Veje til udvikling af praksis. Erfaringer med at sætte fokus på videnkultur i dagtilbud og på skoler.

The purpose of the report is to provide Danish early childhood educators, teachers, daycare facility and school managers, and pedagogical consultants in the municipalities with knowledge about the learning processes that take when focus is on knowledge culture. Knowledge culture is defined as the tradition of, and possibilities for, sharing knowledge and experience and thus learning from one another. The Danish Evaluation Institute has evaluated interventions in four institutions (two schools and two daycare centres) that have strived to establish a knowledge culture. The report provides inspiration, knowledge and tools for schools and daycare centres that wish to make use of knowledge culture.

The following only presents results from the two daycare centres. The evaluations of the interventions in the two daycare centres state that when a daycare centre sets a framework for the use of knowledge and works systematically with specific methods, this allows the daycare centre to develop its knowledge culture.

In the project, the daycare centres have set frameworks for the use of knowledge by:

1. establishing fora for knowledge sharing and reflection
2. prioritising knowledge sharing and reflection at meetings
3. working continuously with knowledge sharing by holding regular meetings

The two institutions have worked systematically by following the instructions for reflection and knowledge sharing, such as guidelines on working with learning stories, feedback interviews about pedagogical practices and teaching evaluation. In the two daycare centres, the project has helped put knowledge culture on the agenda and has provided the employees with experience in working on knowledge culture.

Results of the report show that daycare centre 1 implemented an intervention to develop a critical and investigative approach to the institution's pedagogical practices. The intervention resulted in "Friday sessions", which were sessions earmarked to develop the individual employees professionally. This intervention has given the employees new knowledge and more nuances in their exchange of knowledge about practices. More specifically, the new knowledge was converted into changes in the preschool curriculum, division of nursery children into smaller groups as well as increased awareness of supporting the pedagogical work, e.g. by making it legitimate to search for new knowledge during working hours.

Daycare centre 2 examined the its own understanding of learning on the basis of learning stories and statements about learning. The intervention has developed the employees' competences for systematic knowledge sharing and reflection and has made their internal communication more focused on pedagogical practices and children's learning. Among other things, the employees' pedagogical discussions have resulted in a new composition of mealtime groups which allows children with weak language skills to develop their language in their interaction with children with strong language skills.

The design consists of several sub-elements: The Danish Evaluation Institute selected four institutions that used different practices for sharing knowledge. The four institutions all wanted to develop this area. The Danish Evaluation Institute then conducted a literature survey on knowledge and learning processes. The Institute conducted focus group interviews with managers and employees from the four institutions to identify their current knowledge culture. On the basis of these interviews, the Institute wrote a description of the knowledge culture at the four institutions. On the basis of the written description, the four institutions decided which intervention they wanted to implement to improve their knowledge culture. Finally, the Institute evaluated the entire process through focus group interviews with managers and employees.

Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut (2014). ”Veje til udvikling af praksis. Erfaringer med at sætte fokus på videnkultur i dagtilbud og på skoler”. Evalueringsrapport: Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut.