"The
curriculum is not child centered or teacher directed. The curriculum is
child originated and teacher framed...We have given great care in selecting
the term 'negotiated learning' instead of emergent or child centered curriculum.
We propose that 'negotiated learning better captures the constructive, continual
and reciprocal relation among teachers, children and parents and better
captures the negotiations among subject matter: representational media and
the children's current knowledge." Quote by George Forman, from Innovations
in Early Education: The International Reggio Exchange, 1997.
Reggio
Emilia, a moderate size town in Northern Italy, hosts a system of schools
that are reputably the best early education system in the world (Newsweek,
1991). The system includes neighbourhood schools, an active parent council,
offices in the central municipal administration, and several tiers of staff
for professional development of teachers and outreach to parents. Since
its inception over 40 years ago, the approach used in these schools has
inspired early education in every continent on the globe. Here are some
of the principles that direct educational reform in those countries inspired
by 'The Reggio Emilia Approach'.
A
teacher begins her work not with a list of principles or a set of techniques,
but rather with an image of the child as strong, competent and articulate.
By listening to the children, recording their thoughts, and building from
their interests, the teacher gains confidence that she is working for their
true development. The teacher believes the children are protagonists in
their own development and should be guided with sensitivity and respect.
Teachers
listen to children’s words, write them down, and view video tapes
of the children at work. Teachers document in order to understand the process
by which children construct their own understanding of concepts. By studying
this process of knowledge construction teachers place themselves in a better
position to support and extend the child’s learning and development.
Once
the teachers have a deep understanding of the child’s current conceptions
of an issue, such as the rules of checkers or the language of animals, the
teacher begins to negotiate activities with the children that help make
these conceptions visible to all. The curriculum has a balance of structure
and openness that adds accountability to the programme.
Children
are encouraged to work in small groups, serving as both audience and critics
to each other. The classroom spaces are designed to provide children with
quiet spaces in order to have protracted and meaningful conversations with
three or four classmates.
The
children are not rushed through narrowly specified activities, but are more
likely to go deeply into an interest that holds personal relevance for the
group. Some explorations last for weeks, others last for a few days. The
children are encouraged to eventually integrate their work from the small
groups into a project shared by the entire class.
Friendships
are treated as a special medium that enhances the depth and quality of learning.
Children are not separated because they are too sociable. Rather strong
emotional relations with peers and teachers are treated as a medium for
learning.
Children
are taught to draw as a means of making their thinking visible. Drawing
becomes a tool for children to reconstruct a previous theory about how something
works. While there is equal emphasis on learning to draw, the shift toward
drawing to learn is rather unique in 'The Reggio Emilia Approach'.
Teachers,
each day observe and record what their children are doing and discuss these
observations with a co-teacher. In this manner the curriculum never gets
set in a manual for future use, but rather the curriculum becomes a history
of a group of children, their interests, their progress, and their relation
to peers and adults. A strong sense of a community of learners develops
through the research done by the teachers.
Photographs,
transcripts, and comments are displayed on the walls or a computer kiosk
so that parents, children, and visitors can bear witness to the details
of the children’s work and thinking. This practice of making documentation
public has become the hallmark of The Reggio Emilia Approach and perhaps
is the single most important feature that fosters reform in other countries.
The documentation panels are extremely valuable for increasing parent involvement
as intellectual partners, for helping children revisit an idea, and to garner
support from policy makers.
The
Reggio Emilia approach must be supported by quality space for children.
The space should support small group work and common space for the whole
class forum in the morning. Children need separate spaces for long term
projects so that they can leave their sculptures, drawings, music tapes,
etc. in a good working space over the course of the project. The materials
need to be constantly present in set places to help children invent new
uses for materials with which they are intimate.
The
environments in Reggio inspired schools give evidence of the children's
presence, even when physically they are not there. The children feel they
belong when they see photographs and samples of their work on display and
photographs from home. The furnishings are similar to home, and there are
even mailboxes in which a child can leave a friend a note.
Through
the documentation done by teachers, parents are educated regarding the deeper
meanings of their children's work. Parents can thereby support the extension
of projects at home. Parents are welcome inside the school and also feel
the same sense of belonging as do their children.
Each
school has a special teacher who helps the other teachers negotiate projects.
This special teacher, called a studio teacher, helps the children express
an idea in five or six different media, such as wire forms, drawings, music,
movement, clay, wood and copper, etc. The teachers in Reggio Emilia have
long recognized that different media contain different affordances for expressing
a thought. Movement brings out the temporal aspects of a concept (say the
ebb and flow of a friendship) while drawing brings out the spatial aspects
of that same concept (e.g. emotional closeness, position of dominance, or
number of friends).
Yet
these principles do not make a school a community. The entire city of Reggio
Emilia - mayor, school cook, grandparent, water works plumber - become part
of the story for these children. This peaceful town in northern Italy understands
the necessity of the community involvement for good schools. Through parent
councils, end of year celebrations, student participation in city projects
and frequent newspaper coverage, these children are embraced by a municipal
system that nurtures them pedagogically, politically, and emotionally.
