“The Little Architects” workshop an active learning and teaching method for children in need

Centerfor Research Sustainable Development, Faculty of Architecture Urbanism, Politehnica University of Timișoara, Traian Lalescu Street No. 2, 300223, Timișoara, Romania

^* Corresponding author: cristina.povian@yahoo.com cristina.povian@upt.ro

Abstract

One of the European Commission's priorities in education is to reduce early school leaving to less than 10% across European countries by 2020. If, in some Member States, progress in effective policies is satisfactory in 2018, many countries are still far from achieving goal. Unfortunately, Romania is in the category which still has problems with this situation. The aim of this article is to analyze a case of educational program that uses active learning and teaching methods with children in need from rural areas of Romania. For almost ten years, the nongovernmental association "Alternative Education" organized summer schools for children in Timiș County. The paper describes and analyzes the creative workshop "The Little Architects", used by this association for the first time in the activities of the summer school in 2018, and presents the benefits of using active learning methodology in order to attract children to school and improve the percentage of early school leavers.