Beyond the Classroom: An Erasmus+ Mobility Week of Non-Formal Learning in Tenerife

Erasmus+ mobilities offer something a regular training course rarely can: the time and space to step back from the daily routine of the classroom, reflect on how we teach, and reconnect with why we chose this profession in the first place. Set against the landscapes of Tenerife, this kind of experience becomes as much about personal growth as it is about professional development.

The Erasmus+ mobility took place in Tenerife de 17 to 23 August 2026. Activities were carried out in English, Italian and Spanish, creating a genuinely multicultural learning environment. The mobility welcomed Sabrina, Giulia, Daniela, Giulia, Giulia, Carolina, Paolo, Simone, Andrea, Cristian, Stefano, Giovanni, Enrico and Michele from Casa Santa Chiara dans Italie.

The group set out with a clear ambition: to move beyond formal training and understand what it really takes to bring creativity and critical thinking into everyday teaching. Rather than treating these as abstract buzzwords, the week was designed to turn them into concrete, transferable classroom practice.

The programme opened with a shared exploration of the differences between formal, non-formal and informal learning, and the principles that make non-formal education such a powerful tool for teachers. From there, participants worked through practical activities and games built specifically to stimulate creative and critical thinking, alongside sessions dedicated to 21st-century skills and the innovation competences today’s classrooms increasingly demand.

Across the week, the group also evaluated their own needs and expectations as educators, took part in dedicated team-building exercises, and reflected openly on their current teaching practices and styles — asking not just what works, but why.

True to ELA’s experiential approach, learning extended well beyond the seminar room. Participants explored intelligence émotionnelle through open discussions about emotions and mindfulness practice surrounded by nature, visiting Tenerife’s botanical gardens and connecting with the island’s landscapes as part of the learning process itself. Team games on the beach and in the forest, a shared excursion, and activities built around empathy rounded out a programme that treated culture and nature as teaching tools in their own right.

By the end of the week, participants had strengthened far more than a list of techniques: they left with sharper tools for fostering engagement, collaboration and problem-solving in dynamic environments, and with a clearer sense of how to design experiential learning activities tailored to their own students’ needs.

Throughout the mobility, the international dimension was never far from the surface — from everyday conversations practising basic Spanish to the simple fact of learning alongside colleagues shaped by different school systems and cultures, a reminder that European collaboration is as much about people as it is about pedagogy.

The group left Tenerife with new friendships, a refreshed outlook on their profession, and the confirmation that mobility experiences like this one are never just a week away from school — they are an investment in lifelong learning and in the kind of teacher each participant wants to become.

Discover more about Tenerife ici.