Liebe BesucherInnen der Edu-Seasons Webseite, insbesondere liebe Eltern,
als Gründerin von Edu-Seasons liegt mir im Bereich der Bildung für Nachhaltigkeit ganz besonders das Konzept des lebenslangen Lernens am Herzen. Dieser Artikel wurde das erste mal am 5.12.2016 veröffentlicht. Das Thema Nachhaltigkeit ist aktueller denn je.
Zusammen mit einer australischen Kommilitonin habe ich 2012 im Rahmen eines Studienprojektes sehr erfolgreich einen Workshop für Lehrkräfte in Kindergärten entwickelt. Ich schreibe ganz bewusst “Lehrkräfte”, da ich den Beruf des Erziehers gleichbedeutend sehe mit dem Beruf des Lehrers. Durch den Workshop soll Bildung für Nachhaltigkeit in Kindergärten integriert werden, sowohl in den täglichen Abläufen also auch in der thematischen Arbeit mit den Kindern.
Ich brauche Ihre Hilfe, aber vor allen Dingen Ihr Interesse an Themen nachhaltiger Entwicklung. Kann so ein Workshop die Abläufe in Ihrer Kita verbessern ? Möchten Sie das Bildung für Nachhaltigkeit in der Kita Ihres Kindes einen festen Platz bekommt ? Schlagen Sie Ihrem Kindergarten die Durchführung des Workshops vor.
Ich richte mich mit unserem Workshop Angebot zunächst an bilinguale englisch-deutsche oder internationale Kindergärten in Deutschland, da der gesamte Workshop in englischer Sprache entwickelt wurde. Im zweiten Schritt soll der Workshop in die deutsche Sprache übersetzt werden.
Bitte reichen Sie dieses Angebot an interessierte Personen weiter oder schreiben Sie mir: [email protected]. Unten folgend gibt es eine vollständige Kopie des Workshopkonzeptes, das Sie gerne weiterleiten können.
Herzlichst,
Milena Berné
Edu-Seasons Gründerin
Introduction :
Early Childhood Education recognises children as competent and capable beings with the capacity to be active agents of change now and in the future. Educating young children plays a significant role in developing “healthy communities” (Friendly & Browne, 2002, p.19) and more specifically, developing a sustainable future for the world.
National and international concern for ‘healthy communities’ and sustainability has led to increased interest in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability (ECEfS). ECE in Australia has highlighted the importance of sustainability by incorporating Education for Sustainability (EfS) requirements into the new National Quality Standards and curriculum framework document. However, the EfS requirements are very general and dependent on interpretation, which leads to a lack of practical information and examples of ‘good practice’ for educators (Davis & Ferreira, 2010).
The ‘From Visions to Actions: Early Childhood Educators for Sustainability’ workshop series makes a significant contribution towards EfS by providing educators with the practical knowledge and skills to run a more sustainable ECE service, and empower children to become powerful “agents of change for sustainability” (Davis & Ferreira, 2010, p.2).
This workshop is the first of three in the series examining a whole-service and curriculum approach to ECEfS with an emphasis on inquiry learning. The workshop series anticipates a rich exchange of ideas and practical examples through its twelve experienced and/or newly trained early childhood educator participants.
To help meet the objectives of EfS, this series of workshops has been developed around inquiry learning, which serves for better thinking and problem solving skill development (UNESCO, 2006). Educators are often challenged to implement inquiry learning. Therefore, educators should strengthen their teaching skills and empower the children to become active members in our society (Gordon, 2000).
General information :
The series entails 3 x 3 hr workshops which are anticipated to be conducted across a 6 month period. Below is an outline of this series.
Workshop 1 – ‘Getting Started’ – Introductory workshop about EfS (whole-service and curriculum based approach). Focuses on developing knowledge and skills to implement sustainability within an ECE service, creating a shared vision, selecting priority issues and developing an action plan.
Workshop 2 – ‘Actions and Reflections’ – Focuses on reflection of projects implemented after workshop 1, examines barriers and challenges encountered, and continues the practice of inquiry based learning in ECEfS.
Workshop 3 – ‘Review, Reflect and Plan for the Future’ – Evaluate results of recent / ongoing projects. Use these results to plan upcoming projects and develop evaluation tools for Inquiry Learning.
This workshop series encourages early childhood educators to implement sustainability strategies into their ECE services. As educators it is important to lead by example. The authors of this workshop series therefore recommend that every attempt should be made to limit paper usage by providing participants with a resource DVD.
Throughout this workshop participants are required to take notes and make regular reflections related to their own ECE service. To assist the participants in this process a ‘Sustainability Reflection Workbook’ has been developed (see resource 1.1).
Objectives for the first 1-day workshop :
By the conclusion of this workshop participants will
• increase their knowledge about ‘Education for Sustainability’, as it applies to Early Childhood Education services in the local context;exemplified through ECEfS in Australia
• create a bank of practical ideas and acquire skills to assist educators to implement a more sustainable Early Childhood Education service; and
• be enabled to network with other workshop participants and share examples and ideas of best practice in ECEfS.
Workshop authors :
Penelope Savage , Australia, Griffith University Graduate
Milena Berné, Germany, Griffith University Graduate
