Abstract:

An educational innovative experience in Early Years Teacher Training is presented in this article, which has been developed in a learning-community constituted by pupils at this stage (of 4, 5 and 6 years old), their teachers, Early Years teacher-students and University teachers. We have developed a collaborative learning net between the University and the school along five years, including thus the experience and the professional knowledge of these teachers and teacher-students (as Early Years future teachers). We use working projects as a methodology to create a common learning culture and to co-participate in joint proposals in the framework of an educative socio-constructivist theory, which offers us the opportunity to design specific learning contexts where students acquire knowledge from their own interests, motivations and questions. Teachers advise University students by showing them their own classroom experiences with the working projects, as well as giving them previous ideas gathered in previous assembly with their pupils, which University teacher-students must use to plan and answer questions posed. To finish the collaborative process, university students must organize workshops related to the general topic – this year ‘Dinosaurs and the origin of the man’ – in which pupils participate, enjoy and learn.

Keywords:

Teacher education experiences, learning communities, innovation in education, action research.