Socrates programme
Encyclopedia
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
; 31 countries took part. The initial Socrates programme ran from 1994 until 31 December 1999 when it was replaced by the Socrates II programme on 24 January 2000, which ran until 2006. This, in turn, was replaced by the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013.
The countries participating in the programme were the then 25 European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
countries, the then candidate countries Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
; Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, Liechtenstein, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
.
The programme is named after the Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
philosopher Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
.
Declared aims
- "To strengthen the European dimension of education at all levels"
- "To improve knowledge of European languages"
- "To promote co-operation and mobility throughout education"
- "To encourage innovation in education"
- "To promote equal opportunities in all sectors of education"
Building blocks
- The Comenius programmeComenius programmeThe Comenius programme is a European Union educational project. It relates to school-level education, and is part of the EU's Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013. It aims "to help young people and educational staff better understand the range of European cultures, languages and values".Its name...
– relating to primary and secondary. - The Erasmus programmeErasmus programmeThe Erasmus Programme , a.k.a. Erasmus Project is a European Union student exchange programme established in 1987...
– relating to higher. - The Grundtvig programmeGrundtvig programmeThe Grundtvig programme is a European funding programme that is part of the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013 and aims to strengthen the European dimension in adult education and lifelong learning across Europe....
– relating to adult educationAdult educationAdult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...
. - The Lingua programme – relating to education in European languages.
- The Minerva programme – relating to informationInformation technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
and communication technology in education.
European Union-funded language projects
Within the Socrates programme, funded by the European Union Directorates-General: Education and Culture (DG EAC), Information Society and Media (DG INFSO) and the EuropeAid Cooperation Office (DG AIDCO), the promotion and learning of languages is a high priority. Below is a short list of some funded projects:- ARGuing for Multilingual Motivation in Web 2.0. - ARGuing is a project that addresses two needs by utilizing an Alternate Reality GameAlternate reality gameAn alternate reality game is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions....
; firstly, how to bridge the technological gap between educators and their students and secondly, how to motivate students to understand the benefits of learning languages at a level that impacts on their existing personal lives. - Autonomous Language Learning The Autonomous Language Learning (ALL) project, is building Blended LearningBlended learningBlended learning refers to a mixing of different learning environments. It combines traditional face-to-face classroom methods with more modern computer-mediated activities. According to its proponents, the strategy creates a more integrated approach for both instructors and learners. Formerly,...
language courses in four European languages (Turkish, Romanian, Bulgarian and Lithuanian). - Chain Stories project Young students, in their first year of language learning, can complete creative writing in their mother tongue. They then pass on their story to other schools (in other countries/languages), within a chain, for completion.
- Tool Project Tool for Online and Offline Language Learning (TOOL) project is building Blended Learning language courses in five European languages (Dutch, Estonian, Hungarian, Maltese, Slovene).
- Don't Give Up Motivating adult language learners to complete language courses.
- Lullabies of Europe Collecting the lullabies of Europe to use as a very early learning language resource.