Student Dashboard

 IIM Student 

Module 2
Principles and Approaches of
Early Childhood Education

Principles and approaches to teaching

young learners relate teaching to
learning. Teaching facilitates learning
by promoting, nurturing a culture of
learning a building connections between
knowledge. Teaching should facilitate
the construction of meaning, promote
understanding, and connect theory and
practice.

Learning is commonly defined as a

process that brings together cognitive,
emotional, environmental influences. It
leads to experiences for acquiring,
enhancing, or making changes in one's
knowledge, skills, values, and world
views (Illeris, 2000; Ormorod, 1995).
Learning as a process focuses on what
happens when the learning takes place.
Explanations of what happens
constitute learning theories. A learning
theory is an attempt to describe how
people and animals learn, thereby
helping us to understand the inherently
complex process of learning. Learning
theories have two chief values
according to Hill (2002). One is in
providing us with vocabulary and a
conceptual framework for interpreting
the examples of learning that we
observe. The other is in suggesting
where to look for solutions to practical
problems. The theories do not give us
solutions, but they do direct our
attention to those variables that are
crucial in finding solutions.

We begin with the Montessori

approach to teaching:

Maria Montessori (picture to 'the left)

was, in many ways, ahead of her time.
Born in the town of Chiaravalle, in the
province of Ancona, Italy, in 1870, she
became the first female physician in
Italy after her graduation from medical
school in 1896. In her medical practice,
her clinical observations led her to
analyze how children learn, and she
concluded that they build themselves
from what they find in their
environment. What ultimately became
the Montessori method of education
developed there, based upon
Montessori's scientific observations of
these children's almost e!ortless ability
to absorb knowledge from their
surroundings, as well as their tireless
interest in manipulating materials.
Every piece of equipment, every
exercise, every method Montessori
developed was based on what she
observed children to do "naturally," by
themselves, unassisted by adults.

Children teach themselves. This simple

but profound truth inspired Montessori's
lifelong pursuit of educational reform,
methodology, psychology, teaching, and
teacher training—all based on her
dedication to furthering the self-
creating process of the child.

Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk,

Holland, in 1952, but her work lives on
through the Association Montessori
*International ( AMI ), the organization
she founded in Amsterdam,
Netherlands, in 1929 to carry on her
work.

PRINCIPLES OF MONTESSORI
METHOD

The Montessori method is based on

several principles. Montessori believed
that learning is a "natural, self-directed
process" that follows several
fundamental laws of human nature.
According to Montessori principles, a
child will naturally become in harmony
with his or her environment during the
learning process as long as the
environment is properly prepared and
maintained. The role of the adult in the
child's learning process is to simply
prepare the environment and to make
sure this environment remains intact.
Montessori's principles state that the
adult who is preparing the environment
needs to be committed to several
things: observation, individual liberty,
and su"cient preparation. Montessori
believes that as long as the adults
involved in the learning process follow
these guidelines the children will
engage themselves in their own learning
process.

The teaching methods used in the

Montessori classroom (picture to the
left) are very specific. The Montessori
teacher must be sure to include work
tasks and activities that involve all of
the individual intelligences. These
intelligences include musical, kinesthetic,
spatial, interpersonal, intrapersonal,
intuitive, linguistic, and logical. Children
are given the opportunity to explore
di!erent activities that address these
di!erent areas of knowledge.

A Montessori class usually consists of

30 to 35 students and one to two
teachers. Children are grouped in three-
year spans, which allow the children to
remain with the same teacher for three
to six years. The classroom is usually
divided into centre stations. The centre
stations are grouped by category such
as daily living materials' (washing
station, cleaning supplies, etc.), sensorial
materials (sand, sound cylinders, etc.),
academic materials (books, pencils,
etc.), and cultural/artistic materials
(paints, crayons; markers, etc.). The
materials found in each station are
carefully organized and usually remain
in the same location throughout the
entire school year.

The materials used in the classroom are

also an important aspect of the
Montessori school system. The materials
used are specific to the Montessori
school and each serve a very specific
purpose. When new material is
introduced into the classroom the
teacher carefully demonstrates to the
children exactly how the material should
be used. After this demonstration the
children are expected to only use the
material the way it is supposed to be
used. If the teacher sees the child using
the material in a di!erent way he or
she will demonstrate 'the proper use of
the material once again. An example of
such a material is the dried pea work
task. The child is given a bowl of dried
peas along with a spoon and an empty
bowl. The teacher demonstrates to the
child how to spoon the dried peas into
the empty bowl. The child is then left to
complete this task on his or her own. If
the teacher were to see the child using
the peas for any other play or work he
or she would demonstrate the task
again.

Montessori claims that their school

system, unlike traditional school
systems, provides children with the
opportunity to grow into independent
and self-su"cient individuals with a
deeply rooted love for learning.

How her Basic Principles came

about:

Montessori kept a list on what children

like:

Children like to repeat exercises;

once they discover certain activities
they want to repeat them
constantly in order to master them
(sensitive period).
Children like to choose on their
own.
Children have the need to check on
themselves.
It is a challenge to them to come
up with the right solution.
Children like it when human
movements are analyzed. How do
you do a specific movement? Is it a
beautiful movement?
Children enjoy silence exercises.
Children favour good manners in
their social behaviour.
Children like an ordered
environment in which everything
has a fixed place. This gives them a
sense of security and safety.
Children feel a need to take care of
their o n body, for instance,
washing, blowing their nose.
Children in the ages from three to
six are geared to their senses;
through their senses they learn to
explore and order their
environment.
Children write before they start
reading (no books yet).

Montessori Equipment

Play is a natural instinct of the children.

It has been e!ectively used for
teaching. Friedrich Wilhelm August
Froebel (picture to the left) was the
father of the Kindergarten system,
"Children's Garden" a system which
encourages fun and play based
learning. Froebel characterized play as
the "work" of childhood and described it
as "the purest, the most spiritual and
product of man at this stage." Froebel
sought to encourage the creation of
educational environment that involved
practical work and the direct use of
materials. Through engaging with the
world, understanding unfolds. Hence the
significance of play. It is both a creative
activity and through it children become
aware of their place in the world. He
went on to develop special materials
(such as shaped wooden bricks and
balls - gifts), a series of recommended
activities (occupations) movement
activities, and linking set of theories. His
original concern was the teaching of
young children through educational
games in the family. In the later years
of his life this became linked with a
demand for the provision of it. Special
centres for the care and development of
children outside the home.

We have seen the development of

kindergartens, and the emergence of a
Froebel movement. For informal
educators,Friedrich. Froebel's continuing
relevance has lain in his concern for
learning through activity, his interest in
social learning and his emphasis on the
'unification 'of life.

Froebel labeled his approach to

education as "self-activity". This idea
allows the child to be led by his or her
own interests and to freely explore
them. The teacher's role, therefore, was
to be a guide rather than lecturer.

Froebel's kindergarten was

designed to meet each child's need
for:

Physical activity
The development of sensory
awareness and physical dexterity
Creative expression
Exploration of ideas and concepts
The pleasure of singing
The experience of living among
others
Satisfaction of the soul

The Kindergarten Curriculum

Froebel developed a series of gifts and

occupations for use in kindergartens.
Representing what Froebel identified as
fundamental forms, the gifts had both
their actual physical appearance and
also a hidden symbolic meaning. They
were to stimulate the child to bring the
fundamental concept that they
represented to mental consciousness.
Froebel's gifts were the following items.

Six soft, colored balls

A wooden sphere, cube, and
cylinder.
A large cube divided into eight
smaller cubes
A large cube divided into eight
oblong blocks
A large cube divided into twenty-
one whole, 'six half and twelve
quarter cubes
A large cube divided into eighteen
whole oblongs: three divided
lengthwise three divided breadth
wise
Quadrangular and triangular
tablets for arranging
Sticks for outlining figures- Whole
and half wire rings for outlining
figures
Various materials for drawing,
perforating, embroidering, paper
cutting, weaving or braiding, paper
folding, modelling, and interlacing

The occupations were items such as

paper, pencils, wood, sand, clay, straw a
sticks for use in constructive activities.
Kindergarten activities included games,
songs, and stories. The activities are
designed to assist in sensory, physical
development and socialization. By
playing, children socialize, imitate adult
social and economic activities as they
are gradually led into the larger world
of group life. The kindergarten provided
a milieu that encouraged children to
interact with other children under the
guidance of a loving teacher, and this is
followed in KG schools all over the
world even today.

Swiss biologist and psychologist, is

renowned for constructing a highly
influential model of child development
and learning. Piaget discovered that
children think and reason di!erently at
di!erent periods in their lives. He
believed that everyone passed through
an invariant sequence of four
qualitatively distinct stages.

Invariant means that a person cannot

skip stages or reorder them. Although
every normal child passes through the
stages in exactly the same order, there
is some variability in the ages at which
children attain each stage.

Piaget identified four major stages:

sensory-motor, preoperational, concrete
operational and formal operational.
Piaget believed all children pass
through these phases to advance to the
next level of cognitive development.

1. Sensorimotor stage: from birth to

age 2. Children experience the
world through movement and
senses (use five senses to explore
the world). During the sensorimotor
stage children are extremely
egocentric, meaning they cannot
perceive the world from others'
viewpoints. The sensori-motor stage
is divided into six sub-stages: "(1)
simple reflex (2) first habits and
primary circular reactions (3)
secondary circular reactions (4)
coordination of secondary circular
reactions (5) tertiary circular
reactions, novelty, and curiosity and
(6) internalization of schemes."
Simple reflexes are from birth
to 1 month old. At this time
infants use reflexes such as
rooting and sucking.
First habits and primary
circular reactions are from 1
month to 4 months old. During
this time infants learn to
coordinate sensation and two
types of scheme (habit and
circular reactions). A primary
circular reaction is when the
infant tries to reproduce an
event that happened by
accident (ex: sucking thumb).
The third stage, secondary
circular reactions, occurs when
the infant is 4 to 8 months old.
At this time they become
aware of things beyond their
own body; they are more
objects oriented. At this time
they might accidentally shake
a rattle and continue to do it
for sake of satisfaction.
Coordination of secondary
circular reactions is from 8
months to 12 months old.
During this stage they can do
things intentionally. They can
now combine and recombine
 schemes and try to reach a
goal (ex: use a stick to reach
something). They also
understand object permanence
during this stage. That is, they
understand that objects
continue to exist even when
they can't see them.
The fifth stage occurs from 12
months .old to 18 months old.
During this stage infants
explore new possibilities of
objects. They try di!erent
things to get di!erent results.
2. The preoperational stage usually
occurs during the period between
toddlerhood (18-24 months) and
early childhood (7 years). During
this stage children begin to use
language, memory and imagination
also develops. In the preoperational
stage, children engage in make
believe. They can understand and
express relationships between the
past and the future. More complex
concepts, such as cause and e!ect
relationships which they have not
learned. Intelligence is egocentric,
intuitive & not logical.
3. The concrete operational stage
typically develops between the
ages of 7-11 years. Intellectual
development in this stage is
demonstrated through the use of
logical and systematic
manipulation of symbols, which are
related to concrete objects.
Thinking becomes less egocentric
with increased awareness of
external events, and involves
concrete references.
4. The period from adolescence
through adulthood is the formal
operational stage. Adolescents and
adults use symbols related to
abstract concepts. Adolescents can
think about multiple variables in
systematic ways, can formulate
hypotheses, and think about
abstract relationships and concepts.

Piaget's Key Ideas (SUMMARY)

Adaptation What it says: ada

Assimilation The process by wh

Accommodation The di!erence ma

Classification The ability to gro

Class Inclusion The understandin

Conservation The realization th

Decantation The, ability to mo

Egocentrism The belief that yo

Operation The Process of wo

Schema(or scheme) The representatio

Stage A period in a chil

Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage

Sensori-motor (Birth-2 yrs)

Pre-operational (2-7 years)

Concrete operational(7-11years)

Formal operational (11 years andup)

THE REGGIO EMILIA'APPROACH The

Reggio Emilia approach is a form of
alternative education which focuses on
teaching children through a strong
sense of community. It is usually applied
to young students in pre-school and
primary school grades. This philosophy
proposes interactive methods of
teaching, which often involve the
parents, educators and environment in
a variety of ways.

Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994) founded

the 'Reggio Emilia' approach at a city in
northern Italy called Reggio Emilia. The
'Reggio' approach was developed for
municipal child-care and education
programs serving children below six. The
approach requires children to be seen
as competent, resourceful, curious,
imaginative, and inventive, possess a
desire to interact and communicate with
others.

The ‘Reggio’ vision of the child as a

competent learner has produced 'a
strong child-directed curriculum model.
The curriculum has purposive
progression but not scope and
sequence. Teachers follow the children's
interests and do not provide focused
instruction in reading and writing.
Reggio approach has a strong belief
that children learn through interaction
with others, including parents, sta! and
peers in a friendly learning
environment.

The Reggio Emilia approach was

conceived, encompass and implement
the theoretical contributions of thinkers
including Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky and
Bruner. Collaboration among' children,
teachers, parents, and the community is
highly valued and the centres are open
to all families regardless of income and
supported by the town. This approach
originated in the Italian city of Reggio
Emilia after World War II. At that time,
some of the schools in the city rejected
the traditional approach of teaching
children through strict discipline and
guidelines. It adopted a more flexible
method. Gradually, this new way gained
popularity around the world because it
encourages child development through
exploration of interests and building
relationships with others.

One of the key elements of the Reggio

Emilia approach is the school
environment. Small and colourless
classrooms are thought to be
unproductive and limiting to a child's
imagination. This philosophy suggests
lessons be held in much bigger rooms
with plenty of light, Space and real
plants. The idea behind the principle is
to stimulate a student's sense of
exploration from an early stage. Some
schools following the Reggio Emilia
approach try to limit the barriers
between classrooms to encourage
interaction between students.

Parents and friends are very important

to this alternative form of education.
The children's development is often seen
as the responsibility of the entire
community. Parents are strongly
encouraged to assist their children, not
only with homework, but also by being
involved in the child's school activities.
The Reggio Emilia approach places a
great value on parental input, and most
school boards hold open meetings on
issues like school curriculum and policy.

A major innovation brought about by

this type of philosophy is the role of
educators. Learning material is typically
designed to enhance the teachers' own
education, to allow them. To learn along
with their students. Many of these
teaching methods include learning from
physical experience, such as touching,
hearing or seeing. Examinations, such
as achievement tests, are often limited
and a greater focus is put on helping
the children to comprehend the
practical Ways they can use what they
are learning.

Another important aspect of the Reggio

Emilia approach is that it gives children
some control over the way they learn
things. Parents and teachers are often
instructed to find ways to incorporate
individual student interests into a child's
learning process. Children are also
motivated to express themselves
through various means, such as writing,
drawing and play-acting. These works
are often shared, and even revised, by
their peers, to encourage collective
participation.

This model was conceived after World

War II when the women of Reggio
wanted to build a school, literally from
the rubble of the devastated town. The
curriculum is based on dose observation
and documentation of the children's
ideas by the teacher who co-constructs
knowledge with the children. Their
ideology expanded and deepened and
special roles are given to the atelierista
(helps children express ideas) and the
pedagogista (the teacher and
connector of teachers). Parents continue
to be engaged as partners in their
child's learning. The environment is used
as a valuable source of learning both to
inspire, reflect, and to promote the work
of the children, which is done in small
groups.

Here are some key features of

Reggio Emilia's early childhood
program:

The role of the environment-as-

teacher

Within the Reggio Emilia schools,

the educators are very concerned
about what their school
environment teach children. Hence,
a great attention is given to the
look and feel of the classroom. It is
often referring to the environment
as the "third teacher".
The aesthetic beauty within the
schools is seen as an important
part of respecting the child and
their learning environment.
A classroom atmosphere of
playfulness and joy pervades.
Teachers organize environment rich
in possibilities and provocations
that invite the children to
undertake extended exploration
and problem solving, often in small
groups, where cooperation and
disputation mingle pleasurably.
Documentation of children's work,
plants, and collections that children
have made from former outings are
displayed both at the children's and
adult eye level.
Common space available to all
children- in the school includes
dramatic play areas and work
tables for children from di!erent
classrooms to come together.

Children's multiple symbolic

languages

Using the arts as a symbolic

language through which to express
their understandings in their
project work

Consistent with Dr. Howard Gardner's

notion of schooling for multiple
intelligences, the Reggio approach calls
for the integration of the graphic arts
as tools for cognitive, linguistic, and
social development.

Presentation of concepts and

hypotheses in multiple forms such as
print, art, construction, drama, music,
puppetry, and shadow play. These are
viewed as essential to children's
understanding of experience.

Documentation as assessment and

advocacy (Rather unique in Reggio
approach)

Documenting and displaying the

children's project work, which is
necessary for children to express,
revisit, construct and reconstruct
their feelings, ideas and
understandings.
Similar to the portfolio approach,
documentation of children's work in
viewed as an important tool, in the
learning process for children,
progress is teachers, and parents.
Pictures of children engaged in
experiences, their words as they
discuss what they are doing, feeling
and thinking, and the children's
interpretation of experience
through the visual media are
displayed as a graphic presentation
of the dynamics of learning.
Teachers act as recorders
(documenters) for the children,
helping them trace and revisit their
words and actions and thereby
making the learning visible.

Long-term projects

Supporting and enriching children's

learning through in-depth, short-
term (one week) and long-term
(throughout the school year)
project work, in which responding,
recording, playing, exploring,
hypothesis building -and testing,
and provoking occurs.
Projects are child-centered,
following their interest, returning
again and again to add new
insights.
Throughout a project, teachers help
children make decisions about the
direction of study, the ways in
which the group will research the
topic, the representational medium
that will demonstrate and showcase
the topic.

The teacher as researcher

The teacher's role within the Reggio

Emilia approach is complex.
Working as co-teachers, the role of
the teacher is first and foremost to
be that of a learner alongside the
children. The teacher is a teacher-
researcher, a resource and guide as
she/he lends expertise to children.
Within such a teacher-research&
role, educators carefully listen,
observe, and document children's
work and the growth of community
in their classroom and are to
provoke and stimulate thinking.
Teachers are committed to
reflection about their own teaching
and learning. Classroom teachers
working in pairs and collaboration,
sharing information and mentoring
between personnel.

Home-school relationships

Children, teachers, parents,

community are interactive. They
work together. Building a
community of inquiry between
adults and children.
For communication and interaction
can deepen children's inquiry and
theory building about the world
around them.
Programs in Reggio are family
centered. Loris's vision of an
"education based on relationships"
focuses on each child in relation to
others and seeks to activate and
support children's reciprocal
relationships with other children,
family, teachers, society, and the
environment.

Reggio approach is not a formal model

with defined methods (such as Waldorf
and Montessori), teacher certification
standards and accreditation processes.
But rather, the educators in Reggio
Emilia speak of their evolving
"experience" and see themselves as a
provocation and reference point, a way
of engaging in dialogue starting from a
strong and rich vision of the child. In all
of these settings, documentation was
explored as a means of promoting
parent and teacher understanding of
children's learning and development.

The Reggio Emilia approach on early

childhood education, it did not play
down on the other approaches such as
Waldorf and Montessori. Each
approach has its own strengths and
weaknesses as well as areas of
di!erence.

The Pre-primary Schools of Reggio

Emilia

In contrast, the educators in the pre-

primary schools of Reggio Emilia are
very concerned about what their school
environments teach children, often
referring to the environment as the
"third educator" in conjunction with the
two classroom teachers (Gandini, 1998,
p. 177). The environment reflects the
schools' grounding in John Dewey's
educational philosophy and Vygotsky's
social constructivist learning theory
(Malaguzzi, 1998). It embodies Reggio
educators' belief that children are
resourceful, curious, competent,
imaginative, and have a desire to
interact with and communicate with
others (Rinaldi, 1998, p. 114). They
believe that children can best create
meaning and make sense of their world
through living in complex, rich
environments which support complex,
varied, sustained, and changing
relationships between people, the world
of ideas and the many ways of
expressing ideas" (Cadwell, p. 93) rather
than from simplified lessons or learning
environments. They also believe that
children have a right to environments
which support the development of their
many languages (Reggio Children,
1996).

There is great concern for what the

environment is teaching. The design of
the schools reflects the structure of the
community. The schools reflect a
diversity of ages and architectural
styles yet each school is designed
around a piazza which reflects the
central piazzas of the city. These are
not solely vehicles for moving through
to get someplace else but serve as
gathering places for children from all
the classes and comfortable meeting
spaces for parents and teachers.
Entering the Diana School, a visitor
looks down the piazza where floor to
ceiling windows and plants blur the
boundaries between outside and in,
supporting- the concepts of
transparency and osmosis. Lights and
shadows reflect and flicker across the
floor. The piazza o!ers many
possibilities: a store, stocked with real
vegetables a kaleidoscope large enough
to hold several children; and fanciful
dress-up clothes all invite investigation,
lingering, conversation and
collaboration.

Reggio educators include aspects of a

home into the school: vases of flowers,
real dishes, tablecloths, and plants.
There is attention to design and
placement of objects to provide a visual
and meaningful context. The objects
within the space are not simplified,
cartoon like images that are assumed to
appeal to children, but are "beautiful"
objects in their own right. For example,
dried flowers hang from the ceiling
beams and attractive jars of beans and
seeds are displayed on shelves in the
dining area of Arcobaleno Infant-
Toddler Centre. On the 1997 study tour
to Reggio, I was struck by the beautiful
wooden table with a large bowl of
flowers and wooden sideboard in one of
the rooms in La Villetta School. I
imagined being in a fine Italian dining
room! Manufactured and natural
materials available for art projects are
carefully displayed in transparent
containers, or objects are set on or
before mirrors to provide multiple views
and capture children's attention. The
strong role of the arts in Italian culture
is clearly evident in the place of the
atelier (art studio), mini ateliers
adjacent to each classroom and the role
the atelierista (artist-teacher) plays in
supporting children and teachers in
their work.

The walls hold the history of the life

within the school in the form of
documentation panels of children's
words and photos which synthesize past
projects and chronicle current ones.

Children's work and words are highly

visible within the space. Communicating
clearly to the children, their parents &
the community. Having respect and
value for children’s abilities, potential,
creating another form of transparency
and osmosis between the school and
surrounding community.

According to John Dewey Education is

life itself

John -Dewey (1859-1952) believed that

learning was active and schooling
unnecessarily long and restrictive. His
idea was that children came to school
to do things and live in a community
which gave them real, guided
experiences which fostered their
capacity to contribute to society. For
example, Dewey believed that students
should be involved in real-life tasks and
challenges.

Math could be learnt via learning

proportions in cooking. or figuring
out how long it would take to get
from one place to another by mule
History could be learnt by
experiencing how people lived,
geography, what the climate was
like, and how plants and animals
grew, were important subjects

Dewey had a gift for suggesting

activities that captured the center of
what his classes were studying.

Dewey's education philosophy helped

forward the "progressive education"
movement, and spawned the
development of "experiential education"
programs and experiments.

THE THEMATIC APPROACH

(INTEGRATED CURRICULUM)

Thematic teaching is about students

actively constructing their own
knowledge. Theorists Piaget and
Vygotsky were strong proponents of this
constructivist approach. Piaget (1926)
believed that knowledge is built in a,
slow, continuous construction of skills
and understanding that each child
brings to each, situation as he or she
matures. He also emphasized the
cognitive- growth that takes place when
students cooperate and interact with
one another. Vygotsky (1997, 175)
suggested that social interaction and
collaboration were powerful sources of
transformation in the child's thinking:
"In education it is far more important to
teach the child how to think than to
communicate various bits 'of knowledge
to him."

Therefore, thematic teaching can be

defined as the process of integrating
and linking multiple elements of a
curriculum in an ongoing exploration of
many di!erent aspects of a topic or
subject. It involves a constant
interaction between teacher and
students and their classroom
environment. Among the important
elements that foster success in any
thematic project are initiation of the
theme, the teacher's role, group
exploration, integration of the theme
with the curriculum and learning
centers, and building and maintaining
spirit and enthusiasm.

Various Web sites also can aid in the

initiation of a theme. For younger
students, visit the Web site of. Jan Brett,
author of Gingerbread Baby (1999) as
well as many other children's books
(www.janbrett.com). Older students can
research their interest in particular
aspects of a theme via the library and
the Internet.

Thematic Teaching and Curriculum

Integration are established with the
following goals in mind:

INSTRUCTION is planned to
accommodate individual interests,
abilities, and rates of learning while
fostering a climate of teamwork and
mutual support. Students are grouped
into heterogeneous, mixed-age classes
that are taught by a two-teacher team.
Students stay with these teachers for
two years. They work in groups of all
sizes and composition, engaged in
activity-based, learning projects. They
have many opportunities to make
decisions about their own learning and
to develop responsibility. Students'
progress at their own best rate and
move on when they are ready. There is
no ceiling on the level of work they can
do.

CURRICULUM is
interdisciplinary/integrated, organized
around themes, with many hands-on
activities and in-depth study of content.
All levels focus on the skills of
communicating well in oral and written
forms and using mathematical concepts
to solve problems. A strong citizenship
program emphasizes perseverance,
responsibility, and other life skills.
Assessment of learning is based on
individual growth and performance.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT is
encouraged and recognized as essential
for creating a nurturing, family-like,
school environment. Many parents work
in the classroom and throughout the
school.

Thus, thematic teaching is about

bringing together various aspects of the
curriculum into meaningful association
to focus upon broad areas of study. It
views learning and teaching in a holistic
way and reflects the real world, which is
interactive. In general, integrated
curriculum or interdisciplinary
curriculum includes:

A combination of subjects

An emphasis on projects

Sources that go beyond

textbooks

Relationships among concepts

Thematic units as organizing

principles

Flexible schedules

Flexible student groupings.

Recommended reference reading:

Videos:

Это видео с ограниченным доступом.

Froebel Kindergarten Gifts E…

Reggio Emilia: in a nut shell