Prepared by KidZrock Childcare owner, Leanne Waniek
Children are little researchers: they can and want to communicate with the surrounding world. They are individuals with their own thoughts, emotions and expressions. They believe in a "listening pedagogy".
I believe children have an enormous potential and curiosity. Children strive to understand the world, making their own theories to explain how it functions. Children's knowledge needs to be brought out using their natural curiosity and not filled in. Each child constructs their own intelligence from direct interaction with the environment and in social groups.
Time is not set by the clock, but by the child's needs and interests. I believe children need sufficient time to express, learn, explore, extend and revisit a given project.
The teacher's role within the Reggio Emilia approach is complex. The role of the teachers is first and foremost to be that of a learner alongside the children. I am a teacher-researcher, a resource and guide as I lend expertise. Within such a teacher-researcher role, I believe educators must carefully listen, observe, and document a child's work and the growth of community in their classroom and are to provoke, co-construct, and stimulate thinking, and a child's collaboration with peers.
I believe in using multiple forms of documentations: photographs, audiotape transcripts, videotapes, note taking and the actual product of a child's work create a "multi-sensory memory" of an activity. Posting the documentation in the centre encourages children to learn from one another and to appreciate the process of creating.
Instead of following a set agenda, I believe in using the children's interests to guide the curriculum, teaching them what they display interest in learning about. Reggio Emilia teachers are trained to recognize a child's interests and create on-going projects that stimulate the child's curiosity.
I feel that by creating a warm, loving and welcoming environment, it encourages the child to engage in activity and discovery. The Reggio Emilia approach integrates nature into the curriculum so that the child learns to appreciate the physical and structural environment.
"Each child is unique and the protagonist of his own growth. Children desire to acquire knowledge, have much capacity for curiosity and amazement, and yearn, to create relationships with others and communicate."