Learning and Training in Palermo

An intensive week of learning, teaching and training activities took place in Palermo, Sicily in Italy from 20-24 February, 2023.

The project consortium partners came together in a refurbished former church belonging to Italian partner MeNO. A series of training workshops, presentations, and discussions were held about the sensory skills and what they mean to education today, and how, if possible, these could be added to school curricula to improve teaching and learning.

Stavanger Offshore Technical School (Norway) presided over the week’s activities. The LTTA week began with a presentation by Warnborough College (Ireland) about how the mindset (of both teachers and students) is crucial to learning, reinforcing the importance of teachers exemplifying their own learning to inspire students. Several fun activities were held so the teachers could experience learning for themselves.

Cagdas Drama Academy (Turkey) continued the theme of teacher and student roles and the importance of the learning environment. EARTES (Spain) demonstrated through both live and recorded performances that music can affect mood, emotion and thought. 

WCI’s Dr Pamela Hatton looked at the psychological and physiological aspects of the senses, and how they might affect teaching and learning in the classroom, while Nina Hopson had a very enjoyable session of interactive games. SOTS Norway continued with more interactive games, observations and fun by setting up different sensory-led activities in different parts of the space.

Turkish partners, Cagdas and Cankaya, took centre stage on Wednesday with exercises and discussions about breaking down barriers in the classroom using drama and Forum Theatre techniques.

Esprominho (Portugal) put participants through their paces with sensory overload starting with the deprivation of certain senses while activating others, before using dance and movement to warm up the body and trigger kinesthetic/motor learning. As a final result, the group painted a painting together.

Meetings were held to wrap up the week, which gave all participants the opportunity to socialise, learn more about each other, and build up stronger friendships. MeNO culminated the week of happy memories and learning with a sumptuous Sicilian feast.