What is it: "Individual Development and Personal Growth through Productive Learning"? As educators of Productive Learning we all have experienced the phenomenon that young persons who often were rather few touched by traditional learning have made a big step in developing motivations and competencies when they got the chance of participating in activities they liked to be involved in: old and new interests grew, curiosity arose, passive students became active participants, books and computers got a new meaning for them, young people became proud of what they became able to do and what they had learnt; in some cases the whole personality changed within some months. One important condition of this changing was the chance to follow personal wishes of what and how to learn instead to be confronted to a preterminated and abstract curriculum. That's the reason why we should turn our intention for one year to this theme in order to raise our sensibility and our abilities in this field - as educators and as INEPS.

For promoting our fantasy and creativity some examples how to work on our annual theme:

- verbal and non-verbal self-presentations of young people: How did I personally develop by Productive Learning? (video tapes, series of photos, collages, "products" and comments, self-reports...),

- "case studies" or "development reports" produced together by the participant and the educator (or other people),

- method demonstrations by video tapes or transcribed magnetophone records (counselling activities, group work, learnshop...),

- contributions to methodical or theoretical aspects of individual learning: educational methods and means (counselling, youth exchange, group work, placements...),

- diagnostical methods and instruments (questionnaires, interviews, group discussions, collages...).

By working on our "theme of the year" we will have the chance to collect and share our knowledge and our experiences in this aspect of Productive Learning. This will offer us opportunities of

- understanding better what we mean by "individual development" and "personal growth",

- getting ideas and methodical approaches how to recognise personal growth,

- reflecting and performing our methods in order to do our work more conciously and efficiently,

- developing our educational sensibility and our philosophy of Productive Learning,

- getting a common platform for understanding mutually and discussing our educational work.

For starting this one-year-INEPS-work of reflecting, discussing, developing "Individual Development and Personal Growth through Productive Learning (PLIG!)" we ask you to send to all INEPS members by the new founded INEPS' E-mail Communication System, organised by our friend Bret Schlesinger, E-mail number BSCLES36@AOL.COM, proposals what you like to contribute. Give your message the akronym "PLIG!" and a title as well as your name, the project's name, the city and the country name, and describe as a first step in 10 to 20 lines the contribution you would like to do as well as your communication interests and/or your support demands.

Ingrid Bhm and Jens Schneider,

Institute for Productive Learning in Europe (IPLE)
iple@sonett.asfh-berlin.de

PS:

This theme is one of the most important aspects of the theory and the methodology of Productive Learning. The definition of Productive Learning by INEPS' 2nd conference in Peniche, Portugal, emphasised the individual "intinerary" of learning (see INEPS' leaflet). Our institute has stressed on the "person relation" as a crucial quality of Productive Learning (see 2nd and 8th Study Letter). This aspect also was developed and researched intensely by the "modules of Productive Learning" published in our book "Productive Learning - An Educational Opportunity for Young People in Europe", Milow 1996.

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