Character formation through philosophical conversations
Objective
The project "Character formation through philosophical conversations in preschool - a Foundation for the Children of the Future" is part of a broader strategic process in Vejle Municipality which focuses on a targeted strengthening of early learning and education in preschool.
British writer and speaker James Nottingham and his company Challenging Learning’s theories and methods inspired the project.
Specifically, the project's objectives are to:
- gather new international knowledge and experience on philosophical conversations as a method for strengthening early learning and education
- link new knowledge and experiences to existing strategic goals and initiatives through concrete testing of methods
- develop new ideas and formats, that fit in a Danish and a Vejle context. These will be formulated in an idea catalogue.
- strengthen the internal networks and learning processes between day care centres in Vejle
- strengthen the managers' competencies in implementing efforts to strengthen early learning and education
- build experience with international project work and create Nordic networks and cooperation relations
Activities
Participants attend a three-day course on James Nottingham's theory and methods of challenging learning through dialogue-based and philosophical conversations. The course includes visits in day care centres and sparring with Norwegian day care centres on the use of the methods in practice.
Based on learning from the course, an implementation process for all day care centres is carried out through development meetings, workshops and concrete testing. Finally, tested activities will be presented at a seminar in March 2019.
An online platform (Børnetube) is used as a collaboration platform, both for communication and discussion, but also for tasks, reflection, sharing of practice in the implementation phase, formulation of recommendations and suggestions, as well as project monitoring and evaluation.
Partnership
The project's consortium consists of Vejle Municipality's day care administration, which coordinates the project as well as all day care centres in the municipality.
VIFIN is a partner in the project and is responsible for the coordination and administration of the project. At the same time, VIFIN assists with sparring for the development and testing of activities and methods. In addition, VIFIN is responsible for evaluating and disseminating the project.
Financing
The project is supported by Erasmus + and is implemented from July 2018 - June 2019.
More information
For further information, please contact Maren Pilegaard Andersen:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.