Having never heard back from any of my international colleagues, I have chosen to do the alternative assignment. I listened to the podcast on the World Forum Foundation website. I listened to Susan Lyons. She created the "Innovative Teacher Project" (World Forum Foundation, 2011). In this project, she and several other teachers brought a new approach to learning into public schools, reaching a far more diverse population than they would in private schools. This high quality approach to early education is the Reggio Emilia Approach. It was established in Italy and is not a curriculum, but an approach to learning. Children are encouraged to be creative, to use critical thinking skills, to problem solve, to interact with their community. Teachers and families are encouraged to work together in this approach. It treats all children as individuals and they are highly respected. It is a high quality approach to education.
A review of Harvard University's "Global Children's Initiative" website gave me a view of high quality and equity in early childhood education from a global view. Browsing by topic, I came across an article called, "Experiences Build Brain Architecture". In the article, it is surmised that children develop critical skills based on their experiences in early childhood when the brain is going through its largest growth phase. These experiences need to be high quality experiences to help enhance this positive brain development. One project that the global initiative is partnering with is the Early Childhood Innovation Project. The project is currently revising program assessment standards to hold early childhood programs up to higher quality standards. They believe if we are to invest in early childhood education, we should make sure that we are investing in quality. Another area of the website that I found particularly interesting was the Child Mental Health Network. In this section, ways to assist children who either have a mental health disorder or are living within a family where a member suffers from a mental health issue. Their goal is to make sure that all children in need of mental health assistance can receive it.
Both the webcast and the website provided me with an insight into equality and high quality solutions available in current early childhood education. Striving for high quality schools that are available to all children is a priority for early childhood advocates.
References:
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children’s initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/
World Forum Foundation Radio, (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/radio.php
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI also found the work the 'Global children's initiative'on child mental health interesting. I never viewed mental health from a cultural perspective which was interesting and would like to know more as the work progresses.
Thanks for your post.
Thanks for the information. The Reggio approach is much like play based curriculum; my organization has been trying to implement some of the environmental approaches used by Reggio so as to make the classroom environment a place of child initiated discovery and exploration. The approach as you indicated is of high quality and truly values children as individuals as well as valuing families as positive contributors to their child's education and learning.
ReplyDeleteAmanda,
ReplyDeleteGreat information from the podcast conversation. The Reggio Emilia Approach sounds like an awesome way to teach children and build relationships with families.
Thanks for sharing.