At be.Living, we believe that learning happens when it is truly meaningful. That is why the child takes the leading role in the learning process at our school. We consider each of them as unique and intelligent individuals, capable of producing knowledge and culture. From Early Childhood Education to Elementary School, they are seen, heard, considered and validated along their journies to building knowledge. Thus, learning becomes meaningful and happens in a way that is interesting, enjoyable, and powerful for the student.
Within this approach, an important methodological tool used at our school are Projects. Projects are moments when the children are investigating the world around them, based on their own questions and those of others in the group.
Our Early Childhood Education coordinator, Camila Maia, explains that the starting point of this work is the teachers’ attentive eye as to what the children are manifesting on a daily basis. “From what the children say and also from the interactions they have with each other and with the proposed materials and spaces, the teachers are able to identify and perceive interests and needs that are being presented by the group. They provide visibility and validate these signals and questionings, transforming them into a process of knowledge construction through the elaboration of a specific project.”
Camila explains that projects are a tool that allows children to raise questions and hypotheses, test these hypotheses, and experience learning moments and exploration in a meaningful way. “In this approach, knowledge is acquired through a movement that came from the group, one that was not entirely set by the teacher. This makes the work more relevant and the children become more involved because they have a problem situation to solve that is real and present, pulsating in their daily lives. To help build this knowledge, the teachers rely on various resources and strategies such as research on the Internet, in books, interviews with people related to the topic, and teaching events that add to these reflections and deepen the study.”
The coordinator states that this type of work favors the development of a more critical perspective based on their own questioning, and broadens the knowledge that children have about the world. “The projects need to have a social value, which is to share this knowledge with the community, employees, families, beyond the school walls, so that they understand that what they learn here has value for life.”
This beautiful and profound learning begins early in Year Orange, with the pre-projects, where the little ones are introduced to future projects, which will be present throughout Early Childhood Education up to Year 5 of Elementary School.
“During projects, the students understand that they are responsible and operative at all times during their learning process. It is a time when the children can contribute to what they want to learn, in the way they want to learn – always with guidance and within the learning objectives already well determined by the teachers, but the child, in the collective of the group, is the one who will decide what to research” – explains Gabriela Fernandes, the Elementary School coordinator.
To show how a project happens in practice, Gabi gives the example be.Living’s Arts and Science Exhibition (MAC). “The teachers triage what is pre-established in the curricula and decide which content will be included in the MAC, considering what may be more interesting for the moment, which may or may not change throughout the year. The content, theme, studies and communicative situation are already established. What the child will contribute to the project is the final product. In the case of the MAC, it is the questions they will strive to answer. For example, we have a class studying the Matter and Energy axis, how things are made, what toys are made of… The question arose: what is a sticker album made of? That will be the jumping off point for further understanding, where they will research and ultimately share knowledge with the community on MAC day.”
Gabriela explains that Elementary School I is the time when children come into contact with all the fundamental tools for learning, such as reading, writing, and knowing how to identify scientific text, literary text, and reports. “A huge amount of literacy work takes place within a project. The children are reading, studying, asking questions, taking notes, and organizing information. When it comes time for the presentation, they will need to have a text that will help them and support them while speaking.”
In addition, within a context of collectivity, the children discuss, build certainties and uncertainties, understanding that collective knowledge involves several different people, points of view, and different ways, and that it will change along the way. “In a project that, apparently, would be to arrive at the answer to that question they asked – what the sticker album is made of, the child will travel an extensive journey of learning situations. They will ask a question, establish a hypothesis for that question, research, refute or reaffirm it, and they will think about how to share their knowledge with different people, including preparing themselves to answer questions that may arise on the day of the presentation of the project to the community. They are able to experience learning situations in a way that is very close to the social version of how this happens, like a banking process or the preparation of scientific research, for example.”
