Fundamental to an inspiring approach to learning is to see students right at the center of the process, utilizing their curiosity and interest to help them learn from adults, their peers and their environment. This approach has been adopted by centers in Italy for more than forty years. Reggio Emilia schools in Mclean VA have also adopted this approach, influenced by the success of this method.
Children in these schools are offered a flexible curriculum instead of a rigid one passed down unchanged from generation to generation. Lessons are based around the thoughts, ideas and observations of the child. The goal is to cultivate a passion for exploration and learning that will last a lifetime.
It is the student who directs the pace at which learning proceeds instead of the teacher. Those who need to go at a slower pace are allowed to do so and those who want to rush eagerly ahead are also accommodated. This takes unnatural pressure off students and means that they themselves can determine when they are ready to move on to something new.
Teachers found in such a school also operate very differently from the norm. Children are encouraged to interact with them instead of simply being required to sit still and listen to them. They are more like guides and nurturers. They take their cues from the students and simply facilitate the process of learning that happens naturally.
In a school based on this approach, children are encouraged to use all of their senses to experience the world around them, instead of just sitting still and listening. This method means they are more likely to remember and apply these skills when encountering problems in later life. Communication, creativity and symbolic skills are developed by means of movement, painting, drawing, shadow play, music. Materials and language are used to make their thinking visible.
There is no such thing as passing or failing and this frees children to use each opportunity to grow without focusing on marks. Exams and tests force children to assimilate facts and regurgitate them, often without understanding them. This method allows them to absorb more meaningful knowledge that helps them to develop skills and values required for growth and future functioning in society.
Parents are often not really involved in the educational process and may even be seen as a threat by teachers. This is not the case in these schools, where teachers and parents work closely together and share ideas. Documentation is kept by the teacher in the form of a book or panel of transcribed dialogues and photographs. This shows parents how their children are developing.
Children discover what they understand, know, question, imagine and feel and then communicate this. They do this by being given the freedom to learn what they want to learn at their own pace. Teachers, parents and children are all involved in the learning process but the child is at the center, developing into a responsible, respectful, insightful, creative adult well able to function fruitfully in society.
Children in these schools are offered a flexible curriculum instead of a rigid one passed down unchanged from generation to generation. Lessons are based around the thoughts, ideas and observations of the child. The goal is to cultivate a passion for exploration and learning that will last a lifetime.
It is the student who directs the pace at which learning proceeds instead of the teacher. Those who need to go at a slower pace are allowed to do so and those who want to rush eagerly ahead are also accommodated. This takes unnatural pressure off students and means that they themselves can determine when they are ready to move on to something new.
Teachers found in such a school also operate very differently from the norm. Children are encouraged to interact with them instead of simply being required to sit still and listen to them. They are more like guides and nurturers. They take their cues from the students and simply facilitate the process of learning that happens naturally.
In a school based on this approach, children are encouraged to use all of their senses to experience the world around them, instead of just sitting still and listening. This method means they are more likely to remember and apply these skills when encountering problems in later life. Communication, creativity and symbolic skills are developed by means of movement, painting, drawing, shadow play, music. Materials and language are used to make their thinking visible.
There is no such thing as passing or failing and this frees children to use each opportunity to grow without focusing on marks. Exams and tests force children to assimilate facts and regurgitate them, often without understanding them. This method allows them to absorb more meaningful knowledge that helps them to develop skills and values required for growth and future functioning in society.
Parents are often not really involved in the educational process and may even be seen as a threat by teachers. This is not the case in these schools, where teachers and parents work closely together and share ideas. Documentation is kept by the teacher in the form of a book or panel of transcribed dialogues and photographs. This shows parents how their children are developing.
Children discover what they understand, know, question, imagine and feel and then communicate this. They do this by being given the freedom to learn what they want to learn at their own pace. Teachers, parents and children are all involved in the learning process but the child is at the center, developing into a responsible, respectful, insightful, creative adult well able to function fruitfully in society.
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