new learners, make them stay and continue the educational efforts. There is a real need for creative and attractive training of marginalised adults in order to open alternative paths into education. With reference to that problem this pilot project discovers and opens up the great potential of psychodrama as an educational tool. While psychodrama has been widely recognized as a powerful technique in therapy, it has not been used in the field of education on a wider scale. To our best knowledge very few real efforts have been undertaken to combine psychodrama with educational programs, mostly due to the lack of necessary skills among educators. For instance only one project involving psychodrama has been financed under Grundtvig program, so far.
The POTENS project has been designed mainly to assist people from vulnerable social groups, even though it refers to a wider target group and contains a universal educational approach. It is focused on increasing the level of participation in LL of disadvantage groups and in the same time on introducing new motivating mechanisms for reluctant or discouraged learners in general. On the other hand psychodrama is the method which can be successfully assimilated and developed by teachers and trainers, already having pedagogical and psychological knowledge. The assumptions of the project fit Grundtvig priorities for 2009 – creativity and innovation. The special effectiveness of psychodrama is indeed based on releasing hidden creative power and ability to play the main role in ones own life. The innovative approach of using psychodrama lies in incorporating its elements into the traditional, yet not always effective, educational methods.
Objectives
1. To work out the basis of a new methodology designed to support and improve teaching/learning processes. The main emphasis of pilot activities will be put on developing mechanisms which facilitate knowledge assimilation in case of vulnerable groups.
2. To equip AE staff with a set of practical ideas for improving the quality of the education, especially non-formal and informal learning. The two project publications will present the best examples of the practical use of new methodology, together with the feedback from learners involved in the follow-up activities.
3. To improve the low level of participation in adult learning. The project responds to a challenge of winning over the larger number of adult learners and making them continuing education through introducing various psychodrama techniques and exercises to them.
4. To assist people from vulnerable social groups in their personal development. The main project goal is to provide socially excluded adults with the new and effective motivation and cognitive mechanisms which psychodrama offers. This will help to stimulate demand for learning among adults reluctant to engage in lifelong learning.
5. To exchange and disseminate good practices in the field of AE on a wide European scale. The project will use three complementary media to promote the results of pilot activities. In particular, the edition of paper-based publication in six languages plus its online version at the website will ensure the wide scope of the distribution at the European level.
6. To link AE environment and psychodrama circles. While several initiatives and pilot activities have been applied separately in both sectors, there is no real cooperation between them. The POTENS project introduces a new approach bridging the gap between the areas of adult education and psychodrama.
Results
1. The new methodology focused on psychodrama as a practical tool in improving the quality and attractiveness of adult learning.
2. Paper-based publication. It will include three main parts: practical explanation of the new methodology (description of useful techniques and their assessment by the pilot training participants – AE staff), theoretical reflection, and evaluation conclusions. Anticipated technical parameters: size 20x20cm, 120 pages. The edition of 3.000 copies in six languages (EN, FR/SP, DE, RO, NR, PL – 500 copies of each language). The publication will also be available on the project’s website to ensure reaching a wider virtual community of AE professionals. This will mean that a larger number of end-users will take advantage of the worked-out methodology beyond the period covered by the project. Additionally, each partner country will organise a national launch of the publication to further promote the established methodology.
3. Film. The main part of the DVD publication will be a documentary film presenting the crucial stages of the project, both pilot workshops and their follow-up activities in all participating countries. The main emphasis will be put on illustrating the techniques and mechanisms described in the book. Thus the two publications will be complementary to each other. Moreover, this publication will contain more detailed presentation of selected actions conducted in each country (a supplementary documentation of the training process and practical use of the new methodology in work with long term beneficiaries by training participants). English subtitles will be used to facilitate the understanding of the film narration.
4. Website. The setting up and running of the project’s website will serve as a multifunctional tool in achieving the main goals of the initiative. First of all, it will be a communication channel for all partners and the platform for presentation and confrontation of the results of the working out and exploiting the new methodology. It will also be an important promotional tool in advertising the two publications, as well as for further exploitation of outcomes after the completion of the project. The website will facilitate networking – building a learning community of psychodrama and AE activists.
Key activities
1. Opening and running project website – a multifunctional tool in management, communication and promotion of the project.
2. Working out new methodology focused on using and incorporating psychodrama into the educational process of adult learners from vulnerable social groups. Individual research by psychodrama experts and AE staff in each country – one working meeting and web-based discussion.
3. Pilot training sessions in each partner country (one cycle including 6 intensive two-day meetings – 16 hours each) for about 12-16 participants (adult educators from various types of institutions).
4. Follow-up activities – implementation of the new methodology by pilot training participants in their home institutions
5. Documentary visits of training sessions and follow-up activities in each partner country (two cycles including 8 visits by publications authors – 3 people, 5 days, visiting each country twice).
6. Editing two publications. A paper-based practical guide for educators will be supplemented by the film narration, which uses a very attractive way of transmitting information. Adult learners needs and experiences will be presented in both publications.
7. Organizing an international seminar and collecting data for the dissemination campaign – cross-sectorial and transnational dimension.
8. Dissemination activities
Evaluation plan
The evaluation plan was originally developed by EST Education Centre to support the POTENS project teams in the efficient delivery of all project work packages. Its main purpose is to design an evaluation procedure which will help to assess the degree to which the project has met its aims. The outline of the plan was presented at the first partners meeting in Bielsko-Biała, Poland in November 2008 and it has subsequently been updated on the basis of the partners’ input. It thus provides an outline of the evaluation procedure agreed by the partnership and comprises the following:
Project objectives
The approved POTENS proposal refers to various objectives set in different parts of the bid. All the relevant sections have been analyzed with a view to presenting a clear outline of the key objectives which are specific, time bound and measurable.
Roles and responsibilities
The plan defines roles and responsibilities of all partners in reference to monitoring the project activities at their sites and gathering respective evaluation data.
Evaluation specification
For each of the project objectives the specification defines a baseline against which to measure the progress of the project and sets input, output and impact measures. The main purpose here is to specify what targets are to be achieved, when and on what basis they are to be evaluated.
Evaluation supporting materials
In order to facilitate the process of gathering the evaluation data the partners are provided with templates of questionnaires to survey the views of the beneficiaries. The templates guarantee a certain uniformity of feedback which makes it measurable and comparable.
The final evaluation report will be written at the end of the project. Hence the evaluation plan should be used during the lifetime of the project as a tool to monitor its progress and assure that the dissemination campaign targets the audience of adult educators and psychodrama trainers with information on well developed products and pedagogy.
“Bridging Psychodrama and Adult Education” – Grundtvig seminar
16 – 20 June 2010, Krakow, Poland
Application deadline – 16 January 2010.
Information > doc
Invitation > doc
You can contact the members of the team:
Varro Eva: varroeva@hotmail.com
Roth Maria: roth.mari@ymail.com
Sorina Bumbulut: sorinab21@yahoo.com
Horatiu Nil Albini: horatiu.albini@live.com
Jose Luis Mesquita: joseluismesquita@gmail.com
Anna Bielanska: bielania@poczta.fm
Roulla Demetriou: roulili@cytanet.com.cy