SHARING LEARNING AND PEDAGOGY FROM THE EARLY YEARS 'NESTS' OF REGGIO EMILIA A seminar by Francesca Berattino Children in Wales July 20 2011, 2pm-4pm

ITALIAN SCHOOL’S 

Asilo Nido

(nido d’infanzia) 



0-3 years old

Scuola Materna

(scuola dell’infanzia)



Scuola Elementare

(scuola primaria) 

Scuola Media

(scuola secondaria di I grado) 

Scuola Superiore

(scuola secondaria di II grado)

Day Nursery

(word for word: Nest Shelter or infancy nest) 

3-5 y.o.

ORGANISATION

Nursery School

(word for word: Motherly School or infancy school)



Primary School

6-10 y.o.

(word for word: Elementary School or primary school)

11-13 y.o.

(word for word: Middle School or Lower secondary school)

14-18 y.o.



Comprehensive School

(word for word: Advanced secondary school)

School or

Upper

ITALIAN UNIVERSITY’S ORGANISATION

Total area: 22.446 Km² Population: 4.417.113 (July 2010) 9 provices; 348 municipalities

LAWS MAKING POWERS Regional Governments and Local Authorities

National Government

Exclusive legislation

Concurrent legislation

Exclusive legislation 



Setting out basic universal principles and vision in the field of Health and social rights;





General norms concerning Instruction (made by the Education Ministry).

Social assistance and Social welfare (0-3

services); 



Health Protection;

Sanitary and hospital assistance;

Instruction

(respecting the educational autonomy of each school and excluding the instruction and training for professionals).







School assistance (for

children with special needs);

Education Right (for

university students also);

School building trade.

THE ORGANISATION OF SERVICES 0-3 IN EMILIA ROMAGNA

LOCAL REGULATIONS FOR DAY NURSERIES 

National Law n.1044 of 1971  



Regional Law n.1 of 2000 “Norms in matter of educational services for early childhood” 





it establish the muncipal day nurseries; it defines as social service concerning public interest “the assistance in day nurseries to children until 3 years old, in the frame of a family policy” .

it concerns also other services like Children Space (Spazio Bambini), Children and Parents Centers and “experimental” services like Small Educational Group and Home Educator; it defines the educational caracteristics of the nurseries, their aims, the differet kinds of possible management, the general time of opening, the minimum level of education for the educators and their role inside the services, the role of the Pedagogical Coordinator.

Regional Law n.8 of 2008 

that modifies some articles of the latest n.1/2000 law.

TARGET TO INCREASE EY SERVICES/PLACES The Europena Council of Lisbona, in 2000, ratifies european educational politics about Early Infancy and Lifelong Learning. The european target, about the increase of EYServices, was fixed to cover the 30% of places requested nationaly by 2010. The current italian average is around 18% but the Emilia Romagna average cover is on 30,3 % with the peak in Bologna’s province.

1- percentage of available places in the different Emilian provices in 2010

FROM THE REGIONAL LAW N.1/2000 

What is the Day Nursey: 



“The infancy nest is an educational and social service of public interest, opened to all children between three months and three years, that it works in partnership with the families for the growth and formation of the children. The child has a right to education that respects the individual, cultural and religious identities of everybody”.

Purpose of Day Nursery: 

 

The formation and socialization of the children, from the perspective of their mental and physical well-being and the development of their cognitive, emotional, relational and social potential; The care of the children that is entrusted to adults, who are not the parents, and in an external context to that of the family; The support to the families in the care of their children and in their educational choices.

FROM THE REGIONAL LAW N.1/2000 

The Pedagogical Project: 



The educational offer, of every service, is defined in the Pedagogical Project that “contains the purposes and the planning of the educational activities, as well as the organizational modalities and the running of the service”. It states the purpose of the service, the methods of relations with the parents, the organisation of the workers and the organisation of routines.

Integration of children with special needs 



The educational services for early childhood, in cooperation with the competent services of the Local Health and Social Services of Commons, ensuring the right integration and inclusion of children with disabilities, in accordance with Art. Law 12 of February 5, 1992, No 104 "Framework Law for the assistance, social integration and rights of disabled people", and children in distress and sociocultural relationships, and also carry out preventive action against all forms of disadvantage and exclusion. The educational services for early childhood, the local health units and municipalities identify specific forms of collaboration, in order to ensure the full integration of children with disabilities and children with other social-cultural challenges, and make health education interventions.

FROM THE REGIONAL LAW N.1/2000 

Opening Times:   





Full-time service: 5 day p/w, 8 (or more) hrs p/d; Part-time service: 5 day p/w, less then 8 hrs p/d; “Children Space” or Children and Parents Centers: from 2 to 5 day p/w, maximum 5 hours without lunch time.

Boarding Fee (in 2000): 

For public services: average 350€ (actually change £312,40);



For private services: from 300€ to 500€ (actually change £267,81 – £446,35).

Ratios educator/children:    

From 3 to 12 months – 1/5 (maximum for each class 3/15); From 12 to 24 months – 1/7 if full-time services (max 3/21); 1/8 if part-time services (max 3/24); From 24 to 36 months – 1/10 (max 3/30). From the other employers (cleaner assistants), excluding kitchen workers (chefs and helpers), the relationship is 1 every 21 children.

FROM THE REGIONAL LAW N.1/2000 

Educator’s role: 



Hours of work and formation: 





“The educators have competences in the care and education of the children and in the relation with the families and they supply to the organization and the planning of the service. […] The activity of the staff is carried out according to the method of teamwork and the principles of partnership, in close collaboration with the families, in order to guarantee the continuity of the educational participation and the full and integrated use of the different skills of all workers inside the service.”

Average 36 hrs p/wk: 30 hours in the direct work with children and 6 hours every week for planning, have meetings with colleagues and all the staff, documentation of experiences, speak with parents, training, etc.; Every year, each educator has 20 hours minimum of training courses.

Qualifiation: 

By 2010 every new employer needs a degree qualification (3 years of university studies).

TYPES OF INFANCY SERVICES DAY NURSERY (Nido d’infanzia) LITTLE DAY NURSERY (Micronido) “CHILDREN SPACE” (Spazio Bambini) CHILDREN AND PARENTS CENTRE (Centro bambini e genitori) CHILDMINDER or LITTLE EDUCATIONAL GROUP (Educatrice familiare o Piccolo gruppo educativo) HOME EDUCATOR (Educatrice domiciliare)

Educational Services DAY NURSERIES TIMES Full-Time: 8 am – 4 pm Part-Time: 8 am – 2 pm Extra time: 7.30 – 8 am / 4 – 6 pm (completely paid by parents) Monday to Friday; September to June (some services could have a summer camp in July) PARTICIPANTS from 21 to 60 children; from 3 to 36 months. FOOD This services must provide lunch for children and any other snacks. They can be prepared by internal cooks or by external catering services. The costs of the lunch is included in the fee. Full-time services should have dedicated rooms for sleeping time of children in the morning or afternoon (1 – 3 pm). MANAGEMENT These services could be run by different institutions: municipality, charity joining with municipality, charity in convention with municipality, private associations.

LITTLE DAY NURSERIES Almost the same as Day Nursery but the number of children could be from only 6 to 20.

TYPES OF INFANCY SERVICES DAY NURSERY (Nido d’infanzia) LITTLE DAY NURSERY (Micronido) “CHILDREN SPACE” (Spazio Bambini) CHILDREN AND PARENTS CENTRE (Centro bambini e genitori) CHILDMINDER or LITTLE EDUCATIONAL GROUP (Educatrice familiare o Piccolo gruppo educativo) HOME EDUCATOR (Educatrice domiciliare)

Complimentary Services “CHILDREN SPACE” TIMES Part-Time: min 3 max 5 hours p/d; min 3 day p/w. Could be planning one session in the morning and one in afternoon. PARTICIPANTS Maximum 50 children, from 21 to 36 months FOOD This service does not have to provide lunch for children, they just provide little snacks for every session. This service do not need dedicated rooms for sleeping time of children. MANAGEMENT This service could be run by different institutions: municipality, charity joining with municipality, charity in convention with municipality, private associations.

CHILDREN AND PARENTS CENTRE TIMES Part-Time: min 3 max 5 hours p/d; min 3 day p/w. Could be planning one session in the morning and one in afternoon. PARTICIPANTS There is no maximum for children from 3 to 36 month; parents should to stay with children. FOOD This service does not have to provide lunch for children, they just provide little snacks for every session. This service do not need dedicated rooms for sleeping time of children. MANAGEMENT This service could be run by different institutions: municipality, charity joining with municipality, charity in convention with municipality, private associations.

TYPES OF INFANCY SERVICES DAY NURSERY (Nido d’infanzia) LITTLE DAY NURSERY (Micronido) “CHILDREN SPACE” (Spazio Bambini) CHILDREN AND PARENTS CENTRE (Centro bambini e genitori) CHILDMINDER or LITTLE EDUCATIONAL GROUP (Educatrice familiare o Piccolo gruppo educativo) HOME EDUCATOR (Educatrice domiciliare)

Experimental Services CHILD MINDER or Little educational group TIMES Max 36 hours p/w; generally from 8am to 2pm, Monday to Friday. PARTICIPANTS Maximum 5 children from 12 to 36 months hosting in the house of the educator. FOOD This service has to provide lunch for children and any other snacks. They can be prepared by internal cooks or by external catering services. The costs of the lunch is included in the fee. This service does not need dedicated places for sleeping time of children. MANAGEMENT This service could be run by charity in convention with municipality and privates. QUALIFIATION OF THE EDUCATORS The educator should have 6 mounths of “inpractice” training in a public Day Nursery and 100 hrs of learning as well as the degree.

HOME EDUCATOR TIMES From 20 to 40 hours p/w; PARTICIPANTS Maximum 3 children from 6 to 36 months; the service should be organized into the home of one of the families that employing directly the educator. FOOD This services have to provide lunch for children and any other snacks. They can be prepared by internal cooks or by external catering services. MANAGEMENT This services is run by private person. QUALIFIATION OF THE EDUCATORS The educator should have 6 mounths of “inpractice” training in a public Day Nursery and 100 hrs of learning as well as the degree.

THE ORGANISATION OF INFANCY SHOOLS IN EMILIA ROMAGNA

LOCAL REGULATIONS FOR NURSERY SCHOOLS FOR CHILDREN FROM



3* TO 5 YEARS OLD.

National Law n.62 of 2000

“Norms for the scholastic equality and dispositions on the right to education and instruction”; 

Legislative Decree n.59 of 2004

“Definition of the general norms relative to the schools of infancy”; 

Ministry Decree of the 31° of July 2007

“General indications for the curriculum in Nursery and Primary School”.

*the Ministery Circular n.110/2007 gives the opportunity for the children from 24 to 36 months to go to prechools in a “special” class called “Spring Section” or “Experimental joint section”.

THE MINISTERY DECREE 31 JULY 2007

“GENERAL INDICATIONS

FOR THE CURRICULUM IN

NURSERY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL”.

The school of infancy, freely chosen from the families, addresses to all the children from the 3 to the 6 years of age and is the answer to their right to the education. It has its origins in the local communities (as the Municipalities and the Parishes) and in them it has grown. Today it is expressed in a plurality of institutional and organizational models, promoted by various subjects: the State; the religious Orders, the parochial Associations and Communities; the Local Authorities. ........ For every child, the school of infancy sets the purpose to promote the development of identity, autonomy, competence and citizenship.

 it describes the differents National Indicators for the curriculum in Nursery Schools;  it describes the disciplines and the disciplinary areas for the Primary Schools.



Organisation:   



Max 28 children each class divided from age; From 25 to 50 hours p/w; 1 teacher each class until 25 hours, 2 teachers until 50 hours; Every teacher works max 40 hours p/w: min 25 hours directly with children.

7.30

Opening

7.30-9.00

Welcome time and gioco libero

9.00-9.15

Little breakfast with fruits and milk.

9.15-9.45

“Assembly” (introduction game, songs, “sharing time”, presentation of the different activities of the morning), preparation for activities.

9.45-10.45

Activities organised and supported by teachers (every day the class is shared in 2/3 smaller groups and children do activities that have been planned by the teachers in accordance with the annual educational project or do gioco libero; the teacher has to support every child in the activity promoting independance and research in action).

10.45-11.30 Reorganisation of the class room; gioco libero and Toilet time preparing for lunch. 11.30-12.30 Lunch 12.30-13.00 gioco libero and toilet time preparing for sleeping; Exit of children of part-time 13.00-15.00 Sleeping time 15.00-15.30 Awaking and snack (bisquits or cakes, juices or milk) 15.30-16.00 Gioco libero and Exit of full-time 16.00-18.20 Activities and plays for children with extra time 18.20

Closing

ADVICES FOR THE CURRICULUM These indications contribute to define the purposes of the service, the educational-didactic proposals and the fields of experience. 

The purposes of the Nursery School: 



“For every child the school of infancy sets the purpose to promote the development of the identity, the autonomy, the competence, the citizenship.”

The educational-didactic proposals: 

“The school of infancy organizes the educational and didactic proposals expanding and giving form to the first explorations, intuitions and discoveries of the children through a explicit curriculum. To it is subtended a implicit curriculum constituted from constants that define the learning atmosphere and they return it immediately specific and recognizable …”

THE EDUCATIONAL-DIDACTIC PROPOSALS  The

Space:

“The pleasant, warm, cured space, oriented from the taste, is expression of the pedagogy and the educational choices of each school. It is a space that speaks about the children, about their value and their need of play, of movement, expression, privacy and sociality, through the physical environment, the choice of furnishings and objects in order to create a functional and inviting disposition to be lived from the same children.”

THE EDUCATIONAL-DIDACTIC PROPOSALS 

The Time: “The extended time, in which it is possible for the child to play, to explore, to converse, to observe, to listen, to understand, to grow with safety and in tranquility, to feel confident of himself and of the activities that he is going to experiment and in which he practices. In this way the child can discover and live own existential time without accelerations or slowing down induced from the adults.”



The participation: “Participation is the dimension that establishes and develops co-responsibilities, to encourage the dialogue and the cooperation in the construction of the knowledge of everyone.”

THE EDUCATIONAL-DIDACTIC PROPOSALS  The

Documentation:

“The documentation, like process that produces traces, memory and reflection, makes visible the modalities and the distances of formation and estimates the progress of the individual and group learning.”

 The

Educational Style:

“The educational style is founded on the observation and on listening and the collective elaborated projects and planning, and the indirect participation of teachers on children activities and on direction.”

ADVICE FOR THE CURRICULUM  The 



Fields of Experience:

In the school of infancy, teacher guidelines suggest that in order to develop the competence of children, teachers need to create occasions and possibilities of experiences to develop the children’s competence. This is intended in a total, holistic way.

The learning plans characterise mainly the following fields of experience: 1.

“The Self and the Others”;

2.

“The body in movement”;

3.

“Languages, creativity, expression”;

4.

“The speech and the words”;

5.

“The knowledge of the world”.

THE FIELDS OF EXPERIENCE 1. “The Self and the Others”: the great questions, the moral sense, living together. The children formulate the great existential questions about the world and begin to reflect on the sense and on the moral value of their actions, they take conscience of own identity, discover the diversities and they learn the first necessary rules to the social life.

THE FIELDS OF EXPERIANCE 2. “The body in movement”: identity, autonomy, health. The children become conscious and acquire the sense of own physical self, the control of the body, its functions, its image, the sensory and expressive possibilities and their relation and they learn to care about their body through health education.

THE FIELDS OF EXPERIENCE 3. “Languages, creativity, expression”: expression, art, music, multimedia.

gestural

The children are encouraged to express with imagination and creativity their emotions and their thoughts; the art guides this proclivity, educates to aesthetic feeling and the pleasure of beauty

THE FIELDS OF EXPERIENCE 4. “The speech and language, culture.

the

words”:

communication,

The children learn how to communicate orally, to describe own experiences to the world, to chat and to converse, to reflect on the language, and approach the written language. Through the acquaintance and the knowledge of the maternal language and other languages they consolidate their personal and cultural identity and they are opened towards other cultures.

THE FIELDS OF EXPERIANCE 5. “The knowledge of the world”: order, measure, space, time, nature. The children explore the real world, learning to organize own experiences through aware actions as grouping, comparing, counting, ordering, orienting themselves and representing what they have seen and explored with drawings and words.

THE REGGIO APPROACH A special experience.

MAIN FOUNDATION ELEMETS Community:

after the II world war (1945), it was the parents and citizens of Reggio Emilia who, in a show of collective responsibility and the desire to create a better society for their children, occupied a disused building thet they turned in the firs nursery school. This and the other schools that followed were quite literally built by the people;

Loris Malaguzzi

(1920-1994): a primary school teacher who later went on to study psychology and brought to his lifetime work in education, his interests and experience in theatre, journalism, sport and politics. A very strong character but highly collaborative: Malaguzzi described himself as stubborn, with an iron will. He wanted to win and to carry along with himself everyone who thought like himself, better than himself or differently from himself. As a result, Malaguzzi worked tirelessly with colleagues in Reggio to further his understanding of how children learn, and to publicize his passionate belief in his image of the competent, confident child.

OPENING, AWARDS AND NEW ORGANISATION 

1963



1970



the local council (or municipality) opened the first municipal pre-school establishments for children of 3-6 years;

were open the first infant-toddler centre for infants from three months to 3 years;

1980

creation of a touring exibition of the work taking place in the school, originally “The Eye Jumps over the Wall” now known as “The Hundred Languages of Children”;



1991



1992

the American magazine “Newsweek” named the Diana preschool as the most avant-garde early childhood institution in the world, leading to huge interest from the United States and the rest of the world;

Loris Malaguzzi was awarded to Danish “LEGO” Prize for his outstanding work in the field of early childhood education;

AWARDS AND NEW ORGANISATION 



1993

Reggio schools were given an award by the “Khol Foundation” in Chicago;

1994

the “Hans Christian Andersen Prize” was awareded to the schools in recognition of their work;



1995



2006

founding of the organisation “Reggio Children” in response to the level of global interest in Reggio, it organizes international conferences, training courses and visits to the schools. It has as full title “the centrre for the Promotion and Defence of the Rights of the Children”

opening of the “Loris Malaguzi International Centre of Childhood”.

THE

“LORIS MALAGUZZI INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF CHILDHOOD”.

It hosts different exhibitions, international meetings and training on the theme of childhood and education. It has conference rooms, a theatre, exhibition space and working creative and scientific ateliers. Since 2006 the spaces of the Ateliers has hosted the Ray of Light Atelier, a place for research, experimentation and immersion in an environment where light, in its various forms, can be investigated by means of explorations that provoke curiosity and wonder, and stimulate creativity and in-depth study. It is also a place of research in relation to a new didactics of science. The Ray of Light Atelier is designed for investigation and interactive experimentation, for both individuals and groups, by means of specifically devised contexts and instruments, with environments designed to make the phenomena more manifest and spectacular.

In 2009 a municipality pre-school was opened inside the centre, and in 2010 a classroom for the first year of a public primary school in order to try to link the different level and educational organisation.

WHAT IS THE “REGGIO APPROACH”? 

The Image of Child



The Expressive arts in the pre-schools



The “progettazione”



The Community and parent-school relationships



The Environment



Teachers as Learners

THE IMAGE OF CHILD 



“Our image of children no longer considers them as isolated and egocentric, does not only see them as engaged in action with objects, does not emphasize only the cognitive aspects, does not belittle feelings or what is not logical and does not consider with ambiguity the role of the reflective domain. Instead our image of the child is rich in potential, strong, powerful, competent and, most of all, connected to adults and children” (Malaguzzi) “Children have the right to be recognised as subjects of individual, legal, civil, and social rights; as both source and constructors of their own experience, and thus active participants in the organisation of their identities, abilities, and autonomy, through relationships and interaction with their peers, with adults, with ideas, with objects and with the real and imaginary events of intercommunicating worlds”

THE IMAGE OF CHILD 





Socio-constructivism;

The Pedagogy of Listening: listening being a metaphore for the educators’ attempt to gain as real an understanding as possible of children and their learning processes;

Consider early infancy to be a dinstinct development phase in which children demonstrate an extraordinary curiosity about the world, and not just a stage preapring for the proper learning time.

THE EXPRESSIVE ARTS IN THE PRE-SCHOOL The child is made of one hundred. The child has a hundred languages, a hundred hands, a hundred thoughts, a hundred ways of thinking, of playing, of speaking … (Malaguzzi) 

Drawing activities are daily a occurrence in the schools; the children are also encouraged to participate in a variety of expressive activities such as sculpture, dramatic play, shadow play, puppetry, painting, dancing, music, ceramics, construction and writing; 

Ateliers and mini-atelier are present in every school and the teaching staff enriched by an artist (atelierista) in charge to develop specific projects with the children 

THE EXPRESSIVE ARTS IN THE PRE-SCHOOL The children are encouraged to use all their senses to seek a greater understanding; through observation, analysis and piecing together what they experience, they dismantle and reassemble the original, creating a new and individual whole. Synaesthetic activities (such as encouraging children to make pictorial representations of smells or noises, for example) are a dominant feature and seek to give children a fuller understanding of the world. As Vea Vecchi, atelierista at the Diana preschool establishment, states, “it is through the process of transformation that we become closer to the very essence of life”.

THE “PROGETTAZIONE” 





This is not a free journey but neither is it a journey with rigid timetables and schedules; rather, it is akin to a journey guided by a compass.” “Research as a term capable of describing the straining to know, which is activated each time authentic processes of knowledge are created. Research to describe the individual and common journey in the direction of new universes of possibility …” “Progettazione is a metaphorical dance between teacher and child – a spiral of knowledge.” (Carlina Rinaldi)

THE COMMUNITY AND THE PARENT-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP 



It is the right of parents to participate actively, and with voluntary adherence to the basic principles, in the growth, care and development of their children who are entrusted to the public institution.

“… participation is an educational strategy that characterises our way of being and teaching. Participation of the children, the teachers and the families, not only by taking part in something but by being part of it, its essence, part of a common identity, a ‘we’ that we give life to through participation” (Carlina Rinaldi)

THE COMMUNITY AND THE PARENT-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP 

“I’ve learned a lot of things from the infant-toddler centre and pre-school my grandson has attended. They have made me feel alive because I have had to reflect on those values that have always characterised my life … I feel the need to grow with my grandson and this has given me a new outlook on life” (Luciano Gozzi, grandfather)

THE ENVIRONMENT 



Rather than separated space are used for separate purposes, the schools are composed of a series of connecting spaces that flow into another; Classrooms open onto a central “piazza”, mirroring the central meeting places in the town, and children move freely through the space.

THE ENVIRONMENT 





The importance of the aesthetic dimension for learning; The schools are multi-sensory and the furniture is designed to be multi-functional; Create a natural link between the inside and outside

TEACHERS AS LEARNERS 





Good staff development is not something that is undertaken every now and then, reflecting only on the words of someone else. Instead, it is a vital and daily aspect of our work, of our personal and professional identities. Staff development is seen above all as an indispensable vehicle by which to make stronger the quality of our interaction with children and among ourselves. (Carlina Rinaldi); Continuing professional development is not about developing teachers’ understanding of how to teach but about developing their understanding of how children learn; Professional development is considered to be a continuing evolutionary process that is an intrinsic part of the teacher’s day. At its heart is the belief in staff development as change; staff development as promoting participation and interaction.

THANK YOU.

BERATTINO FRANCESA ANNA – PEDAGOGIST AND EDUCATIONAL COORDINATOR FOR EARLY YEAR SERVICES – JULY 20 2011 FOR CHILDREN IN WALES.