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