Central to the Reggio approach is a respect for children's natural curiosity and creativity and their ability to produce powerful theories about the world and how it works. Many of these theories become the basis for long-term projects which provide opportunities for children to express their ideas, reflect, and discuss, question and advance their own understanding.
The trigger for a long-term project, the provocation, may come directly from an experience or encounter had by the children, or occasionally from a proposition made by one of the staff. The next stage involves extended discussion so that adults and children can share ideas, information, theories, attitudes and intelligences and begin to predict what might happen next.
Children's ideas are respected and taken seriously by the adults and by other children, thereby creating an environment in which children are unafraid of making mistakes, or of reconstructing their own ideas.
In Reggio, long-term experience has shown that children can be trusted to ask the right questions. The role of the adults is to intervene as little as possible, and to observe, to interpret and to facilitate the children's work by providing interesting and stimulating situations and resources.
Following the discussion phase, during which children develop their negotiation and verbal communication skills, ideas are developed in graphic form. Children quickly learn that to communicate, their drawings must be understandable to others. In explaining their drawings to themselves and to others they refine their theories, make choices and clarify their ideas.
Small groups of children with similar ideas are then 'relaunched' to develop their theories and extend their learning together.
Documentation
Central to the whole process of documentation is the detailed recording of children's activities through written notes, transcripts of conversations and discussions, tape recordings, drawings, 3-D representations, photographs and video recordings.
This information is integral to the development of a project and is reviewed and interpreted at every stage during its evolution. Its purpose is to:
* develop the adult's understanding of the children
* capture the learning process
* value children's ideas and theories
* allow children to revisit their ideas
* allow different adults to interpret what is happening in any learning situation
* inform the next stage of the project.
In addition, the visual and aural records form a point of contact with parents and the wider community to help extend their understanding and involvement.
Long-term projects in the UK
Drawing on the experiences of Reggio, educators in the UK have adopted different approaches to developing long-term projects designed to foster young children's curiosity and creativity using a variety of media and forms of expression; painting, sculpture, words, music, dance, science and technology.
Artists and educators
Since 1997, Sightlines Initiative in Newcastle has been working with pre-school children in the north-east of England on a series of long-term projects. This has resulted in teams of artists and educators becoming able to discover the strengths and enthusiasms of 'their' children and to develop their creative thinking and expressive capabilities.
The current three-year project, the 'Creative Foundation', extends this learning network and supports a range of early years settings in embedding their new ways of working.
At Cruddas Park Early Years Centre, Jan Rogers describes how children have recently initiated a building project mirroring development work on a new Sure Start building attached to the centre.
The 'provocation' in this instance was the need to cut down a large and much- loved willow tree in the garden to allow the building programme to proceed. The children have been able to express their feelings about the loss of a 'friend' through graphic representation on the windows of the nursery and to value and interpret 'change' through the proposed recycling of parts of the tree as musical instruments.
Working with parents
Interpreting young children's thinking and learning for parents and the local community was an important element of 'A Child's Eye View', an arts action research project carried out by Pat Hickman and Chris Morgan of Music and Dance Education( MaDE) in early years settings in two areas of Cornwall.
The project, funded by Cornwall EYDCP, South West Arts and the Arts Council, was also able to attract support from Sure Start, as the family learning workshops provided valuable opportunities for parents, carers and grandparents to engage with their children's learning.
Children developed their ideas, over a period of six weeks, using several different art forms - words, pictures, paper and willow sculptures, music and dance.
According to one pre-school leader, 'The exhibition offered parents and the public a chance to experience some of the Reggio philosophy at first hand, and gave a good insight into the thought processes and capabilities of the children and artists involved. The broad selection of photographs, videos, slides, texts, children's artwork and interactive displays were thoughtfully laid out, to provide an experience not to be missed.'
Foundation Stage creativity
The importance of making long-term projects part of the delivery of the Foundation Stage curriculum has been recognised at St Breock Primary School in Cornwall.
Children in Judith Bower's reception class make regular visits to their own area of woodland and engage in exploration, investigation, imaginative play and problem solving. Back in school, time is dedicated to developing children's curiosity and creativity stimulated by these experiences. Two weeks per term are set aside solely for this, and all aspects of the Foundation Stage curriculum are covered. The school is currently developing a similar approach with children in Year 1.
Cultural centres
The 5x5x5 project in Bath and north-east Somerset, funded by South West Arts and NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), involves a three-way collaboration between artists, educators and cultural settings in developing and fostering creativity in and with young children.
The cultural centres will:
* act as a catalyst
* offer creative spaces and rich environments
* demonstrate the value of children's thinking and representations to the wider community.
The artists will bring:
* fresh opportunities and interpretations
* recognition of creative opportunities
* expertise and skills.
The early years settings will have:
* knowledge of individual children, child development and educational issues
* close, supportive relationships with families
* opportunities for ongoing dialogue and development of children's theories.
Mary Fawcett, an educational consultant, and Penny Hay, art education development officer for Bath and north-east Somerset, intend this year-long project to transform early years practice by establishing creativity as an essential foundation for early learning.
Creative arts, scienceand technology
A new project in Sefton, initiated by headteacher Sue Gibertson, involves collaboration between Crossens Nursery School, the EYDCP and the LEA.
They are supporting an artist and an engineer to develop the outdoor environment using ideas and theories generated by children's visits to the local Botanic Gardens.
The use of documentation to support the evolution of this project will be captured on film to create a professional development tool that will support wider dissemination of an understanding of the Reggio approach.
(See page 22 for contact details.)