Methods

The tablecloth was designed as an ice-breaker for conversations about a special region in Europe and as means of corporate identity at an big public intercultural event. Before the event, a team of volunteers painted the course of a river that unites this region – from its sringt to river delta with some indications of big towns. Every table host was equipped with such a tablecloth and coloured pens. During the event, the participants were invited to write or paint something related to this river/region (e.g. their hometown, birthplace, visited towns or regions, memories, symbols, etc.). This way the hosts as well as the participants had an easy way to “break the ice” and to get into contact.

Project-based learning is based on the idea that students acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems. Students learn about a subject by working for an extend period of time in a project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project-based_learning).

In December 2016, the association Danube-Networkers started a small project with the purpose of finding out how people from the Danube countries celebrate Christmas and brining  these people together. Christmas is a Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Christians all over the world celebrate it in different ways.

The elaboration of creative materials intends to collect of creative thoughts, which will be put in a specific material form, as a result of the individual`s aptitudes.

Open space is an umbrella term describing a variety of meeting formats where the participants define the agenda with a rigorous process.

A Lecturette is a short ten to fifteen minute lecture, which intends to establish some common language between presenters and attendees, in this case, regarding the type of the personal town tour.

Critical incidents are similar in design to case studies. But they are much shorter, usually a paragaraph in length.

The method is suitable for forming skills to adequately react to a particular situation or to understand the behaviour of other people / heroes. Each role-playing game has the following elements: a role-playing situation, a place of action, and actors (real and imaginary) who enter certain roles. (Applied Classification of training methods-Valentina Vasileva)

Learning by playing is a welcome method. Playing games is a great leisure activity enjoyed by people of all ages, moreover it motivates participants and helps them build selfconfidence, as well as social and problem-solving skills.

Desk research was conducted to identify innovative and effective learning/teaching approaches for working with older people. The desk research was focused on innovative and effective learning/teaching approaches used in training of health and social workers and focused on supporting interaction skills. Innovative learning approaches for working with the elderly was identified; opportunities were described. Based on this inventory, best practices and innovative teaching methods were identified based on the research, and examples of good practice were provided.