CLAYSS activities in Eastern Europe
On November 16, the Mini-Symposium "Service-Learning in Higher Education Institutions" was held at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the Babes Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. With the participation of 75 people from universities, NGOs and schools, the day organized by the Department of Special Education of the University included the presentation of Luz Avruj representing CLAYSS in a presentation on service-learning as an innovative approach in education. Also participating in the meeting were Alina Rusu from the host university and Gabriel Badescu who shared his research on democratic values in Romanian teachers. Alzbeta Brozmanova shared the experience of volunteering and its contribution to education in the European Union's SLIHE Erasmus+ Programme.
The Architects of Education Conference, organized by the New Horizons Foundation in collaboration with CLAYSS, Transilvania College and Babes Bolyai University, took place on Saturday, November 17. With two hundred participants the first panel of the morning dealt with the competences of the 21st century and its presenters were Mircea Miclea (Babes Bolyai University), Daniela Visonianu (President of Coalition for Education) and Magdalena Batica (Director of the Institute for Education Sciences). This was followed by a panel on critical thinking with speakers Luz Avruj (CLAYSS) and Dana Bates (New Horizons Foundation), Daiva Penkauskiene (Center for Modern Didactics) Anna Mauz (Lernen Dutch Engagement) and Jehona Gjurgjeala (TOKA). During the afternoon, the conference offered 10 simultaneous workshops, one of which was given by Luz Avruj. It dealt with community work in service learning and was attended by 30 people.
The following day the Meeting of the Service-Learning Network in Central and Eastern Europe was held. It counted with the participation of 13 members of allied institutions and was a rich meeting space to share the advances in the trajectories of its members for the dissemination and strengthening of service-learning in the region as well as to define future steps.
As a result of this meeting, it was defined that the next regional conference on service-learning will take place on July 5, 2019 in Cluj Napoca, Romania.
