There is a growing consensus about the change needed in educational practice in order to meet 21st century demands and challenges. Skills such as Creative thinking, collaboration, leadership and self-direction are just a few... [ view full abstract ]
There is a growing consensus about the change needed in educational practice in order to meet 21st century demands and challenges. Skills such as Creative thinking, collaboration, leadership and self-direction are just a few of the skills defined by the OECD report as skills of the 21st century. The present work address that demand, by suggesting a model of intervention in preschools that implement innovation and promote an educational environment compatible with those skills.
The program is built as a process of supervision and instruction to the educational staff. First, the staff set together a core value which they would want to promote. Proceeding that a “value map” is created, referring to the operational ways in which the skills will be exhibited through the selected value (for instance: which expressions of creative thinking we would expect to find after promoting the value? etc.). In the next phases of the process, the staff and the children are creating new or renewed regularities in the daily preschool routine, that promote the core value based on the “value map”, with occasional observations made by the staff in order to assess the progress. Many of the regularities created, take the form of a game, thus allow the children to function independently under a common set of rules.
Promoting the 21st century skills through regularities, assumes that a great deal of learning in ECE occurs in authentic daily experiences. Therefore, we suggest that establishing a preschool setting based on children's high involvement and independence is the appropriate ground to nurture such skills.
The workshop includes an introduction of the model through a study case, followed by “hands on” experience with some of the tools applied in the program, closing with a reflection on the experience and an open discussion.
Keywords: Innovative pedagogy, ECE, Experiential Learning
