22.03.2022

Giving voice and choice to Early Childhood Education students

By Lais Carvalho

“Café & Educação” aims to bring important practices and concepts to our school. It is led by coordinators and teachers from the pedagogical team. With the theme “Giving Preschoolers a voice and a choice”, the meeting was conducted by the G4 coordinator, Priscila Amado, and teachers Thaiza Barros (G4) and Carolline Lacerda (G5).

In the beginning, the educators explained the difference between transmissive pedagogy – more traditional – and active pedagogy, used at Beacon. As the name implies, the latter is a style of pedagogy that requires students to be agents of their learning and teachers to interact actively. 

At Beacon, we complement active pedagogy with elements from the International Baccalaureate (IB) and the Primary Years Program (PYP). A regulator of early childhood education, the program is founded on giving voice, empowerment, and agency to students. 

Moreover, references from Reggio Emilia are incorporated as elements of the pedagogy of listening (listening to the student in order to act on their interests) and the environment as a third educator. Additionally, practices from Maria Montessori’s method are adopted, whose theories refer us to the autonomy of children. 

At Beacon, teachers are constantly stimulated and challenged to bring opportunities to students based on what they say and do. For example: if there is a 2-year-old student, who still does not express himself/ herself in words and always uses the same material or shows interest in water games, what is the educator to do? How can these elements be used to broaden the student’s thinking?

The educators also discussed the importance of making children’s thinking visible and sharing thinking routines to enable this practice in the classroom. The materials, the mural, the stories, among other things, are elaborated together with the students and documented in photos, speeches, and references brought by them. Thus, even those who do not yet read can decode what is written, because they participated in the investigative and recording process.

All the children’s questions are validated and answered. As a result, they are listened to and given a place, making possible new discoveries and relationships. 

Finally, the educators showed how the “Inquiry Cycle” takes place. Starting with a provocation, students enter into a process of discovery until it culminates in a project. At Beacon Early Childhood Education, we believe that the most important thing is the path, the investigation, and how the student learns.