DISCOVER Project - Helping teacher to discover the pleasure of learning and teaching

• Austria
  Fh Joanneum Gesellschaft Mbh

• Greece
  Lambrakis Foundation

• Italy
  Associazione Tia: Scoprire Il Piacere Di Apprendere
  Scienter

• Portugal
  Centro De Estudos Dos Povos E Culturas De Expressão Portuguesa

• Spain
  Fundació Privada Aplicació

• Sweden
  Oland Folk Highschool

LLP - Comenius

The DISCOVER Project (Helping teacher to discover the pleasure of learning and teaching) responds to widespread, existing and enduring needs by proposing teaching and learning methods which accommodate different learning styles and requirements, involve and engage users in their learning process, support the motivation of learning and the ability to learn how to learn and to take pleasure from it. This is combined with a multicultural dimension which strongly characterise the Global Society of the 21st century. Three pillars, distinct but coherently linked together, are the key elements of the project: games-based learning, discovery of cultural diversity and pleasure of learning.

The DISCOVER project aims at supporting the professional development of teachers by giving them tools, methods, community experiences and training actions which enable them to respond to changing educational requirements and support the personal, social, cultural and cognitive development of their students. 

Since three pillars, distinct but coherently linked together, are the key elements of the project (games-based learning, discovery of cultural diversity and pleasure of learning), the main project objectives are the following:

• to promote and support the use of game-based learning as a means of fostering motivation and the use of personalised learning strategies, which can accommodate students’ learning and cognitive preferences;
• to understand and share multicultural issues on the basis of the pedagogical theory of “diversity” which will enlarge the mental and virtual boundaries of teachers and students, and will prepare them to be active citizens of the world;
• to develop methods and tools which can generate and foster the “pleasure of learning”; this entails supporting teachers to understand and promote mechanisms and strategies which will increase students’ joy of learning

Activities and results:

• European Research on the users’ requirements and available provision of services and resources on Game Based Learning, pleasure of learning and multicultural issues.
• Set up of Web Portal and collaboration community tools.
• Establishment of European and National teacher communities.
• Design of a teacher training model and implementation and piloting of an innovative teacher training course.
• Design and development of the “Guide on how to use adopt and adapt Game Based Learning in traditional education settings”.
• Design and development of the “Guide on how to increase and support the pleasure of learning and teaching”.
• Design and delivery of a report on “Good practices and new strategies for improving the pleasure of learning and teaching”.
• Dissemination and Validation of intermediate and final results at National and European level.

The target user-group consists of the school teachers. Other user-groups, directly or indirectly involved, are the school administrators, curriculum experts, trainers,educationalists, education planners.

• Pedagogical
• Cultural

The guide on Game-based learning focuses on how to use games in the clasroom for motivational or teaching / learning purposes. Throughout four chapters the guide includes a lot of resources as well as activities that can be applied in the classroom, for example how to establish a dialogue about the games in the class, and many more.

Role Play Video

This video documents a course in educational game design taken by Bachelor of Information Design University students. The video describes how the course is structured, shows some student designs made in this course and outlines the aspired learning objectives.

For more information on designing a role-play class in the Chapter 4 of the .

Multilingual web page

Detailed explanation of the project benefits and results for stakeholders - via multilingual FAQ

National reports for Italy, Austria, Sweeden, Portugal, Spain and Greece

Teacher training in five modules - combination of seminars and online activities

Guidelines (available invarious languages):

Guidelines on Multiculturalism

Discover the Pleasure of learning

DISCOVER Project Report on Good Teaching Practices

Guidelines on Game based Learning

Pivec M., Moretti M.: Game-based learning; Discover the pleasure of learning. Pabst Verlag, 2008

DISCOVER Project Report on Good Teaching Practices

Innovation Enhanced By Discover Project

The DISCOVER Project contributes and supports innovation in Education systems by:

• positioning game based learning in the training process as an effective, innovative and appropriate method to support and sustain the motivation of students;
• proposing and developing tools which offer non-traditional didactic strategies for learning, which at the same time support the teacher in motivating the interest of the student;
• developing & Supporting the concept of “pleasure/enjoyment from learning”: This approach represents a new frontier for learning in which the process can be pleasant, appealing, stimulating and satisfying, as well as highly effective;
• positioning both student and teacher in an interactive environment that provides an endless and varied source of stimulation and feedback;
• positioning both student and teacher in a real world and contemporary environment.

Impact Of Discover Results On The Education Sector

The expected impact is threefold:

• the impact on teachers through the enhancement of their competences and motivation,
• the impact on schools to which the teachers involved in DISCOVER belong,
• the impact on students by introducing new and more efficient didactic methods and by opening the classrooms boundaries towards the outer world, thus fostering the students’ identity as active learners and lifelong learners.