The general objective of REACT is to developing and implementing an innovative method and related practices to foster inclusive education and promote common values. To create and maintain a cohesive EU society, an inclusive and high-quality education and training, as well as the EU dimension of teaching are paramount. Inclusive education is an effective means to avoid discrimination and exclusion, promote tolerance and tear down stereotypes.
One of the most researched methods that overcomes passive teaching-learning binary and that has been found to effectively promote inclusion in education is cooperative learning. There are many variations of cooperative learning but they tend to share some fixed elements: positive interdependence, individual and group accountability, promote interaction, appropriate use of social skills and group processing. To reach the goal, a mixed methodology will be developed between Montessori’s features and Danilo Dolci’s Reciprocal Maieutic Approach, leading to the activation of RM laboratories enhancing critical thinking annd the development of an ability to see the world in a more open way for students aged 10-15 years old, teachers and parents, quite often excluded from this kind of activities.
The specific objective of REACT is to enhance critical thinking and media literacy among learners, parents and educational staff. Critical thinking is a mental habit and to support the creation of the related skills requires students to think about their thinking and about improving the process, it requires students to use higher-order thinking skills. Therefore, critical thinking is a product of education, training and practice. The dismissal of stereotypes thanks to the attitude to critically thinking is a cognitive process that needs to be consciously activated by the individual or that can be represented as the result of a specific educative process, facilitated by the teachers in school and supported by an informal approach in the Community of educators. That’s why REACT proposed methodology will act at school level but reflecting its results also to the community level, enhancing the acquisition of critical thinking skills through Reciprocal Maieutic Laboratories development and directly working on the dismissal of stereotypes as results of the cognitive process not only for students but also, and at the same time, for teachers and parents thus configuring an innovative pedagogy strategy.