Meeting Report

GRUNDTVIG PROJECT 2011 – 2013
Lifestyles Revisited

Partners:

• Beypazarı Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi, Ankara, TR
• Club Senior Nordstad, Ettelbruck, Luxemburg, LU
• Escola Secundaria, D.Sancho I, Vila Nova de Famalicão, PT
• Fundacja Pomocy Niewidomym, Lomianki, PL
• Scuola Secondaria di I Grado G.Pascoli, Fasano di Brindisi, IT
• Universidad Permanente de la Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, ES
• Zebra Formations asbl, Hannut, BE

Partnership meeting report:Club Senior Nordstad, Ettelbruck, Luxemburg :    09 - 10 January 2012

1/ Designating a secretary for the project meeting (who will take notes, write and communicate the report). This person should belong to the organization of the following project meeting.

Our Turkish partners said they were incapable of writing the report. The coordinator‘s proposal to accomplish this task was accepted.

2/ Presentations by Partners of their local activities as best practices to be shared (in the form of a Power Point presentation).

Each partner presented the results and conclusions of their work during the first period about the eating habits lifestyles in various generational groups.
On the whole partners followed the presentation plan that had been proposed by the coordinator and included survey questionnaires based on a model provided by Universidad de Alicante.
The presentations showed a wide variety of workshops, educational methods and a vast diversity of approaches to the theme.
They demonstrate that learners of different ages in IG contexts have been able to learn something from each other’s lifestyles.
The presentations should be available on the partnership website hosted by Universidad Permanente de la Universidad de Alicante (see point 6).
Partners should also post their presentations on the Partnership Web base.

A/ Turkey

Their presentation included many aspects of local eating habits, meals and ingredients. A survey on food and drinks was conducted and results were analysed providing diagrams, charts and statistics according to age groups.

Comparisons were made between young and older learners leading to specific profile types illustrated by photos.
Contest meals were prepared by different age groups in food tasting workshops, using separate methods and followed by preference votes.
Age group learners were asked what they had learnt from each other and what they knew about the eating habits of the partnership countries.

B/ Portugal

Various forms of presentation were shown. These included a film illustrating women in their fifties speaking about their eating habits when they were younger.
The Power Point presentation described the making of the film explaining the competitive aspect of the workshop.
An association card game on meals was created stimulating memory faculties.
Examples of typical family local menus preferred by all generations were given.
The Portuguese eating habits survey and its results based on questionnaires were illustrated by pie charts and graphs.
Suggestions were given concerning the ways the workshops could be adapted by other organisations inside and outside the partnership.

C/ Spain

Different approaches of the lifestyle variable were used to correspond to the various age group profiles and work team sessions were organised. Videos were produced and intergenerational gastronomic workshops were set up, including a festive breakfast class.
The Nvivo qualitative data analysis tool was used in order to treat the large amount of facts and textual records collected during activities and from the questionnaire survey. The various formatted results were selected by members of the working groups illustrated by graphs, charts and statistics. They include the way traditional meals are prepared, the origin of ingredients, celebration menus as opposed to daily menus, the specific role of young people, etc.

D/ Poland

The presentation illustrated the differences of responses and attitudes towards eating habits in two Polish regions in which Fundacja Pomocy Niewidomym are active: Lublin and Krakow.
The comparison of answers to the survey questions showed surprising disparities in eating habits among age groups.
The results in the form of pie charts clarify attitudes and behaviour in several aspects of the variable such as type and quality of food consumption, preparation of meals and healthy eating consciousness. Learners were asked to discuss and consider the findings of their work.

E/ Luxembourg

The Club Senior Nordstad presentation explained the general objectives of the workshops in relation to the lifestyle variable and defined the profile of the intergenerational working groups.
The progression of workshop sessions were exemplified step by step giving details for each. Interviews focusing on eating preferences (place, company, type of food) and blind tasting activities were conducted.

Practical cooking carried out in IG groups in a school kitchen was illustrated along with the results of the questionnaire survey.
Conclusions brought by the different generational groups were related to the pedagogical methods used. The learning and teaching strategies, the outcomes in terms of production were discussed and evaluated.

F/ Italy

The Italian presentation began with the definition and characteristics of age groups in terms of gender and occupations, illustrated by pie charts and statistics.
Forming the working group with learners who knew little about each other was done during a creative preliminary activity.
Results of the questionnaire survey on eating habits were illustrated with bar charts.
Knowing what each age group preferred was done using the autobiographic method which produced a number of fact sheets on various aspects of the theme such as attitudes towards care, religion, parents, etc.
A voting system on food preferences was established.
Pictures for typical daily and Sunday menus were shown as well as those for other countries.

G/ Belgium

After the description of the IG groups, their objectives and methodology the presentation illustrated the various workshops activities undertaken in study circles. They included discussions on food consumption contexts, favourite menus and generational preferences for special and seasonal occasions.
The questionnaire survey revealed stereotyped knowledge about other countries’ eating habits. Graphs and charts showed differences between generations regarding commensality and table manners.
Possible and adaptable workshops were suggested for mixed age groups: finding expressions connected with food, establishing relations between food and music or other forms of art.
Interviews of kitchen staff and learners established that the outcome of IG groups was more important in terms of relationships than in terms of knowledge.

3/ Proposal by the coordinator and discussion of a common structure for best practices to be included in the compendium (dissemination aspect of the project).

The 5 points proposal, previously dispatched through the Internet Web base, was examined and discussed. The participants reached the following agreement:

The form and length of future presentations at partnership meetings remains the same. For coherence they should respect the proposed common structure.

To avoid an oversized compendium of IG best practices each organisation must downsize their presentation to 4 pages. A common template will be proposed by Barbara (Club Senior Nordstad) at the next meeting.

Formal description of the 4 pages :

• Written under Word document
• Font: arial 12
• Top and bottom spacing: 2,5 cm
• Left and right spacing: 2 cm
• Include 5 or 6 pictures to illustrate: dimensions 4cm x 6 cm
• Name each picture as follows: subject – country – number  (example: food – Belgium – 1).
• Send the 4 pages (with pictures included) by email to Universidad de Alicante.
• Send also the pictures separately by email to Universidad de Alicante.

"Nuria Ruiz" upua.internacional@ua.es
"Antonio López Blanes" a.lopez@ua.es

The 4 pages have to be sent by 01 March 2012 (at the latest).

Note: the document can be sent under PDF format.

4/ Reminder and review of the specific distribution of tasks, according to the application form and particularly in view of the evaluation and production of the compendium.

Partners responsible for collecting and structuring the products for the Project Compendium following a common structure (point 3/):

1. SPAIN (between January 2012 and May 2012) for products done and shared by partners between September 2011 and January 2012.
2. ITALY (between June 2012 and September 2012- for products done and shared by partners between January 2012 and June 2012.
3. TURKEY (between September 2012 and January 2013) for products done and shared between partners between June 2012 and September 2012.
4. LUXEMBURG (between January 2013 and June 2013) for products done and shared by partners between September 2012 and January 2013.

The 2 last partners have been switched following the coordinator’s proposal: in case of a necessary coordination visit at the end of the project it will be easier for the coordinator to manage with Luxembourg.

5/ Evaluation of the communication tool set up: transmission of information through the common Internet Web Base at
    http://groups.live.com/lifestyles-revisited
    lifestyles-revisited@groups.live.com

All partners agreed that this tool was working well. However, more use should be made of it. It is reminded that Partners should post their presentations shown in Alicante and Ettelbruck if they have not already done so.

6/ Dissemination of results and more.

Considering the proposal by Spain to ensure dissemination through a public website hosted by the Universidad Permanente de la Universidad de Alicante (formal technical and informatics aspects managed by Antonio LÓPEZ acting as webmaster).

Our partners from Spain presented the work accomplished for the creation of the partnership website. All participants agreed that the draft product shown was of excellent quality and were thankful for its construction.
The general conception was based on a proposal made by the coordinator.
The technical aspects, main characteristics and design were outlined ( languages, contact and gallery buttons, internal search engine, etc.)

The Lifestyle partnership project will be available through the Universidad Permanente de la Universidad de Alicante website using the appropriate URL:
http://www.proyectosupua.es/lifestyles/

The language used will be English. However, links to other languages sections will be possible. Each partner is responsible for translating texts in its national language
These sections are:
- a summary of the partnership project.
- a presentation of your own institution.

Each partner must send the logo of its organisation to : a.lopez@ua.es

7/ Evaluation tools    (see F5 section of application form)

Poland and Portugal created and presented two evaluation tools that were filled in by all organisations covering several aspects (communication, creativity, educational activities, learning skills, learning strategies, personal achievement). Partners were grateful to them for covering this part of the project.

The questionnaires will be used at each stage of the project and the results will be compiled by those partners for analysis and discussion, allowing a continuous evaluation of the project and partnership progress.

8/ Agreement on the choice of a new lifestyle variable (taken from the project’s application form) to be more specifically studied in relation to its local context.

A brainstorm session followed the coordinator’s proposal to study “living places”.
This theme was soon to be broadened to a wider spectrum of lifestyles.
Several ideas were put forward keeping in mind that they concern several generations:

- The place where we live in relation to other people.
- The evolution of lifestyles from an historical point of view, but also from an individual point of view (how we lived in the past and how we live now).
- The influence of climate and situation on the way we live (determining factors on lifestyles).
- The influence of migrations and their consequences on lifestyles (how people adapt to their new living conditions).
- The importance of what we value in our ways of living (transmission from ancestors, money and income).

How to adapt and materialise these ideas into concrete workshops for learners?

It is left up to each organisation to be as creative as before. Some suggestions were proposed:

- Taking pictures of different places and exposing their importance (for personal reasons).
- Taking pictures of the environment you like and giving your reasons (compare with other points of view - literally or subjectively).
- Recording stories of places where we lived, why we liked or disliked them.
- Relating rooms to feelings or emotions ( the workplace, the classroom, the living room, etc.).
- Describing the evolution of facilities in living places ( toilets, bathroom, appliances, washing machines, repair or throw away, etc.).
- Visiting museums, walking in the street and observing architectural evolution.
- Going to flea markets and observing discarded objects.
- Expressing preferences for furniture, art, fashion, etc.
- Analysing gender differences (men ><women) concerning household activities ( Who does what? When? How? etc.)
- Etc.

Partners will present their workshop activities at the next meeting in Turkey using Power Point presentations (15 minutes).

If they wish, they can already prepare the compiled version in “compendium style” using the format described under section 3 (common structure).

9/ Calendar of meetings, events and activities as decided at the previous meeting in Alicante.

- TURKEY        May 2012
Partners will be picked up by Beypazari partners in Ankara on Sunday 27/05
            Monday 28/05
            Tuesday 29/05
            + optional day for visits

- ITALY        September 2012
            Thursday 27/09/
            Friday 28/09
            + optional day for visits

- POLAND        January 2013
            Thursday 17/01
            Friday 18/01

10/ AOB: any other matter.

Intermediate report: partners should bring any necessary and useful material concerning the intermediate report that will be prepared in Turkey.

The partners agreed the meeting had been extremely successful from all points of view and held in a cooperative manner and relaxed atmosphere.
Good progress towards the achievement of project objectives was made.
Partners expressed their thanks for its organization, the interesting visits and hospitable welcome. It gave them the opportunity of taking part in a Club Senior Nordstad get together and enabled them to get to know each other’s culture a bit more.

Conversations held during the evening meal in a typical restaurant below Vianden castle permitted participants to exchange their impressions about food, drink and eating habits in Luxembourg.

The local infrastructure provided by Club Senior Nordstad was faultless. Partners were thankful for having been welcomed in such a pleasant context by a resourceful and proficient team.