The draft curriculum and Transforming Curriculum and Assessment will allow more room for project based learning and emergent curriculum. Teachers will work with students on problems that have “Surface Area”. Teacher planning will allow for multiple pathways of expression.
With less specific learning outcomes teachers will have the opportunity to implement authentic projects that are interesting and culturally relevant to the unique learners where they are teaching. According to the draft curriculum document “Deeper learning happens when students use their understandings and competencies to solve problems, make decisions and inquire into real-world issues.” The Reggio approach is all about authenticity, in projects and materials. Teachers will not be tasked with creating hypothetical word problems. Instead, classroom investigations will be concerned with real life complexity (Meier, 2013).
This might mean that units of study may look unusual. As described in “Visible Learners” the kindergarten class embarked on a project and unit of study entirely about doors. A quick look at the blog of Reggio inspired Quadra Island Preschool shows that a topic of interest at the school right now is step-ladders. These two projects are in stark contrast with predictable themes one comes to expect after working in schools for several years. For example Egypt in grade 7 or Owls in grade four. When project plans are driven by student interest they tend to be highly culturally relevant or directly applicable to the classroom’s own unique culture and community.
The yellow door project from Visible Learners was created out of a social problem in the classroom about sharing the door. One of the assistant teachers was a woodworking expert and able to help. Thus the unique skills of a member of the community were incorporated into the project. In many ways the teacher in this project served as the Pedagogista by guiding the learning and ensuring the idea had “surface area” and the teaching assistant acted as the Atelierista by working with children using authentic materials and processes.
The learning that occurs through these types of authentic projects is so rich and exciting that it is possible that 10 years from now that themes in a traditional sense could be a relic of kindergartens past. Perhaps gone are the days when a Kindergarten teacher will spend their Friday taking down one theme and setting up for the next.
My personal belief is that learning is continuous. Even if a theme or topic is “over” it is not erased from the child’s mind. Learning does not occur in discrete units.
Of course, “Project Plans” are not necessarily a wildly radical new idea. Bobbi Fisher, a celebrated Early Childhood Author, describes what she calls the “generative curriculum” in an 1998 update to her landmark book “Joyful Learning in Kindergarten” which was first published in 1991. However, in the Reggio approach engaging in projects are a part of the fabric of a classroom community, and not a “one-off” special event. From my understanding of the draft curriculum, it will be difficult to meet the core competencies without doing projects.
I believe that the “space” available in the draft curriculum will make it possible for teachers of all grades to move forward with authentic projects based on student interest.