Curriculum Comparison
Jessica Buschmann
ECE 220: Curriculum Methods Techniques
7 February 2016
The Reggio Emilia approach originated in the town of Reggio Emilia in Italy. By the end of WWII, parents and educators in the city developed an educational system for young children. By the 1980s, many educators across the globe were choosing to use the Reggio Emilia method in the classroom. The Reggio Emilia approach is considered an “in-depth project that emerges from the children 's intellectual curiosity, social interactions, and interests” (p. 60). Teachers view themselves as “partners in learning” and encourage children to express their knowledge through language or modes of expression. Some examples of modes of expression
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Both the Sociocultural theory and Reggio Emilia approach provide a learning environment by teaching basic principles of life and gaining experiences.
The Reggio Emilia approach creates a caring community of learners through provocation; a challenge to think and wonder (p. 60). The teachers encourage the children to create projects based on their interests. For example, a well known Reggio project was created after a teacher purposely challenged the children to be creative. The project started from a life-size giraffe puppet and ended with a portrait of the lion statues in the town plaza. Teachers use documentation to learn more about the children, curriculum planning, teacher development, and connecting with families and communities. This allows teachers to be more prepared and have the ability to enhance development and learning. The systematic study approach also helps assess the children’s development needs and learning challenges. Teachers plan curriculums based on current interests, experiences and/or important goals the children want to achieve. Another main focus is documenting progress through photographs, transcriptions, and display for the children and family members to appreciate and examine. It helps establish a relationship with not only the children and their work, but also for the teachers and family members (p. 60).
In 1907, Dr. Maria Montessori, opened the “Casa dei
On the opposite side of the continuum, the Reggio Emilia approach is a programme that is centred on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community. It is based on the interests of the children through a self-guided curriculum with no early learning goals or inspections.
The Reggio Emilia approach is an emergent curriculum because it is developed and shaped by the interests of the child, through negotiations between the child, parents and teachers. This is done in a Reggio classroom by in large and small group projects in which the children engage. The projects involve planning, hands-on activities, research, and representation through a variety of visual media. The observant teacher collects documentation which is a vital component of the Reggio philosophy in the form of written anecdotes, samples of children's work, photographs and videos. This information is used to reflect on the
To conclude, once the lesson has finished, the TA will provide feedback to the Teacher as to how and what the children learnt, if there were any areas of difficultly or if extension or different strategies were used to help the child learn, if the work was supported by the TA or if their work was independent. Having assessed the children’s work and passed on the relevant information, (this can be passed on verbally or by annotating the planning and by marking the children’s work) the teacher can then reflect effectively, update children’s progress on school monitoring systems and can now plan next steps for each individual child’s learning. Children all learn in different ways therefore the adult teaching needs to be versatile and have a variety of teaching strategies to enable them to assist in any given situation.
The first theorist that will be explored in this paper is Jean Piaget and his theory of constructivism as it applies to visual arts education. The constructivist approach, as explained by Thompson (2015), recognizes that children are naturally curious and eager to explore and learn from their surroundings. Children are actively involved in their learning and when they interact with their environment, it is their experiences that help shape their knowledge and understanding of the world. Thompson (2015) states that the early childhood educator’s primary role in teaching the visual arts is to observe children as they engage in activities. According to Piaget, the educator has a more hands-off role when teaching the visual arts to young children which allows the children to be more self-directed in their learning (Thompson, 2015). In his work, Piaget argued that children need to be provided with experiential learning opportunities and it is the teachers job to act as a facilitator and help to guide the student’s learning (Thompson, 2015). Piaget also stated that children do not learn through direct teaching methods where the early childhood educators are transmitting knowledge to the students, rather,
Project Based Learning is a teaching method that allows students to gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge. Through this approach students acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems. Beautiful Stuff! is a book written by Cathy Weisman Topal and Lella Gandini that shares the journey of real teachers in a real school who were inspired by educators from Reggio Emilia, Italy. Cathy Topal spent two mornings a week in the preschool and kindergarten as a visual aid teacher. Lella Gandini consulted with teachers about aspects of the Reggio Emilia approach. The teachers in book Rite Harris and Debbie Grubbs observed and recorded what happens when the focus is on process rather than product in project- based learning. The book provides approaches on how to nurture the creativity of children, which is a key part in a child’s development. In my paper I will summarize the five chapters within the book, along with providing two researched based article on project based learning (PBL), and give insight into my beliefs of project work with children.
Early years frameworks in the U.K emphasise the importance of a personal and individual approach to learning and development:
The second is Communication between the Home and School. In order to help families create settings within the home to support their children as students we, the teachers, can provide suitable materials which give information and assistances on how the parents can help at home. Through pamphlets, e-mails, and phone calls teachers can inspire and encourage parents to converse and work with their child. Through our involvement with the families, parents become more aware of their child’s school platform, they interact on a more positive level with their children they are more skilled to reinforce the teacher's objectives in order to achieve better schoolwork. When we give parents information to become more knowledgeable partners with the school, their child sees that their parents and teachers are communicating with one another about their schoolwork, which allows them to become more aware of their parents involvement and abilities. This will open up the opportunity for the child and parents to talk openly about the child’s schoolwork and the decisions the child makes at school.
Loris Malaguzzi was Born in Corregio, Italy in 1920. He lived in a city called Reggioi Emmilia in Italy, which is recognized worldwide for its approach to education. After years past he then developed preschool and primary education in Italy after World War2. In 1976, the parents and the community confirmed their support for the guiding principles of the Reggio Approach to early childhood education. After his unexpected death, the community of Reggio Emilia carried on, implemented his dreams, and fulfilled the Reggio mission, which enhanced the potential of all children. Soon A foundation was named “The Reggio mission” and was established as the “International Centre for the Defense and Promotion of the Rights and Potential of all
The Reggio Emilia Approach was founded by Loris Malaguzzi in Reggio Emilia, Italy in the 1960s. An Educational Psychologist, Malaguzzi created an approach to education that put the child at the center of it all (Reggio Emilia Approach). The Reggio Emilia Approach considers the child to have strong individual talents and potentials. The students are the most active, involved, and important members of the classroom. Students in Reggio Emilia schools learn about themselves in relation to other people and their environment. The child is seen not as an empty vessel that needs to be filled with facts and data, but an autonomous individual capable of great potential (Kelemen,
Therefore emphasis on the Reggio Emilia approach is placed upon children’s many ‘symbolic languages’; these languages help the child explore and being to develop their own view of the world. These languages are based on: drawing, sculpting, dramatic play and writing, in order to achieve the best in a child and basing activities on aspects of: creative thinking, exploration and discovery, free play, following the interests on the child, valuing and encouraging all ways children express themselves, allowing children to talk about their ideas and then to re-visit them. A child’s environment has always been considered important in their learning and features in the Reggio Emilia approach; this philosophy claims that a child’s environment is known as a ‘third teacher’ as children must be able to learn through their experiences of senses: touching, moving, listening, seeing and hearing; which all
Reggio Emilia is a child driven methodology where children are enriched within their environment as well as communication from their peers. Reggio Emilia schooling is an innovative approach for preschoolers and kindergarteners. Teachers are considered co learners with the children. The classroom environment is considered a “third teacher” while the children are seen as obtaining a “hundred languages”. Reggio Emilia schooling can be viewed as an out of the box and unorganized approach to learning due to excluding a written curriculum. Reggio Emilia has been viewed as highly unstructured with a high chance of bullying to develop. Reggio Emilia is an unconventional way of providing students with a manipulative environment including co-learners
Maria Montessori founded an education system which is called Montessori and still bares her name, her system is based on belief in the child’s creative potential, (Douglas, n.d.). Her first Casa Dei Bambini (Children’s house), where Maria was using her approach of teaching was opened in 1907 in Rome. She was great educator who believed that children are learning through their personal experience at their right time and their own pace. (Ridgway, 2007). Children rather than learning largely from what the teachers and the textbooks say, learn from “doing”,(Douglas, n.d.). To provide for children an effective, independent learning process, and that they become a competent and confident learner, Teacher had to provide for children a healthy, clean, well-prepared and well organised environment in which children could develop. Maria Montessori came up with idea that if children have to work and play independently, they have to be comfortable and need appropriately sized tools and items that fit their small hands (Mooney, 2000). Montessori believed that children learn through sensory experiences. Teacher has a responsibility to provide wonderful sights, textures, sounds, and smells for children. Sensory
2012). The environment and classroom space are separated into ten center areas that help enhance hands on activities with learning materials and manipulatives. These centers include: blocks, dramatic play, toys and games, art, sand and water tables, library (reading center), discovery (science), music and movement, cooking, and outdoor activities. Activity areas are designed to support the specific learning objectives. Similar to Reggio Emilia’s approach teachers assess the students learning and base curriculum off their interests and pace. The creative curriculum approach measures incremental progress to communicate the child’s growth through benchmarks through the learning objectives.
Teachers are aware of what they should do in the classroom when teaching young children. Teachers should provide opportunities to develop positive dispositions toward learning when working with young children to make sure they are using their knowledge and skills. Teaching young children, the skills that need to learn about is the big key of understanding what the information that you will need when you are assessing the young children. In this paper, the reader will read about observation and documentation as assessment and why is it important? The reader will also read about the difference between looking at and authentically or genuinely observing a child, the types of documentation, two types of documentation that relate how teachers use the documentation in the classroom and how documentations would be useful as assessments.
“We discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher 's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child.”