Moving and Learning Outside (MLO) was an international action-research project that aimed at promoting the practice of outdoor education through a play-based and physical activity approach in preschools.The knowledge and scientific background about cultural differences regarding the approach to preschool learning processes between Northern and Southern European countries were the starting points to devise this project. In Northern countries, the preschool curriculum and practice are predominantly based in play and child led strategies, in which autonomy and the contact with natural environments are privileged. While in the South, the pedagogical practices are strongly defined by the pursuit of academic success and standardized adult led processes, which privilege indoor sitting activities to foster the learning of writing, reading and counting skills.Therefore, the underlying motivation behind the MLO project was to devise a set of practical tools that could be useful to change this paradigm, in order for children in preschools to use the outdoor as a place where they can learn and develop through outdoor play, autonomy, independent movement, contact with nature and their communities.The project involved 7 partners, from 5 countries, working as an organism where each part contributed to the whole, having a specific role. (1) The educational community- children as main actors, parents as informants, educators and caretakers as participating observers - kindergartens Naba from Estonia, Matije Gupca from Croatia, and Conquinha, Agrupamento de Escolas Madeira Torres, from Portugal, and the ONG Payzontas, from Greece. (2) The investigators who analyzed all results and transformed them in new practices and guidelines - Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, University of Lisbon, from Portugal and Queen Maud University College of Early Childhood Education, from Norway. (3) Local policy maker and disseminator actor – Torres Vedras Municipality, who allowed the results to reach schools, teachers, local community, parents, children and other stakeholders. The participants were selected based on the objectives of the project: preschool education, physical activity, play.The objectives were: -Drawing changes on the perceptions of policy makers, teachers, caretakers and parents on the possibilities of the outdoor as a rich and valuable environment for preschool children’s learning, development and well-being.-Improving pedagogical competences of preschool teachers and caretakers working with children in the outdoor environment, adopting physical activity and play based strategies.They were achieved through the implementation of different activities and tasks involving children, preschool staff members, parents and municipality staff:-Initial assessment: to enable the partners to make an initial diagnosis of the opportunities and perceptions regarding outdoor play in each preschool;-Create a Teacher’s Training Resources Pack (Output 1): that would empower teachers and caretakers with the knowledge and skills to implement a set of practices to enhance children’s physical activity and play in the outdoors.-Devise a set of 12 activities (Didactic-pedagogical Resources Pack for Teachers and Caretakers) based on the initial assessments to promote children’s physical, motor, social, emotional and cognitive development in the outdoors (Output 2).-Finally, define Outdoor Activities Guidelines and Recommendations for Preschool Education are presented (Output 3) to be made accessible online to researchers, teachers, practitioners, play advocates, organizations, municipalities, policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders who have an interest in promoting children’s outdoor play in educational settings.The creation of these 3 Outputs met the common purpose of changing adult perception regarding the benefits of outdoor play, making it possible to execute by anyone who wants to provide training for teacher and caretakers, foster a change of mentality in parents and in preschool staff and promote play-based and physical activity in preschools.It is possible to say that the participation level and quality of work carried out exceeded the initial level of expectations. The awareness of teachers/staff, parents and local community for the importance of outdoor play became an important discussion which will certainly continue in the futureMLO contributed to empower teachers, caretakers and educators to transform their daily practice with children, providing the preschool and staff with the necessary tools, skills and competences to improve and promote playing outdoor, allowing a change of mentality and paradigm in this matter and promoting a better and healthier lifestyle for the children, thus contributing to: 1) help preventing early school leaving, (2) improving children’s future academic results and (3) changing behaviors and adopting healthier life styles.

In spite of gender equality be a topic of national and European political agendas, there is a need for action on the way to an effective gender equality. This is because currently, we continue to face a wide range of discrimination in our daily lives that must be combated and eliminated.Considering gender equality a philosophy that brings together a set of egalitarian, just and non-discriminatory values, beliefs and attitudes, we believe that it must be learned and seized from an early age, in order to promote effective behaviour changes with concrete consequences in societies of tomorrow. Therefore, we intend to work on the gender equality thematic at pre-school education level (project goal).Accomplishing this purpose, we defined as objectives of the project Colourful Children:- Build and test a learning methodology for gender equality aimed at pre-school- Train educators and school leaders in the thematic area of gender equality- Encourage critical thinking for gender equality in pre-school children- Disseminate the results/products of the project- Enhance transnational cooperation between partners.We defined as direct target groups of the project the educational communities of each of the 8 kindergartens participating in the project (2 preschools in each municipality):- 834 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years- 80 childhood educators and other preschool staff- 1668 parents and caregivers.The total number of individuals indirectly participating in the project activities is 19860, i.e. they are the elements of the educational communities of all kindergartens in the 4 municipalities.Regarding the context, the identified needs, the goal and objectives and the target groups involved, the following activities will be developed over the 3 years of the project.A partnership agreement will be signed at the beginning of the project, which will establish the management, evaluation and communication procedures between the partners. The project will have 3 transnational project meetings where the issues related to project management and evaluation will be worked out: one at the beginning, one in the middle and the other at the end of the project. The evaluation of the project will be streamlined by an internal entity to the partnership.The learning methodology for gender equality is intended to be an innovative product, built by the kindergarten teachers and tested with the children, which will address the issues of gender and equality in a gender mainstreaming strategy, that is, apart from dealing concretely and specifically gender equality issues, the theme of gender equality will also be worked on in the classroom from any other subject of curriculum guidelines.A collection of 8 mini-books (intellectual product) will be created, each addressing a specific topic of gender equality. Each kindergarten will develop a mini-book, being the history and illustrations created by the children under the guidance of the kindergarten teachers.The educational games available in mobile/web app is another intellectual product that is intended to be developed with the aim, like the mini books, of sensitising the children to the issues of gender and equality. Four computer games will be developed, each under the responsibility of a country of the partnership.On the 3 transnational workshops will be the moment for the kindergarten teachers training, in addition to being the place of the learning methodology development.As dissemination activities of the project, we have, with greater emphasis, the multiplier events and the local workshops. The project will also include a website, presence on Erasmus+ platforms, presence on social networks, communication through posters, leaflets, newsletters and press releases.Then, it is intended, in addition to an initial project disclosure event, to promote in each municipality 3 multipliers events - one at the end of each school year – in order to disseminate the results achieved in each period. The local workshops, which take place after the transnational workshops, are moments of training and development of the learning methodology for gender equality, promoted by the kindergarten teachers who participated in the transnational workshops and addressed to their colleagues of all the kindergartens of the municipalities. As a result, we hope that intellectual products will be integrated into the daily life of all kindergarten classrooms in the municipalities members of the partnership. We aim to go further and, through the International Association of Educating Cities, to disseminate innovative products to more municipalities and countries so that they intend to adopt them for their kindergartens.

In order to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, which is one of the objectives of the EU 2020, it's vitally important to obtain employment, productivity and new skills. PISA Director Andreas Schleicher: “If you're from disadvantaged areas, there's only one chance in your life: to get good education. The main issue in education is that the needy gets the best education.” According to the European Disability Academic Network (ANED) report published in January 2018, the rate of mild and moderate disability at EU level is 17.1%. While the employment rate of non-disabled individuals in EU28 countries was 73.1%, the rate of disabled individuals remained at 47.4%. European Special Education Needs and Integration Education Agency says “individuals with special education needs are often categorized as marginal or at risk of social exclusion in relation to the labour market.” So, it's important to ensure that vocational education should be of a high standard, suitable for individual needs of students, and all groups are integrated, especially those with disabilitiesWithin the scope of the project, in our needs analysis;a)65% of parents in partner countries come from low education and socio-economic levelb)72% of parents stated that they had never received a professional education for the special situation of their children.c)54% of teachers stated that students could not be successful in career due to their inability to continue their skills at school/at home.d)It has been determined that the most common problems faced by students who graduated from the Department of Food and Beverage Services are personal hygiene (self-care skills), courtesy, social skills and working skills.The aim of the project is to provide better social and self-care skills at home (in the family) with a holistic approach for the mentally disabled students who are educated in special education vocational schools and to increase the employability of these students after graduation in their own fields by taking a higher quality vocational education at the standards demanded by the labour market. For this purpose, there will be 5 intellectual output(IO), 5 transnational project meetings(TPM), 3 learning teaching training activities(LTT), 4 multiplier events(M) and local trainings for students and their parents. Two people will participate in the TPM meetings of the project and these will be project coordinators and managers from the partner countries. A total of 30 teachers, project coordinators and managers from special education vocational schools will participate in LTT activities. The project will be carried out in the field of developing innovation and 5 outputs will be developedThese are;O1 Research on Family Education and students’ vocational qualificationsO2 Family Education ProgramO3 Supportive vocational training modules for studentsO4 Handbook for TrainersO5 E-Learning PlatformTwo learning-teaching training activities will be carried out for the testing of project intellectual outputs and training of trainers3 national and 1 international multiplier events will be organized for dissemination of IOs. A total of 240 people will attend these conferencesWe plan to use qualitative and quantitative indicators to monitor management meetings, intellectual outputs, training activities, dissemination activities and project products throughout the project.Konya Il MEM will plan and follow the process in coordination with our university partner SSW and tech partner VITECO in order to ensure that all project activities have good quality results in terms of quantity and quality. Quality control, monitoring and successful implementation of the activities will be discussed at TPMs. In order to evaluate whether our project has achieved its objectives, we will use the most commonly used PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle to project management. Accordingly, the success indicators we have identified earlier will be a guide for us.The potential short and long term benefits are;Parents of the students who are studying in the partner schools will benefit from the training activities at schools and other parents from different schools will benefit from e-learning platform and dissemination conferences. So that they will complete these trainings and will support their children at home for their vocational education. In this way, they will not only improve their own personal development but will also contribute to their children's education in the home environment for a better future and career. The most important target group in our project, the students who are studying in the department of food and beverage services, will receive support from their families as well as the problems they face in business life will be completed with supportive training modules and they will be ready for the work life. Employment and job attendance rates will increase and they will be able to have the job as the demanded personnel demanded by employers