International Hellenic University (IHU) was invited by the Municipality of Kalamaria to organize a workshop entitled “Professional Development Seminar: An educational framework for promoting well-being in schools”. During this workshop, early childhood teachers had the opportunity to be informed about the objectives ProW project and to be trained on selected activities regarding the principles of the SWPBS and PERMA model.
The research member of IHU team, Professor Maria Tsitiridou-Evangelou, made a useful presentation to the early childhood teachers and shared with them everything they needed to know about of ProW project. The early childhood teachers got benefited from the training in multiple ways, and they gave a positive feedback to the IHU team. In the end, they encouraged to visit the project’s website as well as project’s social media to find more information about the project.
At the EARLI SIG 5 Conference dedicated to early education, held in the Netherlands, in Utrecht, between July 12-15, the University of Pitesti presented a specific paper, an analysis of the professional development needs and the professional environment of educators in Romania. The paperwork was carried out on the basis of the data collected within the project “Promoting the well-being of teachers through the support of positive behavior in early education” (ProW), carried out by the University of Pitesti, as a partner, together with the Argeș County School Inspectorate and other partners from Greece, Cyprus and Portugal. The data presented to the conference participants highlighted the specific aspects of Romania regarding the work climate in kindergartens, as well as the professional development needs of the educators participating in the project. The debates on these topics took place within the Symposium dedicated to the Pro-W project, with the title Professional development in four European countries: what needs and constraints do ECEC staff report? EARLI SIG 5 focuses on early childhood learning and development from birth to age eight. The purpose of the conference is to provide a platform for international collaboration and exchange of ideas, as well as rigorous and evidence-based discussion of early childhood research in both the educational and developmental sciences. EARLI SIG5 2022 theme: “Changing times in ECEC: New opportunities for boosting development and improving sustainability”.
During the last four months, the ProW external coaches supported 54 early childhood teachers to deliver the PERMA and SWPBS model to their early childhood settings in the Municipality of Kalamaria and Western Thessaloniki. After working on the school value “patience” and identifying the contexts and routines in which appropriate behaviours were expected (e.g., follow directions, wait for your turn), early childhood teachers from the B’ Public Kindergarten in Kalamaria praised their children with a group-level reward. In particular, on the 20th of May, teachers cooperated with parents and all together organized a picnic in the school playground. Children brought breakfast from home and had an informal meal of sandwiches, etc. The weather was nice, and all enjoyed a leisurely picnic. The early childhood settings of the experimental group (Group A) of the KA3 Project “Promoting Teachers Well-being through Positive Behavior Support in Early Childhood Education – 626146-EPP-1-2020-2-EL-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY” continue the implementation of the ProW intervention.
On the 26th and 27th of May, University of Maia – Portugal have hosted the 2nd Conference “More and Better Education”, under the motto “Good Practice, Good Ideas, Good Education”.
The ProW Portuguese team have had the privilege to give a workshop, mainly directed at Psychology and Education students, on the principles and intervention design of the ProW project. The activities proposed have been predominantly practical in nature and focused on: strategies to develop positive relationships and cooperation among professionals in education settings (PERMA), as well as to promote positive behaviors in early childhood education, through a preventative approach (SWPBS).
Participants’ enthusiasm and engagement in the activities were the key for a sharing insightful morning.
If it’s Wednesday, it’s… the webinar about well-being Last month, along with fellow ISJ inspectors and school principals of partner schools, I felt and experienced… well-being. During today’s educational webinar on the theme „ (Re)designing learning activities to adapt to the online environment”, we will openly discuss the aspects of online learning. Although we do not declare ourselves fans of this type of learning, we are PEOPLE of education and understand that, at this time, we can contribute to the development of quality education. We have lunch together, we are much more connected to each other than in other times. We are online on devices, we are „out”- we talk to other people, outside our homes, outside our community and outside our country. We are very „in”, because we turn a lot to ourselves, to those of the house, to the family members. We are very close to God, in the choices of our selection, we are close to science, medicine and vaccines…. all in the arbitrariness of our events. The transformation of ourselves as individuals and of our world seems to bring us a new identity, a mix of two worlds, a struggle to stay mentaly sane, normal relationally and physically strong. I have recently heard a parable about St. Augustine reffering to his words. „ People say that times are ugly. But if people lived beautifully, times would also be beautiful. We are the times. Let’s all of us be together and, this afternoon, let’s start taking safe and motivated steps towards learning how to live beautifully, so that the times to be as beautiful as we are!” To be continued!
Today, during the educational webinar on the topic „Well-being of pupils and teachers in the context of online school”, we will openly discuss how we can find and use positive aspects of online learning both as pupils and teachers, as well as parents. In the long run, the technology will be implemented more courageously, even if the interaction with the teacher cannot be substituded. Human interaction and interaction with the teacher are our basis of development, the way people can succeed in building things and doing things together. Guided by the words of Oana Mosoiu, we invite you to be part of this wel-being state that she wants to convey to everybody, and to use these words (I was, I am, I will always be…) as an extension of it beyond the end of today’s webinar. Stay with us! The story continues!
On the 14 and 15 of July, members from International Hellenic University (IHU) and team members of the ProW project (Promoting Teachers Well-being through Positive Behavior Support in Early Childhood Education – 626146-EPP-1-2020-2-EL-EPPKA3-PI-POLICY) participated in the EARLI SIG 5 congress (Utrecht) and in the 74th OMEP World Assembly and Conference (Greece). At these conferences, the project’s main goals and envisaged outcomes presented to an international audience of academics, researchers, students, and various stakeholders. These conferences considered as an excellent opportunity for the dissemination of the project’s focus.
The participation in these conferences was an excellent opportunity for professionals and researchers from various educational fields with cross-disciplinary interests to bridge knowledge gap, promote research esteem and develop educational and personal development strategies.
From the 20th to 22nd of July, the Centre for Research & Innovation in Education have hosted the 3rd edition of Porto International Conference on Research in Education.
The ProW Portuguese team have had the privilege to present a communication on the cultural and contextual adaptations made by the Portuguese team to the professional development training program designed for the early childhood education teachers. The communication entitled “Early Childhood Teachers Professional Development: a program based on Positive Psychology and Positive Behaviour Support” has been presented in a parallel session focused on the topic of Teachers’ Training. You can check more information about this event on https://porto-icre2022.eventqualia.net/pt/2022/inicio/
Certainly the answer will be different depending on each person, or rather, there will be quite a few answers that will be the same, but which, in most cases, will have different value and significance, but all the answers will relate to what is good or well for a human being or for other forms of life. The well-being of human beings has the quality of being shaped according to the unique structure of each person and the quality of transforming according to the factors that influence it : age, sex, social and demographic contexts, education, family, happenings, needs, wishes, degree of personal development, etc. Well-being is an indicator of the quality of life, and depending on the duration and intensity of wellbeing, we can characterize whether our existence as human beings is of a better or less good quality. The moment when « Live the moment ! » is completed by a conscious balance of excess and prudence, of fantasy and reality, of what we wish for and what we can provide to ourselves, in a way that, at first sight, can be seen as utopian at that moment, paradoxically, we enter the path of well-being, the path of a rich and fulfilled existence, the path of evolution and development. Reality and our relationship with reality, as well as expressing our inner self in the reality of everyday life can be some of the secrets of well-being. Smiling, laughing, rejoicing, accepting, asking, receiving, giving, loving, letting yourself surrounded by love and everything that is good to you, running, wondering, letting your thoughts fly in words, colours and sounds, taking action, feeling, tasting, smelling the fragrance of flowers, taking care of yourself, taking care of the others around… and many others that can be taken all together or separately can be part of the secrets of well-being. And the most important thing is that you are the one who can make this well-being state exist, YOU are the well-being !
After the completion of the school year (2021 – 2022), a transnational partners’ meeting was implemented with representatives of each organization gathering in Cyprus to reflect on future goals and what has been achieved so far during the implementation of the ProW project.
Some of the major points referred to was: an overview of each country’s first year of implementation with highlights and good practices, an overview of the second year’s experimental protocol and next actions to be made. Insights about the use of digital platform were presented as well as project management and quality assurance development. Moreover, we discussed about the dissemination of the project and shared potential ways to improve the dissemination of the work conducted so far and for the new school’ year.
Ideas were also shared for maximizing the potentials of the project through achieving our goals, we discussed about our next aims, we shared the feedback we got from our schools about their experience in participating and took that as an opportunity to reflect on it in order to maximize the quality of our outputs. Lastly, going through the research outputs of the ProW project we have set our aims even higher for the new school year.
Overall, the meeting offered an exceptional opportunity for everyone to get informed and exchange opinions about the implementation of the ProW project.
