Methods

The Panel Discussions stimulate analytical thinking, receiving feedback from the participants in the project, and allow all participants to express themselves. The aim is to provoke a conversation in which to present different points of view. The Panel Discussion is used to boost European identity, to develop and apply key competences and to evaluate the different aspects of active social inclusion. It helped in establishing cooperation with other organisations on local level (NGOs providing education for seniors, decision-makers of municipalities, associations representing older citizens, experts, national EU representatives and representatives of the European Commission).

Impulse lecture is slightly different from a standard lecture. Its focus is to motivate older citizens for active participation in the civil society on EU-matters and in actively shaping the environment they live in and to present some thematic areas on national and international levels as impulses for the national citizens’ panel sessions.

This statistical survey technique is a quantitative method that aims to know the opinion of a group of people concerned by related to a given topic. The survey is done through survey questions, questionnaires, interviews, etc. It is used to carry out a research in the most punctual way possible, consulting the target group of reference; in this way one starts from experience to arrive at a scientifically founded work. Surveys provide important information for all kinds of public-information and research fields.

A used form of communication among the partners to establish various steps of development of project and the cooperation with the senior volunteering associations of each country. The target group were adult students who are part of U3A Italy, Lithuania, France, Finland. Information about volunteering in all partner countries was conducted to share and exchange good practices and activities in which each organization have experiences in the context of volunteering in their country. To transmit knowledge in each participating institution in order to develop guidelines for volunteers and volunteer organizations.

The aim of the method is to make the participants aware of the problems related to the concept of citizenship and democracy. The discussion group was formed by students of the Third Age Universities of the Province of Vicenza and the students of Third Age Universities of the Province of Bari. The participants discussed and examined the questionnaire produced by the University of Padua.

Brain writing is a complementary technique to brainstorming, which can be done in different ways. More specifically, Brain writing is the graphic version on paper of brainstorming and is used to develop and generate ideas for the project under consideration, from which new ideas and new projects can then be developed.

Storytelling as an accompanying activity during the knitting and crotecheting sessions.

Getting to know each other in a creative way and thereby discovering similarities and differences is the aim of this method. The target group are people from all Danube countries, who do not know each other and who do not share a common language. The participants create a personal “Danube box” - and fill it with 3 objects that present personal symbols regarding the subject “Danube”. These boxes should give rise to time witness work and exchanges about personal experiences, attitudes and feelings.

The European Soirée is a role-playing game in which participants present themselves as historically or contemporary important personalities with significance for Europe from his/her home country. It is the aim of the game to introduce important personalities to all participants from different countries. Important means that the person should have a significance for Europe. For one evening each participant acts and gets dressed as that famous person she/he selected. It can be a person with a political, cultural, educational, social, scientific or other background.

Drama Game is a basic learning activity. This is how students are stimulated to think and experience their individual or social problems. Older learners could learn to explore, explore, and experiment with their problems, events and relationships. Drawn by the drama, they draw their knowledge and experience of the real world.

The Cross-national Meetings (Theoretical-practical conference) are an important final organizational form in adult learning. They are of great importance for activating learners, generalizing and systematizing the mastered knowledge, skills and habits. It provides a public view of the learning outcomes. A Cross-national Meeting was used to promote European values, tolerance towards other cultures, and diversity, as well as the unity of Europe and the Danube Region during the DANET project.

Panel discussion was used to boost European identity, to develop and apply key competences and to evaluate the different aspects of active social inclusion. It helped in establishing cooperation with other organisations on local level (NGOs providing education for seniors, decision-makers of municipalities, associations representing older citizens, experts, national EU representatives and representatives of the European Commission).