3rd meeting of the Material Development Working Group (MDWG) of the European Union – Council of Europe Joint Project “Strengthening Democratic Culture in Basic Education” was organised in Ankara on 13 June 2019. The meeting brought together the members of the MDWG, consultants to develop classroom-based educational activities for primary education, and representatives of the publishing house that will produce storybooks for preschool and 1st and 2nd grades of primary education.
Expectations and the roadmap regarding the development of the materials were shared with the consultants and the publisher by the representatives of the Ministry of National Education (MoNE), the consultants that have been supporting the MDWG, and the representatives of the Council of Europe. A total of 208 classroom-based educational activities are expected to be developed for 8 different grades and 10 different courses, each one addressing a specific topic in the relevant course and incorporating certain democratic competences into the topic. Besides, a set of 5 storybooks and a teachers’ guide for preschool level, one storybook for 1st grade, one storybook for 2nd grade, and a teachers’ guide for both grades will be developed by the publishing house, based on the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture.
The MDWG will have a series of meetings focusing on the review of the newly-produced materials in the upcoming months, aiming to finalise all the materials and having them approved by the MoNE for testing in 110 pilot schools in the 2019-2020 school year.
