I recently spoke to someone who
I consider to be a Guru of early childhood education. She has been in the field
her entire career and now is ready to retire. She is my mentor! As I think
about critical thinking in early childhood, I think about how would I do this
at such an early age. In my reading I came across promoting critical thinking
skills through play, art and movement. I wanted to talk to her about her
thoughts on this concept. She thought this was a great idea to promote language
and thinking. She told me she often walks into prekindergarten programs where
the students are sitting at the table completing worksheets. Then she told me
about a few amazing prekindergarten programs that focus on Reggio Emilia
approach. I have heard of this approach but I didn’t have a full understanding
of the concept. I started to research this approach and found it to be very
insightful. The information I read about was very valuable but I found one
value to be critical in the
learning process-making learning visible. I love the idea that learning is documented
with cameras, tape recorders, journals, quotes from the children about their
work and portfolios-not worksheets and tests.
I found this site to be
helpful in understanding the approach.
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Reggio_Emilia/
Hi Tammy,
ReplyDeleteReggio Emilia's approach is worth exploring for your topic but i suggest you read academic books or articles concerning it. Bredekamp, (2011) suggest that there's a wrong conception of Reggio Emilia's approach in United States. Certainly thinking comes into focus in the act of play but it encompasses a lot among which you have mentioned and not just the work of art as is commonly perceived.
I suggest the following details about it.
Co- construction, p 276
Documentation, p. 127, 350
Graphic, Representation, p.282-283
Overview, 123, 126-128
Bredekamp, S. (2011). Effective practice in early childhood education: Building a foundation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Shade,
ReplyDeleteThank you for suggesting I look further into this approach. I just started reading about it so I didn't know that there is a misconception about the Reggio approach. I have heard that it is focused on art but I thought it was much more than that. It will be interesting to read Bredekamp's work. I really like how this approach looks at assessments. I wonder if I can focus on one component of the Reggio approach instead of the entire approach.