Early Learning Centre

ELC

Building upon Curiosities: A Research Focus in the Early Learning Centre

The children and staff in our Early Learning Centre are guided each year by what is called ‘conceptual research.’ The staff gather and discuss, debate and collaborate on concepts and a subject that would be appropriate, authentic and inspiring for the children. These concepts are based on observations of the children and sharing of curiosities and wonderings of both the children and the educators. We believe that children are confident, capable, inquisitive and unique. Children are stimulated to marvel at life, delight in the real and the imagined and deeply engage with nature and the ‘wild.’ We enable children to be inspired by this authentic research and we actively encourage children to wonder, dream, invent, enquire, question and research alongside their educators.

“Knowledge is not a quantity, it is a research. We do not have to give children quantities of knowledge but tools to research, cultural tools so they can push their research as far as they can, then certainly it will be up to us to push further and further and help them refine their tools". (Gianni Rodari)

Our educational program, principles, practice and pedagogy are influenced by the principles of Reggio Emilia, the approaches of the Forest Schools, Harvard University’s Project Zero and their Cultures of Thinking Project and the National Early Years Learning Framework. Our beliefs combine to bring about experiences where children are encouraged to become researchers in their own learning, building upon their curiosities and wonders and being challenged to build and organise conceptual knowledge. We value the children’s voices and believe in always being available to support their expressions and ideas, which in turn supports their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency.

Our belief that children are competent and capable reflects our understanding of the image of the child as active protagonists with ‘strong potentialities for development and a subject with rights, as reflected in the Reggio Emilia Philosophies (Reggio Emilia Approach, 2019). We encourage children and staff to engage in research about selected concepts, coming together to grow in understanding, research, comparison of ideas, and co-participation through dialogue, debate, use of the ‘hundred languages’ and co-construction of knowledge in a joyful, and exciting environment.

“Nothing without joy is in itself an explicit declaration, it expresses a position that cheers on a school as a space for creativity, as a research laboratory for adults and children, a place of life, not of preparation for life.” (Tiziana Filippini)

Our research in Sophie’s Place this year has been delving into “The Heart of our Place" as the children share and discover what it means to belong and develop a strong identity to Sophie’s Place, Kincoppal-Rose Bay, and the global network of Sacred Heart Schools.

The children have researched and theorised the strategies that support their connectedness and sense of belonging to place. They have explored the significance of the heart both metaphorically and within a literal sense; created symbols of their own that represent their feelings about place; researched Madeline Sophie Barat, and developed an understanding of the people that belong to Sophie’s and why. They are creating a book that will welcome new families into the School, detailing some of the emotions and significant ways they feel about belonging, as well as a logo that represents them and their belonging to Sophie’s Place.

There’s a logo on my jumper and it tells people where I’m from and where your school is. It means a love heart. A love heart means my school is Kincoppal-Rose Bay. We are school of the heart because we need to be part of the heart and when it breaks, we mend it. My heart inside is different because it has so many feelings inside. My heart means I love my mummy and daddy and all the grown-ups in the world.The Kincoppal- Rose Bay heart is a love heart because we have to hug and kiss.

Chloe F

A heart gives us love. We need love. Love looks like this, it has rainbows around it. Love is in my house and school. The love is in the heart and the sky is around it with Jesus. Francesca

People need to feel like they belong because they need to see what girls and boys do. Other people need a heart. There’s love… I can’t see the love but can feel it because it is invisible. There’s invisible love inside my heart. Love feels like you love your 'mum and dad'. Luca

Our research in the Joigny Centre has been exploring ‘Food for Thought’ as the children imagine and create theories about the transformation of food into energy and waste as it travels through their bodies. The concepts of change and growth have provoked learning and sparked curiosity as the children and educators have had a hands-on approach, examining real intestines, stomachs, oesophagus, teeth and tongues to piece together the mystery of what happens when we eat. As they constantly try and make visible what is happening inside and the imaginings they have about the digestion process, the children are guided by ‘knowledgeable others’, ‘authentic experiences’ and a passion for discovery.

Energy is inside your body, it gets in there by eating healthy foods. Energy looks like a really big zap, it looks like electricity. Energy doesn't even have a colour. Energy is inside everywhere in our body, it goes into all of the places and we just use it all the time. It comes out of the food and then we put it into our mouths, or it just flies into our mouths, but it goes down into our body and then that’s what gives us energy because then it goes everywhere inside of the body. Poppy

We will need to shrink to the size of an ant to go inside a body. If you spit out all your food, then you will shrink, because you will not have any energy in your body because you have no food to help you grow so that’s how you shrink, not grow. You need food to help you grow and if you have nothing you shrink small. Callum

Each child in the Early Learning Centre has had the opportunity to share their unique understandings and theories around the concepts that are being researched. As each child enters our spaces, they bring with them their own experiences, knowledge and reflections on the many mysteries of life. We encourage the sharing of all these thoughts and ideas and it is this acceptance in a wondrous environment that allows each child to feel their spark not only be lit but burn and glow continuously, shining a light inside them for the many years of learning ahead.

“Learning is not the transmission of a defined body of knowledge, what Malaguzzi refers to as a ‘small’ pedagogy. It is constructive, the subject constructing her or his own knowledge but always in democratic relationships with others and being open to different ways of seeing, since individual knowledge is always partial and provisional. From this perspective, learning is a process of constructing, testing and reconstructing theories, constantly creating new knowledge. Teachers, as well as children, are constantly learning. Learning itself is a subject for constant research, and as such must be made visible.” Carla Rinaldi and Peter Moss

Nicole Johnson Early Learning Coordinator