International projects
Added Value Learning for Preschool Teachers & Pedagogical Coordinators
Researchers (2)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The recent panorama across the EU with a series of simultaneous crises: refugees, multi-culturalism, uneven economic development, and bailing out neighbours at a time of low economic growth have led this partnership to strongly believe that ethics and values as well as critical thinking are increasingly becoming very important aspects in the development of a democratic, pluralistic, and knowledge-based society, both in terms of the position and the role of an individual as a citizen as well as in the area of an individual’s personal development.
Scientific research has proven that early childhood education is the most important phase to initiate a healthy development (Stiles, Jernigen 2010; Jolles, Crone 2012). Ethical education and critical thinking have a significant role in forming an ethical mature human being. Despite this, practices, experiences and opportunities for ECEC and primary school teachers to obtain knowledge in this field vary significantly, as it is the case with the presence of innovative educational approaches to these topics. All these reasons and challenges represent an important motivation for us to propose this project.
The project will address the field of ethics and values education and focus on empowering Early Childhood Care and Education (ECEC) pre-school and primary School Professionals to learn about values based on 3 pillars: ethic values (personal values – one “self”); democratic values (as we live in society –One “self and the others”) and environmental values (as we live in the planet earth).
Our project will:
- Implement a Transnational curriculum for the partners’ countries, complemented with a preparatory review of the current provision for 0-6 and 7-11 teachers regarding learning about ethics, values education end critical thinking;
- Develop open educational resources and peer-to-peer learning methods with an aim to enhance the professional development of those working or active in the school education sector by increasing the quality and range of initial and continuing training.
- Design innovative practices in 0-6 and 7-11 school education in the field of ethics and values education, developing and promoting innovative learning approaches;
- Create a resource centre on ethics, values and critical thinking education aimed at increasing the awareness on the importance of moral obligations and social values so as to strengthen its educational structures in a system of values supported by all relevant stakeholders.
The project aims to reach out:
- At least 150 0-11 teachers and stakeholders to participate directly in the project development (state of the art, review of the learning materials, piloting, Event)
- More than 100.000 EU citizens will be informed during the project about the AVAL Resource center and access the online tools of the project
- More than 2000 organizations and institutions will be informed about the AVAL Platform and be provided with specific guidelines to integrate it in their normal financial information and training.
