Basics about Socrates/Comenius

The SOCRATES programme is the European Communities’ largest action programme aiming to promote transnational cooperation in the field of education. The programme was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in March 1995 (Council Decision No 819/95/EC) for an initial period of five years (1 January 1995 to 31 December 1999). On 24 January 2000, the European Parliament and the Council (Council Decision No 253/2000/EC) established the second phase of the SOCRATES programme: SOCRATES II. This began on 1 January 2000 and ended on
31 December 2006. SOCRATES II included eight subprogrammes, one of which (Comenius) was specifically focused on the field of schools.

The central aims of the Comenius programme are to expand

  • the knowledge of pupils
  • the knowledge of prospective and experienced teachers and teacher trainers in terms of their subjects
  • ways of working and foreign languages
  • to promote intercultural learning and the European consciousness

These aims are achieved through the exchange and the mobility of people,through transnational cooperative projects and collaboration in partnerships or networks. The Comenius action programme within the SOCRATES II programme was put together from a series of individual action programmes. Comenius 1 aimed to provide support to school partnerships.

Main aims of the study and matters under investigation

The primary aim of this study is to investigate the impact of Comenius 1 school partnerships on the improvement of teaching quality and on the integration of the European dimension in the work of the participating schools. The matters under investigation thus relate to the analysis of the impact of school partnerships on

  1. a) European and international cooperation between schools and its sustainability,
  2. b) the European dimension (European themes and European cooperation) in
    teaching and in the school day,
  3. c) teachers’ and pupils’ skills (language skills, ICT, methods of teaching and
    learning),
  4. d) the motivation of teachers and pupils to learn foreign languages, and
  5. e) teaching methods, the development of interdisciplinary approaches, changes in
    schools’ administration and organisation, relations between teachers and pupils
    and between the pupils themselves.

(source: http://www2.cmepius.si/files/cmepius/userfiles/publikacije/2013/comenius-report_en.pdf)