Critical reflection is said to be the key to best practice – continually looking at what you have done and moving forwards based on your evaluation.
In early childhood, educators naturally assess the activity, it’s set-up, the positioning of furniture, tools, and resources. But what about the physical design of the space and architecture of the centre? How is that evaluated?
Loris Malaguzzi and the Reggio Emilia approach offers the environment as the third teacher, the first two being the adult and child. He emphasised the importance of the physical learning space as having an active and integral role in supporting the wellbeing and security of each child through their emotional and cognitive interactions within it.
Most centres are either purpose built or adapted for purpose, but are they built for purpose? David Orr suggests not. In a Conservation Biology journal article, he outlines five assumptions architects make when designing educational and academic buildings indicating that it is not important what the building looks like, just that learning takes place inside it.
In contrast, he believes they are wrong, stating, “buildings have their own hidden curriculum that teaches as effectively as any course taught in them.”
And it is exactly that belief which underpins Quality Area 3 of the National Quality Standards. The design of the facilities – “the service environment” - must allow educators, directors, and staff to fully support the children’s play-based learning in all the spaces they have access to.
With these opposing objectives in mind, does this make learning practitioners reluctant to evaluate the design and architecture when they are forced to compete with the architectural intent of the building and spending time trying to adjust their pedagogy around the space?
But really, this just makes it all the more necessary.
Once you become aware of the building, it has the potential to make the space easier to work with.
Next time you’re evaluating an experience, why not consider these questions.
· What do we want our spaces to say about us?
· What kind of human relationships do we want to encourage in our spaces?
· In what ways does our learning environment reflect our philosophy?
· What would we change about the physical space? What would we keep?
· How will any changes we make to the space make our learning outcomes more accessible?
ECFgroup has sequenced Reflective Practice as the introduction to the ‘Making Spaces Learning Places’ – the power of the environment series. It looks towards how we make decisions within our learning spaces as well as developing a pedagogical insight into making a physical space a learning place.
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