SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED ONE-DAY PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS OF PRACTITIONERS FROM PRESCHOOL INSTITUTIONS THAT THE BASICS OF THE “YEARS OF ASCENT” PROGRAM APPLY FROM 2020. YEAR

In April 2022, there will be 6 One-Day Professional Meetings within the implementation of horizontal exchange model – Community of Professional Learning (CPL).

The programe CPL is the part of the Capacity strengthening support programme for implementation of the Basics of the preschool education and care, implemented by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (MoESTD) in cooperation with Unicef.

The model of the Community of Professional Learning Practitioners (from reflection on action to reflection for action) is aimed at empowering professional collaborators, educators and nurses of educators to critically and reflexively question, change and develop their practice in cooperation with colleagues in kindergarten, as well as with colleagues from other preschools.

It is about the exchange and learning of practitioners from preschool who are at the same level of application of Basic program. The model predicts that professional meetings that encourage critical reflection become one of the forms of internal professional development in the institution, as well as the way of horizontally connecting with colleagues from other institutions, and developing through related and mutually conditioned phases (Photo 1).

Hosts of 6 one-day professional meetings, in which about 250 practitioners took part were preschools from: Belgrade („Cukarica” and „Rakovica”), Leskovac, Zajecar, Subotica and Sabac. In addition to them, participants were practitioners of PU from: Sombor, Kikinda, Vrsac, Bogatic, Uzice, Cajetina, Kosjeric, Mladenovac, Stari Grad, Pozarevac, Novi Pazar, Krusevac, Jagodina, Paracin, Vranje and Vlasotince.

All one-day professional meetings were realized under the same scenario. After the introductory activities, participants were divided into three groups (2 core changes each), depending on topics they previously dealt with in their kindergartens. Each core chose 1 of the topics offered: Game, Space, Planning and Documentation, while another topic – Inclusive approach – was mandatory for all.

At all one-day professional meetings, in addition to practitioners from preschool institutions, were attended by representatives: authors of Model, UNICEF, MoESTD and Project Management Unit. The meetings were professionally led by collaborators to support the development of reflexive practice in kindergartens – core changes within the models of CPL, Aleksandra Ruzicic, Violeta Vrcelj and Ana Kojic.

The exchange of experiences, insights, reflections took place in a stimulating and cooperative atmosphere. Participants showed a high degree of professionalism during the meeting and motivation to continue the initiated changes that they defined in their plans.

Other photos can be found here.