1. SMILE research
Presentation
Project S.M.I.L.E Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience
Lifelong Learning Programme Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
KICK-OFF MEETING
16-17 January 2014, Citta di Castelo, ITALY

2. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
S.M.I.L.E. project research
As any project research, SMILE research serves the
needs of the project.
Our project intends to introduce development of
pro-social behavior in primary schools as
motivation tool for improving students’
behavior and academic performance.
Research till now has shown that the success of
such school programs to teach and model
social skills depends on teachers and staff
ability to display empathic and caring behavior..
Thus what we need to study is the school and
parents communities.

3. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Main goal
of SMILE research
To ensure the needed knowledge
about the historical and social
background of the final beneficiaries
– Roma and Gage communities, to
measure their attitudes and
recommend a mediation strategy.

4. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Community Based Participatory
Research (CBPR)
3 fields of investigation to focus on:
• Identification of the cultural causes of prejudices
• Mutual perception of childhood
• Adults’ idea about school as a socialization and
education environment.
Research should be an action supervised by
educators and authorities.

5. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Research Stages
2 stages of the research:
1. National and/or local analysis of historical and social
dymanics that involves Roma and Gage.
• examination of prejudices, exclusion or auto-segregation criteria
• investigation about children safeguarding (ethnic specifics and
common grounds)
• investigation of education inside Roma communities (specifics and
shared vision with Gage)
2. Search on the field:
• Analysis of mediation among Roma and Gage families
• Analysis of pro-social theory in a learning environment through the
scheme of Moreno

6. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Research Phase 1
Goal: Define and present a brief history of the
relationships between the Roma community and
the gage community in a given environment.
defining a place with a significant presence of Roma
Community to describe a brief history of the
Roma presence in the place, taking into account:
– the cultural and ethnic origins of the Roma
– the projects addressed to the Roma
integration carried out in the place (strengths
and weaknesses)
– the level of the scholar inclusion of the Roma
children

7. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Research Phase 2
Goal: Realizing a focus group with the support of a
cultural mediator to:
• make transparent the main reciprocal
prejudices and
• analyze the main problems related to the
scholarship of the Roma children.
(The focus group should be organized with
participation of Roma and Gage representatives
and “opinion makers”)
• Analysis of the mediation realized and inprogress.

8. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Research Phase 3
Goal: To realize an initial and final Moreno scheme
In this phase a primary school class (with the presence of
Roma children) will be identified as a exemplificative target.
Researcher will apply the Moreno scheme and ask the
children:
• to present a drawing of the class
• to answer to a very simple questionnaire
The results will be analyze by psychologists
The tools will be repeated at the end of the project.

9. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Research Phase 4
Goal: To finalize the research through
• a comparative analysis and
• the final report
They will be realized on the basis of the result of the
both used tools (sociogram and drawing of the
class)

10. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Aimed pro-social behaviour (1)
It is a personal behavior/positive actions that benefits others.
Pro-social bevahiour could be developed and encouraged
through school program designed to teach and model
social skills.
Such actions are prompted by:
• Empathy
• Moral values
• A sense of personal responsibilities
Educators promote pro-social behaviour by creating school
culture where pro-social behaviours are modeled by other
students and by adults.
•

11. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Aimed pro-social behaviour (2)
What are the challenges?
What shall research reveal and encourage?
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Pro-social behaviour is encouraged by :
• adults as role models (training of teachers)
• encouraging cooperative behavior
• school pro-social culture
Teachers' behavior and school policies can promote
pro-sociality at school.

12. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
What shall exist/be developed/be
studied at schools
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Three approaches can promote pro-social behavior in schools:
•
1. Train teachers to integrate values instructions into
classroom management - assign academic tasks in the
classroom to pairs or small groups
•
2. Foster a caring community throughout the school adults can model caring and respective behavior, pair
students for ”buddy” activities, parental involvement
•
3. Use positive discipline practices – teaching and
encouraging pro-social behavior – among students, across
all school settings, and by all staff members.

13. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Sociometric Test (J.L.Moreno)
Jacob L. Moreno defined sociometry as "the inquiry into the
evolution and organization of groups and the position of
individuals within them."
The sociometric test is an instrument to measure the
amount of organization shown by social groups through
the measurement of the attractions and repulsions which
take place between the individuals within a group.
This test has been made in respect to home groups, work
groups, and school groups.
It requires an individual to choose his/her associates for any
group of which he/she is or might become a member.
It determines the position of each individual in a group in which
he has a function.

14. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
THE SOCIOGRAM
Development of sociogram - a systematic method for
graphically representing individuals as
points/nodes and the relationships between
them as lines/arcs.
Responses in a sociometric procedure are materials
which become sociometric facts by visualization
and representation how these responses hang
together.
A sociogram shows the proper placement of every
individual and of all interrelations of individuals.

15. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Rules in sociometric testing
The Rule of adequate motivation:
"Every participant should feel about the experiment
that it is in his (or her) own cause . . . that it is an
opportunity for him (or her) to become an active
agent in matters concerning his (or her) life
situation."
The Rule of "gradual" inclusion of all extraneous
criteria.
Moreno speaks here of "the slow dialectic process of
the sociometric experiment“.

16. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
Once again –
what SMILE research is to serve
SMILE project rests on 3 intents:
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
• Realizing a didactic scheme defined as Prosocial
Community Inclusion Model (PCIM)
• Realizing and experimenting a model of an
Educating Community, defined as Community of
Concrete Answers (CCA)
• Experimenting a protocol of Education of
Educators

17. Supporting Motivations to Intervene on
Learning and Experience (SMILE)
Ref.No 543536-LLP-1-2013-1-IT-KA1-KA1MPR
SMILE
research
presentation
16.01.2014
Citta di Castelo,
ITALY
Presentation prepared by
Vedar Georgiev (Eddie),
veder.georgiev@abv.bg
Expert of ADRA BULGARIA Foundation
Partner in S.M.I.L.E. Project
Managing WP Research
Kick-Off Meeting
Citta di Castelo, ITALY, 16-17 January
2014
Thank you for your attention!