CRADLE
Creating Activity Designed Language Learning Environments for Entrepreneurship Education
CRADLE is an Erasmus+ project (Action KA2) and stands for 'Creating Activity Designed Language Learning Environments for Entrepreneurship Education'. Through three innovative outputs, the CRADLE teaching methodology uses a cross-curricular, activity-based, student-centred, exploratory teaching, and learning approach.
CRADLE aimed to develop a new teaching methodology for primary school teachers who support the creation of a foreign-language learning environment. It had a triple approach interconnecting cross-curricular and action-focused learning with Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and Entrepreneurship Education (EE). Teachers attempted to combine these three elements in their lessons.
The implementation of CRADLE placed students' interest, curiosity, and sense of initiative at the centre of the learning process. It focused on the development of entrepreneurial skills, which at a fundamental level, are life skills. Some of the qualities developed were problem-solving, personal responsibility, social responsibility, curiosity, communication, and cooperation.
The learners defined the topics of the projects. All projects included activities, where pupils worked and learned in a linear four-step process inspired by "Design Thinking" with problem-solving and designing solutions in mind.
The methodology’s four steps were:
1: Prior understanding and research
2: Ideas generation and design
3: Prototyping and actions
4: Evaluation and foreign language selection
To achieve these aims, CRADLE develops a Teacher Training Course and a Toolbox to support educators. Furthermore, it suggests Practical Implementation Recommendations to ensure the sustainability of the project. The European framework Entrecomp served as the basis for the development of the project outputs.
In numbers
-202 students and 9 teachers in the partner schools Toverfluit, Unescoschool and De Iris in Belgium participated in CRADLE
-100% of the teachers reported that CRADLE enhanced pupils’ self-confidence and creativity
-86% of the students reported that they can design strategies to achieve their goals and express themselves in the foreign language more easily after participating in CRADLE
-88% of the students stated that CRADLΕ helped them gain more confidence on themselves
Project partners
Coordinator: Goethe-Institut Athen, Greece
Shumenski Universitet Episkop Konstantin Preslavski, Bulgaria
Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Denmark
Bantani Education, Belgium
Scholengroep Brussel, Belgium
Idiotiko Dimotiko Neue Schule A.E., Greece
International School Uwekind, Bulgaria
Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
GO! Unescoschool Koekelberg, Belgium
GO! Basisschool De Iris in Ukkel, Belgium
BS Toverfluit, Belgium
The CRADLE project was co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union and the Goethe-Institut.
The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
