The Emerging Curriculum: A Reflection

The Emerging Curriculum: A Reflection
Curriculum... is not a concept; it is a cultural construction. That is, it is not an abstract concept which has some existence outside and prior to human experience. Rather, it is a way of organizing a set of human educational practices (Grundy 1987). For so many years that I have been involved in the teaching profession this has been my concept of what a curriculum is. It is alive, it is evolving, but only in a sense that changes is injected to it on a regular basis based on what is current in terms of technology and whatever teaching techniques and method is new on the educational scene. Specialist, meaning curriculum specialist and consultant, subjects and technical experts and teachers were involved in the design, upgrade or in enriching a curriculum. It is plan and it is intentional. Ideas were pre-conceived and pre-determined. A blue print for activities.
A curriculum involves formal intentions, that is, intentions deliberately chosen to promote learning. A curriculum articulates the relationships among its different elements (objectives, content, evaluation, etc.), integrating them into a unified and coherent whole
(David Pratt 1980).

A seminar-workshop would initially be set up to answer a need to enrich a curriculum, participants will be identified, all of them professional educators in one way or another. Consultation, a lot of readings, some revisions, and eventually we have a newly designed or an enriched curriculum. Of which, lesson plans will be based. A cut-and-dried plan.

Contrast this to how a Reggio Emilia inspired curriculum would normally evolve;

• A teacher taking note, valuing an identified interest as an opportunity to understand more about the children.

• Establishment of community of small group whose primary aim is to open up and assess the children’s knowledge and interest. Collaboration between adults-parents, teachers, atelierista and pedagogoista.The purpose; discussions of various possibilities, hypothesis and potential directions that an identified project might take.


• The teacher organizing and galvanizing each child to participate and to grow, within the context of a group investigation. The child is a part, an essential part, but only a part. Encouraging discussion among the children by asking a series of open-ended questions that the parents had help formulate.

• Documenting the discussions and succeeding activities. Taking note of the cognitive taking place. Assessing if genuine interest is present for a deeper sense of inquiry to sustain continued interest the activity. Having in mind-during this phase of assessing, not the child’s acquired knowledge but his construction of knowledge and knowing all too well that the involvement of a adult legitimizes the child’s knowledge and curiosity.


• Posing a challenge to the children. ‘Would the children want to do it?’ ‘Could they do it? Measuring the degree of motivation on the part of the children. Assessing the children’s individual capacity to react to a challenge in an effort to the cognitive learning process in the group.

• The teacher actively guiding and shaping, but not controlling the discussion and flow of how the project is going into. Taking note of the depth of inquiry the children had gone into to meet the posed challenge.

• The re-reading of the experience and the transfer of the children’s acquired knowledge. The exercise, clarifying and consolidating the knowledge gain from their work.


For so many years I have worked with students whose sense of achievement was invariably twined to the idea of competition. A concept made possible by the cut and dried plans and intentions identified in the design of a linear and rigid curriculum. A child’s presence in the classroom is perceived to serve two singular purpose, that of competing and succeeding while gaining knowledge.

In my talk with a number of individuals who had been – in one way or another- exposed to the current character of student’s present on the aboriginal reserve I have been made to understand that motivation to acquire knowledge is a bit below the national average and knowledge construction and depth of knowledge acquisition is quite marginalized. I have also, just recently come to a realization that my two decades of classroom instruction is not enough to overcome the aforementioned challenges. And that I would need an approach that would require me to explore and go a bit deeper into a child’s psyche to be able to reach out, to be able to motivate if not to provoke or cause encouragement to do an inquiry and go into an exploration of a subject that is of interest to him/her.

What type of provocation would I pose? How would the type of medium (language) affect the quality a child’s response to a provocation. How would I pose the provocation. What kind of inquiry would tickle or provoke the minds of children who were made to lead a life that is next to hopelessness and who had very little idea of what prosperity means.

The idea of having to design an emerging and working curriculum through observation talk and discussion and collaboration with children, parents, and other community stakeholder to overcome the challenges that had beguiled me had intrigued me to no end.

atmansilla
university of manitoba

The Environment as Third Teacher

The Environment as Third Teacher

Utilizing the environment as “ third teacher” is a very new idea for me. I was used to the idea of a classrooms bared of any specific teaching-learning topic- for the simplest of reason- a lot of teacher share a common room and make use of it to teach different subjects. Kindergarten and Elementary school teacher – to a degree- would post some chart/diagram and poster along the walls of their classroom, but this is merely accomplished to inject the idea of the transformation of the room to a classroom. No more no less than classroom decorations; the students’ does not make use of it, the teacher was not utilizing it as a teaching medium and the parents does not even read it. As for the actual utilization of light (sunlight passing through a strategically placed window, the degree of intensity of classroom illumination, used of the light tables) and the idea of exploring different papers and how light shines through them for inquiry and exploratory purposes, the creation of an art center, these are quite new and very novel idea for me.

On a number of visit to Stanley Knowles, a French immersion school where my son is a grade students I have seen and to a certain degree, I believe I have made used of a an art center while interacting with son. I was really amazed the first time I saw it – an art center- so many art mediums arranged on shelves, organized neatly pencils, pens and markers are arranged by, designed to accommodate the children and a working environment allowing them to interact in small groups while working on art project, rather sitting than sitting them on a series of chairs and desk facing their teachers. On the walls are diagrams and charts and posters and prominently displayed were children’s work. Adjacent to A concept much more enriched when the teachers of Reggio Emilia introduced the idea of the environment as being influential in regard to the affective, cognitive and linguistic acquisition (Edwards, Gandini, & Foreman 1998). Gandini, in fact had been more specific when she made mentioned of the idea that the design and use of space encourage encounters, communication, and relationship.

When one enters the schools for young children in Reggio Emilia, one immediately senses a welcoming feeling, an atmosphere of discovery and serenity (Edwards, Gandini, & Foreman 1998). In reflecting on my initial feelings when I first saw how the kindergarten was designed to accommodate a child’s working and learning environment in Stanley Knowles. I was honestly both awed and amazed by how affluent and how rich the environment was. In fact, the same classroom setup permeates on almost all the elementary rooms of the school

Tarr, in referring to how a North American school was normally set up states:
.
“Classrooms are often crowded with centers and materials, yet the overall aesthetic of individual items is one of simplification in form and uniformity of style and color. Teachers can evendecorated with these images of apples, school buses, the alphabet, ghosts or jack-o-lanterns, and Santa Clauses to match their classrooms”

The teachers of Reggio Emilia went further when they started to carefully organized space for small and large group projects and small intimate spaces for one, two or three children. And went on to document the children's work, and collections and displayed them. Another innovation was the inclusion of dramatic work areas and worktables for children from different classrooms to come together.

Innovations upon innovations, as the Reggio Emilia approach continues to evolve. Embodying Reggio educators' belief that children are resourceful, curious, competent, imaginative, and have a desire to interact with and communicate with others. On a 1991 article in Newsweek, Pia Hinckle quoted Malaguzzi in saying , “A school needs to be a place for all children not based on the idea that they're all the same, but that they're all different."

With all of this end mind, (i.e. the child’s documented interaction with his/her peers, the collections /she had made, the art works, the writings and the gestures) I still see the school environment as a laboratory where everything is contrived and so design to extract both the feelings and knowledge that child wants to communicate. What if the child comes from a damaged or disadvantaged environment and for one reason or another had learned to masked his/her feelings to be able to seek or gain approval for the attainment of a personal objective, What if the child had developed the plasticity and the resiliency to hide his/her feelings and had the skill to survive in an environment alien to her/him without actually communicating his/her actuations, wishes and desire. Will the factors, innovative as they were, inherent in the construction and design of a Reggio Emilia inspired space be enough to take the child out of her/his self made shell and allow the teacher a glimpse of what is he/she is and what she is made of.

atmansilla
university of manitoba

Reggio Emelia 1 (U of M)

Lessons learned from Reggio Emilia

Youth, as quoted from a very popular phrase is wasted on the young. A remark made in the context entirely from an adult sphere of experience. To be able to see the world again, through the eyes of a child, to be able to make sense of the entirety of human experience through a prism of innocence, what adult will deny himself such an option. A drop of water from the fountain of youth, quenching man’s quest for immortality.

When the world was a swirl of fun and games, when Mickey Mouse and fairies were both real and imagined playmates. When dreams were of French fries and McDonalds, when a day was always a series of moments and unknown expectations; one of joy, one of wonder one of real and imagined fears. An endless array of feelings and sensations lost and diminished on a child, before age and responsibility will finally take over.

A useful lesson of the Reggio Emilia approach is that there is no reason to believe that teachers must choose between encouraging realistic or imaginative visual expression as two mutually exclusive alternatives.

A teacher, to be able to have a grasp of flows and ebbs of a child thoughts must have on his/her disposable not just the patience but also the materials of the visual graphic utilized as a medium of a child languages For so many years, I have thought and practice the idea of kids doing graphic and visual works as nothing more than a cognitive and psychomotor exercises. I would-more often than not- make an assessment on the quality of work based on aesthetics. Appreciation of colors, some gained expertise on the use of materials associated with arts work but never as a tool for reading the child’s thoughts and his perception of the world around him/her. This might not be a novel idea on the approaches made so far by the teachers of Reggio Emilia, but it is to me.

Today’s child is perceived as a rare and precious object.

The child might end up as the president of his country, a priest of his church, a pilot of his plane, a teacher to her student, a father to his son or a mentor to his ward. His presence eventually causing great influences both to his life and to the people close to him. With this in mind, Reggio Emilia’s approach towards the raising of the child was not only fitting but would be the most appropriate.

Mainstream practice of teaching a child mainly relies on the expertise of the teacher and the quality of the curriculum that encompasses the teaching learning continuum. The early years of parents’ participation in the Reggio Emilia’s ‘experience’ was mainly influenced by the ideologies and ideals of the past. Nowadays, the people involve in this approach recognizes that these influences had changed and parents participation are now governed by opportunities for personal growth. The very thought of the system recognizing such change of influences on the part of the parents’ participation in the triad gave it more resilience and thus, identifies its’ strength in terms of the approach of the ‘project’s’ enthusiasm and sustainability.

The parents role in this triad is and was never considered as an intrusion, rather it was taken as a positive contribution to the thesis that ‘ the kinds of participation and cooperation that gives the best results are those that accommodate and welcome many different personal contributions’.


atmansilla08
university of manitoba

Learning Journal 1

Learning Journal 1

I have been engaged in program planning since my first day in school and that was 22 years ago. But it was only in the year 2000, when I was designated as our university’s Director for Research and Extension that I did actual program planning and implementation related activities. What I did then was basically to coordinate our university’s research output in small scale business industries towards entrepreunaral activities for the non working wives from our immediate community.
That was eight years ago and it took quite a while for me to be able to remember the so many details that we went into to be able to plan and implement the program of activities that we have designed in cooperation with the local government of our town in Dasmarinas, Cavite in the Philippines. Making a three dimensional logic design model out of that activity was a real challenge for. It’s only thru reading Sork’s theories in planning that I was able to recollect the series of activities that went through. The purposes, contents, methods and evaluations and the details that went with this various stages of program planning. One very fascinating note that he did mentioned was when he cited Knowles, who said that ‘ programs should address the needs of learners and suggested an approach to planning conducting instructions that put the interest and experiences of learners in the foreground’. As I remember it we did get the bio data of all the participants but we did not gave in sincere efforts towards their prior knowledge or experience towards designing the program.
One thing that comes prominently to mind was the teaching methodology that we have adopted when we worked with the local NGO’s other government institutions and also with other university’s engaged in extension in our province. We didn’t know then of ‘andragogy’ as an alternative educational process to ‘pedagogy’. We did know that learning should empower the learners. Knowles’ approach of using ‘andragogy’ rather ‘pedagogy’ in approaching teaching and learning differences was an eye opener for me. More so when he revised his position when started writing ‘pedagogy to andragogy’. Giving more credence to the idea that the learning teaching process is a continuum rather than a transition from one stage to another.


Alberto T Mansilla
February, 2009