Creative Learning Environment – a Preschool Action project Erasmus Project

Project Title

Creative Learning Environment – a Preschool Action project

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; Access for disadvantaged; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Background
We wanted to develop the preschool learning environments to support the children’s own initiative, their skills and desire to learn by offering them meaningful cooperation, be fun, eventful and challenging. A self-instructing environment enables children to use their influence and sense of responsibility. We regard the environment as “the third pedagogue”, and it is important for children’s learning. Aspects of designing our learning environment was: To support fostering innovative entrepreneurs, promote children’s health through play and exercise, create flexible environments with changing and creative materials and safe and secure solutions for children’s adventures. We saw that the preschool environments were set up in two preschool traditions, one that promoted learning and one that focused on care. We have inspired each other to use both perspectives and through actions made visible changes in our environments.

Objectives
Our surveys and evaluations of the learning environments have played a major role in improving the quality – it has given the educators a greater knowledge and awareness of the environments impact on learning. We have seen that the educators together developed knowledge, courage and got inspiration to set up creative learning environments and now use the environments in their teaching in a more exploratory way, throughout the day.

Participants
Three preschools participate in the partnership; Frötuna preschool in Norrtälje, Sweden, Saulespuke preschool in Bauska, Latvia and Geldsted preschool Middelfart, Denmark. All three preschools are well established in their villages, but are of different size. All welcome children of different social background and have children enrolled with learning difficulties and physical impairments, the preschool in Saulespuke is specialized in the field of special needs.

Activities and methodology. We designed the project to create real changes and involve all teachers.
1. It started by self-assessment to define the quality of the learning environments; in high quality learning spaces and areas that needed improvements. Observations and interviews were done with staff, children and parents. The different spaces were classified by staff through discussions in; good/ well-equipped, forgotten, or bad learning spaces (dangerous, poor or limitated). The educators studied research, literature and attend lectures on topics like Outdoor education, Creative Learning environments, IBSL- Inquiry-based science Learning, the theory of Affordance, Sensory behavior and Visual support. Photos and reflections were documented and published for all participants and parents to follow. And the result was a comprehensive survey of functional and dysfunctional learning environments, what to develop and why?
2. Each partner prioritized their list into Action plans. The preschools exchanged Action plans and gave feedback to each other. After feedback, some additions and/or changes were made to the plans. We planned to use TwinSpace and e´Twinnning as digital platform but as some of the participants had difficulty orienting themselves and using it for different reasons, it so happened that we used other digital tools like Zoom, Skype, Jits.meet and Facebook.
3. During the Action period environment improvements were done – and we visited each other to take active part. The 3 transnational meetings that we planned changed to 2 and 1 virtual exchange due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. The two transnational meetings, one in Sweden and one in Denmark followed the same pattern: job shadowing, active participation in Action projects, academic input – lectures and workshops and visits to local preschool to get input and collect good examples. The virtual meeting with Latvia had approximately the same structure, but the visits were carried out by recorded films from the environments, online meetings and workshops with staff. And the lectures were webinars.
4. After the mobilities the rest of the Action plans were carried out and new ones were made continuously as needed. Documentation and results were shared. Based on the project, we compiled a report and will create a common Inspirational manual.

Results
– Visible concrete improvements in the environments, Accessible learning spaces and materials for all children, including disabled children and children from challenged children and families, before-and-after documentation that showed the learning and change process, greater competence among educators and a continued collaboration in constructing an Inspiration manual.

Long term benefits
The project created courage to change and develop through action together and with colleague from other countries. We learned from each other how to raise quality by combine the two preschool traditions where both care and learning are highlighted in EDUCARE – and thus been able to increase the equivalence and learning opportunities for children in European preschools.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 31848,89 Eur

Project Coordinator

Frötuna förskola & Country: SE

Project Partners

• Rundales novada speciala pirmsskolas izglitibas iestade Saulespuke
• Skole- og Dagtilbud i Middelfart Kommune