1. Rationale of the project

The formation of the European identity is one of the main goals to be achieved within the society of tomorrow. The attempts to develop a European identity, i.e. a European political and tax conscience etc., have had so far the form of the production of educational and informative material. It is widely accepted, though, that the understanding and assimilation of concepts increases when students are actively involved in the learning process. Consequently the development of a European awareness can not be restricted to such methods that treat the subject matter through an "observer's" perspective. The formation of a European political conscience can be merely seen as the result of active exchange and co-operation between tomorrow's citizens. Therefore a number of actions must be undertaken so as to enable pupils to discover the similarities, differences and outline the common perspectives and problems in a European scale.
The EUROSPIN programme focuses on this aspect. EUROSPIN is giving students the opportunity to approach such issues in a hands-on manner, and enables them to discover similarities and differences through research and investigation process, and most importantly through co-operation. Students become active researchers and gain i) a better understanding of the issues under examination, ii) a substantial experience with tele-working and collaboration on a European scale and iii) a well founded knowledge of the methodological approaches of both social science and journalistic investigation.
To this direction it is of great importance the contribution of press. Until now, there has not been a sufficient number of attempts in the direction of co-operation between the press and educational institutions throughout Europe. EUROSPIN is one of the first attempts to provide a model of "bi-directional" student interaction with the press. Until now two major categories of actions were attempted that were in essence unidirectional: either research was carried out by journalists, leaving the pedagogical aspects apart, or it was students that published school newspapers that were, in most of the cases, amateur in nature and without pedagogical aims and guidance. In contrast to those attempts the EUROSPIN programme has been planned to achieve a high rate of interaction between professional journalists and students, providing thus an integrative approach.

2. Aims and Objectives of the project

The EUROSPIN project aims at the development of a model of co-operation between the media and the schools throughout Europe. Within the aims of the project is also to develop a model of active civic education that allows students to participate in research efforts. As part of the program a thorough research will be made from students into the attitudes, political beliefs and ideological dispositions of European youth, under the supervision of specialized experts. In contrast to most comparative studies, which are conducted by experts, EUROSPIN will develop a model of active cooperation between students, teachers, experts and the press, giving thus emphasis on the pedagogical value of the activities. The results of this research will be disseminated through printed (in the form of a book, in the form of articles in the newspapers) and electronic means (interactive Web pages on the Internet).
The implementation of the aforementioned models will be through advanced Web enabled technology so as to acquaint students with the practical aspects of tele-working and European collaboration. The program will make use of the Internet, both as a communication tool, and as an interactive Web based environment, which will facilitate the access to the raw data of the research.
The project is expected a) to produce a study with especially interesting results on the current status of European Youth matters, b) to develop a model of getting students "involved" in current affairs, and c) to acquaint students with the methodology of research and investigation through a "real world -hands on" approach.

3. Target group/audience

The EUROSPIN project is targeted at a variety of target groups:

Students (of secondary education): The students that will participate in the proposed project will have the unique opportunity to get acquainted with the methodology of both journalistic investigation and scientific research. They will have the opportunity to understand the concept of a common "European identity" and discover the similarities and differences that compose it.
Teachers, educational decision makers, in-service training institutions for educators: The EUROSPIN programme will produce a guide of good practice, so as to function as a pilot for any institution that would be interested in the methodology pursued, the methods for quality management and provision of student interaction, the pedagogical evaluation etc.
Journalistic Institutions: For the reporters that will participate in the programme, it will be a unique experience on collaboration over distance and the conduct of research across Europe at a large scale.
European Research Centers and Universities will gain an idea of the topics that are of most interest to the young people.

Summarizing, EUROSPIN has been designed with a view towards achieving a significant degree of synergy among the participating institutions and accordingly substantial benefits for the target groups of the project: The co-operation between journalists, teachers, and scientists gives journalists the opportunity to hold a Pan-European extensive research under the supervision of university experts. To the teachers it gives the chance of approaching thematic topics and methodological concepts that would be impossible with the traditional method of teaching in the classroom. To the university experts it gives the opportunity of disseminating scientific results and innovative research practices through the press. In addition to this, the programme is conducted by a European consortium, which means that the results will be of European, not merely country-specific interest.

4. Research within the EUROSPIN project

The research is a central part within the EUROSPIN project. The intention is to involve students in research activities to get an interesting study on the views of young people in current issues in the four participating european countries aiming further to involve students in journalistic activities.

Research within the EUROSPIN project aims to fulfil different aspects and tasks. It is meant to be:

• output-oriented: we expect interesting results action-oriented. Wihtin this framework students should be able to do most parts of the research work themselves with support from the teachers involved,
• quality -orientated: meaning that the results will be distributed to a wider public and will lead to further discussions.

• a decision between two alternatives (yes and no),
• a decision between a range of alternatives,
• a "single-pole four-stage scale" (e.g. question "Do you agree to the following statement?" and the option between "Yes, I absolutely agree" / "I agree" / "I do not really agree" / "No, I don't agree at all").

The questionnaire deals with four topics: Identity, Lifestyle, Life after school, European Integration. Later on within the EUROSPIN-project, each country interprets one of the subjects.
We use a limited form of sociodemography: age, country, sex. Later on, within the data analysis and interpretation, these will form the subgroups.
The age of the interviewees is fixed at 14-16 years. Effort should be placed to involve the same number of boys and girls as interviewees.
The analysis will work with percentages, related to the total sample of interviewees and to the subgroups named above.

4.2 Working with students

There should be a preparation in class before starting the interviews. First of all, the students have to be introduced to the EUROSPIN project and its different phases. The next step should be the introduction to the research design and the research questionnaire. Students need to know about the rules for interviewing and about their reasoning, meaning the background of these rules.
A small set of rules has been provided which cover two aspects: practise / realizing the interviews ("how to do it") and confidence / data protection. These topics have to be discussed in school in order to find a way of commitment of the students. Badges with the names of the pupils - journalists and and the "golden rules" for interviewing have been also designed (see Annex 2).
Everybody has to interpret the questions in the same way. Thus, the teacher should discuss the questions of the research questionnaire in order to make sure that all pupils understand all the questions. A good way to find problems in the interpretation and the best preparation for interviewing is to let the students interview each other in class.
It is acceptable if some students do not wish to participate, even if their refuse doesn't seem to make sense. Still it is better not to suggest this option in advance. Encourage the students stressing the interesting aspects of the project: gaining experience, pleasant activity, opportunity to meet other people of their age and maybe a way of earning money in the future. After completion of the interviews and the data entry in the electronic tool, the interviewers will get a "Certificate of a trainee Journalist".
It is better not to tell the students about the subject they will deal with later on in order to make sure they will keep the same attention to every subject during the interview.
Please remember: Check the legal conditions for interviewing young people in your country. There may be some restrictions!

4.3 Guidelines for interviewing

Anonymity of the interviewee has to be strictly kept during and after the interview, this means that interviewers:

• Interview without audience.
• Do not take down any names.
• Do not interview friends or neighbours.
• Keep in mind that the singularity of the meeting is an important condition for honesty.
• Do not talk to anyone about the information given by the interviewee.

• The interviewer himself should fill in the questionnaire, not the interviewee.
• Everyone has to read the same text and avoid to give any additional comments!
• The interviewer only uses the given answers and the given categories. He/She does not add any new ones. If there are supplements, statements, commentaries, the interviewer takes it down at the end of the questionnaire or on an extra sheet of paper.
• If there are inquiries concerning the meaning of a questions, there can be given an explanation by the interviewer, but no interpretation!

• Should I repeat the question?
• Take your time to answer.
• Give the closest answer to your ideas.
• Do not worry, the anonymity is kept in the interview.

• Politeness.
• Interest: the best motive to involve someone in an interview is to make him feel that he/she is contributing to the solution of important issues.
• Understanding: the need to be understood, to establish a line of communication with other people, is the most important factor to convice someone to participate in a research.

• Polite
• Inspiring
• Sympathetic
• Friendly
• Calming

• Reserved: the person who is afraid that he/she doesn't know much or that he/she is giving the right answers.
• Timid: this type of interviewee is afraid to express his/her view on certain issues, especially on politics or sex. This type usually discourages young reporters, who need to deal with communicative people.
• Talkative:with this type of interviewees you run the danger to be distructed as they usualy goe from one topic to the other, or tell irrelevant stories.
• The person who tries to convince the interviewer.
• Punster:he is joking and making comments on the questionnaire.
• Self-confident: he has an effective collaboration with the interviewer, since he/she is talking without difficulty and express himself/herself effectively.

• of the total sample
• of the subgroups, which are, nationality, age and sex.

• Look at the frequency of every answer in the total sample.
• Which are high results, which are low results?
• Did the students expect the given answers or are they surprised? Why?
• Sometimes, people doing research are annoyed by the results. It is important to name these feelings. Otherwise the interpretation can be highly emotional influenced - people tend to follow their feelings, not the figures. By naming the problem, this can be avoided or at least limited.

Students are called to compare the results of the different subgroups, in order to find similarities and differences. Then, they should seek to explain these differences and similarities, as well as to examine the results of one topic in relation to other topics. Other studies could be useful as a point of reference and provide pupils with ideas for the interpretation of the results.
In case there's enough time, the comparison can be done in cooperation with other countries. They could compare e.g. the differences between the subgroups: Do they dependent on the topic?

5a. Statistics and the treatment of experimental data

Statistics play an essential part in all sciences, as it is a tool that allows the researcher to treat the uncertainties inherent in all measured data and to eventually draw conclusions from the results. Measurements of any kind are always subject to these uncertainties or errors, as they more often called.
First of all it is necessary to distinguish between two types of errors: systematic and random. Systematic errors are uncertainties in the bias of the data. If an instrument is not correctly zeroed before use, then all values measured by it will be biased, i.e., offset by constant amount of factor. These errors also include the accidental errors due to inaccurate human judgment, which in the case of EUROSPIN are mistakes in the entry of data in the electronic tool. In contrast to systematic errors, random errors may be handled by the theory of statistics. These uncertainties may arise from the inherent statistical nature of the phenomena being observed. The arithmetic mean (΅, also called population mean) of N observations (population size) has a probable error which is times the probable error of a single observation . In the case of EUROSPIN we can consider this probable error of a single observation as 1, so the error in a sample of N = 200 answers is .
Experimental results are often quoted in scientific literature as being a small quantity which may be (a) the probable error, (b) the standard deviation, (c) the error intelligently guessed. In the above example the result will be .

1.According to Gaussian theory of errors, the fundamental theory that is the limit of all cases at large samples.

EUROSPIN Δημοσιογραφική έρευνα ΟΝΟΜΑΤΕΠΩΝΥΜΟ _____________________ Δημοσιογράφος του _____________________   EUROSPIN 2000