“Travel broadens the mind” applied a number of innovation characteristics.

First, exploration of the

main economic activities in the region and its connection with geography and history explained why
these activities emerged. This was the foundation for creating ideas of how to develop entrepreneur
initiatives, understand and manage business relationships. The students comprehended the diversity
of stereotypes, acquired skills for overcoming the culture clash in a multi-cultural environment, were
able to bridge over barriers and restrictions with a view to their active participation in the social and
economic life. The project involved partners from 5 countries, which developed a rich intercultural
dialogue and partnership. The partner countries had many differences in their cultures, traditions
and educational systems. This cooperation helped to teach students how insignificant issues could
create great divisions and led to joint discussion with development and exchange of the best
practices. It provided innovative education through elaboration of methodological materials for
learning about predictions and avoiding problems in the process of communicating, based on
superstitions, which were used in different subjects at school.

Second, the project facilitated students to get acquainted with the basic rules of social relationships
between the countries in Europe on the basis of the gained civil education. The project gave them an
opportunity to apply their creative skills for building a society and its development, constituting
norms defining social relationships. They learnt how to understand the existing norms better,
acknowledge them formally like their own norms. The participants strove for attitude sparing
personalities and their relationships.

Third, another innovation feature included methodology of ability transfer, based on learning-by-
doing and cooperative learning. Education experiences based on “learning-by-doing” are still
infrequent in curriculum plans. The opportunity to learn from experiences of other countries not only
allows students to come into direct contact with the world of knowledge, but also to improve their
ability to relationship in a number of contexts, except educational. This project will have an impact
on teaching techniques. Another innovative feature was development and implementation of new
forms of learning and providing education and training, use of open and flexible learning, open
educational resources and better exploitation of ICT.

The objective of the festival” Nations sing and dance” was to bring people from different countries
together, learn them how to celebrate with different ones, have respect for their holidays and feasts
and observe them. It implied that we intended to “submerge” completely into the culture of the
host country, “to live the part” and enjoy the national cuisine. Last but not least the students were in
the role of travelers, observers, explorers, writers and peacemakers, discoverers, builders, architects
and rulers of an imagined cosmopolitan island.

Main goals: to identify and promote national customs and cuisine, traditions, tourist places of
interest; to widen the school curriculum to encompass a European outlook; to involve local
communities in both the input and evaluation of the partnership; to improve teaching and learning in
partnership schools and disseminate within local areas; to unite European Youth through travel,
folklore, arts, languages, environmental issues and cultures; to enhance the mutual understanding
between different cultures.

The project enabled us to implement activities that provided a supportive environment to the
students from the five schools. They received qualified, reasonable help from the participating
teachers and had equal access to education in order to implement the inclusive education. The
activities identified students with learning difficulties. They created a lasting interest in creating
media products in students and helped to ensure the success of inclusion in school education,
socialization and integration. The project focused on a strategy that provided qualitative and
balanced program for all participants.

We have tried to improve achievement in relevant and high-level basic and transversal competences
in a lifelong learning perspective:

The idea of the project is related to consolidation of knowledge and skills acquired at school, building
up on them and gaining new ones. This is why each student compared his abilities to the abilities of
students from different countries. By doing so they self-estimated their capabilities and chose
appropriate activities to develop. In the process of implementation of project activities, thus,
achieving the objectives, students raised their fundamental foreign language skills, skills for work in
a multi-cultural environment to a higher level.