Many newly qualified or inexperienced teachers tend to base their lesson planning on the traditional PPP approach (Presentation, Practice, Production), because they tend to find it a reliable and valid framework around which to perform a series of classroom activities. The problem is that PPP serves the teacher’s needs, but it is debatable whether or not it fulfils the needs of the learner. For this reason, more and more teachers in ECEC turn to more learner-centred approaches where the needs of the children are central to the lesson content. Two such approaches are TBL (Task-Based Learning) and PBL (Project-Based Learning).Recent research shows that PBL and TBL are extremely appropriate methods to be applied in ECEC. The focus being entirely on implementing a given task/project is really suitable for young learners, whose lexical and verbal skills are still to be developed and whose teachers’ task is to equip them with the right life skills, which would serve as the basis for acquiring basic and transversal skills later on.The Learning by Doing - Attainment of Basic Competences in ECEC project will combine the efforts of 8 relevant organisations from 3 European countries (the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia). The key objectives of this project are to improve the quality of ECEC education through introducing innovative approaches and practices and to ensure comprehensive development of children's competences at ECEC level. This will be achieved by supporting kindergarten teachers to gain knowledge on how to efficiently apply project based learning (PBL) and task based learning (TBL) at ECEC level. We are also seeking to encourage teachers to transform from ”leaders” to “facilitators” of the learning process by equipping them with bespoke methodology on how to enhance their teaching practice thus supporting their professional development. This includes fostering learner-centred approaches to develop children’s creativity, autonomy, independence, motivation for learning, awareness of own rights and responsibilities, problem solving, self-observance and evaluation of own knowledge and needs. The tangible outputs to be produced are:ABC Manual for Teachers (O1) –methodological guidance for ECEC teachers on how to integrate PBL and TBL in pre-school education with practical activities and comprehensive overview of lesson plans, assessment techniques and various additional resources;ABC Train the Trainer Course (O2) – training programme for ECEC teacher training providers on how to train students in pedagogy and teachers willing to enhance their professional development with focus on learner-centred methods such as on PBL and TBL;*ABC Piloting Sessions - to test our innovative outputs in practice within the project lifetime and to obtain feedback on intellectual outputs’ usability, applicability and potential for further exploitation.*ABC Dissemination Conference – to promote project’s success, but mainly to foster transnational cooperation on the topic and allow for wider impact.The ABC project will be delivered across 27 months and foresees project activities to involve more than 2324 pre-primary teachers, children in ECEC, training providers, education stakeholders, academics and professionals. Extensive evaluation will be performed to validate the produced outputs and increase potential for sustainability.Impact is envisaged at various levels as follows:1. AT TARGET GROUP LEVEL:*ECEC TEACHERS:- improved knowledge base on how to apply TBL and PBL at kindergarten level;- improved skill base to integrate innovative teaching methods and techniques in order to ensure high quality of the education provision at ECEC level;- enhanced competence to motivate children develop creativity, autonomy, independence, motivation for learning, awareness of own rights and responsibilities, problem solving, self-observance and evaluation of own knowledge and needs, pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills;- improved professional development.*CHILDREN:- enhanced creativity, autonomy, independence, motivation for learning, awareness of own rights and responsibilities, problem solving, self-observance and evaluation of own knowledge and needs;- improved basic skills – reading & writing and numerical;- increased attainment levels in primary education to follow.*TEACHER TRAINING PROVIDERS:- enriched training curriculum to increase the quality and efficiency of the training provided at ECEC level;- up-to-date materials and methods on offer to fill the gap for specific knowledge among kindergarten teachers; 2. AT PARTICIPATING ORGANISATIONS LEVEL:- increased capacity to cooperate at transnational level;- enhanced ability to participate actively in system-changing processes;- increased cooperation with other stakeholders active in the field of pre-school education;- bespoke symbiosis between academics, kindergartens, training providers and publishers.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) provides the basis of lifelong learning and has become a policy priority in most European countries. Research, conducted by the OECD and the European Commission, recognises that ECEC brings a wide range of benefits, such as better child well-being and learning outcomes, social and economic benefits, reduction of poverty and better social and economic development for society at large. In 2012, the OECD produced “Country-policy profiles” focusing on issues related to quality of ECEC in various countries. These reports point to areas for further reflection on current policy initiatives. With regard to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, similar areas for improvement have been identified:-improving alignment with primary schooling;-improving communication skills of staff for effective implementation and dissemination of the curriculum.The Good Start to School project (GSS) combined the efforts of 9 organisations from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to create an innovative toolkit, which will contribute to increasing ECEC teachers’ competencies to evaluate and address adequately children’s level of skills and maturity prior to entering into primary school education, thus ensuring a smooth transition. Furthermore, the project tried to actively involve parents in the process in order to guarantee that all key stakeholders, directly responsible for the child’s wellbeing and attainment, were adequately engaged and contribute for increasing the quality of ECEC. The overall duration of the project was planned for 33 months, which will be followed by additional activities to ensure sustainability of results.The project defined the following specific objectives:- to design, develop, test and validate an innovative toolkit for evaluation of needed learning & development areas of children in preschool education level, which involves active communication between teachers and parents;- to train teachers how to apply the GSS toolkit and provide feedback to parents with regard to children’s attainment level and areas for further development.- to inform and guide parents on what they need to do in order to support their child during educational process.The consortium consisted of 3 enterprises active in the field of school education, 1 university and 5 education institutions providing pre-school education and care, thus ensuring that the GSS outputs will be designed, developed, tested, validated and disseminated through international cooperation, involving the key actors able to contribute to increasing the overall quality of Early Childhood Education and Care. The project proposed a comprehensive approach to address children's, teachers' and parents' needs, by developing a toolkit of instruments and methods.GSS Toolkit includes:PREDICT – the diagnostic and evaluation tool is intended for the continuous recording and evaluation of the education progress of the child in kindergarten.METHODOLOGY FOR TEACHERS – introduces PREDICT, including instructions on how to work with this tool, generally diagnostic methods, examples from practice.METHODOLOGY FOR PARENTS – introduces how kindergarten teachers work with children on their social-emotional development using the PREDICT toll, and how beneficial good-quality communication between the kindergarten and the parents is for the development of the child.ELECTRONIC FORM OF THE PREDICT TOOL – allows for simple visualization of the measured results, and for a clear and easy-to-follow presentation of the results for the individual child, as well as for the entire class.The main project activities were tasks aimed at creating a GSS toolkit: designing, developing, testing and validating, production parts of project outputs - translations, layout setting, typesetting, expert reviews, proofreading, printing).Further activities were 4 international project meetings, 2 short-term international teaching/training activities, 3 international dissemination events and other extensive dissemination activities (several meetings with stakeholders, teacher training, further project and intellectual outputs promotion).The main GSS results and impact is summarised as follows:-For CHILDREN: improved level of key competencies, as well as skills and areas development to facilitate smooth transitions between education levels. -For TEACHERS: increased level of knowledge in pedagogic diagnostics area and competencies to evaluate children’s skills and competencies; increased level of competencies to address skills gaps; improved communication skills; raised professional profile to deliver high quality teaching and adopt new methods and tools;-For PARENTS: increased awareness about their own child’s development, needs and expectations for level of maturity at entry stage; opportunity to be proactive in their children’s everyday life; increased level of influence on the process of education.

<< Objectives >>The DECODE project will boost preschool children cognitive development through the creation, testing and validation of innovative learning resources to be applied in kindergartens and at home, training course for teachers and workshops for parents, a cognitive development digital repository and many additional results. It is aimed at enhancing the quality and relevance of ECEC through innovative methods, tools and support mechanisms, with specific focus on children from disadvantaged backgrounds<< Implementation >>To achieve our aims, together with our partners (4 kindergartens, an association of preschool education, 2 providers of education materials and 1 university) we will co-create a number of Preschool Cognitive Development Resources, as well as test and validate these among 300 children, 12 teachers and 60 parents in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. In addition we will conduct a large dissemination campaign to reach at least 2000 key stakeholders in ECEC from across Europe.<< Results >>We expect to boost preschoolers cognitive development through enhanced personal, social, learning to learn and basic literacy competences, improved sensory perception, imagination and fantasy, memory and reasoning, and communication skills, as well as decrease the chances for learning disadvantage and low proficiency of basic skills at later stage of life; increase the engagement of parents in their children's cognitive development; enhance KIGA teachers competences and professional development.

In accordance with the conclusions of the Council of the EU, the importance of preschool education (ECEC) grows especially thanks to its major effect on the personal development of children and on the elimination of socio-economic differences. Teachers in preschool institutions work in heterogeneous classes including even the children with special educational needs (SEN). Kindergartens strive to meet the goals of inclusive education, i.e. to offer support to every child in achieving their highest level of education while respecting their individual educational needs. The teacher plays a key role in the ECEC. Professional development of the teacher as well as acquiring new methods, including digital ones, thus contribute to the satisfaction of potentially very diverse needs of each and every child. Inclusive education brings benefits not only to the child with SEN, but also to the whole group: besides the enhancement of teaching methods, it has positive effects on social learning of children, teaching them to respect diversity and differencies.The project WE Learn and COMmunicate Ensemble (WELCOME) brought together 8 organisations from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria. The main aim of this project was to fully integrate children with SEN. In this regard, new instruments to improve the theoretical background and the enhancement of teacher´s competences were introduced seeking synergy between educational, research and innovative components. Such synergy should be reflected in the overall improved quality of early education. This project lasting in total 33 months is being followed by further activities ensuring the sustainability of its outcomes. Specific objectives of the project:•creation and testing of a teachers´ guide targeting the best attitude towards children with SEN;•development of an application for smart devices connecting theory with practice and innovatively enabling the teacher to prepare a scale of educational activities to fit every child; •scheme, development and testing of interactive workshops helping teachers to better adjust to the work with heterogeneous group in kindergartens based on the major outcomes of the project.In total 8 institutions participated in this project: 1 organisation from school education area, 1 university, 2 scientific institutions, 3 kindergartens and 1 company providing the technical support. This diverse partnership allowed for a proposal, development, testing and dissemination of the outcomes of the project thanks to the international cooperation. The outputs are clear, mutually coherent and universally applicable in all countries involved.The main activities within this project were proposals, development, testing, finalisation and productional side of the project outcomes (translations, typesetting, expert revisions, print etc.). Furthermore, 4 international meetings, 3 focus froups, 9 workshops, 1 international dissemination activity and other broad dissemination activities were organised.Major outputs of the project:METHODOLOGY FOR WORKING WITH CHILDREN WITH SEN IN PRESCHOOL EDUCATION – designed for teachers of kindergartens offering new inspiration and suggestions for working with children with SEN WELCOME IDEA APPLICATION (INTERACTIVE DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL ASSISTENT) – an application for smart devices serving as an assistant for teacher to evaluate child´s current stage in particular spheres of development. On the basis thereof, the application recommends set of activities as well as other tips for working in heterogeneous group and with children with SEN.WORKING WITH AND SUPPORTING CHILDREN WITH SEN IN ECEC (WELCOME WORKSHOPS) – a teachers´guide on how to organise and lead workshops dealing with thematic units while using the WELCOME IDEA app. Concrete scenarios will help teachers use the app. in practice and introduce a really individualised and differentiated attitude in education so as to support the development of every child, their self-reliance and cooperation with other children to the highest extent.Main achievements and effects of the project on the target groups:TEACHERS•spreading of methods, applied tools and methodical materials; fostering the theoretical background, competences and skills for working with heterogeneous group and with children with SEN;professional development thanks to new technologies; sharing inspiration for everyday work with children with SEN, developing skills within the inclusive education; better identification of the educational offer, thus reaching individualisation within the educational process. CHILDREN•better integration within the regular preschool class; child´s development especially in the deficient areas;heightening the child´s incentive to learn, giving them the chance to experience success while being in a regular class; improved communication with parents enabling to work with the child even in their home environment which is then reflected in their better development.