Even though only four people turned up yesterday, I do think that this was one of our better discussions. I had heard of the Reggio Emilia schools but never bothered to really understand their philosophy. Thanks to Vimarsh, I finally had an opportunity to read up on it and thanks to Gauri's expertise in early childhood education, the discussion was very insightful!
For those who do not know, Reggio Emilia is a city in Northern Italy. The municipal early childhood schools in this city have developed an approach that "fosters children's intellectual development through a systematic focus on symbolic representation. Young children are encouraged to explore their environment and express themselves through all of their natural "languages" and modes of expression, including words, movement, drawing, painting, building, sculpture, shadow play, collage, dramatic play and music."
There are five takeaways from the reading:
1. Using project work and the visual arts for children in this age group. I particularly like their idea that the process of "unpacking of defamiliarizing everyday objects and events can be deeply meaningful and interesting to" children. Project work revolves around familiar objects and events like going to a market. The examples of student work provided in the chapter were fantastic and really eye-opening in terms of what young children are truly capable of and I think Lilian Katz (the author) makes a very convincing argument for using project work with students even as young as 4 years old!
2. Treating children's work seriously. Students draw whatever they are studying and because this is done "purposefully and assiduously... the visual pieces are not just decorative products to be taken home at the end of the day, most likely never to be looked at or discussed again; in Reggio Emilia they serve as resources for further exploration and deepening knowledge of the topic."
3. Realistic and imaginative representation. Just because children draw extensively based on observation does not impede their ability to draw imaginatively.
4. The content of teacher-child relationships. If you had to listen to 'conversations' between teachers and students, more often than not you would hear teachers giving students feedback or instructions. In Reggio Emilia schools, "the content of teacher-child relationships is focused on the work itself... both the children and the teachers seemed to be equally involved in the progress of the work, the ideas being explored, the techniques and materials to be used, and the progress of the projects themselves."
5. Children's sense of what adults think is important. This is SO true. Children are somewhat aware of what the adults around them care about. So if I care about being neat and having perfect spellings, that what the students will try to get better at. The author poses the question for all teachers to ask themselves: "What do most of my pupils really believe I take seriously and care deeply about?"
This is definitely a question I would love to have responses to.
