Transcript Folie 1
„The first years count!“
Reinhard Sliwka
03.03.2009
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The first years
count!
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Small Children are Giants in Education !
• Starting with the first day children
learn with their head, hand and heart
• They learn in constant interaction
with their environment, especially
with grown-up reference persons
(parents / nursery school teachers)
• In a co-constructive process they
develop a world- and self-concept
and important core competences at
a very early age
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Children are our Future!
• Children are our most precious possession
and the most important ressource –
especially in a (knowledge-oriented)
society
• Education in early childhood will bring in a
high yield (8 % according to the German
Institute for Economic Research - DIW )
• Missed educational chances will later
result in high subsequent costs
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Children Need Optimal Fostering!
In no other field does a society reveal itself
so clearly as in how it treats its children. Our
success has to be measured by our
children‘s happiness and well-being. In
every society children are the most
vulnerable citizens and its most precious
assets.
(Nelson Mandela)
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The System of Education in Early
Childhood
Basic social conditions
Basic municipal conditions
Family situation
Research
and
teaching
Vocational training
and
further
education of
pedagogical
staff
holistic education
and development
of the child with
head, hand and heart
Linking of
the
involved
parties
Educational
and social
politics
Care-taking situation
Parent training and counselling
Family- and social laws
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Central Challenges
• Quantitative
– By 2013 a child-care quota of 35 % in the care-taking
of small children is to be achieved across Germany
– In Lower Saxony this means 45,000 new child care
places
– This means investment and operational costs of
approx.1 billion euros
• (1/3 by the federal government, 1/3 by federal state and 1/3
by local authorities)
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Central Challenges
• Qualitative
– Qualification and professionalisation offensive for
nursery school teachers and child minders
– Quality development and control
– Further education of parents
– Transition management from Kita (nursery school
day-care centre) to primary school
– Individual fostering / equal opportunities
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Main Objectives of nifbe
• Research bases on the question „How do children
develop, how do they learn and what can we do to
foster them individually?“
• Connecting actors from research, teaching, training,
further education and practice
• Intensive transfer following the „principle of
countervailing influence“ and interdisciplinary
exchange
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NorthWest
Development,
learning and
culture
Motion and
psychomotor
activity
SouthWest
Coordination
and
adminstrative
office
Central
Talent fostering
NorthEast
Elementary
pedagogy
Regional Networks
Research-Offices
Basic Structure
SouthEast
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Detailed Structure
MWK
University
of OS
MS
MK
Board of directors
Management
Committee
Coordination office
Central coordination,
Transfer and PR
Administration
Scientific
advisors
5 central
research offices
Forum of
specialists
5 regional
networks
Transfer projects
across Lower Saxony
Research projects
across Lower Saxony
General Meeting
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Numbers and Facts on nifbe
• Annual volume of sponsorship: 5.5 Mill. euros
– 3.1 mill. euros institutional
– 2.4 mill. euros for exemplary projects countrywide
• Employees: approx. 50 countrywide
–
–
–
–
–
Management
PR and project support
Professors and other academic staff
Network managers
Administrative staff
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Regional Networks: Division
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Regional Networks: Set-up
• Independent sponsoring, mainly through newly founded
associations or through municipalities (e.g. Hannover)
• Each regional network is provided with 225,000 euros
for 2-3 network managers, administrative and general
costs
• An interdisciplinary advisory board consisting of
representatives from science, education and further
training, local authorities (assistance for young people)
as well as from practice makes recommendations on
projects and assists in strategic designing of the network
set-up.
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Regional Networks: Tasks
• Inventory of the participants‘ situation
• Set-up, extension and lasting establishment of regional
networks
• Organisation and presentation of network
communication; co-organisation of network meetings
and conferences
• Regional and nationwide transfer of results, issues and
questions
• Counselling for and attending of regional exemplary
nifbe projects
• Giving impulses for quality amelioration and qualification
• Public relations / presentation and representation
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Networks: Partners in Education
Coordination
Office
NWK
Northwest
NWK
Southeast
NWK
Southwest
Science
Universities
Higher Education Institution
(German: Fachhochschule,
short: FH)
NWK
Central
Education
NWK
Northeast
Further training
Educational work with
parents and children
Vocational
Schools
U / FH Agency for EB (adult education)
provincial institutions
VHS‘en
Recognized institutions for adult
education
EB / BE – as for e.g.
family education centres
art schools,
music schools,
Kitas / Kigas etc.
(= day-care centres /
nursery schools)
Network of the learning regions Lower Saxony
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Coordination Office: Tasks
• Countrywide coordination and attendance of
regional networks
• Interface for transfer in line with the „principle of
countervailing influence“
• Catalyst for findings, models and questions
emerging from research and practice
• Broad media and public relations work
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Practical Emphases of nifbe
• Development of holistic concepts for early childhood
pedagogy
• Development of (fostering) concepts for the
transition from nursery school day-care centres to
school
• Advanced training for nursery-school teachers
• Quality in education and vocational training
• Parent education
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Forums in Lower Saxony
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•
•
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•
•
Language / Linguistic support
Natural Sciences
Children Younger than Three
Family Centres
Parent Training
Professionalization
Cultural Education
Health
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Practical and Transfer Projects
• In line with the NEBG (Lower Saxony Law for Adult
Education) acknowledged institutions for advanced
training, universities and some municipalities are entitled
to apply
• Cooperation is required between different educational
sectors (research, education and advanced training,
practical experience)
• Main criteria: innovation, exemplary quality, suitability
for transfer
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Regulations of Sponsorship
• General max. subsidy amount: 50,000 euros per
year
• Max. project term: 2 years
• Consulting and filing of application through the
regional networks
• Deadlines for applications:
– 28th February (for projects starting in the running year)
– 31st August (for projects starting the following year)
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Project Example 1
• Fit to start – prevention offer for mothers /
parents
• Cooperation partner: KEB (Catholic adult
education) / FABI (family education) / University
of Osnabrück
• Objective: development, implementation and
evaluation of an information and experience
class for mothers-to-be
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Project Example 2
• Experience of Natural Science and Engineering
• Cooperation partner: EEB (protestant adult education)
/ Protestant special school / BBS (vocational school)
Bersenbrück / specialist counselling of the municipal
und administrative district / University of Osnabrück
• Objective: development and establishment of a natural
scientific curriculum for education and advanced
training / set-up of a centre of competence
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Research Emphases of nifbe
In close cooperation with the University of Osnabrück the
research of early childhood is being intensified in the following
areas:
• Culture, development and learning
• Motion, cognition and psychomotor activity
• Fostering of talents
• Elementary pedagogy
The research competence for this subject is accumulated by a
national research cooperation consisting of higher eduction
institutions (German: Fachhochschulen) and universities
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Fostering of Talent
Objectives:
– To achieve an equality of opportunities independent
of family and class background
– Dealing with the growing heterogeneity due to
individual diagnostic and didactic methods
– Systematic presentation of the transition from earlychildhood education to elementary school and to
higher education
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Fostering of Talent
Instruments und methods:
– Early-childhood diagnostics : Development of
diagnostic methods to comprehend the general
personality development of children
– Research and development of concepts and
structures for a talent fostering pre-school and school
education
– Research and development or extension of
educational networks for talent fostering
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Project Example 1
• Nationwide empiric study in Lower Saxony of
positions and experience of nursery school teachers
with individual fostering
• The results serve as a necessary basis for the
acceptance of the objective and subjective
diagnostic methods to be developed and of the
suitable fostering methods
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Project Example 2
• Diagnosis of talents in early childhood
• Development of diagnostic methods for integrative
competences in nursery school (e.g. self-regulation,
self-motivation and emotional self-development)
• Development of suitable further training modules for
child minders (parents, nursery-school teachers)
and for the direct fostering of children
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Motion – Cognition – Psychomotor Activity
Objective:
• Support of the educational processes in early childhood
considering the child‘s physical conditions
Background:
• Motion and cognition are the starting points for selfawareness and for the awareness of the surrounding
world
• The child is an „active learning being“; the body is the
basis for the development of the child‘s independence
• Motion is linked with many other educational fields
(language, social learning, aesthetic education, natural
sciences)
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Motion – Cognition – Psychomotor Activity
• Examples of research areas
– Motodiagnostics – development of childrens‘
motion; observation, documentation, motor
development diagnostics
– Psychomotor development fostering
– Motion and language
– Motor activity und cognition – development of
problem-solving strategies of small children
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Project Example 1
• Psychomotor fostering concepts
• Study of the significance of body-experience for the
development of a positive self-concept
• Teaching and making aware of self-efficacy
experiences emerging in situations during motion
• Evaluation of fostering facilities at a staff and
physical-motor level
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Thank you for
your kind
attention!
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