Pablo Iglesias and Irene Montero, secretary general and parliamentary spokesperson for Podemos, are making news because they have decided to move to a villa in Galapagar 40 km northwest of Madrid. One of the important reasons behind this decision is the proximity of the school where the two children who are waiting for the end of the summer will attend.
The couple chose one of the three public schools in the municipality, the La Navata school, in which an alternative pedagogical system is used, which is known as teaching through projects or project work. Do you know him We tell you what it is.
Project Education
The educational needs of children are different from those children had years ago, so more and more parents join the methods considered "alternative", because they are innovative or different from traditional education which is used in most educational centers.
In the teaching by projects the traditional master class in which the teacher explains and the child attends has no place. The child has a very active participation in the learning process
How do you work for projects?
It is the children themselves who propose the themes to work from their curiosity. In the first place, the theme to work from individual proposals is chosen among all. The class is asked how much they know about this topic, find out what else they would like to know and start work. What it causes is, immediately, the student's interest in learning.
Then the way in which others have learned will be communicated to others is assessed and finally what is learned and what remains to be learned is evaluated. In many schools that work for projects no exams or textbooks, since it is the students themselves who investigate and create the contents on each subject.
La Navata Public School
La Navata Public School in Galapagar, Madrid, which was born in 1994, is one of the centers that works with the teaching through projects With excellent results, although it is not a 100% project center, especially in subjects such as mathematics and language where they have a support booklet. The school itself explains what the method consists of:
Learning by projects is learning by researching, based on the needs and interests of students and with the aim of making that learning useful for their lives. It is therefore an individual process of personal construction and a social process as it is interactive and open. The projects allow adjusting the interests, motivation and needs of each student.
Teaching and learning through projects allows us to launch the educational model that we defend for our students: “an integral education in knowledge, skills and values in all areas of personal, family and social life”. We are committed to the education of critical, autonomous and cooperative people, promoting their creativity and the ability to adapt to new situations, from tolerance and respect.
Boys and girls actively participate in the decision-making process of their own teaching and learning process, of their own “educational project”.
This way of working also fosters in students other important skills as part of their learning such as teamwork, cooperation, active listening, communication skills, nonverbal communication, etc.
As for the little ones, in the children's stage the school has a special reception plan for the first days of class. Something that is not usual in other schools, allow parents to be with the children the time they need to facilitate the period of adaptation. The school also encourages the participation of families in the activities of the center and has a very close relationship with parents.
Other schools by projects in Spain
There are quite a few schools in Spain that add to this educational innovation for projects based on the active participation of the child in the learning process. Some of them are:
- Paradise College - Sacred Hearts
- Trabenco (Madrid)
- CEU San Pablo School - Sanchinarro and Montepríncipe (Madrid)
- Sendas Rural College (Salamanca)
- San Francisco School Center (Barcelona)
