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COPYRIGHT 2002 ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education
Abstract
This article discusses two early childhood professors' experience of teaching a weeklong collaborative course on Reggio Emilia, the Project Approach, and documentation. Principles of adult learning were used as a foundation to structure and organize the course, in which students applied their knowledge and skills to in-depth investigation of projects and documentation of learning. The article discusses issues of conflict that emerged among group members and reflects upon conditions needed to support intellectual discourse. Final reflections from the students and professors are highlighted.
Introduction
We are early childhood education professors teaching in programs at two different institutions of higher education in Montana. While engaging in lively discussions of current issues and practices in early childhood education, we discovered our mutual, complementary interests and began to explore the idea of offering a team-taught summer intensive course to early childhood students and practitioners. We wanted to introduce students to the history, framework, principles, concepts, and experiences of Reggio Emilia, the Project Approach, and documentation; to highlight their commonalities and differences; to share current research and practices; and to assist students in transforming their knowledge into practice. This article is the story of our collaborative experiences, challenges, and reflections.
Teaching the course described in this article was our first experience at collaborating. We met over a period of weeks to design the course. During this time, we embraced the ideas of shared decision making and taking responsibility for determining the content, assignments, structure, and organization of the course. We learned that an attitude of openness, trust, and support was necessary to achieve our goals and outcomes. We began to prepare for the course using the principles and practices of early childhood education and adult learning as a foundation. We were eager to offer a course for adults that required them to learn in ways that children in their classes are required to learn (Duckworth, 1996).
The course was held for five days at Birch Creek Education Center, a former Conservation Corps Camp, located on several hundred acres nestled in the remote southwestern mountains of Montana. Thirty students stayed in dormitory-style rooms and cabins and shared meals in the main lodge. The natural beauty of the area featured forests, geological formations, creeks, ponds, lakes, wildflowers, natural vegetation, animals, and hiking trails, thus providing many opportunities for retreat, exploration, interaction, and reflection. Other features of the setting included a common meeting room, a classroom warmed with a wood-burning stove, and a large "studio" that was aesthetically arranged with a selection of resources. The participants from across Montana included active practitioners and traditional students, with educational levels ranging from first college experiences to the pursuit of master's degrees.
Adult Learning
As early childhood professors and adult educators, we subscribe to the adult learning theory andragogy, popularized by Malcolm Knowles (1984). This theory views adults as self-directed learners, motivated by intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards, who bring a multitude of life experiences into the learning situation. According to Knowles, it is not only ineffective to ignore this previous experience and knowledge, but it also is damaging because an adult's identity is closely tied to his or her experience. Learning occurs more readily when the information is relevant to the learner, immediately applied, and problem centered. "Adults become ready to learn those things they need to know and be able to do in order to cope more effectively with their real-life situations" (Knowles, 1984, p. 58). Andragogy stresses collaborative, experiential techniques such as inquiry, labs, and simulations. The role of the teacher is to facilitate learning. "The educator has a responsibility to create conditions and provide tools and procedures for helping learners discover their 'needs to know'" (Knowles, 1980, p. 44). The teacher establishes a physical and psychological climate based upon humanness, including mutual respect and trust, collaboration, authenticity, openness, and pleasure.
Adult learning experiences were supported with lectures, small group discussions, audiovisual presentations, engagement in fieldwork and investigation, documentation of projects, and a culminating event. Consistent with andragogy, we preassessed students' background knowledge and previous experiences and used this information in developing the course. Student decision making and cooperative learning were core components of the experience. The "need to know" was enhanced through hands-on investigation with immediate opportunities to apply knowledge and skills. Students were learning about Reggio Emilia, the Project Approach, and documentation while concurrently engaging in project work. Participating in project work not only created "a need to know" but also an opportunity to reflect upon the experiences from a learner's point of view. Night sessions provided options for viewing videos, discussing issues around the campfire, writing in journals, and revisiting project work. In addition, students were required to complete a precourse information sheet; read books and articles; visit Web sites; complete a precourse paper assignment; keep a daily journal; complete a postcourse plan for implementing the Project Approach in an early childhood setting; and subscribe to an electronic discussion list for the purpose of exchanging information and sharing resources, challenges, and ideas after the course had ended.
Our approach to adult learning, andragogy, was consistent with many beliefs and practices espoused by the Reggio Emilia approach and the Project Approach. These practices include the emphasis on cooperation, "learning by doing," making learning relevant and meaningful to learners, and encouraging learner self-direction and control of the learning situation.
Getting Started
The first phase of the course focused on an introduction to the Reggio Emilia approach and the Project Approach. Before the course began, students read First Steps toward Teaching the Reggio Way (Hendrick, 1997), Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years (Helm & Katz, 2001), and Spreading the News: Sharing the Stories of Early Childhood Education (Carter & Curtis, 1996). As a preassessment, students were given large sheets of paper and markers and were requested to symbolically represent their knowledge of the approaches through pictures, words, and graphs. We reviewed their representations and precourse paper assignment to determine their current knowledge, understandings, and misconceptions, and we adapted course content as needed. During the institute, students were asked to revisit their representations and add to them. Following the exercise, we engaged in a discussion of the history, foundation, and basic principles of the Reggio Emilia approach (Gandini, 1997a; 1997b), followed by a viewing of a video of children investigating a poppy project in a school in Reggio Emilia (The...
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