This time Dr Austėja Landsbergienė presented a case study of “Vaikystės sodas” at the IAFOR conference in Dubai. In what kind of environment did an alternative educational institution emerge? What trends prevailed in the Lithuanian education at that time? How should teachers be trained to work in an educational institution that does not work according to the usual curriculum?

Summary of the report:

“Organizational Change in Schools (а Case Study): Resistance, Acceptance and Moving Forward”

Our schools were founded on idea that educational organizations needed change. Although education system has changed dramatically after fall of Soviet empire, organizations on the operational level have stayed in many ways old-fashioned. The idea was to change that. Appears that the system was ripe for change – we’ve grown into 13 preschools and one Elementary School in Lithuania and one preschool in Latvia. One of first things we did was to hire teachers not for credentials or experience, but for attitude towards education. Therefore, most of our teachers are young professionals who are willing to learn. Since they lack experience, we’ve devised a new training system: there is much of online, in-house, outsourced professional training. Many materials or trainers we use come from different countries and cultural backgrounds – this way our teachers have tailored and yet customized professional development system. We have applied the 80:20 rule when it comes to teacher training, and the results exceeded our expectations. We’ve also created forward-thinking curriculum, which means that our curriculum reflects the latest research in the fields of education and brain research. It’s constantly revised since our teachers have a lot of room for creativity and freedom of their professional expression. The idea to hire teachers for their attitude, design tailored professional development system, and trust them to deliver has proven to be a ground breaking. We’re willing to share how change was resisted, how it was accepted, and how we're moving forward in an environment of constant change.