TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Vladimir Kozachun
The main aims and objectives:
• to convey to participants the idea that the changing world requires new educational approaches and learning new skills and competencies;
• to develop critical thinking — the ability to achieve, process, understand, rationalize, and analyze large amounts of contradictory information to the point of making an informed decision and taking action promptly;
• to develop creative thinking — the ability to see different perspectives in the world, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between unrelated concepts, to generate solutions, to come up with unexpected decisions, to invent new things, to turn imaginative ideas into reality;
• to develop collaboration — the ability to work in a team to achieve the shared purpose, learn from each other, and contribute to the others’ learning;
• to enrich the “toolkit” of youth workers and NGOs’ volunteers with new methods that could be used in different non-formal education activities.
The participants' profile of the TC:
• 18+ years old;
• youth workers, youth leaders, trainers, facilitators, mentors, other educators;
• open to new experience and learning opportunities;
• open-minded and flexible;
• able to communicate and express themselves in English;
• motivated and interested in the topic of the project.
The training involved 35 participants from 10 countries: Armenia, Bulgaria, Czechia, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Ukraine.
21st-century competencies:
• C — Creativity: the ability to imagine and devise new, innovative ways of addressing problems, answering questions or expressing meaning through the application, synthesis or repurposing of knowledge.
• C — Critical thinking: the ability to identify, analyze and evaluate situations, ideas and information to formulate responses and solutions.
• C — Collaboration: the ability to work in a team towards a common goal, including the ability to prevent and manage conflicts.
Examples of the training methods used:
• Improvisation Theatre method. Critical thinking requires not only analytical abilities, but also developed emotional intelligence and creativity. Thus, active listening is important in the perception of information, as it allows you to get into the essence and deeply understand what is being said; openness to new ideas expands the perspective of the view and allows you to consider the subject from different sides. Improvisation Theatre is a unique tool that is ideal for developing these skills. We also use this method to prepare participants for public speaking, training their confidence and raising awareness of the importance of non-verbal communication;
• Simulations and Role-Plays;
• Open Type Games;
• Open Space Technology.
The results of the project are recorded in the digital Toolkit, dedicated to critical thinking, creativity and collaboration. It includes some tips for a wide range of people about how to develop critical thinking, creativity and collaboration as 21st-century competencies. We hope to distribute this Toolkit (both Internet and printed version) and draw the attention of target groups to this issue, increase their awareness in this area. In addition, during the project, participants developed these skills and competences and practised them in the group and individual work. We believe, this will help participants to spread their positive experience and ideas among people (it’s worth underlining that ideas could be not only about the CCC skills/competences, but also about other values – it depends on the sphere, where each participant works, but mainly democracy, non-violence, equality, human rights, diversity, intercultural dialogue, climate changing, healthy lifestyle, etc. – so the common values for Europe and the whole world).
https://www.facebook.com/groups/tc.ccc
I was one of the full time Trainers responsible for the content.