Projects and partnerships

Project category: cooperation for innovation

Project outcome: create materials designed to enhance educators' teaching capabilities while fostering the development of students' life and entrepreneurial competences alongside language acquisition

Project number: 2024-1-RO01-KA220-ADU-000245019

Leaders in the Making: Unlocking the Future is an innovative project designed to enhance educators' teaching capabilities while fostering the development of students' life and entrepreneurial competences alongside language acquisition. The primary goal of this initiative is to equip teachers with effective coaching techniques that promote critical 21st-century skills, including problem-solving, communication, and leadership.

To achieve this, the project focuses on improving the teaching and professional skills of educators, enabling them to develop their students' life and entrepreneurial competences while facilitating language learning through effective coaching methodologies. Additionally, the project aims to elevate the life competences of adult learners in alignment with established frameworks, such as the European Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, the Cambridge Life Competencies Framework, and the Cambridge Employability Framework.

The expected results of this project include tailored presentations designed specifically for student learning, comprehensive lesson plans to guide educators in delivering effective training sessions, and self-assessment and team-assessment questionnaires to support student evaluation. Assessment guidelines will also be provided to assist educators in tracking student progress and performance. The main outcome anticipated is the widespread implementation of the Toolkit by language educators, leading to enhanced teaching competences and the development of essential life skills among students.

The International House Bucharest serves as the project coordinator, collaborating with several partners, us from Učilište Jantar, International House Torres Vedras from Portugal, International House Giga from Catania, Italy, and Oxford School from Leskovac, Serbia.

Project category: cooperation for innovation

Project outcome: development of innovative Virtual Reality technologies for foreign language learning

Project no.:  2023-1-HR01-KA220-ADU-000151917 

Our original project, VR4LL 1.0, provided language teachers and learners with the opportunity to use VR technology in a classroom context. One student wearing a headset was given a task to complete in one of our engaging virtual worlds, with instructions being provided by his or her classmates. The success of this initial project can be measured by the large number of language schools that are using our VR materials, and by the fact that the project was shortlisted for the British Council’s prestigious ELTon’s award, in the category of Digital Innovation.

VR4LL 2.0 is a new project, also co-funded by Erasmus+, that has even more ambitious aims. In this new project we will develop two different types of learning environment. In the first type, students will be asked to perform tasks in a virtual learning environment such as a science lab, which may be familiar to some students, but certainly won’t be familiar to all of them. In the second type of environment, students will have to complete a task by navigating their way around a series of virtual escape rooms. In this case, nothing will be quite so familiar; neither the virtual environments themselves, nor the sort of activities students are required to undertake.

Both types of learning environment will allow multiple players, so students will be able to interact with their classmates both inside and outside the virtual worlds, as well as with a wide range of objects and avatars (or non-playable characters).

The underlying aim of VR4LL 2.0 is to leverage recent advances in VR technology to provide students with even more stimulating opportunities to practice and improve their language skills.

Project category: cooperation for innovation

Project outcome: implementation of "DRGC" curriculum in language learning

Project no.: 2022-1-BG01-KA220-ADU-000085168

Developing Responsible Global Citizens refers to a shared purpose amongst language schools to develop as a places-of-learning, with an ideal opportunity to positively influence students, in a safe environment, giving them the language and communication skills to explore, decide and act on challenges we face as a planet.

While developing forward looking teaching centres, the DRGC curriculum aims to develop English language competence and effective communication skills within the context of Community, Health, Environment, Diversity and Innovation (CHEDI). This develops learners’ creativity, critical thinking, collaboration to reach consensus, while building confidence to tackle these challenges.

This project, carried out as a transnational collaboration project within the Erasmus KA2 programme, aims to develop a number of innovative outputs for use in language teaching organizations. The DRGC Curriculum Builder is a software tool for adult learners, teachers, Directors of Studies and Academic Directors to quickly and easily design a personalised curricula and syllabi, from A1 to C2. CHEDI topics and learning outcomes inspire a positive, open, barrier-free approach to learning.

In addition, we will develop a handbook for teachers and suite of videos to aid teachers’ professional development; explaining how to use the curriculum builder, the software, student-centred methodologies, ELT theory and practice, with ideas for tasks that can be implemented with language learners in and outside the classroom.

Project category: cooperation for innovation

Project outcome: innovative blended language upskilling

Project no.: 2022-1-RS01-KA220-ADU-000090189

Innovative Blended Language Upskilling (I-BLU) aims to provide an innovative learning tool for adult learners of English and seeks to empower language teaching professionals in the provision of quality language courses.

It is important for language organizations to continue their offering of high quality, evidence-based teaching for learners and training for teachers using blended learning methodology. This project will meet this vital need and will also allow us to make this developmental support available to a much wider number of teachers and adult learners Europe-wide.

Unlike other blended courses, I-BLU incorporates both a taxonomy of adult learners’ types and a teacher training component with an equal emphasis on the methodology, learner needs, digital skills and soft skills.

In order to facilitate more effective language learning through independent free digital means, the project places an equal focus on the learner's needs and learning styles, as well as on familiarizing teachers with the blended resources and developing strategies and methodologies for successful mediation between the learning content and the language learner.

Digital transformation, changes in communication and learning styles, enhanced flexibility and ease of access, inclusive dimension and alignment with CEFR are some of the elements to I-BLU that would not be possible without a joint international effort of the five project partners: Babel Idiomas from Spain, Blackbird from Serbia, CPIP from Romania, Jantar from Croatia and LUV from Slovenia.

Project category: cooperation for innovation

Project outcome: implementation of environmental sustainability topics in language learning

Project no.: 2021-1-HR01-KA220-ADU-000035661

Event known as COP26 (full title 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference) was one of the most significant events of 2021. Although this was the 26^th such event in a row (previous one was way back in 2015, known as COP21), the public interest was never more intensive. The protest that broke out in Glasgow, city that hosted COP26, was the largest one since the 2003 anti-Iraq War marches. Similar protests broke out in another 100 countries globally. Although many believe that decisions reached during the summit are not nearly enough, for the first time in our history world countries were able to reach consensus on some important issues, such as decision to reduce the amount of coal used globally. Clearly, everyone is aware that our abuse of the environment is beyond any acceptable level.

Within the EU, hundreds of thousands of students attend courses in private language schools every year. Although their primary goal is to improve their language competence, the duty of all education is to encourage positive changes in society and individuals through transfer of knowledge and civic values. Language learning is a process that requires involvement of many important topics and issues, so why not include environmental sustainability as one of them? Considering the large number of students that go through our schools every year, implementation of environmental topics in our curriculum would have extremely positive impact towards environmental sustainability.

Hence our project goal is systematic implementation of environmental topics into language learning curricula. Part of the solution to this problem requires availability of adequate teaching materials with this specific content. Therefore, part of our project is development of such materials: educational videos, lesson plans and additional teaching materials that language teachers can use in their classrooms. The other part is development of teacher training materials, to ensure project sustainability and further transfer of our ideas through personal and professional development of teachers. At the same time, we will develop an online platform which will be used for storing and sharing such content, with goal of eliminating paper materials and ensuring eco-friendly distribution.

Jantar – IH Split is project coordinator, while our international partners include Molehill Holdings from Spain, International House Rouen from France and International House Galway from Ireland. All partners are also members of the non-profit association carrying the same name Green Standard Schools, which ensures implementation of eco-friendly business policies and practices in language schools.

In 2021, Jantar IH Split was awarded Erasmus accreditation as a kind of membership card for the Erasmus family, according to our Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes. This card enables us to achieve our goals more easily, especially in terms of our staff’s professional development as well as the improvement of our adult students’ key competencies.

Following our vision and mission, we have created a plan in which our goal is to develop high-quality cooperation with institutions abroad, to enable our teachers’ and administrative and managerial staff’s continuous professional development as well as to involve them in international projects, to encourage the personal development of each student, to encourage creativity, critical thinking and humane values and train them for competitive participation in the labor market.

As part of the accreditation, through the projects we are already implementing and through the ones we are to implement, our staff and our students will go to mobility activities through which they will improve their intercultural skills, improve their knowledge of foreign languages, acquire new professional knowledge and skills, master the use of new technologies, exchange experiences and increase motivation for lifelong learning.

Project category: cooperation for innovation

Project outcome: development of adaptive digital placement tests for languages

Project no: 2020-1-CZ01-KA227-ADU-094205

Every home has a history; and every local knows the legends.

Stories are everywhere, they help us define who we are and make sense of the world around us. As legendary author Terry Pratchett put it “There’s always a story. It's all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything's got a story in it.” Even cities have stories.  

Good stories are amazing learning tools as they engage the audience and challenge them to think about and understand the worldview they are being presented with. In particular, stories help us both to recognise and give us a sense of belonging to our own culture, and open a window onto other cultures. Stories are cultural treasures.

On the other hand, technology also has an impact on our lives. Pratchett also wrote that “People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.” If people are shaped and given definition by stories, the same can also be said for technology, especially in the pandemic and post-pandemic world when so many have been forced to rely on technology in some way for their access to education.

Whilst many believe face-to-face classes are more conducive to learning, this does not mean technology does not have a role to play; especially innovative and creative methods of engaging and motivating students. One such example that is much under-used in all areas of education, not just language learning, is the Digital Escape Room.

This then is the basic objective of our project. We believe that we can use stories (traditional or contemporary) from different cultures and put them into Digital Escape Rooms (DERs) to create an exciting, engaging, language learning experience.

We will develop  a set of modern, innovative teaching resources that will help develop language competencies in learners. At the same time we believe we can foster intercultural competencies by making students familiar with stories from beyond their own culture.

Research, from both the teachers who work in our language schools and those of our associates, as well as from the students who  study in these language centres, has made it very clear that there is strong demand for teaching and learning resources that are meaningful, motivational, modern and innovative. Our project has been designed to produce resources which meet this demand.

The platform we use to host the DERs will also allow other teachers and students to go on to create their own stories and their own learning activities. Our dream is to have City Stories from all over connecting people and inspiring them, through culture and language, to explore and better understand the world we share.

Let’s finish with another quote from Terry Pratchett. Because although we know where stories come from, and sometimes we watch them unfold in front of our eyes; and although learning is a never-ending process, we know we can learn how to learn, as Pratchett said, “It’s still magic, even if you know how it's done.”

Project category: cooperation for innovation

Project outcome: development of adaptive digital placement tests for languages

Project no: 2020-1-HR01-KA204-077724

Determining level of existing language competence in potential learners is of utmost importance in developing individual education strategy. This importance can be demonstrated through simple statistics: during the last three academic years, between 40 and 45 percent of new students (i.e. students who have never previously take a course with us) enrolled entry level (A1.1). This information indicates that most of our students come to us with some form of language competence. Since practically the entire world adopted CEFR more than 10 years ago and most language courses are aligned with this framework, it is neccessary to match existing language competence with one of the CEFR levels (A1 to C2).
 

Placement test for determining this competence have been used for as long as there have been language schools, so the concept of these tests is not a novel idea. However, testing practices have not significantly changed for decades, while information technology allowing certain improvements has evolved dramatically. There have been some advances in pre-testing technology - in the beginning, placement tests were explicitly linear: a potential student would go through a set number of questions and his/her language competence would be determined by taking a single score on a scale from 1 to n (where n is a total number of questions). This linear approach certainly had certain effect, but it had just as many disadvantages that had a negative impact on the final result. Jantar, for example, compensated for these disadvantages by analyzing specific groups of questions within the test, creating our own scoring system based on years of previous experience. If results were still unclear, an additional oral test was administered by one of our teachers, to pinpoint a specific language level.

Some institutions, like Cambridge Assessment English, started developing their own digital tests over the last few years, but these are only partially adaptive and available exclusively for English language. Similar products were made by some publishers (such as Pearson or Oxford University Press) but these tests are, once again, limited to English language and have very low level of adaptivity.

Through this project, Jantar will develop our own innovative and fully adaptive tests for determining existing level of English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian language in our potential students. Unique algorithms for question selection and progressive determination of language competence will be developed by an IT company from Split, Amber IT Solutions, which will be the first company to implement complex mathematical models used in, for example, ranking of chess players. These extremely advanced algorithms are currently not used by any test on the market.

In addition to Jantar, language methodology part of the project will be co-developed by British School Pisa from Italy and Blackbird from Serbia, renowned language schools with implemented quality assurance systems. Additional support is provided by Molehill from Spain, a holding company with shares in multiple language schools across the globe. Our aim is to create unique tests which will determine existing language level of our potential students with surgical precision, ensuring enrollment in adequate language courses. Through this process we aim to eliminate potential drop-outs from language courses as a result of motivation loss due to enrollment in a course where one does not belong according to their existing language competence.

Project category: cooperation for innovation

Project outcome: development and implementation of Remote Theatre methodology in language learning

Project no: 2020-1-RO01-KA204-080056

Remote Theatre is a unique language teaching methodology developed by Nick Bilbrough, one of the most prominent names in the ELT (English Language Teaching) industry.  Nick is a teacher, teacher-trainer and author of resource books for teachers. He has taught and trained language teachers in many diverse contexts in Africa, the Middle East, South America and Europe. He is also the founder and coordinator of the award-winning UK registered charity, The The Hands Up Project which provides learning opportunities for young people, mostly in Palestine, through online conversation, storytelling and drama activities.  In fact, Remote Theatre was developed through activities ran by The Hands Up Project, providing not only an English language learning tool, but also a voice to the world for students in Gaza and Zaatari refugee camp using the internet and simple video conferencing equipment. 

Through several years of implementation, Remote Theatre stared shaping into a full-bodied methodology incorporating multiple innovative elements: 

• telling a story through Zoom
• Roleplay and simulation
• basic and advanced improvisation activities
• physical drama activities and Total Physical Response
• online drama and games
• puppetry and masks
• turning a script into a piece of Remote Theatre

The goal of this project, coordinated by our partner institution International House Bucharest, is to gather and analyze relevant information based on the previous experience and implementation, and give it a structured form. We aim to achieve this goal through development of three intellectual outputs:

• a complete handbook for teachers, which will be a training tool on how to apply Remote Theatre methodology in language teaching
• a collection of 30 plays ready to be performed using Remote Theatre
• web application which will serve as a main hub for developing and sharing scripts and plays, and ensure transferability of our project to other fields

Project category: cooperation for innovation

Project outcome: development of innovative Virtual Reality technologies for foreign language learning

Project no.: 2019-1-HR01-KA204-060781

Over the last few years, Virtual Reality has become one of the most innovative teaching tools in many educational sectors. While some preliminary use of this technology has been tested in language learning, no VR tools of real significance have been developed for language classrooms up to this date. The potential for VR in language learning may be even greater than in other fields of education.  VR can provide a fully immersive learning experience and while this method is proven to be the most effective for language learning, very few students would ever have a chance to experience language immersion without the implementation of VR technology. Through this project, we will develop an innovative platform for carrying out collaborative group language exercises in the classroom. These will provide an opportunity for students to practice the target language in a fully immersive way, mimicking the well established methodology of "Total Physical Response" in a way that has not been used in language learning before.

Foreign language school JANTAR - IH Split works as a project coordinator on developing project results together with partner schools from Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and Spain. The project outputs include the creation of virtual worlds in which the learning process will take place, tasks that students will solve using language skills, piloting a project within the school. All technology is being developed for the Oculus Quest platform, which is also the latest in VR technology.

As we live in the time of unprecedented change, the educational context is also changing. That is why we need to work on developing innovations and modern skills to teach our students and increase their chances of success.  Therefore, we want our teaching, management and administrative staff to adopt these skills and competences and to integrate them into our daily school practice.

 In this project, we have carefully selected structured courses that, on the one hand, are intended to help our teaching staff to develop various aspects of creating a modern, innovative and student-centered classroom. We have incorporated the methods that support this type of teaching into our plan, and we want to support our staff in designing project-based, integrated, task-based, or problem-based teaching.

 In addition, we plan to help our teachers to plan lessons that foster higher-level competencies and cognitive skills, such as communication, collaboration, conflict resolution and mediation, as well as, creativity, critical thinking and digital competencies. Through chosen structured courses, we want to help our management and administrative staff to improve their 21^st century competencies related to digital skills, as well as leadership and mentoring.

We believe that the whole project will have a great impact on motivation, not only employees’ or students’, but also the general public’s motivation to continue their life-long learning.

Project category: professional development

Project objective: to develop 21st century skills in education

Project no.: 2017-1-HR01-KA104-035205

A New Era of Education: 21st Century Skills project is funded by EU funding under Erasmus Plus, Key Activity 1 - Professional Development for Adult Education professionals. Through this project, Jantar has provided financial resources to invest in various aspects of competencies with an emphasis on immeasurable skills such as communication skills, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills. The development of these skills is directly linked to the success of both the school and its students.

Our teachers and management staff who participate in this project work together to create a modern school in all aspects. Teachers take part in workshops focused on developing communication and practical skills in the classroom, conducting the learning and teaching process in a modern way, and creating a student-centred teaching approach. The ultimate goal of professional development is to support students in adopting communication, collaboration and interaction skills and to make the classrooms more dynamic and creative. Management staff participates in job shadowing activities, that is, observing the work of a larger institution with the exchange of experience and good practice.

The project, therefore, contributes to the development of key skills for the 21st century and the setting of challenging goals for the future.

Project category: professional development

Project objective: to develop skills necessary for inclusive education

Project no.: 2016-1-HR01-KA104-022014

The Inclusive School: a gateway to equal opportunity education is a project which involves creating a so-called inclusive school tailored to each student. In modern society, awareness of diversity is important, not only cultural or social, but emotional, physical, educational and linguistic.

As a private school, we are a logical choice for people seeking a more personal and individualized approach, and with this project and professional development we want to learn more about recognizing the wide range of diversity among students, adapting testing and evaluation to each, and involving each student into the learning process. By carefully selecting participants and seminars that expand and complement each other, we strengthen our teachers' capacities to create a school that will give every student an equal chance in education.

Project category: professional development

Project objective: to develop modern teaching skills and approaches

Project no.: 2015-1-HR01-KA104-012982

As part of Key Activity 1 of the Erasmus + EU Program, in June 2015, the Jantar – Institute for Adult Education signed an agreement with the Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes to allocate funds for a project called "Into a world without language boundaries". The project title derives from the our school’s motto, which signifies our desire to contribute to our community and society in general through the provision of quality language education. The aim of this project is to strengthen our capacities through the additional education of our teachers in the field of language methodology and the use of modern technologies and cultural elements in teaching.

With the latest knowledge of methodological approaches, the project enables us to broaden our perspectives in the field of adapting to international quality standards as well as managing European projects. In addition, the benefit of the project comes from visiting different European countries as well as through contacts with teachers and other employees of similar European institutions.

Over the two years of the project, our employees will participate in nine structured courses. Through the courses of selected partners, Jantar staff will have the opportunity to adopt the latest teaching methods and ideas, and to make contacts that can lead to future projects. Participants will share their experience with other employees through a series of useful and creative workshops that we organize at Jantar School.

In September 2014, a project called "Innovative School - Knowledge at Your Fingertips" was submitted to the competition "Application of Information and Communication Technology to Improve Business Processes". The implementation of the project started in March 2015 and the project was completed in June 2016. The aim of the project was to improve school management by introducing holistic ICT solutions and developing innovative education by introducing e-learning and distance learning. The implementation of the project enabled the unification and optimization of all business processes, improving the organization and management of the business, enhancing the capacity of employees, modernizing existing services, developing new educational programs and improving the technological basis of business.

The total contracted value of the project is HRK 628,712.50, of which the share of EU funding from the European Regional Development Fund is HRK 340,347.00. With the realization of the project, Jantar became the only foreign language school in the Split-Dalmatia County, and one of the few in Croatia, with implemented electronic register and LMS (Learning Management System) teaching support.

Innovation in the teaching process has increased the quality of teaching, provided students with the use of interactive multimedia materials for additional learning, improved communication of students and teaching staff, facilitated the exchange of knowledge and ensured the availability of educational services to target groups who, due to lack of educational institutions or for personal reasons, could not to attend regular classes.

Jantar entered the project due to the lack of software solutions for computerization of private schools and institutions. Thanks to the European funds and the expertise of young Split programmers, we have created a complete information system that prides itself on its functionality and quality of the developed software solutions. These funds helped us finance the purchase of IT equipment for the modernization of teaching processes, the use of interactive educational materials, the education of teachers in the use of new technologies, and most importantly - the development of the software solution itself.