Along the route & suggestions for future travellers: best-practice report
The 3rd WP aims at providing ECEC professionals and practitioners with adequate tools, know-how and competences to properly implement the methodological conceptual framework for educational intervention developed in WP2 to foster key
transferable competences, capabilities and attitudes with a focus on raising awareness of children aged 3-6 about climate change, digital inputs and foster transversal skills.
This will result in a good-practice report covering all findings from an experimentation of WP2 methodologies. Indeed, a practical experimentation of the tangible outputs resulting from WP2 will be at the heart of WP3. Involved practitioners – namely 2 staff members from each partner ECEC service – will carry out some collaborative / participative sessions in the classes that are under their supervision. For a correct implementation of the experimentation in ECEC services, TA1 training (Oct24) will be fundamental, during which UNIBO, Nova and Inter-kulturo will present first findings from the design phase of the conceptual and methodological framework. In particular, indications and guidelines for a proper implementation will be illustrated. The piloting will take place over 2 academic years and in 2 distinct phases:
- 1st experiment > cycle of 10 meetings per class, lasting 60/75 minutes each, 3 classes involved in each pre-school;
- 2nd experiment > cycle of 10 meetings per class, lasting 60/75 minutes each, 3 classes involved in each pre-school.
Upon conclusion of the 1st piloting, feedback from practitioners and children will be gathered: this will help improve the methodological features of the framework (to be applied during the 2nd piloting). After the 2nd piloting, partners will further fine-tune the methodological-conceptual framework and finalise the good practice report aimed at collecting and illustrating model practices and guidelines for action.
Maribor-Slovenia: First training Session of Project (Oct14-16th 2024)
After an ice-break activity outside, we worked for three days testing the material from the portfolio and discussing the Theoretical and Practical Application!
Implementation involves ECEC practitioners and researchers in knowledge building and sharing, There were 2 training activities and a pilot intervention. The collaborative action implies:
- Develop and share knowledge on skills building and digital transformation
- Test competences within pilot sessions of the designed educational methodology
- Training of trainers
And had meals together too in which we exchanged work experience and pedagogical strategies:
1st experiment – Implementation in Schools
(January 2025-April 2025)
Each country coordinated how to implement the 10 meeting sessions in the schools adapting to the special characteristics of each country’s school setting.
EACH Project Implementation in a Forest Montessori Kindergarten, Poland (February–March 2025)
This iteration of the project was implemented in a forest-based Montessori kindergarten, where nature itself constitutes a core element of the learning environment. Sessions were facilitated interchangeably by four educators—Agata, Paweł, Łucja, and Natalia—and took place both outdoors and in semi-open settings like yurts. Observations were conducted by Emilia, Julia, Alicja, Kaja and Olga and they were supervised by Jarek.
EACH Project Implementation in Externato João XXIII, Portugal (February–March 2025)
The school applied it in three different classes (two of four years old and one of five years old). There were ten sessions which were done by either Dina Mendonça (facilitator NOVA University), Aléxis Trindade (Facilitator of School) or by the kindergarten teacher. The P4C methodology grounded the promotion of dialogue, which is a methodology implemented in the school from elementary school onwards.
Observation of each session was done by either Dina or Aléxis, or by the kindergarten teacher (Rita Rodrigues, Carla Gomes, Liliana Carvalho) or by Susana Cadilha, the other member of NOVA. The sequence of the sessions was thought and decided along the way by the team (Aléxis, Dina and kindergarten teachers) in light of the children’s reaction and aiming to test as much material as possible from the portfolio.
EACH Project Implementation by Filo, Italy (February–March 2025)
The ten scheduled sessions were held weekly (every Wednesday) from December 4th 2024, to March 5th 2025, with a break during the Christmas holidays.
The group consisted of 13 children, all five years old, from the same class. Among them were two children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and four with special educational needs (related to selective mutism or to difficulties in socio-emotional and/or verbal communication areas).
The objective of the programme was to promote collaborative educational approaches and practices which – through the use of digital technology as a tool for inquiry, discovery, and discussion – would support the development of environmental awareness, critical thinking, and sensitivity to climate change issues.
The educational and pedagogical methodology chosen for the intervention was Philosophy for Children (P4C), an approach that the children had not previously experienced.
Each session included a welcome and presentation of the planned activity, an initial activation phase, and a collective closing moment with elaboration of the experience (sometimes in the form of individual drawings), concluding with farewells and a preview of the next meeting.
2st experiment – Implementation in Schools
(January 2026-April 2026)
The focus was now mostly on how the online self-assessment tool could be a tool for growth and cultivation of the pedagogical theoretical and practical findings. As before each country coordinated how to implement the 10 meeting sessions in the schools adapting to the special characteristics of each country’s school setting.