Change in Education Starts with the Teachers

"<< Background >>With the project we want to raise the educational standards in educational institutions and thereby increase the knowledge and professional performance of the participants, especially the educational professionals.The project combined popular elements of early childhood education, such as games, research or STEAM, with newer popular elements and topics, such as media literacy, STEM, creativity or personal affairs. These are all crucial for the actual development of a child's personal, cognitive, mental and physical characteristics. With the project we wanted to support the children in developing positive characteristics such as self-confidence, creativity, cooperation and social skills. The children must be able to express themselves and let their imagination run wild.<< Objectives >>The topic of creativity plays a major role in the daily work with children in all participating kindergartens, which is why we decided to develop a guide. The aim of the guide is to show how creativity can be used in a targeted and effective way to encourage and support children in their development. Other educational areas such as mathematics, language or sport, which are offered in the kindergartens, are also linked to creativity.This is possible by incorporating the guide into the annual planning of the kindergartens and by implementing it in the daily work with the children. The guide was translated into the national language of the participating organizations and was also distributed to educational institutions that were not part of the project.The educational standards in the participating kindergartens have improved because both the children and the educational staff were confronted with a variety of different applications and learning methods. For this reason, it was important that there was an exchange among the participants during the individual activities, not only to share experiences, but also to develop new ideas about how the children can be supported in their development through the topics.<< Implementation >>During the course of the project, four planned activities were carried out by the participating organizations. Each partner was responsible for organizing an LTTA on a specific topic:First LTTA: Istanbul, Turkey - topic, ""Creativity""Second LTTA: Sintra, Portugal - topic ""STEAM""Third LTTA: Elmali, Turkey - topic ""Media Literacy""Fourth LTTA: Vienna, Austria - topic ""Personal Affairs""As part of the activities, presentations were held by all partner organizations on the topics. They explained how and with which methods the topics had already been implemented in daily work with the children. Workshops were organized by the leading organization and during visits to the kindergartens in the participating countries, the implementation of the topics in daily work with the children could be observed. During the individual activities, the participants had the opportunity to exchange experiences, ideas and observations.<< Results >>Using various questionnaires, we asked how the topics - creativity, STEAM, media literacy and personal affairs - are implemented in the kindergartens and whether ideas or methods for successful implementation are still missing. Based on the results, we were able to determine that creativity is particularly important. For this reason, we distributed further questionnaires on the topic of creativity to the partner organization and other kindergartens.A guide on creativity was drawn up, with which we want to give a brief overview of why creativity is an important part of child development. Various educational areas can be promoted by using creative elements in daily work with children, such as mathematics, language or motor skills. The guide explains how to plan a creative process.Each kindergarten has created a short book with various exercises on the topic of creativity, with the aim of encouraging the children in their development through creativity not only in the facilities, but also at home. This was distributed to the parents and families of the children, as well as other institutions that work with children."