„Strengthening Thinking and Learning Skills" is a collective project of seven participating organizations from five European countries with the common mission to reduce disparities in learning outcomes affecting disadvantaged learners, underachievers or children with learning impairment through introduction of more effective teaching methods.
The members of this strategic partnership are successfully working with children with cognitive disorders of all kinds of etiology; strengthening the social, economic, educational and cultural attainments of individuals and socially disadvantaged groups and addressing ethnic issues; and finally, teachers of mainstream schools with integrated children, underachievers and minority members. All the participants are experienced IE mediators working with specific target groups in specific settings; thus, bringing a unique set of experience to the project.
Our common goal is to help disadvantaged children to overcome their particular barriers by enhancing their learning potential and cognitive functioning and thus to increase their chances to become socially and economically integrated independent individuals bringing full value to society. During their school years these children have to battle with their underdeveloped cognitive functions that are crucial for acquiring all the basic skills, such as reading, writing, and mathematics.
Addressing their own particular target groups, the participating organizations have gathered significant experience with the use of mediated learning experience and instrumental enrichment to be shared and transferred to different environments, to exchange good practices and specific expertise from local to European level, to provide other educators and practitioners with methodological guidance, and thus to strengthen competences and skills needed to deliver high quality teaching /services for work with disadvantaged learners in order to increase the number of socially integrated children/youth and their chances to graduate from secondary school and get a job.