SHARING LEARNING AND PEDAGOGY
FROM THE EARLY YEARS 'NESTS' OF
REGGIO EMILIA
A seminar by Francesca Berattino
Children in Wales
July 20 2011, 2pm-4pm
ITALIAN SCHOOL’S

Asilo Nido
(nido d’infanzia)


0-3 years old
Scuola Materna
(scuola dell’infanzia)

Scuola Elementare
(scuola primaria)

Scuola Media
(scuola secondaria di I grado)

Scuola Superiore
(scuola secondaria di II grado)
Day Nursery
(word for word: Nest Shelter or infancy nest)

3-5 y.o.
ORGANISATION
Nursery School
(word for word: Motherly School or infancy school)

Primary School
6-10 y.o.
(word for word: Elementary School or primary
school)
11-13 y.o.
(word for word: Middle School or Lower secondary
school)
14-18 y.o.

Comprehensive School
(word for word: Advanced
secondary school)
School or
Upper
ITALIAN UNIVERSITY’S ORGANISATION
Total area: 22.446 Km²
Population: 4.417.113 (July 2010)
9 provices;
348 municipalities
LAWS MAKING POWERS
Regional Governments and
Local Authorities
National
Government
Exclusive
legislation
Concurrent
legislation
Exclusive
legislation


Setting out basic
universal principles
and vision in the
field of Health and
social rights;


General norms
concerning
Instruction (made by
the Education Ministry).
Social assistance and
Social welfare (0-3
services);


Health Protection;
Sanitary and hospital
assistance;
Instruction
(respecting the educational
autonomy of each school and
excluding the instruction and
training for professionals).



School assistance (for
children with special needs);
Education Right (for
university students also);
School building trade.
THE ORGANISATION OF SERVICES
0-3 IN EMILIA ROMAGNA
LOCAL REGULATIONS FOR DAY NURSERIES

National Law n.1044 of 1971



Regional Law n.1 of 2000 “Norms in matter of educational
services for early childhood”



it establish the muncipal day nurseries;
it defines as social service concerning public interest “the assistance in day
nurseries to children until 3 years old, in the frame of a family policy” .
it concerns also other services like Children Space (Spazio Bambini), Children and
Parents Centers and “experimental” services like Small Educational Group and
Home Educator;
it defines the educational caracteristics of the nurseries, their aims, the differet
kinds of possible management, the general time of opening, the minimum level of
education for the educators and their role inside the services, the role of the
Pedagogical Coordinator.
Regional Law n.8 of 2008

that modifies some articles of the latest n.1/2000 law.
TARGET TO INCREASE EY SERVICES/PLACES
The Europena Council of Lisbona, in 2000, ratifies european educational
politics about Early Infancy and Lifelong Learning.
The european target, about the increase of EYServices, was fixed to cover the
30% of places requested nationaly by 2010.
The current italian average is around 18% but the Emilia Romagna average
cover is on 30,3 % with the peak in Bologna’s province.
1- percentage of available places in the different Emilian provices in 2010
FROM THE REGIONAL LAW N.1/2000

What is the Day Nursey:


“The infancy nest is an educational and social service of public interest, opened
to all children between three months and three years, that it works in
partnership with the families for the growth and formation of the children.
The child has a right to education that respects the individual, cultural and
religious identities of everybody”.
Purpose of Day Nursery:



The formation and socialization of the children, from the perspective of their mental
and physical well-being and the development of their cognitive, emotional, relational
and social potential;
The care of the children that is entrusted to adults, who are not the parents, and in
an external context to that of the family;
The support to the families in the care of their children and in their educational
choices.
FROM THE REGIONAL LAW N.1/2000

The Pedagogical Project:


The educational offer, of every service, is defined in the Pedagogical Project that
“contains the purposes and the planning of the educational activities, as well as the
organizational modalities and the running of the service”. It states the purpose of the
service, the methods of relations with the parents, the organisation of the workers
and the organisation of routines.
Integration of children with special needs


The educational services for early childhood, in cooperation with the competent
services of the Local Health and Social Services of Commons, ensuring the right
integration and inclusion of children with disabilities, in accordance with Art. Law
12 of February 5, 1992, No 104 "Framework Law for the assistance, social
integration and rights of disabled people", and children in distress and sociocultural relationships, and also carry out preventive action against all forms of
disadvantage and exclusion.
The educational services for early childhood, the local health units and municipalities
identify specific forms of collaboration, in order to ensure the full integration of
children with disabilities and children with other social-cultural challenges, and
make health education interventions.
FROM THE REGIONAL LAW N.1/2000

Opening Times:





Full-time service: 5 day p/w, 8 (or more) hrs p/d;
Part-time service: 5 day p/w, less then 8 hrs p/d;
“Children Space” or Children and Parents Centers:
from 2 to 5 day p/w, maximum 5 hours without lunch time.
Boarding Fee (in 2000):

For public services: average 350€ (actually change £312,40);

For private services: from 300€ to 500€ (actually change £267,81 – £446,35).
Ratios educator/children:




From 3 to 12 months – 1/5 (maximum for each class 3/15);
From 12 to 24 months – 1/7 if full-time services (max 3/21); 1/8 if part-time services
(max 3/24);
From 24 to 36 months – 1/10 (max 3/30).
From the other employers (cleaner assistants), excluding kitchen workers (chefs and
helpers), the relationship is 1 every 21 children.
FROM THE REGIONAL LAW N.1/2000

Educator’s role:


Hours of work and formation:



“The educators have competences in the care and education of the children and in
the relation with the families and they supply to the organization and the planning of
the service. […] The activity of the staff is carried out according to the method of
teamwork and the principles of partnership, in close collaboration with the
families, in order to guarantee the continuity of the educational participation
and the full and integrated use of the different skills of all workers inside the service.”
Average 36 hrs p/wk: 30 hours in the direct work with children and 6 hours every
week for planning, have meetings with colleagues and all the staff, documentation of
experiences, speak with parents, training, etc.;
Every year, each educator has 20 hours minimum of training courses.
Qualifiation:

By 2010 every new employer needs a degree qualification (3 years of university
studies).
TYPES OF INFANCY SERVICES
DAY NURSERY
(Nido d’infanzia)
LITTLE DAY NURSERY
(Micronido)
“CHILDREN SPACE”
(Spazio Bambini)
CHILDREN AND
PARENTS CENTRE
(Centro bambini e genitori)
CHILDMINDER or
LITTLE EDUCATIONAL
GROUP
(Educatrice familiare o
Piccolo gruppo educativo)
HOME EDUCATOR
(Educatrice domiciliare)
Educational Services
DAY NURSERIES
TIMES
Full-Time: 8 am – 4 pm
Part-Time: 8 am – 2 pm
Extra time: 7.30 – 8 am / 4 – 6 pm (completely paid by parents)
Monday to Friday; September to June (some services could have a summer camp in July)
PARTICIPANTS
from 21 to 60 children; from 3 to 36 months.
FOOD
This services must provide lunch for children and any other snacks.
They can be prepared by internal cooks or by external catering services.
The costs of the lunch is included in the fee.
Full-time services should have dedicated rooms for sleeping time of children in the morning or
afternoon (1 – 3 pm).
MANAGEMENT
These services could be run by different institutions:
municipality, charity joining with municipality, charity in convention with municipality, private
associations.
LITTLE DAY NURSERIES
Almost the same as Day Nursery but the number of children could be from only 6 to 20.
TYPES OF INFANCY SERVICES
DAY NURSERY
(Nido d’infanzia)
LITTLE DAY NURSERY
(Micronido)
“CHILDREN SPACE”
(Spazio Bambini)
CHILDREN AND
PARENTS CENTRE
(Centro bambini e genitori)
CHILDMINDER or
LITTLE EDUCATIONAL
GROUP
(Educatrice familiare o
Piccolo gruppo educativo)
HOME EDUCATOR
(Educatrice domiciliare)
Complimentary Services
“CHILDREN SPACE”
TIMES
Part-Time: min 3 max 5 hours p/d; min 3
day p/w.
Could be planning one session in the
morning and one in afternoon.
PARTICIPANTS
Maximum 50 children, from 21 to 36
months
FOOD
This service does not have to provide lunch
for children, they just provide little snacks
for every session.
This service do not need dedicated rooms
for sleeping time of children.
MANAGEMENT
This service could be run by different
institutions: municipality, charity joining
with municipality, charity in convention
with municipality, private associations.
CHILDREN AND
PARENTS CENTRE
TIMES
Part-Time: min 3 max 5 hours p/d; min 3 day
p/w.
Could be planning one session in the
morning and one in afternoon.
PARTICIPANTS
There is no maximum for children from 3 to
36 month; parents should to stay with
children.
FOOD
This service does not have to provide lunch
for children, they just provide little snacks
for every session.
This service do not need dedicated rooms for
sleeping time of children.
MANAGEMENT
This service could be run by different
institutions: municipality, charity joining
with municipality, charity in convention
with municipality, private associations.
TYPES OF INFANCY SERVICES
DAY NURSERY
(Nido d’infanzia)
LITTLE DAY NURSERY
(Micronido)
“CHILDREN SPACE”
(Spazio Bambini)
CHILDREN AND
PARENTS CENTRE
(Centro bambini e genitori)
CHILDMINDER or
LITTLE EDUCATIONAL
GROUP
(Educatrice familiare o
Piccolo gruppo educativo)
HOME EDUCATOR
(Educatrice domiciliare)
Experimental Services
CHILD MINDER or Little
educational group
TIMES
Max 36 hours p/w;
generally from 8am to 2pm, Monday to Friday.
PARTICIPANTS
Maximum 5 children from 12 to 36 months
hosting in the house of the educator.
FOOD
This service has to provide lunch for children
and any other snacks.
They can be prepared by internal cooks or by
external catering services.
The costs of the lunch is included in the fee.
This service does not need dedicated places for
sleeping time of children.
MANAGEMENT
This service could be run by charity in
convention with municipality and privates.
QUALIFIATION OF THE EDUCATORS
The educator should have 6 mounths of “inpractice” training in a public Day Nursery and
100 hrs of learning as well as the degree.
HOME EDUCATOR
TIMES
From 20 to 40 hours p/w;
PARTICIPANTS
Maximum 3 children from 6 to 36 months;
the service should be organized into the
home of one of the families that employing
directly the educator.
FOOD
This services have to provide lunch for
children and any other snacks.
They can be prepared by internal cooks or
by external catering services.
MANAGEMENT
This services is run by private person.
QUALIFIATION OF THE EDUCATORS
The educator should have 6 mounths of “inpractice” training in a public Day Nursery
and 100 hrs of learning as well as the
degree.
THE ORGANISATION OF INFANCY
SHOOLS IN EMILIA ROMAGNA
LOCAL REGULATIONS FOR NURSERY SCHOOLS
FOR CHILDREN FROM

3* TO 5 YEARS OLD.
National Law n.62 of 2000
“Norms for the scholastic equality and dispositions on the right to
education and instruction”;

Legislative Decree n.59 of 2004
“Definition of the general norms relative to the schools of infancy”;

Ministry Decree of the 31° of July 2007
“General indications for the curriculum in Nursery and Primary
School”.
*the Ministery Circular n.110/2007 gives the opportunity for the children from 24 to 36 months to go to prechools in a “special” class called
“Spring Section” or “Experimental joint section”.
THE MINISTERY DECREE 31 JULY 2007
“GENERAL INDICATIONS
FOR THE CURRICULUM IN
NURSERY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL”.
The school of infancy, freely chosen from the families, addresses to all the
children from the 3 to the 6 years of age and is the answer to their right to
the education. It has its origins in the local communities (as the
Municipalities and the Parishes) and in them it has grown. Today it is
expressed in a plurality of institutional and organizational models, promoted
by various subjects: the State; the religious Orders, the parochial Associations
and Communities; the Local Authorities.
........
For every child, the school of infancy sets the purpose to promote the
development of identity, autonomy, competence and citizenship.
 it describes the differents National Indicators for the curriculum in
Nursery Schools;
 it describes the disciplines and the disciplinary areas for the
Primary Schools.

Organisation:




Max 28 children each class
divided from age;
From 25 to 50 hours p/w;
1 teacher each class until 25
hours, 2 teachers until 50
hours;
Every teacher works max 40
hours p/w: min 25 hours
directly with children.
7.30
Opening
7.30-9.00
Welcome time and gioco libero
9.00-9.15
Little breakfast with fruits and milk.
9.15-9.45
“Assembly” (introduction game, songs, “sharing time”,
presentation of the different activities of the morning),
preparation for activities.
9.45-10.45
Activities organised and supported by teachers (every day
the class is shared in 2/3 smaller groups and children do
activities that have been planned by the teachers in
accordance with the annual educational project or do gioco
libero; the teacher has to support every child in the activity
promoting independance and research in action).
10.45-11.30 Reorganisation of the class room; gioco libero and Toilet
time preparing for lunch.
11.30-12.30 Lunch
12.30-13.00 gioco libero and toilet time preparing for sleeping; Exit of
children of part-time
13.00-15.00 Sleeping time
15.00-15.30 Awaking and snack (bisquits or cakes, juices or milk)
15.30-16.00 Gioco libero and Exit of full-time
16.00-18.20 Activities and plays for children with extra time
18.20
Closing
ADVICES FOR THE CURRICULUM
These indications contribute to define the purposes
of the service, the educational-didactic proposals
and the fields of experience.

The purposes of the Nursery School:


“For every child the school of infancy sets the
purpose to promote the development of the identity,
the autonomy, the competence, the citizenship.”
The educational-didactic proposals:

“The school of infancy organizes the educational and
didactic proposals expanding and giving form to the
first explorations, intuitions and discoveries of the
children through a explicit curriculum. To it is
subtended a implicit curriculum constituted from
constants that define the learning atmosphere and
they return it immediately specific and recognizable
…”
THE EDUCATIONAL-DIDACTIC PROPOSALS
 The
Space:
“The pleasant, warm, cured space, oriented from the taste, is expression of the
pedagogy and the educational choices of each school. It is a space that speaks
about the children, about their value and their need of play, of movement,
expression, privacy and sociality, through the physical environment, the
choice of furnishings and objects in order to create a functional and inviting
disposition to be lived from the same children.”
THE EDUCATIONAL-DIDACTIC PROPOSALS

The Time:
“The extended time, in which it is possible for
the child to play, to explore, to converse, to
observe, to listen, to understand, to grow with
safety and in tranquility, to feel confident of
himself and of the activities that he is going to
experiment and in which he practices. In this
way the child can discover and live own
existential time without accelerations or slowing
down induced from the adults.”

The participation:
“Participation is the dimension that establishes
and develops co-responsibilities, to encourage
the dialogue and the cooperation in the
construction of the knowledge of everyone.”
THE EDUCATIONAL-DIDACTIC PROPOSALS
 The
Documentation:
“The documentation, like process that produces traces, memory and reflection, makes
visible the modalities and the distances of formation and estimates the progress of
the individual and group learning.”
 The
Educational Style:
“The educational style is founded on the observation and on listening and the
collective elaborated projects and planning, and the indirect participation of teachers
on children activities and on direction.”
ADVICE FOR THE CURRICULUM
 The


Fields of Experience:
In the school of infancy, teacher guidelines suggest that in order to
develop the competence of children, teachers need to create
occasions and possibilities of experiences to develop the children’s
competence. This is intended in a total, holistic way.
The learning plans characterise mainly the following fields of
experience:
1.
“The Self and the Others”;
2.
“The body in movement”;
3.
“Languages, creativity, expression”;
4.
“The speech and the words”;
5.
“The knowledge of the world”.
THE FIELDS OF EXPERIENCE
1.
“The Self and the Others”: the great questions, the
moral sense, living together.
The children formulate the great existential
questions about the world and begin to reflect on the
sense and on the moral value of their actions, they
take conscience of own identity, discover the
diversities and they learn the first necessary rules to
the social life.
THE FIELDS OF EXPERIANCE
2.
“The body in movement”: identity, autonomy, health.
The children become conscious and acquire the
sense of own physical self, the control of the body, its
functions, its image, the sensory and expressive
possibilities and their relation and they learn to care
about their body through health education.
THE FIELDS OF EXPERIENCE
3.
“Languages,
creativity,
expression”:
expression, art, music, multimedia.
gestural
The children are encouraged to express with
imagination and creativity their emotions and their
thoughts; the art guides this proclivity, educates to
aesthetic feeling and the pleasure of beauty
THE FIELDS OF EXPERIENCE
4.
“The speech and
language, culture.
the
words”:
communication,
The children learn how to communicate orally, to
describe own experiences to the world, to chat and to
converse, to reflect on the language, and approach
the written language.
Through the acquaintance and the knowledge of the
maternal language and other languages they
consolidate their personal and cultural identity and
they are opened towards other cultures.
THE FIELDS OF EXPERIANCE
5.
“The knowledge of the world”: order, measure, space,
time, nature.
The children explore the real world, learning to
organize own experiences through aware actions as
grouping, comparing, counting, ordering, orienting
themselves and representing what they have seen
and explored with drawings and words.
THE REGGIO APPROACH
A special experience.
MAIN FOUNDATION ELEMETS
Community:
after the II world war (1945), it was the parents and citizens
of Reggio Emilia who, in a show of collective responsibility and the desire to
create a better society for their children, occupied a disused building thet they
turned in the firs nursery school. This and the other schools that followed were
quite literally built by the people;
Loris Malaguzzi
(1920-1994): a primary
school teacher who later went on to study
psychology and brought to his lifetime work in
education, his interests and experience in
theatre, journalism, sport and politics. A very
strong character but highly collaborative:
Malaguzzi described himself as stubborn, with
an iron will. He wanted to win and to carry
along with himself everyone who thought like
himself, better than himself or differently from
himself. As a result, Malaguzzi worked
tirelessly with colleagues in Reggio to further
his understanding of how children learn, and to
publicize his passionate belief in his image of
the competent, confident child.
OPENING, AWARDS AND NEW ORGANISATION

1963

1970

the local council (or municipality) opened the first
municipal pre-school establishments for children of 3-6 years;
were open the first infant-toddler centre for infants from
three months to 3 years;
1980
creation of a touring exibition of the work taking place in the
school, originally “The Eye Jumps over the Wall” now known as “The
Hundred Languages of Children”;

1991

1992
the American magazine “Newsweek” named the Diana preschool
as the most avant-garde early childhood institution in the world, leading
to huge interest from the United States and the rest of the world;
Loris Malaguzzi was awarded to Danish “LEGO” Prize for
his outstanding work in the field of early childhood education;
AWARDS AND NEW ORGANISATION


1993
Reggio schools were given an award by the “Khol
Foundation” in Chicago;
1994
the “Hans Christian Andersen Prize” was awareded to the
schools in recognition of their work;

1995

2006
founding of the organisation “Reggio Children” in
response to the level of global interest in Reggio, it organizes
international conferences, training courses and visits to the schools.
It has as full title “the centrre for the Promotion and Defence of the
Rights of the Children”
opening of the “Loris Malaguzi International Centre of
Childhood”.
THE
“LORIS MALAGUZZI INTERNATIONAL
CENTRE OF CHILDHOOD”.
It hosts different exhibitions, international meetings and
training on the theme of childhood and education. It has
conference rooms, a theatre, exhibition space and
working creative and scientific ateliers.
Since 2006 the spaces of the Ateliers has hosted the Ray of Light
Atelier, a place for research, experimentation and immersion in an
environment where light, in its various forms, can be investigated by
means of explorations that provoke curiosity and wonder, and
stimulate creativity and in-depth study. It is also a place of research
in relation to a new didactics of science.
The Ray of Light Atelier is designed for investigation and interactive
experimentation, for both individuals and groups, by means of
specifically devised contexts and instruments, with environments
designed to make the phenomena more manifest and spectacular.
In 2009 a municipality pre-school was opened inside the
centre, and in 2010 a classroom for the first year of a
public primary school in order to try to link the different
level and educational organisation.
WHAT IS THE “REGGIO APPROACH”?

The Image of Child

The Expressive arts in the pre-schools

The “progettazione”

The Community and parent-school relationships

The Environment

Teachers as Learners
THE IMAGE OF CHILD


“Our image of children no longer considers them as isolated
and egocentric, does not only see them as engaged in action
with objects, does not emphasize only the cognitive aspects, does
not belittle feelings or what is not logical and does not consider
with ambiguity the role of the reflective domain. Instead our
image of the child is rich in potential, strong, powerful,
competent and, most of all, connected to adults and
children” (Malaguzzi)
“Children have the right to be recognised as subjects of
individual, legal, civil, and social rights; as both source
and constructors of their own experience, and thus active
participants in the organisation of their identities, abilities,
and autonomy, through relationships and interaction with
their peers, with adults, with ideas, with objects and with the
real and imaginary events of intercommunicating worlds”
THE IMAGE OF CHILD



Socio-constructivism;
The Pedagogy of Listening: listening being a
metaphore for the educators’ attempt to gain as real an
understanding as possible of children and their
learning processes;
Consider early infancy to be a dinstinct
development phase in which children demonstrate
an extraordinary curiosity about the world, and not
just a stage preapring for the proper learning time.
THE EXPRESSIVE ARTS IN THE PRE-SCHOOL
The child is made of one hundred.
The child has a hundred languages, a hundred hands, a
hundred thoughts, a hundred ways of thinking, of playing, of
speaking … (Malaguzzi)

Drawing activities are daily a occurrence in the schools; the
children are also encouraged to participate in a variety of
expressive activities such as sculpture, dramatic play, shadow
play, puppetry, painting, dancing, music, ceramics,
construction and writing;

Ateliers and mini-atelier are present in every school and the
teaching staff enriched by an artist (atelierista) in charge to
develop specific projects with the children

THE EXPRESSIVE ARTS IN THE PRE-SCHOOL
The children are encouraged to use all their senses to seek a greater
understanding; through observation, analysis and piecing together what they
experience, they dismantle and reassemble the original, creating a new and
individual whole. Synaesthetic activities (such as encouraging children to
make pictorial representations of smells or noises, for example) are a
dominant feature and seek to give children a fuller understanding of
the world. As Vea Vecchi, atelierista at the Diana preschool establishment,
states, “it is through the process of transformation that we become closer to the
very essence of life”.
THE “PROGETTAZIONE”



This is not a free journey but neither is it a journey
with rigid timetables and schedules; rather, it is akin
to a journey guided by a compass.”
“Research as a term capable of describing the
straining to know, which is activated each time
authentic processes of knowledge are created.
Research to describe the individual and common
journey in the direction of new universes of
possibility …”
“Progettazione is a metaphorical dance between
teacher and child – a spiral of knowledge.”
(Carlina Rinaldi)
THE COMMUNITY AND
THE PARENT-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP


It is the right of parents to participate
actively, and with voluntary adherence
to the basic principles, in the growth,
care and development of their children
who are entrusted to the public
institution.
“… participation is an educational
strategy that characterises our way of
being and teaching. Participation of the
children, the teachers and the families,
not only by taking part in something
but by being part of it, its essence, part
of a common identity, a ‘we’ that we give
life to through participation”
(Carlina Rinaldi)
THE COMMUNITY AND
THE PARENT-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP

“I’ve learned a lot of things from the infant-toddler centre and
pre-school my grandson has attended. They have made me feel
alive because I have had to reflect on those values that have
always characterised my life … I feel the need to grow with my
grandson and this has given me a new outlook on life”
(Luciano Gozzi, grandfather)
THE ENVIRONMENT


Rather than separated space are used for separate
purposes, the schools are composed of a series of connecting
spaces that flow into another;
Classrooms open onto a central “piazza”, mirroring the
central meeting places in the town, and children move
freely through the space.
THE ENVIRONMENT



The importance of the aesthetic dimension for
learning;
The schools are multi-sensory and the furniture is designed
to be multi-functional;
Create a natural link between the inside and outside
TEACHERS AS LEARNERS



Good staff development is not something that is undertaken
every now and then, reflecting only on the words of someone
else. Instead, it is a vital and daily aspect of our work, of our
personal and professional identities. Staff development is
seen above all as an indispensable vehicle by which to make
stronger the quality of our interaction with children and
among ourselves. (Carlina Rinaldi);
Continuing professional development is not about developing
teachers’ understanding of how to teach but about
developing their understanding of how children learn;
Professional development is considered to be a continuing
evolutionary process that is an intrinsic part of the teacher’s
day. At its heart is the belief in staff development as change;
staff development as promoting participation and
interaction.
THANK YOU.
BERATTINO FRANCESA ANNA –
PEDAGOGIST AND EDUCATIONAL COORDINATOR FOR EARLY YEAR SERVICES –
JULY 20 2011 FOR CHILDREN IN WALES.