Natural Born Teachers

Improving effectiveness and wellbeing in teaching and learning, through the innovative and powerful connection among Mindfulness, Emotional competences and Outdoors/Nature-based education.

Natural Born teachers project combines the efforts of 3 partners from Italy, Estonia and Portugal and aims at promoting innovative and holistic approaches to teaching and learning, fostering opportunities of professional development and exchange of best practices among teachers, exploring the potential of the integration in the curriculum of approaches and activities  that can better address the needs of teachers and students facing this period of recovery from the Covid 19 pandemics and characterized by many other existential threats, as the climate and wider ecological crisis, the fastly changing future of work and economics.

Due to the increase of anxiety, emotional dysregulation and risk of drop out in young students, many researchers defined them as ‘generation dread’ – anxious or fearful generation, faced with the trauma of growing in a world where the future is deeply uncertain. These studies also strongly affirm that nowadays mental health and climate health are inexorably linked, suggesting that the future of life on Earth requires that we upgrade our emotional intelligence as much as our awareness and dedication to sustainability and nature protection. 

In this challenging situation, this project supports teachers’ awareness and competences to be able to build more resilient and inclusive learning environments, at the same time preventing teachers’ burnout and fostering their motivation, diffusing approaches and activities that benefit from a mindful connection with the self, others, the community and nature. In this way educators can harness the power of these integrated approaches, and help children become calm, focused, alert and happier human beings.

The development of teachers skills in mindfulness practice will be linked with outdoor activities and environmental awareness, both as personal healthy habits and as enhanced skills to plan and conduct these kind of activities with their students and to be multiplier with their colleagues. 

Teachers will be more mindful, aware and skilled to inspire and transmit their experience, with positive effects also on classroom management ability and on the variety and quality of lesson plans created that will merge the mentioned fields.

Good practices collected and project results will be spread among other teachers and educators at local, national and international level, also through the organization of two online international conferences and the collaborative creation of a toolkit for teachers, that is an OER available for all interested stakeholders, with activities and practices useful for teachers wellbeing and lesson plans to implement with students.