THINKIDS – SUSTAINABILITY, AUTHENTIC LEARNING AND THINKING FROM EARLY CHILDHOOD

Duration: 01/01/2022 – 29/02/2024

The key competences for lifelong learning (LLL) and its development have been an important policy imperative for EU Member States in recent years, as well the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda have placed the focus on EU members to update and adapt their education provision. Now most Member States have incorporated key competences, or similarly broad learning outcomes, into their school curriculum frameworks. This is a necessary but insufficient step towards implementation.

Learners need to develop their skills and competences throughout their lives, for their personal fulfilment, so that they can actively engage with the society in which they live and to ensure that they are prepared for a constantly changing world of work. A focus on key competences can lead to a broader and more engaged learning experience for students. While the development of key competences prepares young people for a rapidly changing world of work in the future, it also helps them to think critically and creatively, to work independently and as part of a team, to be innovative and to develop learning skills that are important for them in the frame of the current global sustainability challenges as they travel through their education journey and later along the road of work and lifelong learning.

For these reasons, THINKIDS is proposing to design and test a practical “authentic learning approach” based on the EU key competences for lifelong learning and the UN Sustainable Development Goals to support educators and children (ages from 3 to 11) find coherence between what they think, what they want or feel, and what they do.

PROJECT COORDINATOR:

PARTNERS:

GOALS:

  • Implement a transnational curriculum for Early childhood and primary education

  • Design and test innovative materials and open educational resources (OER) focusing on the 8 key competences for lifelong learning and the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals

  • Support 3-11 teachers integrating our materials in their work life to enhance their professional development and increasing the quality and range of initial and continuing training

  • Create an Innovative Knowledge Hub for informing aimed at increasing teacher’s awareness to strengthen the educational foundations   

MAIN ACTIVITIES:

  • Curriculum THINKIDS for pre-school and primary school teachers to integrate key competences for LLL and SDGs using an authentic learning approach in their teaching.

  • Handbook for teachers with explanations of THINKIDS approach, the 8 key competences for LLL and the 17 SDGs and incorporating practical resources to implement in the classroom.

  • Guidelines for the teacher to support the implementation of key competences for LLL and SDGs using an authentic learning approach in their teaching in a practical and fun way.

  • R4 THINKIDS eHub in 6 languages to sustain the learning and active testing of the materials and handbook, including a set of technical specifications of the resource centre.

TARGET GROUPS:

  • Kindergarten and primary school teachers

  • Pedagogues

  • Secondary target groups are children aged 3-11, schools and other educational institutions, experts in the field of competencies based and environmental education, organizations and associations of experts, etc.

  • Policy makers and decision makers like regional/national authoritiesmakers and decision makers like regional/national authoritieS

  • General public

TOTAL VALUE OF THE PROJECT:

  • 222.850,00 € (funded by the Erasmus+ K2, Germany Agency for mobility)

CONTACT:

  • Marija Kragic (marijakragic1@gmail.com)