178 | Quality Early Learning
The Peruvian kindergarten network, Casa Amarilla, developed a local version of the Reggio Emilia approach for disadvantaged communities. Children were interested in exploring urban architecture and how construction worked, especially tunnels and bridges. Responding to these interests, educators scaled building spaces and climbing artifacts with recycled structures and materials (for example, plastic pipes, cardboard boxes, pieces of wood, as seen in photograph 4.2) for the children to build and experiment with. This helped the children understand how workers build tunnels. Class or group size is also essential to quality early learning. As the size of a class or teaching group gets smaller, teachers can interact more frequently with each child and develop a range of pedagogical approaches to teach responsively, improving learning opportunities and outcomes (EEF 2019). When groups are smaller, and child-adult ratios are low, high- quality pedagogical practices may significantly affect children by providing more frequent interactions (Pianta et al. 2009) and sustained shared thinking (Purdon 2016; Siraj-Blatchford 2009). Research shows that a low child-adult ratio correlates with more verbal interaction and more responsive and extended dialogue (Siraj-Blatchford et al. 2002). Also, group work is achievable with lower child-adult ratios, creating more active and sustained engagement, higher-order reasoning, and responsive interactions (Blatchford et al. 2006). Conversely, classrooms with more children are more likely to feature teacher-centered pedagogies. Crowded learning environments disrupt interactions with increased levels of interpersonal conflict, intensifying children’s solitary play and teachers’ time in addressing classroom conflicts due to crowding (Evans and Hygge 2007; Mathews and Lippman 2020). Larger group sizes increase stress for children and staff (Legendre 2003; Valente et al. 2012), which leads to an increase in absenteeism and teachers’ burnout and retirement (OECD 2019).
Photograph 4.2 Recycled Structures and Climbing Artifacts
Source: Images courtesy of Cynthia Adlerstein. Further permission required for reuse.
