Young Children - May 2008 - (Page 72) w w Rich Environments for Adult Learners w TRAINING ROOMS for early care and education professionals are often borrowed, rented, or very bare and basic. Training is frequently sponsored by nonprofit organizations with limited resources, not unlike many early care and education programs. While operating my own in-home child care program and working for nonprofit organizations, I became accustomed to having limited budgets and scarce resources, and I never found it necessary to spend funds on adult learning environments. Although a firm believer in rich environments for young children, I did not translate this belief to adults. I thought, “As long as the space has adult-size chairs and tables, the temperature is comfortable, and the room quiet, adults will be able to learn.” A colleague once tried to “dress up” our training space by hanging inexpensive pictures and a bulletin board on the wall, but this to me seemed unimportant. I was unaware of the messages a bare adult learning environment send and the lost opportunities for learning. After attending a one-week intensive course on Reggio Emilia and the project approach, I began to change my thinking. The course introduced a basic principle of the Reggio Emilia approach—the learning space is the third teacher. As such, the space should welcome children and adults and foster encounters, communication, and relationships. In such spaces, children can learn to work cooperatively, agree, disagree, and resolve conflicts. Typically, Reggio-inspired schools are beautiful, with attention to detail in the color of the walls, the shape of Renee Lynn Bentham, MEd, is an adjunct faculty for the University of Montana—Western and Missoula campuses. Renee has worked at child care resource and referral agencies in Missoula and in Minneapolis, Minnesota, providing services to early care and education programs. She also worked for the Center for Asians and Pacific Islanders to assist in the development of culturally competent child care. reneebeee@msn.com ® yRenee Lynn Bentham the furniture, and the arrangement of simple objects on shelves and tables. In addition, numerous plants add beauty and life to the learning setting (Hendrick 2004). Teachers treat children as capable and valued, and the environment reflects that perspective. I was amazed to see photos and videos of children competently handling glass containers and fragile objects and using overhead projectors and light boxes. The beauty of the objects and the opportunities and encouragement to explore them engaged the children in learning to handle them with respect and care. The materials themselves were open ended, and encouraged children to explore, imagine, create, and see their learning as important. Looking at the kind of space available to children participating in programs inspired by Reggio Emilia inspired me. In the course of my career I have observed many early care and education environments that lacked organization as well as materials sufficient both in number and in quality. Beautiful environments were a rare find. I began to wonder how to teach adults about the importance of the learning environment in a field where they themselves feel so undervalued. It occurred to me that when adults themselves don’t feel valued, it is difficult to encourage and expect them to value children. An Aha! moment The physical characteristics of any school environment reveal much about how children are regarded and the value assigned to the processes of teaching and learning that characterize the setting. The Reggio school environments are noteworthy not only because they are aesthetically and intellectually stimulating, but because they convey a respect for the interests, rights, needs and capacities of those who use the space. (Edwards, Gandini, & Forman 1998, 266–67) 10 With this thought in mind, I looked around our training room and saw that it wasn’t aesthetically pleasing. I had never considered the importance of a pleasant, welcoming 72 Young Children • May 2008
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