Children’s long term success at school is influenced as much by social, emotional and self-regulation skills as by academic skills and knowledge. Social and emotional development is a main contributor to successful school transitions and a significant preventative factor of disruptive behaviour, and mental health difficulties. Not paying attention to social and emotional development is harmful to young children’s capacity to learn and to thrive. Research points to a lack of training and continuous professional development on this topic, and the need to design effective methods to provide ECEC educators with skills and competences to promote children’s socio-emotional development in ECEC. Further, there are few reliable and easy to use indicators for psychosocial development of young children, which link socio-emotional development to children’s capacity to learn. The overall goal of the proposed project, titled Social and Emotional Education and Development: upscaling awareness and skills in ECEC practice (SEED), is to improve psychosocial well-being and healthy development of young children (2,5 to 6 years old), with an emphasis on those growing up in difficult circumstances such as children on the move, children with a low socio-economic status or children victims or witnesses of domestic violence. The specific objectives are to conduct a country level screening of psychosocial well-being of 5-year-old children. Based on the findings, develop and pilot an innovative continuing development programme to build practitioners capacities to support psychosocial well-being. A further objective is to bring young children’s psychosocial well-being high on the agenda of European, national and local policy makers. Other activities are the training of data collectors in the use of a tool to measure psychosocial well-being; the training of faciliators for the CPD pathway; and, an international training and peer-exchange event for the ECEC practitioners involved in piloting the SEED CPD approach. Participants in SEED will be 150 ECEC practitioners and primary school teachers in 5 countries: Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands and Norway. They will participate in research and in the SEED CPD, an innovative CPD process lasting 11 months combining guided group reflection and mentoring, and participation in an online professional peer learning community. Other participants will be 200 staff of faculties of teacher education in universities, institutes of teacher education, education and teacher training agencies responsible for CPD, teachers' associations, parents' associations, school boards, university researchers and local municipal policy makers responsible for education, who will participate in local seminars in all countries. Results will be that practitioners have the skills and knowledge to promote and nurture young children’s psychosocial development. Also, important stakeholders (governments, education and care services, NGOs, teacher training institutes and parents) recognise the importance of psychosocial well-being of young children and positively influence policy and practice to give more attention to this area. Population level data on psychosocial well-being of 5 year old children are collected and analysed and will remain accessible to policy makers and practitioners who want make informed decisions regarding resource allocation, interventions and track progress over time. The SEED project will lead to improved quality of pedagogical practice of ECEC practitioners and pre-school teachers participating in the SEED CPD pathway. ECEC and schools will be more supportive of children’s psychosocial well-being, which will positively effect their overall school outcomes and schools transitions. The profile and outreach of participating organisations as knowledge and training experts in psychosocial well-being of young children is enhanced. Course modules on psychosocial well-being and SEED approach are included in Bachelor's level professional education training and CPD pathways in 6 countries. Paying more attention to young children's feelings and social relationships leads to happier learners who have a better and a more equal chance to fullfil their potential!
Children’s long term success at school is influenced as much by social, emotional and self-regulation skills as by academic skills and knowledge. Social and emotional development is a main contributor to successful school transitions and a significant preventative factor of disruptive behaviour, and mental health difficulties. Not paying attention to social and emotional development is harmful to young children’s capacity to learn and to thrive. The SEED Project (Social and Emotional Education and Development) was designed to draw attention to the importance of social and emotional well-being for children’s learning and development. This was done by a research study about young children's well-being and the factors that influence it in ECEC and primary schools in Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Norway and the Netherlands. Based on the research findings practitioners working with 3 to 6-year-olds in these countries participated in a continuing professional development pathway based on group reflection to give them the skills to create create educational environments which are supportive of children's social and emotional well-being. The participants were 140 ECEC practitioners and primary school teachers and 44 principals in Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands and Norway who participated in the research. A subset of 80 of these professionals participated in the piloting of the WANDA group reflection over one school year, supported by trained mentors. They also took part in study visits to ECEC settings. Other participants were the 545 staff of faculties of teacher education in universities and institutes of teacher education, teachers' and parents' associations, university researchers and local and national policy makers responsible for education and training. These participated in local seminars and conferences where SEED findings and their implications were discussed. Achievements of SEED include an assessment of the socio-emotional well-being of 1195 five-year-old children attending ECEC settings in urban and rural areas in 5-countries; a comparative analysis in understandings of young children’s social and emotional development across countries; sensitization of practitioners, principals, teacher trainers and policy makers to the importance of social and emotional well-being and the multiple setting factors that influence it and the formulation of principles of social and emotional well-being in ECEC. Important results are that practitioners are strengthened in their professional role and where their attention should be oriented in order to support socio-emotional well-being of children. This means they are better able to deal with daily challenges in their classrooms. Practitioners also feel supported in concretely transforming and improving daily practice and in continuously working on the link between theory and practice. The group reflection pathway has also better prepared practitioners to deal positively with diversity in their classrooms by drawing attention the impact ECEC environments. and their behaviours and interactions with children and their parents have on social and emotional wellbeing. SEED has therefore led to quality improvements in ECEC. It has also led to concrete commitments to give more attention to social and emotional wellbeing in training, practice and policy in all participating countries. "Everyone is accepted as he/she is. This is what we stand for as a school. New children are immediately included. We take care of children when they show emotional needs. We teach children to play together and to talk to each other about difficulties". (Practitioner, the Netherlands). The results of SEED are available in two publications, 1) a research report titled: "Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Young Children in ECEC Settings", which is also available in summary in Croatian, Dutch, English, Hungarian, Latvian and Norwegian, and 2) guidelines for coaches and mentors, titled "SEEDs of Change: Supporting social and emotional well-being of children in Early Childhood Education and Care", and summaries in Croatian, Dutch, English, Hungarian, Latvian. Paying more attention to young children's feelings and social relationships in ECEC and primary school leads to happier learners who have a better and a more equal chance to fulfil their potential. As a result of this project ECEC centres and schools are now better prepared to meet the needs of all children and their families. For more information and to download the SEED publications: https://icdi.nl/projects/social-and-emotional-education-and-development-seed