The doctor and educational psychologist Ovide Decroly names the method based on this premise “Active Observation and Research through Centers of Interest.” This method consisted of coming up with themed projects directly related to the lives of the children, building a learning process through active experimentation in their real surroundings.

Some of the projects are based on general ideas of child interests, but also frequently include new variables that arise according to the unique makeup of each group.

These ideas or interests can be divided into themes that are studied via a process simililar to the scientific method and include 3 different phases: observation, association, and expression.

We start with elements or concepts that surprise and interest them in their daily surroundings. First there is a multisensory observation and examination: they taste, smell, touch, look, and listen. They experience the new concept with all five senses.

Thanks to this thorough, perception-based observation; in addition to introducing basic concepts like colors and shapes, they are introduced in a natural way to ideas about weight, length, position, volume, capacity, etc.

The next phase is association. Children begin to use comparison to discover differences, similarities, patterns, order, typification, generalities, and abstractions.

Lastly, children use expression to communicate their discoveries and what they have learned. On one hand, spoken language allows children to share their observations with their group during the process. On the other hand, graphic and creative expression implies, by way of synthesis or conclusion, an interpretation of what the child discovered.

When we work on projects, we build a research process that approaches learning from all different areas of knowledge and uses the distinct languages and tools offered by each area.

Our mind activates different parts of the brain each time we use it, and this dynamic use of the brain is what stimulates significant progress in development, creating new connections between ideas. Einstein concluded that the dynamic nature of intelligence is what allows you to achieve intellectual development and creativity. In other words, the nature of intelligence is to use analogies and comparisons between different fields of knowledge. In this way, we can take an interdisciplinary approach to research subjects and questions with a creative and curious spirit, in the distinct learning spaces which we will discuss in more detail later