What does 'education' mean in relation to infants and toddlers? A traditional pedagogical approach will look for an answer within the confines of an adult's actions directed towards a child. According to this approach, the social and cognitive development of young children will flourish only as a result of their interactions with an adult. However, a very different view has emerged from research into early child development.
A young child's social and cognitive processes are practised and consolidated as a result of her interactions with a complex social and physical environment. The behaviour and activities of other people, peers or adults are only one highly important component of this environment. Educators of very young children should focus on supporting the child to engage with, explore and control her environment, interact with both adults and peers and share meanings with them.
A daycare setting is a social environment where a variety of interpersonal relationships are interwoven and develop over time. Adults' and children's many shared experiences here eventually constitute a body of shared meanings and the global and complex dimensions of this social experience, which unfold over time, become crucial in planning educational practice.
The behaviours, activities and interactions of children and adults interweave like threads of a fabric. The quality of this fabric is determined by how well the threads are woven together - their brightness, smoothness and resilience can vary greatly. Moreover, this fabric is not made up of separate pieces of cloth - children's experience in each individual day. Children's experience in the educational setting over time can either be a succession of temporary and unrelated events, or it can compose a meaningful story.
The challenge is how to build up a richly woven tapestry that tells an interesting story to every child and adult in the setting. But to produce a fine tapestry, professional competences and a competent and supportive organisation are required.
Within an action research project that was carried out with the educational team of the Lagomago nido (a daycare centre for under-threes in Pistoia, Italy), we identified areas of practice aimed at guaranteeing the quality of the tapestry.
EVERYDAY LIFE
Every moment of a child's experience is a moment of learning, contributing towards their emotional and physical well-being, and formation of their identity. All of these are interwoven and impossible to separate. Even those 'in-between' moments, like waiting for lunch, can become occasions for meaningful shared experiences, such as helping to tidy play materials. A further major implication is the relevance of organising a daily schedule that children can identify, learn to anticipate and control.
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Special care has to be paid to the physical frame within which the tapestry is woven. The material and symbolic features of the physical setting will be arranged in order to support and organise children's activities and their interactions with peers and adults. It is not just a matter of providing well-defined play areas and materials. It is important that children know what is available and how and where it is arranged. This will allow children to rehearse play activities over time, find new ways to use the same materials or elaborate the same activity. The educators discovered that their own movements and location in the setting affect children's attention and engagement.
SHARING INTERESTS
Knitting and weaving threads, the educator will be engaged in sharing children's interest in other people, objects, and activities. They will also support the interactions and the sharing of experiences between children by providing them with the opportunity to meet in small groups. In this way the educator will help the group to build up a set of shared meanings.
WORKING WITH PARENTS
Involving parents helps to ensure a seamless connection between the child's experience in the nido and their life at home. When parents are constantly informed about children's activities in the centre, they better understand their meaning for children. They also become more willing to provide materials or produce special devices needed for children's activities, and more often participate in special initiatives inside and outside the centre.
Tullia Musatti and Susanna Mayer are researchers at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council of Italy, tullia.musatti@istc.cnr.it, susanna.mayer@istc.cnr.it
MORE INFORMATION
This is an edited version of 'EDUCARE in the nido: how to weave a tapestry from many threads', in Europe's youngest citizens: services and leave provision for under-threes, issue 20 of Children in Europe, published on 21 March. For further information visit www.childreninscotland.org.uk/cie20
An international conference on improving services for under-threes will take place at New Lanark, Scotland, on 6 June. For more information go to www.childreninscotland.org.uk/zerotothree.