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The International Dimension in Education is increasingly understood to be an important element in school education in Wales and beyond. It is linked to, and underpins the delivery of, Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship (ESDGC), which has been a priority area of the Welsh Assembly Government’s education policy since 2004 and judged by Estyn as a key learning outcome to be assessed in school inspections from September 2010.
In conjunction with the Welsh Government, Welsh Local Authorities, Estyn, Cambridge Education and the OECD, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and CEWC-Cymru have been working closely with the British Council on measuring the impact of the International Dimension in Education in schools in Wales, primarily through the development and trialling of a self-assessment tool and accompanying guidance material.
The self-assessment tool was designed to help schools to move away from compiling a factual account of the IDE work they undertook, towards a focus on how the IDE benefited the school, in terms of contributing to educational effectiveness, social cohesiveness and the attitudes and values of both learners and teachers.
As well as being educationally valuable in its own right, by making the impact of IDE more explicit, schools would be able to use the tool to assess how effective their IDE activities were in delivering key components of the school curriculum.
During the development of the assessment tool in depth case studies were undertaken in eight schools, four secondary, three primaries and one special, at different levels in employing the international dimension. The schools were drawn from a variety of communities throughout Wales.
In addition to the research findings and the development of the assessment tool, British Council Wales has been working with local authorities to develop a range of international project ideas to help schools engage with the International Dimension in Education.
British Council Wales runs a range of projects bringing together schools in UK with schools around the world, to the benefit of both. We would be very happy to hear from you and discuss your needs and how you can;
•Access information demonstrating the value of the IDE to your school’s effectiveness and the development of your pupils.
•Make use of an up to date tool for better planning an evaluation of IDE activity.
•Be inspired by tried and tested activities that really work.
•Understand who to speak to for hands on advice, guidance and funding support
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