INSTALL Innovative Solutions to Acquire Learning to Learn. Operational Manual and Guidelines for the Narrative Group Trainers

Many personal, social, cultural, economic circumstances affect the performance and completion rate of a large segment of European students in tertiary education: the growing phenomena of disadvantaged and non-traditional students increases the risk of educational underachievement and drop-out. In the universities participating in INSTALL – representative of the EU higher education ecosystem – up to 35% of enrolled students are underachievers. In Europe, 20% to 45% of university students are non-traditional learners. The EU2020 strategic objective of a more cohesive growth through knowledge based economy calls for improved models to sustain the acquisition of the key competence Learning to Learn for those disadvantaged tertiary education students exposed to the risk of social exclusion. The successful implementation of the European Higher Education Area hinges on the social dimension of Higher Education in terms of access, participation and successful completion of studies; guidance and counseling. The European Commission clearly calls for “the need to develop and implement innovative approaches to teaching and learning support acquisition of key competences for those at risk of educational underachievement and social exclusion”. INSTALL responds to those needs and challenges by developing innovative solutions to address disadvantaged students’ constraints to acquiring and developing the Learning to Learn key competence. The project will develop, validate and deploy innovative Narrative Mediation Paths to empower disadvantaged students to fully reap the benefits of tertiary education in a Lifelong Learning perspective. The Narrative Mediation Path is based on the psychological concept of mentalisation (as the ability to understand oneself or someone else’s mental state) to develop and enhance L2L. The INSTALL innovative support service targeted at tertiary level students will be test with at least 200 students in 5 EU Countries to be then deployed at full EU scale.