Laboratório de Educação puts content into action through special projects implemented in partnership with organizations that work with children 0 to 10 years old. Our theory of change is that professional development opportunities, when conducted in-service, help mediate educators’ appropriation of knowledge on how to support learning through intentionally planned activities and interventions. For this reason, we develop customized solutions that target the needs of various stakeholders inside and outside the school context.
Laboratório de Educação seeks to provide educators with continued opportunities to reflect on their practice, articulating their unique professional role with a systemic perspective.
We introduce professional development strategies that take real classroom challenges as the starting point to theorize and construct educational knowledge. Our solutions focus on teachers, pedagogical supervisors, principals and district leaders who serve in Brazilian public school districts.
Laboratório de Educação aims to establish collaborative networks with nonprofit organizations that indirectly reach children outside the school context.
We create structured formative materials that enable professionals from various fields (e.g. health, social work, housing, etc.) to incorporate pedagogical knowledge into their practice in order to promote meaningful interactions among the families they serve.
Our role as professional development specialists requires that we collect and analyze data on the backgrounds, knowledge, and practices of the adults we educate inside and outside of school. Thus, we closely monitor the implementation of our projects, in order to understand, document, and determine courses of action based on the ongoing learning process experienced by both individual agents and their institutions.
Our projects feature comprehensive monitoring plans based on specific logical frameworks. In order to capture the diverse perspectives of stakeholders in the education system, we employ a variety of data collection strategies, including questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, and structured observation. These methods allow our team to devise interventions that target each actor’s needs and facilitate the incorporation of new concepts into everyday practice.
In 2018 and 2019, Laboratório de Educação will use the Learning Language professional development methodology to train educators in Praia Grande (SP) municipal preschools. The program provides pedagogical supervisors, principals and district leaders with continued opportunities to reflect on their practices and to learn how to use their unique professional role to support early language […]
Learn moreIn 2016, Laboratório de Educação partnered with the international NGO TECHO to create and implement formative materials in a volunteer-based reading program for children in vulnerable communities of São Paulo, Paraná, and Rio de Janeiro states. This partnership led to Reading Networks, a manual that explains the importance of reading aloud to children, provides age-appropriate […]
Learn moreIn the first half of 2014, we conducted a pilot study with two 5th grade public school teachers to document how they utilized the Learning to Study platform. Learning to Study guides 4th and 5th-grade teachers in analyzing the content and structure of History and Science texts, as well as implementing reading activities that help […]
Learn moreDuring the second half of 2016, we implemented Learning to Study at Dilermando Dias dos Santos municipal school, located in São Paulo. Using the preliminary version of the program’s methodology, we worked with three teachers to carry out seven didactic sequences with two 4th grade classes, and six didactic sequences with one 5th grade class. […]
Learn moreFrom 2017 to 2019, Laboratório de Educação will use the Learning Language professional development methodology to train educators in Caieiras (SP) municipal nursery schools and preschools. The program provides pedagogical supervisors, principals and district leaders with continued opportunities to reflect on their practices and to learn how to use their unique professional role to support […]
Learn moreBased on the lessons learned in Franco da Rocha (SP) and Casimiro de Abreu (RJ), Laboratório de Educação will use the Learning Language professional development methodology to train educators in Mauá (SP) municipal nursery schools and preschools. From July 2017 to June 2018, Laboratório de Educação instructors will conduct bi-weekly formative sessions with 47 pedagogical […]
Learn moreIn 2015 and 2016, Laboratório de Educação worked with Comunidade Educativa – CEDAC and the Casimiro de Abreu (RJ) Secretary of Education to use the Learning Language professional development methodology with district pedagogical supervisors and teachers. In monitoring the program, we aimed to identify opportunities for greater cohesion between the Secretary’s pedagogical and administrative […]
Learn moreThe Learning Language professional development program brings together content on language development and strategies for pedagogical supervisors to use when planning and analyzing in-class learning opportunities with teachers. Based on the Learning Language platform, this guide provides detailed protocols for professional development sessions and classroom activities. In 2015, the first edition was tested in four […]
Learn moreWe believe that all children have the ability to learn, regardless of gender, race, class, or family structure, among other factors. Everything children observe and experience can impact their development for better or for worse. If learning is an ongoing process that permeates all aspects of children’s lives, adults play a fundamental role in mediating how children interact with the world, and set examples through their own attitudes and choices.
For this reason, Laboratório de Educação seeks to help adults create meaningful learning environments for children through simple, intentional actions. What children learn, how they develop, and the people they will become depends on us!