"Recently, foreign languages have started to be introduced to children at an earlier age with the influence of globalization as well as the continuous encouragement of early foreign language learning in Europe by the European Commission. However, language teachers around Europe are reported to have difficulties dealing with children because they are generally educated to teach adults or they are generalists who have not received special education on language learning. As children have different characteristics from those of adults, they need special classroom methods and techniques geared to their special needs. Therefore, having been inadequately prepared to teach languages to particularly young learners, teachers have problems while working with children and their teaching practices are often lacking in innovative approaches, variation, challenges, and interesting and motivating materials and activities. This situation indicates serious problems regarding the knowledge base and practices of teachers with regard to teaching children, which needs to be addressed. Therefore, in this project, we aimed to design an In-service Education (INSET) program for early language teachers based on an innovative flipped approach to learning, in which first, teachers completed a web-based INSET program with 10 modules to become familiar with the recent theories, pedagogical approaches, and practical suggestions concerning teaching foreign languages to young learners. Second, teachers implemented and tested these innovative approaches in their own classes under the supervision of the university professors/trainers and learned by doing. Third, based on their own classroom needs, the teachers developed their practical solutions and classroom activities considering the introduced theories and approaches through collaboration with peer teachers and teacher trainers. And finally, at the end, in addition to the theoretical and pedagogical INSET content, the tested and approved best classroom practices were selected and uploaded to the SBATEYL education web portal (http://portal.sbateyl.org), which will be openly disseminated for use of all pre-service and in-service language teachers of young learners in Europe. Unlike common top-down one-shot in-service courses, our Web-based INSET program is longer and flexible in terms of time, it is designed based on teachers' needs which were determined through a needs analysis survey, it puts teachers' needs at the center, values their ideas, adopts a bottom-up approach, allows collaboration among teacher trainers and teachers as well as teachers across countries to form the content of the course, and includes a school-based follow up component to provide support for teachers, which is generally neglected in mainstream INSETs. This program also evenly blends the theory and practice for teaching languages to young learners by bringing researchers/teacher trainers and classroom language teachers together at all stages of the designing and implementation of the program. In this project, we brought universities and primary schools together. In our project the partner organizations were: Gazi Üniversitesi, Univerza v Mariboru, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Universita Degli Studi di Salerno, Gazi Vakfı İlkokulu, Istituto Comprensivo Statale ""R. Nicodemi"" Fisciano, OS Duplek Primary School, CEIPCASTILLA primary school.The Web-based INSET program designed aims to remedy the problems caused by inadequate professional preparedness of teachers for early language teaching by introducing the recent cutting edge theoretical and pedagogical knowledge, new and innovative ideas, methods, teaching techniques, activities, best classroom practices, and resources to both pre-service and in-service language teachers of young learners in Europe. The SBATEYL Web-based INSET program aims to improve teacher quality and professional profile of primary-level language teachers across Europe, and to serve as a good model for other INSET program developers and policy makers across Europe. The SBATEYL INSET program is likely to contribute to the realization of multilingualism, which is an important goal of the European Council because although our INSET website is in English, all the methodologies, pedagogical suggestions, and activities included are valid and completely adaptable for teaching/learning other various languages for young learners. And finally, the SBATEYL Web-based INSET program aims to contribute to young learners in Europe to learn languages more effectively with the help of better prepared teachers for their age-specific needs."

"The basic aim of the project was the development of learning material mainly in English (local languages in addition, if desired) for different age groups and subjects (history, ethics, creativity, sciences, economy, foreign languages, geography, health,…) around the topic horses and to put this on an online-platform.Another aim is intercultural learning and networking among teachers and students.The main objectives were:internationalization of education (324 students and 33 teachers had the opportunity to move and experience different approaches in teaching subjects in foreign schools) multilingualism (students used English as the communication language)improvement of skills and qualifications (the peculiarity of our project allowed vocational schools to exchange their knowledge about “horses and men” but also to improve and acquire new skills on this subjectuse of digital learning (most of our work was carried out using digital tools in order to communicate and exchange ideas and materialsdevelopment of tools and competences that promote a life-long and flexible learning attitude, with the final aim to help moving freely in Europe and be well equipped for job purposesEach partner contributed different aspects. The material was worked out by students together with teachers in the respective countries but also during meetings (workshops):1st Kick-off meeting in Bulgaria (Oct 2015) with the attendance of teachers from each organization. The aim of the meeting was to introduce the partners to each other, giving information about their cultures and the detailed planning of meetings/processes. The Bulgarian partner has a rich European project experience (more than 15 implemented projects so far) and explained how evaluation would be carried out.Apart from that, the veterinarian doctors (teachers of VET subjects) prepared a presentation about basic equine anatomy and physiology, behavior and main breeds. Horse-riding center ""Albena"" and a stud farm with local breeds were visited.1st short-term exchange of groups of pupils in Portugal (Feb 2016) - The Portuguese School of Equestrian Art and the National Coach Museum were visited; a bullfight training and ""campinos"" (portuguese cowboys) working gave insight into local traditions; visit at 267 years old Alter Stud Farm; teachers and students (T+S) took part in workshops with the topic ‘history, religion and ethics-knowledge’ about horses ‘evolutionary history’2nd short-term exchange in Austria (April 2016) was held with a workshop based on equine science and biology topics: visit of the ""Spanische Hofreitschule"" in Vienna and participation in the official opening of the federal exhibition of Upper Austria called ""Mensch und Pferd""3rd short-term exchange in Germany (October 2016) - summarized the unique relationship brtween horse and man. In practical training units and demonstrations with the horse the contents and results were introduced to the international guests (communication with the horse and social pedagogical use of the horse with disadvantaged juveniles and children). Methodical steps were executed together in order to be put into practice back home.2nd transnational meeting in Italy (Feb 2017) was for 2 teachers from all schools. Focus was on the mid-term report, the further planning, evaluation and on the problems encountered 4th short-term exchange in Spain (April 2017) - T+S got information on health, welfare and veterinary matters for horses competing in sporting events; meeting with veterinary health professionals; health of riders - warm-up, riders' massage, specific protection for outdoor activities; exhibitions and workshops to share and transmit the technical information about the issues; videos were and shared. 5th short-term exchange in France (Nov 2017)discussion of the geographical factors which enable the breeding of horses in a certain area, as well as the economic value of horses (economic impact of horse industry in each country), environmental and health benefits from having horses in our communities. 6th short-term exchange in Denmark (May 2018) - topic of horse arts, creativity and handicraft. A wide variety of equestrian craft ideas were presented as decorating ideas, sculpting and modelling; crafts for students inspired them to be creative and explore their artistic side, and teach them what imagination is all about; visit of Helgstrand dressage center3rd transnational meeting in Denmark (June 2018)During this final meeting a collective video was prepared and final evaluation was carried out."