MEET project develops an experimental framework for Early Childhood Education and Care system (ECEC), using the disabilities teaching methods for all the students in the ECEC system. The 2 years’ project we propose to develop an innovative methodology able to empower high quality and accessible ECEC services. It also fosters the assessment of transversal skills, in a Life Skills perspective, in the 0-5 children school system. We’d like to build a model of sustainable and transferable intervention on metacognitive approaches in early age learning processes. The key objective is to innovate curricula by strengthening the system of pre-school teaching/learning with the implementation of a training plan addressed to the school staff. The other key objective is the creation of meta-cognitive intervention model (MEET APP and Guidelines) aimed to strength skills for lifelong learning in early childhood. The project would like to create an effective and operational tool to implement educational policies at local, national and European level. The multiplier event and dissemination activities will be strategic in order to communicate and inform the effective impact that the project could arise. During the transnational meeting, partner will exchange point of views and will define the content of the intellectual outputs. MEET Guidelines (01 output) will be a tool for training and it will contain Context Rationale, Target group analysis, Model contents and methodologies, shared integration/interaction approach in the Disability for ability rationale, Model teaching and learning processes and Training Modules addressed to professionals. MEET APP (02 output) is a free download APP, with an easy and comfortable approach to be used by each self. The tool will be addressed to the LIM (digital whiteboard), already existing at schools, and to the MOBILE devices at home, in order to reach also families and parents (on Smartphones and tablets- Play Store and ITunes compatible) interested in using the methodology, materials and plays. MEET is based on the concept of Disabilities for Ability where experiences and good practices enhance skills and competences in contexts of disability and special educational needs, for an inclusive and interactive integration. It strengths the pedagogical contexts of teaching/learning; and it enhances skills for lifelong learning minimizing the potential risk factor for dysfunctional in the school experience with a focus on SEN (Special Educational Needs) and disabilities. This proposal wants to develop an innovative model adopting a holistic approach for teaching in early age (0-5). It has a children approach focused on life skills, promoting their expression and fostering their own approaches to learning and working. This approach helps children to be prepared for the next learning and schools stages, and it can be a preventive approach for their future growth. MEET provides children with the best start for the world of tomorrow, as ECEC policy recommends, thinking about competences beyond schools. The project, through a pilot action, at the end and after the project end (ensured by the protocol signed), involves 3 schools/early childhood centres, 60 teachers/professionals in ECEC, 90 families and 90 children. The project is based on the recent EU reflections about ECEC systems, whose relevance and priority is emphasized by the EU documents and national local policies, but also reflects the suggestions of National Ministries regarding the construction of stronger ECEC school curricula in partner Countries. The most recent and significant European contribution is the final speech of the EU Council on Education, Youth, Culture and Sport (Brussels,19-20/05/2011) and the discourse of the EU Presidency during the Conference on Excellence and Equity in ECEC (Budapest, 21-22/02/2011), underlined the need of a school to offer a strong starter education and to boost skills for job and well being. Additionally, constitutional charters of the partner Countries as well as the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, express the importance of education and the role of the school as a place where it must raise social equality, equal opportunities, removal of economic and social obstacles promoting the equality of citizens and the ability to become an active participant in personal growth as well as of the own country.The consortium, involving 4 partners in 4 EU countries, is representative of a wide spectrum of Countries and of skills thanks to the involvement of important and articulated professional profiles. The overall rational is based on the concept that the training community, involving the parental dimension, is the key dimension and potential engine of an ECEC logic
MEET aimed to fill the gap existing in approaching early childhood education as far as the transversal approach is concerned. It was urgent to work on transversal approach, since childhood is a target approaching the word with a transversal attitude. The partnership was composed by: SPECCHIO Magico from Italy, a social cooperative focused on children education, AGIFODENT from Spain, an educational centre, CARDET from Cyprus, an NPO working on educational platform and EARLY YEARS, a NPO from Northern Ireland focused on children with disabilities. MEET helps in creating innovative transversal skills to the professionals and to the parents, favouring learning activities and ease school processes. We developed an innovation in the training plan, through the Guideline and a ICT tool, addressed to involved professionals and parents, as strategic player. The E-guidelines- IO1- produced, are addressed to teachers, educators and professionals from the field of education and scholastic system directly involved in working with children in an early childhood and care perspective and in pre school ages. The innovative methodological element was the enhancement of the experience consolidated and validated on teaching people with disabilities for the entire school system. Our first objective was to strength the first experiences of pre-school children. And we did it working on basic learning enhancing tools for educators and school staff through specific and innovative training and didactic ICT instruments. The IO1 intersects national policies and partner local experience and innovative approach. We also developed a MEET-platform- IO2-, providing a kit that enables teachers, educators, psychologists and parents to implement systematic cognitive and motivational enhancement through a series of games and games designed for children of the last year of their childhood school to prepare them in playful way to learning and, in case of difficulty or disability, suitable for children of early school years, who can use it as a tool for reviewing and consolidation. This alternative, "non-conceptual" program promotes a method to bring children into active computing skills. It stimulates the upgrading and recovery, in the case of older children, of basic skills needed to learn how to calculate.Several arithmetic exercises of different typology are proposed for complexity. The child will learn the strategies of mental calculus by instantly recognizing numerically large numbers, acquire numerical facts and math skills, fundamental to mathematics learning, in a gradual and motivating way, in a truly playful context that motivates and stimulates him to put his knowledge on the field.At the base of several exercises, there is the belief that arithmetical notions belong to an innate predisposition of the human mind for numbers and that the best instrument to learn them is their hands. Hands are the most effective and even the most accurate tool to represent the operational processes of the mind, precisely because of the fineness alignment, the distinction in cinquine and especially the motion of each finger, can be compared to a computer operating with a 'on-off' binary code: open-toed fingers closed. In the program, using a line of numbers simulating hands, the child can easily develop computing skills at an ever-increasing level, working intuitively with numbers understood as images. This increases the specific ability to read the quantities immediately, which goes beyond the initial phase of the count. For these features and the simplicity of its structure, the program is suitable for all children who are approaching maths and, especially, those with difficulty. We shared also best practices at a European Level achieving the development of innovation in ECEC method. Working transnationally offered a shared starting point in the definition and understanding of early learning processes to be replicate in other Countries. The objective of a European model of intervention for ECEC was to test in different EU contexts this new method. Working on interaction and integration concepts increased the value of the project meetings. During them the partners analyzed different children abilities, exploiting every child specificity without trying to standardize their specific competences.