All children are entitled to high-quality pre-school education. Most European countries have a good standard of provision, which includes professionally trained practitioners.
Educational reforms in Malta have dramatically raised the expectations we have of teachers and pre-school practitioners, who are being called upon to learn new roles and ways of teaching. They are being asked to upgrade their knowledge and skills, master new strategies and responsibilities and change their practice so as to ensure that all children achieve and perform better.
Educators are expected to be responsive to children's learning and developmental needs and to bridge these needs with attainable but challenging learning goals. They need to be well-aware of children's different learning styles, family situations and background. The understanding of pedagogy is looked upon as a vital not only for teachers of school age children but also for those responsible for the pre-school years.
Yet, the latter practitioners, to whom we have entrusted our children's thinking, formation and crucial beginnings, are still addressed as 'assistants'.
Educational practice is expected to reflect current predominating theories of child development and learning. Yet our pre-schools are more concerned with meeting the expectations of parents, centering their 'teaching' strategies on instructional objectives that emphasise specific academic and behavioural skills. In other words, they start too early, too soon, lest the children miss the gravy train.
Tasks are carefully structured into small bits of information that often requires small group or individual instruction by the 'knowledgeable' adult. The aim is mastery of tasks that young children are unlikely to learn spontaneously or by discovery. They involve memorising lists or symbols, responding to questions that have correct answers and practising routine tasks that can be assessed as right or wrong, including literacy and numeracy skills. The aim is to prepare three and four-year-olds for formal schooling.
Education, particularly in pre-school, should give children what they need as children. It should be an opportunity for them to live a hundred dreams and feel good about themselves. It should respect very young children as capable learners and able thinkers. Kindergarten and the first year of primary school should provide spaces where children can explore, create, share, play, talk and listen, take decisions and express their thinking through language, art, mark-making, dance, music, sculpture and more.
In this setting, the adult should support the process of learning without exerting undue influence on the children, inculcating positive attitudes towards learning at school and out of it.
Instead, children are made to sit and bear a traditional academic curriculum from a very young age. Classes are usually driven by 'teacher-talk' and depend heavily on textbooks for the structure and content of teaching. The belief is that there is a fixed world of information that the teacher must transfer to passive students. The goal of the student is to reproduce that information as correctly as possible.
Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia Educational Approach for children, believed that children have a hundred languages but we leave them only one. Thanks to the Socrates programme and the Education Division I have had the opportunity to attend a course in Arnhem, Holland about the Reggio Approach and visit schools that are committed to the Reggio philosophy. It was a thought-provoking and engaging experience: the image that society has of children is reflected in the opportunities it provides for them.
Most lectures took place at Pabo University. I was most impressed by the way this university supports students and schools to develop and learn. Far from being theoretical, the university offers a perspective of different learning philosophies supported by actual learning centres at the university and hands-on methodology at schools. So students can actually witness excellent, albeit different teaching programmes. Student teachers can go to the school as often as they wish and participate in lessons and school life. The faculty itself is inundated with children's work.
This shows there is a close link between the theory at university level and school practice, between the teacher at university and the teacher in class; between theory, methods and methodology. Everyone is a learner.
One of the most important principles of this excellent early childhood educational approach is the image practitioners have of children. It centres on the conviction that children have an enormous potential and curiosity and strive to understand the world and how it functions. They are seen as powerful constructors of their own knowledge. Children are taken seriously, listened to, respected, and appreciated in their uniqueness. This has a profound impact on how teachers start, conduct and end projects. This approach embodies a great deal of respect for children and their worth.
In the Reggio approach children are encouraged to express themselves in many mediums. Art is seen as something integral to the learning process. In most schools there is a teacher who is trained in the visual arts. Children are also encouraged to express themselves through language, dance, models and other mediums. Projects are the core of children's learning experiences. They learn by doing and reflecting in group experiences. Projects give children the opportunity to explore a problem and search for solutions.
The process here is more important than the product. This approach is about guiding children's ideas by provoking thought and curiosity, not by pre-determined curricula. Practitioners observe children as they play and learn about their interests and their foci. They take that interest and expand it into a project. So the curriculum is not created in advance. Instead, teachers begin the year with general goals and work with children to establish the direction of their learning. After seeing how children respond to these goals, teachers change, add and design the next step for study with children. Teachers constantly observe and document what the children say and do. These observations are shared as teachers determine how to dialogue with children and about what.
Space and the environment have a powerful role in learning. At the centre every adult is committed to creating a backdrop that reflects a warm, welcoming and beautiful school. The environment stimulates children's exploration and encourages conversation between people of all ages. Learning is made visible. Children's work is documented and displayed. Personal expression is encouraged. Each setting reflects the culture of the families and adults who work with the children. Plants, mirrors, mobiles, and children's work are displayed to make the classroom and public areas more beautiful. But all equipment in the environment is guided towards giving children an opportunity to stimulate inquisitiveness, conversation, creativity and above all enjoyment.
Children, parents and teachers have rights, but children with disabilities have special rights to accommodation, services and attitudes to facilitate their learning. Parents are encouraged to be involved in programmes. There are two adults with every group of children and these same adults remain with the class for three years.
Professional development in the Reggio philosophy is not something that is undertaken every now and then but a vital daily aspect of the practitioners' work, of their personal and professional identity. Practitioners regard it as a continual change and renewal, an indispensable vehicle by which to make stronger the quality of their interaction with children and among themselves. Reggio maintains that working within a group gives each participant the right to think, plan, work, interpret, and share with others. This is a new way of thinking, working and co-constructing together towards a common interpretation of educational goals.
The Reggio educational approach is about joining forces to make the right things happen for children, for all children. The cultural background, lack of supporting professional staff, parent's expectations, time and budget may make infusion of the Reggio Approach impossible here. But the Reggio perspectives are within our reach as long as we are ready to change our beliefs about children and confirm our commitment to educating our young.
Ms Azzopardi is the head of Mqabba primary school.