Abstract:

This is an action-research work which has been developed in our F. of Education since 2004/05 thanks to the funding by a public and competitive call on Projects for Teaching Improvement by the Vice-chancellorship for Planning and Quality of the University of Córdoba (Spain). The method of Working Projects has been implemented within two subjects: General Didactics and Practicum II, both of them taught in the second year of Early Years Teachers. This is a 3 year Degree and it qualifies students to create learning contexts. It also prepares University students to educate children from 0 to 6 years old.
Pilot experiences were funded in Spain since 2004/05 to begin running the new credits system (ECTS). Early Years Degree was in this Pilot Plan and these were the changes introduced: (1) A general and specific competences design for the Degree; (2) The writing of a Teaching Guide for each subject, understood as a learning contract between teacher and students where a detailed learning plan is found to facilitate autonomous learning; (3) An increase of coordination among subjects of the same year to avoid overlapping or lacks in the process; (4) The application of an active methodology which includes varied learning and teaching mechanisms (and which is not exclusively focused on lectures); (5) The adjustment of procedures, criteria and assessment criteria, making extensive use of the traditional exam to include the evaluation of attitudes and procedures; and (6) The increase of the practical approach and the connection with professionals, which are an unavoidable referent for training.
We chose Project Teaching for University Early Years teacher training because we want them to experiment an active learning methodology, which at the same time is cooperative and based on research. The final goal is to get them transfer it easily to children learning scenarios ((Krogh & Slentz, 2001; Miles & Williams, 2001; and Mac Naughton, 2001, 2003).
This experience is the result of the development of a Working Project in a University class, whose topic is to know Working Projects. The elaboration of this first Project facilitates the design of a second Working Project previously negotiated between the teachers and the pupils, and then run into sixteen schools. One was selected to exemplify the innovation process and finally, an assessment of the experience was made by presenting the results expressed by the agents, who were: (1) Early Years teachers; (2) pupils; (3) University students and (4) the lecturer.

Keywords:

Action-research, Working Projects, Early Years Teachers.