Learning by Doing – Attainment of Basic Competences in ECEC (ABC for kindergartens) Erasmus Project

Project Title

Learning by Doing – Attainment of Basic Competences in ECEC (ABC for kindergartens)

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 : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

Many newly qualified or inexperienced teachers tend to base their lesson planning on the traditional PPP approach (Presentation, Practice, Production), because they tend to find it a reliable and valid framework around which to perform a series of classroom activities. The problem is that PPP serves the teacher’s needs, but it is debatable whether or not it fulfils the needs of the learner. For this reason, more and more teachers in ECEC turn to more learner-centred approaches where the needs of the children are central to the lesson content. Two such approaches are TBL (Task-Based Learning) and PBL (Project-Based Learning).

Recent research shows that PBL and TBL are extremely appropriate methods to be applied in ECEC. The focus being entirely on implementing a given task/project is really suitable for young learners, whose lexical and verbal skills are still to be developed and whose teachers’ task is to equip them with the right life skills, which would serve as the basis for acquiring basic and transversal skills later on.

The Learning by Doing – Attainment of Basic Competences in ECEC project will combine the efforts of 8 relevant organisations from 3 European countries (the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia). The key objectives of this project are to improve the quality of ECEC education through introducing innovative approaches and practices and to ensure comprehensive development of children’s competences at ECEC level. This will be achieved by supporting kindergarten teachers to gain knowledge on how to efficiently apply project based learning (PBL) and task based learning (TBL) at ECEC level. We are also seeking to encourage teachers to transform from ”leaders” to “facilitators” of the learning process by equipping them with bespoke methodology on how to enhance their teaching practice thus supporting their professional development. This includes fostering learner-centred approaches to develop children’s creativity, autonomy, independence, motivation for learning, awareness of own rights and responsibilities, problem solving, self-observance and evaluation of own knowledge and needs.

The tangible outputs to be produced are:

ABC Manual for Teachers (O1) –methodological guidance for ECEC teachers on how to integrate PBL and TBL in pre-school education with practical activities and comprehensive overview of lesson plans, assessment techniques and various additional resources;
ABC Train the Trainer Course (O2) – training programme for ECEC teacher training providers on how to train students in pedagogy and teachers willing to enhance their professional development with focus on learner-centred methods such as on PBL and TBL;

*ABC Piloting Sessions – to test our innovative outputs in practice within the project lifetime and to obtain feedback on intellectual outputs’ usability, applicability and potential for further exploitation.
*ABC Dissemination Conference – to promote project’s success, but mainly to foster transnational cooperation on the topic and allow for wider impact.

The ABC project will be delivered across 27 months and foresees project activities to involve more than 2324 pre-primary teachers, children in ECEC, training providers, education stakeholders, academics and professionals. Extensive evaluation will be performed to validate the produced outputs and increase potential for sustainability.

Impact is envisaged at various levels as follows:

1. AT TARGET GROUP LEVEL:
*ECEC TEACHERS:
– improved knowledge base on how to apply TBL and PBL at kindergarten level;
– improved skill base to integrate innovative teaching methods and techniques in order to ensure high quality of the education provision at ECEC level;
– enhanced competence to motivate children develop creativity, autonomy, independence, motivation for learning, awareness of own rights and responsibilities, problem solving, self-observance and evaluation of own knowledge and needs, pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills;
– improved professional development.

*CHILDREN:
– enhanced creativity, autonomy, independence, motivation for learning, awareness of own rights and responsibilities, problem solving, self-observance and evaluation of own knowledge and needs;
– improved basic skills – reading & writing and numerical;
– increased attainment levels in primary education to follow.

*TEACHER TRAINING PROVIDERS:
– enriched training curriculum to increase the quality and efficiency of the training provided at ECEC level;
– up-to-date materials and methods on offer to fill the gap for specific knowledge among kindergarten teachers;

2. AT PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS LEVEL:
– increased capacity to cooperate at transnational level;
– enhanced ability to participate actively in system-changing processes;
– increased cooperation with other stakeholders active in the field of pre-school education;
– bespoke symbiosis between academics, kindergartens, training providers and publishers.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 258180 Eur

Project Coordinator

Nakladatelstvi Dr. Josef Raabe s.r.o. & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Mateřské školy Kopřivnice okres Nový Jičín, příspěvková organizace
• Fakultní mateřská škola se speciální péčí
• KATOLICKA UNIVERZITA V RUZOMBERKU
• UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE
• VRTEC STUDENCI MARIBOR
• UNIVERZA V MARIBORU
• Materská škola