iTEC success story: SEK Atlántico, Spain
January 3, 2014 12:36 PM
SEK Atlántico can truly be said to be an iTEC success story. Located in Pontevedra, Galicia, along Spain’s north-western coast, the school has over 600 students, from infants through to 12th grade. Since its founding in 1989, the school has always sought ways to introduce innovation to its teaching and learning.
SEK Atlántico has been involved in the iTEC project since the launch of the project in 2010, and started off with just one teacher. Since then, 18 pilot classes have taken part in all four of the project’s cycles. At SEK Atlántico, the success of iTEC can be traced back to the enthusiasm that students have shown towards the project. Gonzalo Garcia, a mathematics teacher who was the first teacher in the project, says that the more involved in the project the school was, the more motivated the students were. According to Gonzalo, the students’ enthusiasm for the project is down to the fact that iTEC Learning Activities take place in a non-traditional classroom dynamic: “The iTEC activities design gives great importance to teamwork: this meant that the students were involved in an engaging dynamic in which individual work contributes to a common goal, continuously assessed by teammates. It is often the case that students are actually more demanding on their peers than us teachers”.
Students also experienced an improvement of their test results, a higher level of engagement in classroom activities, and a greater awareness of their own learning management. “Probably the most impacting change in my teaching is that today I share more responsibility with my students”, Gonzalo continues. “I can be confident and trust in my students’ maturity, as I know they’ll take that responsibility.”
According to Cristina Márquez, Deputy Head of Learning and Development at SEK Atlántico, the iTEC experience has been very rich for the whole school community. “iTEC provides an opportunity to explore, innovate, and develop teachers professionally; working together and collaborating between different teams of teachers and students.”
She has also seen that iTEC provides opportunities for students to enrich their skills for the future and to be more reflective, active learners and participative students. Exploring, checking facts and theories, developing students’ scientific thinking, working together and connecting learning with real life matters and questions are all part of iTEC.
Pablo Martínez, a 10th grade student who was part of one of the pilot classes at the school, also feels that iTEC has benefited his everyday learning. “What a great project! It has been an incredible experience. The thing I liked most was to work in teams. I would never have thought that my classmates were so creative. I would recommend every teacher in Europe join the project; iTEC is really worth it.”
Read more success stories and other articles in the iTEC magazine
