The program is co-funded by the European Union and provides face-to-face and distance training for teachers, students, parents and guardians; and also student exchanges, regular meetings for teachers, parents, guardians to share and put into practice the training received.
The specific objective of this path is to change the paradigm when it comes to addressing discipline problems in schools and families, cultivating and developing students' personal, social and learning skills.
The project "Positive discipline in European schools" is based on the training and mentoring of teachers and parents on the principles of positive discipline, thus enabling educators – teachers and parents, first and foremost - to use;
- effective and empathetic disciplinary techniques;
- class management strategies that encourage student involvement and cooperation, without resorting to punitive measures;
- parenting strategies to strengthen relationships between parents and children, through respectful and effective communication in the family;
- definition of limits and expectations at home and positive reinforcement in the development of self-discipline.
At the Salesian work in Porto, the project is coordinated by the school's psychologist, Mónica Freire, the Deputy Pedagogical Director, Teresa Correia, and the Rector, Fr José Cordeiro, and involves five other teachers in the project's implementation team.
Since the start of the program in October 2023, a group of teachers and parents have been selected to participate in various training courses, such as workshops on school leadership, curriculum creation, and training certified in Positive Discipline by the American Positive Discipline Association.
Within the school, groups were then created to share the training received: there is the group "Teachers who help teachers" which meets twice a week, to hold meetings through which educators can exchange experiences and strategies, strengthen the school community and improve the effectiveness of positive discipline practices in the classroom; and there is also the group "Parents who help parents", which meets twice a month, at times compatible with different family needs, and which has the same purpose of socialising and disseminating experiences, strategies and new pedagogical approaches.
The project also includes student mobility initiatives for the exchange of good practices, experimental laboratories on the development of skills in the field of social-emotional learning, training on information technologies and English language, and the development of creativity, entrepreneurship, autonomy and social and human skills of the students involved.
Source: Salesianos.pt
