HAUS DER KLEINEN FORSCHER

HAUS DER KLEINEN FORSCHER

Germany’s largest qualification programme in the field of early childhood education with a nationwide network all over Germany which implements the programme in each region.

ACTIVITIES

Professional development workshops, educational events, online courses, pedagogical material (e.g. brochures and working materials for teachers and educators).

START OF THE PROJECT

15.06.2006

ORGANISATION

Stiftung Haus der kleinen Forscher

COSTS

  • Personnel costs: 8,487,940€
  • Operating costs: 1,503,100€
  • Printed products: 1,141,300€
  • Events: 684,500€
  • Digital products: 363,500€
  • Support for network partners: 265,600€
  • External studies and research projects: 41,500€

IMPACT

  • Trainers participated in the Foundation’s professional development programme (online and workshops). Each trainer visited on average 2,1 offerings per year.
  • These trainers held approximately 2.500 professional development workshops for educators and teachers all over Germany.
  • 2.300 educators and teachers that have not yet been involved in the Foundation’s professional development programme started the programme in 2017.
  • 49% of all education and care centres, 36% after school centres and 27% of all primary schools in Germany used the “Haus der kleinen Forscher” approach 2017 in their daily work.

TARGET GROUP

Primary school teachers and early childhood educators in nurturing children’s spirit of discovery and in facilitating their exploration and inquiry activities in a qualified way.

PARTNERS

  • Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
  • Siemens Stiftung
  • Dietmar Hopp Stiftung
  • Deutsche Telekom Stiftung
  • The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
  • Diverse local partners, works with individual federal states and exchanges knowledge with international organisations.

KEY LEARNINGS

  • An external study on the impact of early childhood education found evidence that early childhood professionals who had participated in science-related continuing professional development (CPD) (“Haus der kleinen Forscher“ CPD or other science-related CPD) showed greater content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge than education professionals who had not undergone CPD.
  • Internal evaluation and monitoring showed: users prefer different learning paths. As a consequence the Foundation decided to provide more flexibility and diverse learning paths (e.g. online courses, tutorials).
  • In order to achieve a high outcome quality of “Haus der kleinen Forscher” CPDs, an ongoing development of trainer competencies is crucial. Therefore the Foundation implemented a comprehensive quality-system which supports and monitors the competence development of its trainers.

CONTACT DETAILS

Melanie Mengel