Home, but not alone: Empowering preschool teachers and parents for digital education

7 Participating countries: Turkey, Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain and North Macedonia     

Start: 01-06-2021 - End: 31-05-2023

Project Reference: 2020-1-TR01-KA226-SCH-098133

EU Grant: 128736 EUR

Programme: Erasmus+

Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Action Type: Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

The project is a strategic partnership involving exchange of good practices. It aims to mitigate educational losses caused by the pandemic by supporting preschools teachers and parents who are the main providers of education for young children. It will realize this aim by focusing on digital tools and teacher-parents relationships. It will initiate cooperation between different stakeholders-universities, local authorities, preschools and a counseling centre and facilitate sharing expertise and exchanging good practices.

During the lockdowns throughout Europe, many children had to stay home and were deprived of stimuli which is instrumental for their academic, psychological and social well-being. Teachers and parents had major difficulties finding appropriate online resources for using at home. The project addresses crucial needs of preschool institutions with professional help from universities and commits to providing hands-on experience for the educators.

In this regard, the project aims to
* support teachers of pupils aged 3-6 years by developing their ICT skills at least by 25% and providing resources
* improve preschool teachers’ capacity to supplement education at home by increasing the number (at least %30) and quality of pedagogical activities involving parents
* increase the variety of practices for preschools by %35 through promoting exchange of good practices

The project aims to achieve following tangible results:
* interactive eBook of good practices in preschool education. The contents will be collected from partner organizations and associated partners. This free and open online educational resource will enable preschool teachers to share online resources and to incorporate them into their own teaching.
* a massive open online course (MOOC) to train preschool teachers to develop their digital competencies and soft digital skills. The content will be specifically designed for preschool education and include modules such as technology supported pedagogies, online content creation tools, and game-based/gamified instructional designs. The course will be piloted in partner preschools.
*a project website, social media accounts, a logo and an eTwinning project.

For the proper management of the project, there will be 3 transnational project meetings held in Turkey, N.Macedonia and Belgium. Within the project, a total of 27 teachers of pupils aged 3-6 will attend 3 short-term training events in universities and counseling centre. At local level, all preschools will carry out various school-based and local activities. LTT 1 is organized around the concept of exchanging good practices
LTT 2 is on pedagogical issues focusing on parent-school interactions and how we can develop them. LTT 3 the final selection and evaluation of good practices.

With the interactive eBook of good practices and MOOC, more than 800 teachers will be reached in partner and associated organizations. Teachers of pupils aged 3-6 will incorporate digital online technology into their teaching practice better.They will use newly developed interactive eBook and implement activities at home in collaboration with parents. They will better address the needs of their pupils with innovative approaches.
The project will also benefit pupils of target preschools, their parents and the whole communities of partner preschools. All partners will be able to connect with their stakeholders to promote the quality of preschool education. They will have the opportunity to learn from other cultures and other societies as well as to establish long-lasting professional relationships, broaden horizons and promote multicultural values.

Through this project, long-term, open access and state-of-the-art digital outputs will be developed and opened for access for everyone.
The eBook will be freely and easily available for everybody interested to download, to write comments, to give reviews and to add new content. In addition, the MOOC produced within the scope of the project will be a permanent course on a virtual platform In the long term, we expect the main outputs of the project to be disseminated and be part of curricula in European countries. It is also expected that they are part of the teacher training course at universities.

Materials:

• Web tools for kindergarten teachers -  HERE!
• Influence of the pandemic on children and preschools -  HERE!

You can follow us here:

• Facebook page of the project -