THOSE WHO CARE TEACH:

LEARNING THROUGH SENSES

COURSE INFORMATION

Welcome to an exciting journey where you get to understand that stimulating your senses while studying can improve retention of new information. Learning about your senses also helps to improve your ability to think, learn and teach while regaining new energy, impulses, motivation and much more throughout this course, based on the legacy of the first real European citizen John Amos Comenius (1592-1670).

This very personal course is based on 5 basic senses (sight-perception, hearing -speech, taste – tongue, speech, flavours, smell-connection with memory, touch – movement), so each day is dedicated to one of them and activities connected with this particular sense and organs (skin, tongue etc.). Personal work along with teamwork are performed both inside and outside or within the local environment (mountains, parks or museums, monuments atc.)

The main activities include improving soft skills via personal work, workshops, teamwork, excursions, visits to local places of interest connected to the main topic of the course, outdoor activities, creative lessons, wellbeing activities and implementing ideas of CLIL, STEAM methods, as they are all intertwined with the senses.

Learning through senses is a course aimed at teachers and school staff from pre-school level to primary, secondary, vocational, adult and special needs education, staff of non-government organizations, government and policy makers and company staff. Non-native English trainers expecting participants to have at least B1 level of English proficiency.

METHODOLOGY

The hands-on approach is the main method used throughout this course, having the participants try out the proposed activities for themselves, thus somehow stepping out of their comfort zone and working on their personal growth, gaining motivation, improving their soft skills or preventing the burnout syndrome.

Elements of modern learning and teaching methods are used, such as CLIL, STEAM or game-based activities, along with the use of AI for creative purposes or visual cues and the emphasis is put on handwritten notes under a form of a personal course diary or a scrapbook inspired by Orbis Pictus by Comenius (students bring their own blank notebook and the other material is provided). All the senses, including the common sense are encouraged to be used.

In addition, participants will work and receive a huge amount of documents to improve their knowledge in the different areas integrated in the course. At the end of the course, the company will provide the participants an attendance certificate including the detailed information about the course, e.g. title, programme and schedule.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

In the learning process, we do not think about our senses, we simply use them. The main aim of this course is to bring back the awareness to our body, the way it functions in the contemporary world full of technology and visual stimuli that might be overwhelming, often leading to system overload and inefficient learning, so the specific objectives of the course are:

To bring the conscious use of all sense to our awareness in order to improve the learning process
To improve personal, social and group acquisition of knowledge for all age groups, for students and tutors
To make use of a classroom as well as of the local environment, nature, monuments, museums and culture during the learning process in order to connect theory with practice
To experience the authentic feelings of particular activites via the hands-on approach
To enable participants to modify and implement acquired knowledge into their teaching
To get as many examples of good practice as possible
To improve perception skills, imagination and creativity
To enhance critical thinking
To evolve soft skills
To reinforce empathy, intuition and calm state of mind
To learn about the great work (e.g. Orbis Pictus, Didactica Magna) of a Czech pedagogue and philosopher John Amos Comenius
To strengthen European collaboration among – past, present and future – participants.

Thanks to this course the participants will:

Learn how to better understand their own feelings and sensations as well those of their students
Discover new teaching methods and materials (apps, videos, mind maps, spidergrams)
Realize the importance of all the human senses (what happens if one is impaired)
Profit of local environment to better understand the European context, own country
Contrast and compare new perceptions, images, experience
Make contacts with new partners interested in developing European Projects through specific networking activities.

DAILY PROGRAMME

The manager of the company usually welcomes participants on Sunday afternoon and gives them all the information about courses and Erasmus week. The main training activities, instruction and practices will take place from Monday to Friday. Moreover, participants will be able to explain their own school and Erasmus project to the rest of participants in the beginning of the week and, after that, work all together to set up future eTwinnings or even Job Shadowing. On another note, participants will be involved in cultural activities held by the company during afternoon time. Finally, there will be a course’ roundup and a final evaluation on Friday or Saturday morning, depending on the participants' departure time, and the delivery of the certificates of attendance. Here you have below the standard indicative daily programme of the course.

DAY 1 – SUNDAY. LET’S MEET US!

- Meeting and greeting.

- Individual orientation and information about the venue and the city.

- Introduction and brief information about the local culture

- Round up presentation and networking between all participants.

DAY 2 – MONDAY. (SIGHT – MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE)

Introduction to Learning through senses course

Brief presentation of Comenius work via practical examples (Orbis Pictus), still up to date!

Discovering knowledge gained through vision – meaning of colors, first impressions, non verbal communication

SCAMPER technique

SEE THINK WONDER method (within local context, environment)

Picture in motion

Drawing based on observation

Resting your eyes, wellbeing methods

DAY 3 – TUESDAY. (HEARING – BE ALL EARS)

Exploring sounds

Sound of nature, voices (via local nature, outdoor activities)

Meaning of music, background music (its importance)

Power of words, speech

Music to relax, reduce stress

Blind listening - noises

DAY 4 – WEDNESDAY. (SMELL – RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE)

Exploring local smells

Breathing, feeling – meditation

Scent diary

Odor-driven memories

Creating learning environment

Aromatherapy

DAY 5 – THURSDAY. (TASTE – THE TONGUE IS A POWERFUL TOOL)

Exploring local savours, tasting

Power of the tongue – speech

Speed dating – power of words

Right diet – fuel for the brain

Tongue twisters

DAY 6 – FRIDAY. (TOUCH – FINGERS CROSSED)

Tactile activities – anti stress toys

Artistic creations – clay, expressing emotions, land art (outdoor)

Movement – implementation of games (outdoor)

Importance of human touch

Course evaluation.

Releasing official course certifications.

Participants departure.

DAY 7 - SATURDAY: OPTIONAL DAY 7 NOT INCLUDED IN THE COURSE FEES.

The company offers one optional activity to increase networking among participants and deepen the local culture. Ask the company for the optional package leaflet of the venue.

LEARNING THROUGH SENSES sessions:

The course will attend editions during 2026 on the following dates:

CZECH REPUBLIC - PRAGUE:

ICELAND – REYKJAVÍK:

From Sunday 29th March to Friday 3rd April.
From Sunday 12th July to Friday 17th.
From Sunday 19th July to Friday 24th.
From Sunday 26th July to Friday 31st.
From Sunday 9th August to Friday 14th.
From Sunday 16th August to Friday 21st.
From Sunday 11th October to Friday 18th.
From Sunday 18th October to Friday 23rd.

COST AND ERASMUS + FUNDING

The training course is tailored to be fully funded by Erasmus + to teachers, trainers, headmasters and any other staff of education organizations so the Erasmus + grant covers all the costs of the course. The cost of the Erasmus course is 480€ for a 6-day course and includes course fees, transportation for the training activities if this is necessary, free cultural activities in the city during the week such as a guided city tour on the first day of the week. Moreover, networking activities will take place among participants and, obviously, the certification of attendance is included as well. Regarding documentation, the company offers guidance and will help with all necessary documents that the participant can need (learning agreement and/or Europass mobility). Finally, an optional cultural package is offered to deepen the relationship between all participants.