Acompañar a descubrir: Una estrategia para la formación de maestras de preescolar desde el enfoque del Centro Prisma en el gimnasio bilingüe campestre Marie Curie

Abstract

This research, conducted within the framework of the Master's programs in Childhood Studies and Critical Pedagogies and Socio-educational Intervention, aims to strengthen the pedagogical skills of early childhood teachers at the Marie Curie Bilingual Country School. This will be achieved through the creation and implementation of the "Accompanying Discovery" training strategy at the PRISMA Center, an interdisciplinary institutional space that integrates art, science, technology, and society. The study identified that, although the PRISMA Center offers significant opportunities to promote exploration, critical thinking, creativity, and autonomous learning in children, its potential was not being fully realized due to methodological limitations and a weak understanding of the space by the teachers. The study employed a qualitative approach and an Educational Action Research (EAR) design. Six preschool teachers from pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and transition grades participated. Data collection was carried out through interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and document analysis. The findings show that teachers need to strengthen their pedagogical skills in the three categories of the study: critical thinking, pedagogical innovation, and collaborative strategies. Based on the results obtained through the application of the research instruments, the training strategy “Accompanying Discovery” was designed, consisting of six training workshops organized into three phases. Phase 1 was applied to the participating teachers in this study. The results show that they identify the need to strengthen their pedagogical skills. The teachers indicated that the workshops in this first phase allowed them to understand more deeply the purpose of the PRISMA CENTER as an interdisciplinary ecosystem, question traditional practices, and open themselves to new forms of mediation. Since only Phase 1 has been implemented, the findings do not establish conclusive impacts, but they do represent a solid starting point to move towards the later phases and project the consolidation of a replicable teacher training model both in the GBCMC and in other institutions interested in enriching their pedagogical practices through exploration, inquiry and critical mediation.