Kėdainiai nursery-kindergarten "Puriena" has applied for this project in order to develop in a comprehensive way and become a progressive organisation, to reach higher European quality standards in education and to fulfil the main strategic goal of the institution: to become an accredited ‘Thinking preschool’ with the “Habits of Mind” based curriculum. With this project, the institution aims to: 1) to encourage the staff of the institution to develop their professional and subject competences by acquiring more knowledge about the application of the “Habits of Mind” approach in pre-schools; 2) to expand the institution’s network of international partnerships by establishing links with foreign pre-schools that have successfully applied the “Habits of Mind” approach in their daily work; 3) to apply the acquired knowledge and best practices from other countries to the work with children in their own institution and to develop new educational programmes and tools based on the “Habits” of Mind method; 4) to improve the general competences of the institution’s staff, enabling them to engage in new intercultural activities; 5) contribute to the development of the “Habits of Mind” approach through dissemination at institutional, city, national and international level. Participation in the Erasmus+ KA1 Key Action 1 project enabled the teachers of the nursery-kindergarten "Puriena" to take part in professional development curses and a job shadowing visit to foreign preschools. The knowledge and competences they have acquired are significant for the project participants, the institution and, most importantly, for the children. The teachers had the opportunity to get acquainted with the peculiarities of the "Thinking" method and to critically evaluate their teaching skills and methodology. By implementing this project, nursery-kindergarten “Puriena” aims to become a more advanced educational institution by creating favourable conditions for teaching and learning, opening up for life practices, ensuring continuous improvement of the staff, as well their creativity and initiatives. The project results have been integrated into curricula of the preschool, which will ensure the practical implementation and continuity of the “Thinking” methodology.
Lithuanian and European educational contexts are increasingly emphasising the importance of learning to learn - to find, retrieve and to give meaning to the knowledge. This is a crucial competence which is necessary to make lifelong learning a reality, i.e., to constantly develop skills and knowledge. The Lithuanian description of the achievements of pre-school children specifies what a child is expected to be able to do once he or she has mastered the competence of learning to learn, however, it does not identify the ways in which it can be developed in a targeted way. “The 'habits of mind' approach is a strategy for developing learning to learn competences that develops lifelong learning skills and fosters positive attitudes towards learning and continuous improvement. Since 2019, the main ambition and strategic goal of nursery-kindergarten “Puriena” is to become a progressive, accredited ‘Thinking preschool’ using the Habits of Mind approach. The kindergarten is actively pursuing national projects and activities related to the application of this method in preschools, but it is very important to gain as much knowledge as possible in the international context, and to establish contacts with foreign institutions that have already successfully applied this method in their daily activities. The project also aims to improve the general, professional and subject competences of the institution's staff, to create an environment conducive to education and, by integrating the results of the project, to implement successful practices in pre-school education based on the Habits of Mind method.