Listen, Provoke, Support
Teachers in the Reggio approach are co-constructors of knowledge and partners to student’s learning. You might find a Reggio inspired teacher circulating the room asking questions of their students, listening to ideas and participating in conversations with children about topics that are student selected.
A teacher inspired by the Reggio approach is like a researcher in that they are observant of children’s needs, progress, and strengths. The teacher may also be busy documenting student’s experiences and work. Reggio inspired teachers document students work as a way to listen to children, honour their ideas and value their learning.
The teacher creates a community of learning by sharing the responsibility of teaching and learning with other partners in the school community including teachers, parents and the students themselves. It is not uncommon for teachers who are inspired by this approach to welcome parents and community members into their classrooms to share their knowledge and experiences.
In the traditional model of Kindergarten children see teachers and adults as experts and sources of knowledge. To young children the teachers may seem “all knowing”. Of course, teachers are highly educated individuals and know a great deal of information across multiple subject areas. There is nothing wrong with this and in fact being an expert or source of knowledge is something that makes children feel safe around you. However, if you always have the right answer or know exactly what to do in every scenario the students never have an opportunity to see you model learning or may never see themselves and each other as sources of knowledge and information. Teaching in an intermediate classroom has been eye-opening for myself in this regard. I am occasionally faced with interesting questions that I don’t have the answer to. The students still look to me as a source of knowledge but both the outcome and process is different. Instead of showing or telling them, I am guiding them.
You don’t need to change your entire classroom or even philosophy to be inspired by this approach or draw on some of the elements. Challenging your ideas about your own role as the teacher may be a simple and small experiment.
The old way of doing things was to stand and deliver, I am interested in Listening, Provoking and Supporting students in their learning journeys.
Another important role of the teacher is to carefully craft they physical environment of the classroom as the environment is considered to be “The Third Teacher”.