Outdoor education. Design and growth experiences in childhood, indoors and outdoors
Lifelong Learning Course
Scientific Director: Prof Emilia Restiglian
Course period: February-April 2023.
The meetings on 4 February and 25 March 2023 will take place in person (Centro Infanzia Girotondo delle età, Via Pianale 34, San Pietro di Feletto, Conegliano).
The meetings on 9 February and 14 April 2023 will take place online (Zoom platform).
Aims:
MAIN:
- to strengthen the competences that teachers and educators need to deepen and handle in order to work meaningfully in an unstructured context, such as:
- the ability to read competences between indoors and outdoors;
- the ability to observe in context and to notice what surrounds us in different settings;
- having an informed perspective able to consider natural and non-natural materials according to multiple paths, languages and opportunities they can offer; - to reflect on the stance of the adult/teacher/educator in being with children in an unstructured context, considering what role to take in accompanying children in their learning pathways and inquiries, and what role to take in relaunching themes, further exploration and events;
- to reflect on the difference, but also on the interaction, between indoors and outdoors, between what can be done indoors with children and what can be done outdoors. This gives rise to an idea of outdoor education not as a “relocation” of settings in which the same things can be done, but as different worlds in which to develop ways of working and being that complement each other;
- to practise acquiring a bespoke approach able to weave and “stitch” indoors and outdoors together
- to build possible project plans between indoors and outdoors, to be implemented in participants’ own settings; use of generative ideas to be developed and observation sheets.
Target participants: Educators in early childhood education services (ages 0-3) - Nursery school teachers (ages 3-6)
Maximum number: 35. If the number of enrolments is higher, a second edition of the course may be offered
Training methodologies: Online meetings on a dedicated platform and experiential workshops at an early childhood centre. Active and participatory methodologies will mainly be used.
The course includes the preparation by participants of individual work useful for shared reflection through the use of a specially prepared platform. The course therefore aims to foster strong integration with participants’ own professional context of origin
Registration fee: 50 euros (FISM Treviso educators and teachers); 200 euros for external participants
How to apply: send an email to: postlauream.fisppa@unipd.it
For information: emilia.restiglian@unipd.it
Course venues: Centro Infanzia Girotondo delle età (via Pianale 34, San Pietro di Feletto, Conegliano-TV) and Zoom platform
Lecturers: Trainers and lecturers with expertise in the field
Programme:
- Module 1: Experiencing the outdoors from a project-based perspective
Formulation of possible project hypotheses connecting outdoor and indoor spaces that can be proposed in one’s own school or nursery. The starting point will be an immersive experiential workshop in which observation in context, identification of possible prompts and reading of collected materials will provide ideas and clues for drafting hypothetical project pathways.
- Module 2: Analysis and review of the project pathways hypothesised in Module 1
Reasoned and shared reading of the project hypotheses developed after the training experience in Module 1.
Identification of possible project assessments and suggestions for further exploration and research to be developed between indoors and outdoors.
Proposal of tools for observing, interpreting and developing children’s learning and inquiry processes.
- Module 3: Experiencing the indoors from a project-based perspective
Sharing, reflection and analysis of observational and project materials. Any further relaunches for advances and deeper development of children’s processes of knowledge and inquiry. Viewing, analysis and sharing of possible forms of documentation as choices for communicating and giving meaning to experiences between indoors and outdoors.
- Module 4: Analysis and review of documentation materials
Sharing and analysis of the different documentation materials produced in relation to the project experiences. Highlighting the processes of knowledge and inquiry that can be supported between indoors and outdoors
Courses for lifelong learning