The actual context of the COVID-19 creates a wealth of insecurity, uncertainty for pupils, youth, students and a massive challenge for educators and youth workers. The situation in the various realities of the partners’ are presenting distress, difficulty in engaging with students and keep them motivated (besides isolated examples), showing uncertainty of future employment possibilities and maybe a drastic change of marketplace needs. Aim: We are addressing the needs of primary, gymnasium and high school teachers and educators working with minorities, fewer opportunities youth and rural youth in creating innovative approaches that are more inclusive, using digital environments, and dealing with emotional understanding. Thus, the project supports participants (prospective teachers) to deliver high quality teaching that deals with the complexity of the learners by focusing their approaches on inclusion, improving attainment and continuing education as well as empowering learners. Objectives:O1.Developing more flexible methods for involving students in actively learning the curricula during the class hours, and test the most relevant ones throughout the lifetime of this project and measure the commitment to finish all education cycles. (NLP, mindfulness, e-learning). This objective meets SDG 1 and 4.O2.Sharing innovative techniques for teaching and measuring impact of teaching to boost the ability of students to learn and participate in the process, supported by e-learning, that are applied and tested by the teachers in classrooms/ online. By the end of the project those techniques would be filtered and adapted to the realities of the participating countries (dance, music, theatre, arts, digital art, digital environments). This objective meets SDG 1 and 4.O3.Methods for blending digital environments with practical, hands-on activities for learning STEM that are transferred to the teachers during a Training Course, and applied in the classroom by those. Those will be shared during Training Courses and integrated in the teachers activity through practical assignments (movement, music, art, e-learning, gamification). This objective meets SDG 4 and 10. O4. Methods for psycho-emotional balance, that can be used/applied by both teachers and students, for improved focus, decision making, clarity, health and wellbeing, in/outside classroom. Those shall be acquired during the lifetime of the project and transferred by the teachers to other fellow teachers (NLP, mindfulness, rhetoric, music, dance). This objective meets SDG 3, 4 and 10.NEEDSThe common need is integrating approaches for supporting learners with fewer opportunities achieve and maintain educational development: -Literacy among youth, achievement in STEM topic, emotional balance, digital & technology, employability in the actual and future job market. -Improving the approaches of teachers, educators in classroom, activities and homework making those holistic and appealing to the learners of all ages.-implementing a structured non-formal approach for involving disadvantaged youth, pupils and students in up-skilling and adapting to the actual job markets’ needs as well as including those youth in the community participation.-Prototyping tools and methods based on what techniques are used by teachers in classroom now, the ones shared by the facilitators in the training courses and the testing and observation of those techniques in the classrooms of the teachers attending those activities.For supporting those priorities we bring forward:- Tools from coaching and Neuro Linguistic Programming that are giving educators and teachers the ability to understand how to use linguistic tools and other tools in order to meet pupils at their best, and it brings ways on how to use humour and speaking tools.- Mindfulness as a means to access balance at the level of mind and body for getting young people calibrated for learning, focus and kindness.- Visual art and visual stories promoted by schools in schools and in classrooms- Theatre techniques to be used in front of the classroom- Theatre as a tool for expressing the unexpressed, hidden thoughts and ideas through personas as well as role plays, improvisation and humour. - Digital art for meeting interactive ways of exploring methods of teaching, inclusion, and transferring learning.- Dance & movement as methods that enhance the way that teachers are managing certain activities and adapt the way they are teaching certain classes of maths and sciences. - Music and rhetorics as mediums that are amplifying the way that both teachers/ educators and pupils/ students are interacting, talking and transmitting information as well as music that helps to accelerate learning processes.- E-learning as a tool for enhancing the capabilities of teachers in various online environments, sharing interesting information with students and for pupils and student.

Despite the recent emergence of GenAI and large language models (LLMs), numerous educational tools utilizing these technologies have already been developed, with their numbers expected to increase rapidly. Users of such tools are also growing exponentially. AI-based educational tools, leveraging the capabilities of large language models, usher in a new era of education with personalized tutoring, easy content creation, and automatic grading. As the array of available tools expands, educators must acquire digital competencies to select and evaluate the most suitable options. However, the swift growth in GenAI capabilities raises concerns about their impact on students (e.g., misinformation, increased cheating, ethical and privacy issues) and teachers (reduced social interaction, job displacement, and loss). The GenAI4ED project aims to address these challenges by developing a digital platform to consider popular AI-based educational software, evaluate various aspects of each tool, and offer the most suitable option for individual teachers and/or students. Notably, the platform will be employed in pilot experiments in selected schools, whereby students and educators will be asked to evaluate the available tools. Assessment will be based on a predefined set of carefully designed criteria, exploring how such tools affect the student’s experience and how they complement the teachers’ skills and improve their working conditions. Importantly, through an interdisciplinary approach involving experts in AI, psychology, and ethical concerns as well as teachers and parents, GenAI4ED will utilize the results of the pilot experiments to develop policy recommendations on how to harness the benefits of GenAI tools best to enhance the teaching experience for both students and educators, while protecting the teachers’ jobs, improving their working conditions and creating opportunities for new teaching roles.

"<< Background >>With the current reforms of the educational system, teachers are phased with the challenge to provide education to children from a very young age to be able to become ‘workers’ in the field of knowledge (Gruioniu, 2013). Within this context, schools should equip their students with advanced education including the development of high-level skills, essentially required for solving unparalleled and complex problems. Citizens of the 21st century must be able to summarize the essential from a variety of sources, to extract new ideas from the information that computers cannot summarize, to become leaders and be able to make the best decisions as fast as possible. This can be achieved through philosophical inquiry-based learning. Having said this, the proposal of the current project has a twofold purpose, to develop philosophical knowledge but also philosophical inquiry through interrelated results, based on the knowledge taxonomy (originally developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 and accepted many alterations and since then). The taxonomy used here comes from the father of Philosophy for children who is considered to be Matthew Lipman. The philosophical knowledge will be developed around 4 main branches including but not restricted to:1.Metaphysics knowledge (reality) e.g who they are, what are numbers, what is world.2.Epistemology (knowledge), e.g How do we know the things we know? Are our feelings realiable? 3.Logic (critical thinking) What is the difference between a good and a bad argument. Last but not least 4.Ethics (values) How can we find happiness? Is it ok to be selfish?The philosophical inquiry per se will be developed via result 4 and 5 (lesson plans and serious game) stepping on result no.3 the philosophical narratives.<< Objectives >>The effort of including Philosophy in the school curriculum as a systematic discipline goes back to 1970s in the American state. The name of Matthew Lipman is widely known as the founder for the implementation of P4C (Philosophy for children) and his high impact book ‘Philosophy Goes to School’. Lipman, talked about the Socratic tradition where one learns to reason and to think for oneself. For a long time, there was a lively discussion in the educational cycle as to which age is more appropriate for the philosophical training to begin. Nowadays, it is accepted from as young as 10 years old due to several studies proving the significant elevation of children’s school performance resulting from the sharpening of their logical skills Radhar et al (2018); philosophical inquiry approach is known to be one of the best approaches to achieve the development of logical skills. Although a World Philosophy Day was established in 2002 by UNESCO (celebrated the third Thursday of November each year) we can only see a minimum number of European synergies fostering this important approach in a number of European countries. Also, we can see some philosophical novels published, some books about philosophy for children but none of the efforts undertaken so far is taking a holistic approach, meaning the development of all sub-levels of the knowledge hierarchy with its relevant material for each step. The material to be found in-so far, especially for the three out of the four participating countries (Greece, Cyprus, Lithuania) for the age range of 10-14 years old students is neither holistic (with the sense mentioned here- to be developed hierarchically and gradually), not engaging high tech digital instruments as proposed within Little Philosophers (e.g Augmented Reality Books and serious game) norto be found in the local languages;despite the fact that it is nowadays accepted that younger students could benefit from philosophical inquiry in many aspects of their academic life and not alone. Recurrent crises at all levels, economic, societal, health and that are due to a large variety of causes and to the global complexity of current times, people are heavily impacted in their abilities to cope with uncertainty and ambiguity. The fast change of technological growth seems to be better absorbed by children who are more receptive in adopting new gadgets that are transforming people’s lifestyles but that have also a potential great impact also on practical needs like administrative issues. However, the same use of these new technologies like social networks can be manipulated and used to spread fake news and harmful content virally across communities all over the world. Youngsters, because of their lack of experience due to their age, are particularly exposed to such risks, and since common educational structures and families themselves have great difficulties in taking up the pace of change, sense-making might be really hard for unprepared minds. This is true in France too. The risks to be seduced and manipulated by opposed extremisms (e.g. populisms vs. religious radicals) are high and cannot be underestimated. Proper tools to mitigate the lack of adequate institutional support are needed in order to make a better prepared society grow.<< Implementation >>The project is divided into Activities, Project Results/ Intellectual Outputs and Multiplier Events.Each activity is led by one partner, according to its proven expertise with the support of the grant requested under ""Project Management and Implementation"" and will have a dedicated time for presentation, monitoring and evaluation in the TMs.Activities: needed processes to complete the goals of the project include: A1. Project Management and Coordination; Led by Succubus.A2. Quality management, Research Validity and Evaluation of Content; Led by Vilnius University A3. ICTs and Innovation Management; Led by CIPA4. Dissemination, Exploitation and Sustainability; Led by DDPA5. Management and evaluation of training Activities; Led by The Grammar school in Cyprus and DISEPI in GreeceSpecific activities under each of the four main Results of the project include:For the PR1, The Guidebook:Setting the structure, exact content, framework, word limit, graphics of the guidebook ,Setting questions for desktop research Desktop research on first sectionResearch on best 12 philosophers to present the 4 thematics Research to justify the philosophers chosen, Translation so as the guidebook to be found in EN, GR LT, FRFor the Augmented reality and e-books, some of the specific activities to eb undertaken include:Creation of stroryboard, Create training course for partners (e and AR books) Piloting, Finalization and Translations, so as to be found in four languagesVoice recording of all books in EN and the languages of the consortium For the third result, the Philosophical Narratives, beyond the prior research and the development of the narratives, pilot testing will precede the finalization and the translations and voice recordings to EN, GR LT, FR.For the fourth output, the development of Lesson plans, similar pattern as above will be followed e.g research and the development, pilot testing will precede the finalization and the translations and voice recordings to EN, GR LT, FR.The final Result of the project, the Digital Serious game will have a workshop as its initial step so as to perfectly capture the content Determining the target, defining the message to be transmitted, and refining it, development of the script, the mechanics and frame will follow. Of course the beta version will be piloted before finalizing it. In terms of the aforementioned activities, we expect: - at least 120 students involved in materials piloting - at least 15 educators involved in outputs pilot and evaluation In terms of dissemination, we expect: - at least 1,500 people reached through the website and social media - at least 10 external contributors involved before the end of the project – at least 300 stakeholders, educators and learners gathering during the 4 multiplier events The four Multiplier events will be half-day events organized one in each country where in all, more than 35 participants belonging to two main target groups will be reached:a) staff from the Philosophy departments of Universities, andb) the voluntary sector, civil society partners and social/education institutions, primary schools from the private and public sector, elementary schools from the private and public sector at large.Secondary target groups are, educators, lifelong learning trainers dealing with philosophical inquiry, community engagement practices, school policy makers and; representatives from Research and Innovation Centers; representatives of public authorities, municipalities and local government employees, with the aim to present to the wide public the project results.<< Results >>(a) The formation of a unique philosophical approach for children age 10-14 and their educators which frames philosophy not just as a knowledge around figures of main philosophers, but as socio-cultural product, as well as a multifaceted educational field, through a journey via the narratives, technology, and the role play via the serious game. Accordingly, the educators will be endowed with alternative pedagogical methodologies and synchronous interdisciplinary best- practices to approachingPhilosophical knowledge and philosophical inquiry-based learning from higher primary (10-12) to lower secondary (12-14), thus helping the students to develop skills related with “Logic, Reasoning, Creative and Caring thinking”.(b) The familiarization of educators with the utilization of digital tools and technological innovations (e.g. Augmented Reality books, e-books, serious game) for the construction of modern material that serve their peculiar educational needs and objectives(c) The design and development of an inclusive educational approach suitable for Deaf/ Hard of Hearing and visually impaired students, as well as for students with SLDs INTANGIBLE RESULTS For educators:●Provide them with a rich guidebook explaining the importance of the implementation of philosophical inquiry from the age of 10 whilst justifying the decisions made for this project (e.g what main branches/ categories it is based on, which main philosophers will be exploited and why)●Offer interactive, electronic material to be used as Open educational resource●Give educators a playful way to introduce children to the hardest/ deepest questions afflicting philosophers for thousands of years●Inducing students progressively into philosophical inquiry, proven to be helpful in many aspects in their educational achievements in all subjects (as it develops their thinking)●Strengthen and broaden educators’ pedagogical skills through the exchange of good practices between partners and associated partnersFor students:●Stimulate empathy, develop open-mindedness and fire an intercultural dialogue leading to a debate (UNESCO chair: https://chaireunescophiloenfants.univ-nantes.fr/)●Provide them with stimulating, fun, interactive means of philosophical knowledge●Enhance their whole academic performance by developing crucial skills such as creative and critical thinking (Lipman, 2011)●Develop caring thinking via the serious gameThrough the collaboration of European public and private associations and institutions and theexchange of good practices between partners and associated partners, we wish to make philosophical inquiry accessible to all European students age 10-14, improve and support the professional practices of educators who wish to teach philosophy but also use philosophical inquiry-based learning in their daily practice. This can be accomplished by tackling reality through Metaphysics, knowledge through Epistemology, critical thinking through Logic but also develop student’s values through Ethics. But also caring thinking; ‘To think caringly means to think ethically, affectively, normatively, appreciatively and to actively participate in society with a concern for the common good’ (Lipman 2002, p. 271)."

The SENSES is implemented by 8 partners [SFEDI, BLUE ROOM, EUROTRAINING, EUROSPEAK LANGUAGE SCHOOLS, XENIOS POLIS, CENTER FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION, SMCS-Specchio Magico ONLUS, PRIVATE GRAMMAR & MODERN SCHOOLS] from 5 EU countries [UK, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy]. The project includes IOs, 1. Capacity building for SENSES Teachers: A completed package, 2. SEI happening to All students: An engagement package 3. The SENSES Digital Environment, 4. National workshops in the 5 countries, UK, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, a final conference, 5. Dissemination results A generation ago, teachers could expect that what they taught would last their students lifetime. However, we live in a fast-changing world, and producing more of the same knowledge and skills will not suffice to address the challenges of the future. Today, because of the rapid economic and social change, schools have to prepare students for jobs that have not yet been created, technologies that have not yet been invented and problems that we don’t know yet. Empowering teachers & students with skills for social innovation and entrepreneurship is particularly important for the sustainable development of European societies. This is also reflected in as series of documents (e.g.British Council, ‘Social entrepreneurship in education, empowering the next generation to address society’s needs’) as also in the published EC report (2016) on “entrepreneurship education at school” which highlights that: ‘member states should foster innovation and entrepreneurial skills through new and creative ways of teaching and learning from primary school focus to higher education’ Europe is facing various challenges (financial crisis, migration, unemployment, human rights abuses, etc.) underlying the urgent need for the creation of new solutions and the adoption of new paradigms for change that will promote sustainable growth and job creation as well as improve societal conditions such as inequality, poverty and social exclusion. The education of students on the applicability of social entrepreneurial fields is highly necessary especially for the creation of new venture with a social cause. A school education with the development of activities to inspire the potential entrepreneurs, in order to encourage them to set up their new social enterprises, and become the new social entrepreneurs and innovators are more than welcome. SENSES will develop a new educational approach in primary education that will strengthen on the one the teachers with knowledge and skills to lead their students to a social entrepreneurship and innovation spirit and, on the other the capacity and skills of children from all backgrounds to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and design innovative solutions to social problems (e.g. environmental consciousness, gender equality, minorities integration). In other words, the suggested educational model will aim to create the future social innovators and social entrepreneurs of Europe by drawing on today’s unprecedented technological and professional resources to engage all students, develop their love of learning, and enable them to face the real challenges of the 21st centurySENSES responds to the ‘aspect’ that teachers are the heart of our education system and it is that knowledge, skills, expertise of teachers that can facilitate children’s learning, or inspiring the passion for social entrepreneurship and innovation. Our project’s main principle is that if the benefits of social entrepreneurship in education are to be enjoyed by as many as possible children, then TEACHERS need to be at the heart of that delivery. Investing in teachers’ understanding and knowledge of SEI, is the way of maximizing the number of children understanding and being immersed in the ‘world’ of social entrepreneurship & innovation. Providing also children with that kind of practical context and connection with real world challenges, in order for them to identify social issues and develop solutions, constitutes major axe for our project In this context, SENSES addresses the following objectives:a) to provide teachers with knowledge for SEI and skills of transferring and applying this knowledge within their classroom additionally, guidelines and methodology of developing students core social entrepreneurship & innovation perceptions and skillsb) to cultivate to students at Primary Education, ages 7-12, (including those of marginalized backgrounds) structured competences of social entrepreneurship and innovation contexts with the mission to develop adaptable thinkers, collaborative problem solvers, and irrepressible social innovators; accordingly to contextualize for them proper, educational opportunities for their SEI engagementc) to create and deliver innovative products and teaching/learning methods, targeting school communities in 5 countries, UK-Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy- with various needs and national educational contexts and highly transferable to EU context.

‘Girls into Global STEM’ (GIGS, www.gigsproject.eu 2016–19) is a response to well documented reluctance of girls to take up STEM subjects in upper secondary education and the consequent impact this has on the gender balance in universities and in STEM-based careers (Milgram, 2011; Dasgupta & Stout, 2014). GIGS draws on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a focus for its activities at school level. It is therefore very much a product of a growing awareness around global issues, especially among young people, made possible by online newsfeeds and social media. The objectives adopted by our project were focused on a bottom-up approach that began with providing our target groups with high quality stimulus materials that could foster problem solving and challenge based methodologies, develop digital skills and combine these with increasing global understanding and positive engagement in science:1.To increase the employment potential of young Europeans, especially girls, by improving their interest and engagement in STEM linked with wider awareness of global issues and facilitated through digital skills. 2.To support teachers in the embedding of digital skills and global learning methodologies into their STEM teaching.3.To integrate digital literacy set within a global context into STEM education policy and practice.The GIGS project was coordinated by the University of Hull, each country was represented by either a university or NGO working with a partner secondary school. An additional UK partner was Practical Action. This organisation offers local support for development projects in some of the world’s poorest countries while their education programme helps to bring the challenges these communities face to a school audience in the UK. Practical Action led on the development of key resources - the 'Global STEM Challenges'. Each secondary school was well known to its national partner and brought something different to the partnership. In the UK De Ferrers Academy is a leader in the use of eBooks and mobile technologies in the classroom, important features of the GIGS project. Gimnazjum w Zespole Szkół w Siennicy in Poland has a laboratory and teaching room dedicated to the technologies for generating renewable energy and a good relationship with our other Polish partner, the Centre for Citizenship Education. The Grammar School, Nicosia is a leader in STEM education and robotics, they are also proven partners of CARDET our other Cypriot partner. In Sweden Sandgärdskolan is closely linked to the University of Boras which sends many students there for their teaching practice.In the first year of our project we developed the 'Global STEM Challenges'. These fit into curriculum areas across Europe not only in science but also in geography and citizenship, each one is drawn from one of the Sustainable Development Goals. We demonstrated through our surveys and interviews that these activities have the capacity to inspire all school students and especially girls to find out more about how science and technology can provide practical, often low-cost answers to important global issues. We devised and analysed online surveys for our school students both before and after the practical work. Throughout the challenges the older students, working with younger cohorts, collected video clips, still images and other assets for inclusion in pupil generated eBooks that record their work and contributed to our Teacher Toolkit. We brought together all 32 of the challenge creators for a 5 day workshop in Poland in June 2017 specifically with the aim of finalising their eBooks.We then moved into a phase which saw the development and testing of a number of in-service and pre-service training programmes that can be adapted by schools, training providers or as part of a pre-service course. Each training course draws on the Global STEM Challenges and other resources assembled in an online project toolkit (www.gigstoolkit.com). A Learning, Teaching and Training event in 2018 helped to prepared partners to develop these training outputs, Multiplier Sessions, academic outputs and local training and dissemination events. These training outputs support transformational learning in our immediate target groups and are easily transferred to other sectors. Our overall aim is that teachers should find out how to run their own Global STEM Challenges and potentially be in a position to train others and so disseminate the work of the project. The impact of the project was demonstrated by the responses and attitudinal changes by all school students, especially girls, to the STEM focused activities developed by the project and the theme of gender equality is prominent in dissemination invitations. However the work has also generated interest in terms of its potential for global education more generally and we see these two themes sustaining interest and awareness of the project beyond the contractual period.