The period of early childhood is a critical era for children and opts many opportunities for the development of their physical, cognitive, emotional and social skills, all of whom will constitute the solid foundation for their lifelong development as individuals (Ross et al., 1999). Early intervention programmes for young children, should not only focus on how to prevent or contain issues and dysfunctional behaviors, but to how also adequately equip children with skills and the necessary tools that will enable them to flourish and thrive; at every level and every milestone of their lifelong journey to self-fulfillment and self-development.
Positive Psychology approaches call for an emphasis on the positive aspects of life and less focus on trauma and dysfunctionality. In Educational settings, Positive Education and PERMA Model, capacitate Educators on how to cultivate a positive school climate and enable children to cultivate their character strengths and focus not only on their academic achievement but also in the important life pillars (positive emotions, engagement and flow, positive and healthy relationships, finding meaning and purpose, achievement and self-accomplishment). Moreover, Mindfulness practices will encourage children to enhance their own self-awareness, attention and focus in the classroom, along with more social characteristics like empathy and how to be more mindful on how their behavior and interaction with others can significantly alter their school life experience. The amalgam of all the aforementioned pillars, will help preschool children from a very young age to learn ways on how to navigate their own behavior and emotions, whilst also significantly improving their learning skills and cognitive development.
RESILIENT PRESCHOOLS Consortium supports the sentiment “that the sooner you start, the greater will be the results in the long-run”, thus attempts to respond to this call and Preschool Educators and Children needs, with the development of relevant educational material. The Project’s Consortium firmly agreed from the beginning of this collaboration, to follow a high caliber standard and deliver state-of-the-art material with the ultimate goal to share the outcomes with relevant Policy Makers and national stakeholders as a proposal for them to include and/on conduct on a National Level. To achieve that, the Consortium will use as a touch-point evidence-based practical applications of Positive Psychology and PERMA Model with a special focus on cultivating Character Strengths and teaching practical applications on Resilience and Mindfulness techniques.
The Project’s RESILIENT PRESCHOOLS – “Resilience and Wellbeing in preschool education to prevent emotional, social and behavioural problems” – which is been funded with support from the European Commission; project number: 2020-1-CY01-KA201-066080 – main aim is to create material for practical applications and guidance to Preschool Teachers on how to utilize Positive Psychology in teaching young children. Through several concepts deriving from Positive Psychology’s methods and principles, preschool students will be given the opportunity to start building from a young age their psychological capital, thus magnifying the possible future benefits. Additionally, by fortifying young children’s resilience and wellbeing, their academic performance will be enhanced as well.
To achieve the aforementioned aims, the following Intellectual Outputs will be created during the lifespan of RESILIENT PRESCHOOLS Project:
- IO1: A positive education toolkit for preschool teachers 🡪 The RESILIENT PRESCHOOL Toolkit will include useful information and practical applications for Preschool Educators to teach children how to strengthen their psychological resilience and improve their overall wellbeing. The Toolkit will be based on their unique needs and will offer a variety of Positive Psychology concepts and PERMA wellbeing model – a chapter for each of PERMA’s 5 core pillars of wellbeing and happiness: (P) Positive Emotions, (E)Engagement, (R)Relationships, (M) Meaning, (A) Accomplishment.
- IO2: A training package (training program and material) for preschool teachers 🡪 a versatile and user-friendly Training Package that will equip the participating Preschool Educators with skills, strategies and techniques that derive from PERMA Model and Character Education theories in order to improve their student’s overall wellbeing and school experience.
- IO3: eLearning Space and OERs 🡪 the collection of tools will include the IO1 Toolkit, IO2 Training Material, online modules, digital resources, training material and guidelines for Preschool Educators and other interested parties or adult education providers to use. The research analysis presented in the next pages was conducted to provide the Consortium with the needed data and context for the successful development of the IO1 Toolkit – a practical source of information for providing support to Preschool Teaches and enable them to acquire or amplify skills, strategies and techniques that derive from the core principles of Positive Psychology, PERMA Model and Character Education, with the purpose to improve their student’s overall wellbeing, school experience and bring about a positive change in the general school climate.
We encourage you to follow the link below and read and/or download the finalized RESILIENT PRESCHOOLS Toolkit, an ample collection of Positive Psychology applications especially designed and adjusted to adhere to Preschool Education needs and settings:
For more about the Project
Official Website: https://resilientpreschools.eu/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ResilientPreschoolsEurope