Plano de Atividade
FRIENDS Kick-Off-Meeting, Città di Castello – Italy
Launch of the project with a live discussion of all FRIENDS partners for a final review and agreement of the implementation work plan and next step.
19th – 20th February 2018
Preparation for the implementation in schools
Beginning of the programme implementation in schools and in other non-formal educational settings with information sessions on the Quiet Time/TM programme offered to school and policy community members (administrators, teachers, staff, parents’ association, local authorities, etc.).
Pre-test and training of school staff: administrators and teachers
Pre-testing of school administrators and teachers as part of a four-month longitudinal study, measuring their level of anxiety, job satisfaction and subjective well-being before Quiet Time/TM programme’s implementation.
Training the teachers in the Quiet Time/TM programme.
Parents’ information sessions
A series of parent information meetings are held by the school with the teachers/experts of the TM technique: the Quiet Time/TM programme is explained and open sessions of questions & answers contributes for collecting parents’ inputs.
Pre-test and training of students
Training of students for starting the Transcendental Meditation practice during the Quiet Time moments. This training is taking place in at least 1 school or non-formal educational institution per country (Portugal, Italy, UK, Belgium). This group is pre-tested together with a control group who does not practice TM in order to assess the technique’s impact.
Learning communities
Learning communities are established at local level in the partner countries to allow face-to-face meetings between partners, associated partners and key stakeholders interested in the project in order to disseminate the Quiet Time/TM approach and exchanging experiences of the project benefits and results
Seminars and Meetings
Organizing face-to-face dissemination meetings in combination with consortium meetings to allow the participation and contribution of all partners from Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and UK.
Presenting project results in relevant events at local and regional level and organizing workshops for interested stakeholders in each partner country.
Post-test of school staff: administrators and teachers
Post-testing of the participating administrators, teachers, and school staff. These data will be analysed to assess the impact of the Quiet Time/TM programme on measures such as anxiety, job satisfaction and subjective well-being.
Post-test of students
Both, experimental group and control group, are post-tested. These data will be analysed to assess the impact of the Quiet Time/TM programme on students on measures of reduced stress, anxiety, negative behaviors such as discrimination, violence and increased positive pro-social outcomes such as tolerance, moral reasoning, respect, resilience and coping ability
Students ‘delayed’ start group
The students’ control group is also trained in the Quiet Time/TM programme after the first stage of the research is completed.
1 Study visit at Maharishi free school in UK
Organizing a visit to Maharishi free school England, in occasion of the partner meeting in UK, involving the project partners and moderators of the local communities. Also interested authorities, associated partners and key stakeholders will be invited to join in
Final assessment of the schools’ environment
Assessing the overall schools’ environment after the end of the testing process. This includes teachers’ satisfaction and motivation, personal and academic results and achievements, pro-social outcomes.
Empirical data collection and overall conclusions
Reporting the results related to the:
(a) Training of administrators, teachers and staff (e.g. anxiety and job satisfaction)
(b) Training of the students (results of both experimental and control group),
(c) Assessment and monitoring of the overall schools’ environment
Policy Making Framework and recommendations for the Quiet Time/TM programme
A key instrument that will be developed during the project is the Policy Making Framework (PMF), which will allow interested parties across Europe to customize the outputs of the FRIENDS project for their local context. It should be noted that the FRIENDS Policy Making Framework, will creates also a set of policy a set of recommendations that provides concrete steps for developing, implementing and following up policies as well as supporting materials for the Quiet Time/TM programme’s implementation.
FRIENDS final conference in Brussels
A Final European Conference to be held in Brussels. Its central aim is to showcase evidence-based policy recommendations for Quiet Time/TM programme’s implementation on wider contexts. Teaching staff, representatives of the education sector and relevant stakeholders in EU policy making, will be invited to attend the conference.
Project sustainability: the project continues...
In addition of the policy recommendations for the Quiet Time/TM programme, a strategical roadmap will be developed as part of the exploitation plan:
- TM teachers participating in the project are available for new training, continuous follow-up and additional instructions for the students and staff in the schools
- Teacher training centers offers TM accreditation for school teachers in order to become Transcendental Meditation teachers
- Project partners maintain and update their channels of dissemination such as website, Facebook page and YouTube channel in English, Portuguese, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian for the exploitation of FRIENDS results in other contexts
- Local learning communities involving parents, schools and policy makers at different territorial level foster the scaling up of the programme and engagement of new schools
- TM teaching centres provide on-going assistance and continuous support to promote the expansion of the project on a wider European scale
FRIENDS Kick-Off-Meeting, Città di Castello – Italy
Launch of the project with a live discussion of all FRIENDS partners for a final review and agreement of the implementation work plan and next step.
19th – 20th February 2018
Preparation for the implementation in schools
Beginning of the programme implementation in schools and in other non-formal educational settings with information sessions on the Quiet Time/TM programme offered to school and policy community members (administrators, teachers, staff, parents’ association, local authorities, etc.).
Pre-test and training of school staff: administrators and teachers
Pre-testing of school administrators and teachers as part of a four-month longitudinal study, measuring their level of anxiety, job satisfaction and subjective well-being before Quiet Time/TM programme’s implementation.
Training the teachers in the Quiet Time/TM programme.
Parents’ information sessions
A series of parent information meetings are held by the school with the teachers/experts of the TM technique: the Quiet Time/TM programme is explained and open sessions of questions & answers contributes for collecting parents’ inputs.
Pre-test and training of students
Training of students for starting the Transcendental Meditation practice during the Quiet Time moments. This training is taking place in at least 1 school or non-formal educational institution per country (Portugal, Italy, UK, Belgium). This group is pre-tested together with a control group who does not practice TM in order to assess the technique’s impact.
Learning communities
Learning communities are established at local level in the partner countries to allow face-to-face meetings between partners, associated partners and key stakeholders interested in the project in order to disseminate the Quiet Time/TM approach and exchanging experiences of the project benefits and results
Seminars and Meetings
Organizing face-to-face dissemination meetings in combination with consortium meetings to allow the participation and contribution of all partners from Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and UK.
Presenting project results in relevant events at local and regional level and organizing workshops for interested stakeholders in each partner country.
Post-test of school staff: administrators and teachers
Post-testing of the participating administrators, teachers, and school staff. These data will be analysed to assess the impact of the Quiet Time/TM programme on measures such as anxiety, job satisfaction and subjective well-being.
Post-test of students
Both, experimental group and control group, are post-tested. These data will be analysed to assess the impact of the Quiet Time/TM programme on students on measures of reduced stress, anxiety, negative behaviors such as discrimination, violence and increased positive pro-social outcomes such as tolerance, moral reasoning, respect, resilience and coping ability
Students ‘delayed’ start group
The students’ control group is also trained in the Quiet Time/TM programme after the first stage of the research is completed.
1 Study visit at Maharishi free school in UK
Organizing a visit to Maharishi free school England, in occasion of the partner meeting in UK, involving the project partners and moderators of the local communities. Also interested authorities, associated partners and key stakeholders will be invited to join in
Final assessment of the schools’ environment
Assessing the overall schools’ environment after the end of the testing process. This includes teachers’ satisfaction and motivation, personal and academic results and achievements, pro-social outcomes.
Empirical data collection and overall conclusions
Reporting the results related to the:
(a) Training of administrators, teachers and staff (e.g. anxiety and job satisfaction)
(b) Training of the students (results of both experimental and control group),
(c) Assessment and monitoring of the overall schools’ environment
Policy Making Framework and recommendations for the Quiet Time/TM programme
A key instrument that will be developed during the project is the Policy Making Framework (PMF), which will allow interested parties across Europe to customize the outputs of the FRIENDS project for their local context. It should be noted that the FRIENDS Policy Making Framework, will creates also a set of policy a set of recommendations that provides concrete steps for developing, implementing and following up policies as well as supporting materials for the Quiet Time/TM programme’s implementation.
FRIENDS final conference in Brussels
A Final European Conference to be held in Brussels. Its central aim is to showcase evidence-based policy recommendations for Quiet Time/TM programme’s implementation on wider contexts. Teaching staff, representatives of the education sector and relevant stakeholders in EU policy making, will be invited to attend the conference.
Project sustainability: the project continues...
In addition of the policy recommendations for the Quiet Time/TM programme, a strategical roadmap will be developed as part of the exploitation plan:
- TM teachers participating in the project are available for new training, continuous follow-up and additional instructions for the students and staff in the schools
- Teacher training centers offers TM accreditation for school teachers in order to become Transcendental Meditation teachers
- Project partners maintain and update their channels of dissemination such as website, Facebook page and YouTube channel in English, Portuguese, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian for the exploitation of FRIENDS results in other contexts
- Local learning communities involving parents, schools and policy makers at different territorial level foster the scaling up of the programme and engagement of new schools
- TM teaching centres provide on-going assistance and continuous support to promote the expansion of the project on a wider European scale