Aims and objectives
The project is aimed at professionalizing the work with children, based on an innovative approach, the concept of “Listening to young children”. The project seeks to create expertise transfer from Greece, in order to develop country-specific frameworks for Poland, Cyprus and Bulgaria, for conceptualizing “Listening to young children”. The project also aims to develop a network of intervention at national level, connecting through an on line platform professionals from different areas and regions and allowing the implementation of “Listening to young children”.
The trans-national nature of the project is ensured by the transfer of expertise from Greece, but also by the exchange of good practices and results among the professionals implementing the project.
The “Listening to young children” project is pursuing
- transfer and adaptation of innovative learning solutions for vocational training in the educational sector and
- design and testing of a European course for teachers and trainers developing key competences in the field, as well as providing quality services on a local, national and global level.
- As planned, the tangible outcomes of this project are the following
- a multilingual, on-line course delivered by e-learning and training toolkits suitable for further integrations, reuse and commercialization after this first delivery and
- diffusion of innovative, on-line and in-house solutions for European vocational training.
Target group
The project is aimed at professionals working with young children. More specifically it is aimed at
- trainers and
- professionals working directly with children aged 2-6.
The concept
Current practices of listening to children are widespread among a multitude of different disciplines and settings and there is plenty of material concerning this subject. However, this approach has always focused on children and has never considered the professionals of education, the trainers and the researchers. Thus, this project is going to provide the stakeholders of vocational training with knowledge from another point of view, which will develop new pedagogic methods and upgrade those already existed in the educational sector.
The development of training method and materials is influenced by
- Synergy methodology, developed by EADAP
- participatory appraisal methods
- ‘pedagogical documentation’ as developed in the pre-schools of Reggio Emilia, in Northern Italy
- a two-year research project to describe and evaluate a multi agency network or ‘campus model’ of service provision, based at Coram Community Campus, in the King’s Cross area of London and
- the Mosaic approach, developed by Alison Clark and Peter Moss
Didactic approach
The methodological and didactic approaches where the project and its products are based on could be summarised as follows
- general principles of two-way communication
- favourable conditions for and obstacles to listening
- verbal communication
- speech and artistic expression
- art forms and non-verbal expression of emotions and ideas
- the Mosaic approach
- photography as a tool to boost children’s expression
- presentation and evaluation of educational programmes as a means to foster children’s expression and
- the role of the adult in active communication
Upon completion of the training project, participants will be in a position to
- familiarize themselves with listening techniques and tools
- apprehend the connection between listening and active participation of children in the educational process
- determine the role of the educator in the listening process
- get acquainted with pedagogical practices which favour children’s expression
- identify the importance of listening as part of everyday practice and establish the value of listening
- explore their own skills and knowledge and identify areas of development and
- recognize opportunities for, and barriers to, embedding listening within the early years
Project website
http://www.welisten2y.eu
“This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”