The learning continuum. 

The Image of the child

The image of the child is respected across Montessori, Steiner and Reggio Emilia learning methodologies which allows children to engage in a harmonious and prosperous community (Edwards, 2002). The three methods facilitate a child’s own innate capacity for holistic learning and views each child as a capable, individual and sensory learner. The three methods recognize the environment, the child’s social interaction and community expectations or curriculum expectations that are interwoven in to the child’s individual learning processes creating inclusiveness practices. Factors that separate the differences of all three methods exists in the identification of how the child learns and how learning is approached or introduced which have been identified within this matrix (Edwards, 2002). The three methods contribute to an inclusive pedagogical approach as it facilitates strategies for finding what will work for individual learners but also adheres to curriculum expectation within the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians [MDEGYA], the Australian Curriculum [AC], the Early Years Learning Framework: Belonging, Being & Becoming [EYLF], the National Quality Standards [NQS] which govern teaching practices within Australia (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 2008; Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority [ACECQA], 2014; Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2014; Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR], 2009). 

Montessori key principles…

• Montessori considered children to develop through four sequential stages of development, each of six year cycles or planes defined by the child’s age (Lillard, 2005; Torrence, 2005). In early childhood development the first two planes are appropriate and the Montessori planes of development align with Piaget’s stages of “sensorimotor and preoperational” developmental stages (Vialle, Lysaght & Verenikina, 2008)

• A child’s own innate maturation and freedom of sensory interaction with the Montessori’s child sized ‘real’ world environment and objects or “cultural artefacts,” as Vygotsky suggest (as cited by Vialle, et. al., 2008; Montessori, 2013). Providing opportunities for the child to learn through play, Bruce (2011) suggest, supports the most ‘richest’ learning opportunity.

• The ‘real’ interactions or play, which connect the child’s school and home life together, as suggested by Lillard, Lerner, Hopkins, Dore, Smith and Palmguist (2013, p.27) are just as valuable as pretend objects.

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Steiner key principles…

• Steiner deemed that children developed through three sequential stages, each of seven year periods with unique and distinct “needs for learning” (Edwards, 2002, p. 5). This fosters the goals within the MDEGYA ensuring maximised learning outcomes (MCEETYA, 2014).

• Steiner emphasised that from birth to seven years a child should engage in large uninterrupted engagements of play, which the child could “imitate” and practice doing (Schwartz, as cited in Edwards, 2002).

• Steiner’s use of imitation becomes critical in building upon Bronfenbrenner’s, Bundara’s, Skinner, Dreikurs ideologies that indicate children’s behaviour is derived from imitation and modelling strategies that the child has observed (Edwards, 2002; Kearns, 2010). The EYLF supports “belonging” through the child’s exploration of ‘imitation and modelling’ processes (DEEWR, 2009). The NQS: 5.2.2. suggests children are able to use and model acceptable behaviours and be able to communicate resolutions (ACECQA, 2014)

Reggio Emilia key principles…

• The Reggio Emilia Method is founded upon, the child being the leader and developer of their own learning through free choice experiences, which appeal to the child’s senses (Edwards, 2002).

• The Reggio Emilia is void of any specific developmental stages that identify by age the sequence of child development (Edwards, 2002). This concedes to a developmentally appropriate curriculum in the early years (Marsh, 2008).

• The image of the child being the capable independent of their own learning reflects key philosophies of “outcome-based education” concepts, developing a curriculum based on the child’s individual needs or interests (Killen, 2003). This approach also ensures inclusive practices are embedded within sociocultural expectations and the learning for individual children is connected and real and forms the basis “how and what to teach” (as cited by Marsh, 2004) or engage children’s one hundred languages of self-expression (Edwards, Gandini, Forman & Reggio Children, 2011). 

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Teaching and learning

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The contrasting differences within the three methods encumber the way subject content is approached and taught (Edward, 2002). Montessori and Steiner foster the same similar founding principles of holistic development within a prescribed curriculum, however, the Reggio Emilia’s approach follows the child initiated subject content reflected within the image of the child’s engagement in curriculum design or project approaches (Edward, 2002). The divide between each of the three methods is at the level of formal instruction approaches. The three methods can be identified as embedded in “intentional teaching strategies” and current curriculum expectations with in the AC, EYLF and NQS, however, each method uniquely establishes in its developmental appropriateness which aids compliance to the definitions of curriculum in the early years (ACARA, 2014; ACECQA, 2014; DEEWR, 2009; Duncan, 2011; Wiles, 2005).

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Montessori key principles...

• Montessori curriculum facilitates the concepts of content, purpose and organization with in a carefully prepared environment (Marsh, 2008).

• The opportunity for the child to freely choose learning experiences based on interest allows individual children to navigate Montessori learning experiences to practice intrinsically motivated self-correction, self-regulating behaviours and connect learning in a real meaningful context (Mooney, 2000).

• A teacher’s primary role in a Montessori environment is that of an “unobtrusive director” building upon Dewey’s existing theory, which children need to have the opportunity to experience a curriculum guided by individual interest and give children the opportunity to experience the now or the EYLF concepts of “being” (DEEWR, 2009; Edwards, 2002; Pound, 2011).

• Montessori’s observation methods are used for similar purposes found in the NQS: 1.1.2 in that “Each child’s current knowledge, ideas, culture, abilities and interest are the foundation of the program” but also the opportunity to “direct” learning through explicit instruction that introduces new subject content (ACECQA, 2014; Edwards, 2002; Montessori, 2013; Mooney, 2008).

Steiner key principles...

• In the early years, children are encouraged to use their imagination, open ended sensory material. Assisted with teacher elaboration of specific subject matter, by way of creative stories, fairy tales, eurythmy and artistic opportunities in the presence of a familiar class environment which facilitates, as cited in Edwards, (2002) the teacher embracing a “performance role” (Uhrmacher, 1995).

• Attention to the distinct needs of learning can be seen through the way children are introduced to text and reading methods (Edwards, 2002). Steiner’s Method reflects a holistic quality education program, however it moves away from political and generic curriculums (Williams & Johnson, 2009). The AC, for example, introduces children in the early years to a text and print rich environment through displays and books, however the Steiner Method does not introduce text until the child has lost some teeth which indicates the next seven year cycle in Steiner’s developmental stages (ACARA, 2014; Williams & Johnson, 2009).

• A multi-sensorial approach ensures a sense of energetic and restful play (Edwards, 2002).

• Robinson (2008) discusses that this specific subject content within the Steiner approach is grounded in a religious bias. For example, the use of light colours in the environment as opposed to dark colours could be viewed as “good versus evil,” opposed to a contemporary secular education system (Edwards, P., 2002; Robinson, 2008).

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Reggio Emilia key principles...

• The focus of the Emilia Reggio Method is focused on infant and preschool years of a child only (Edwards, 2002). It is through a progressive approach to curriculum design, which finds the Emilia Reggio Method insightful to teaching practices that use observation, documentation and an open “project” approach to intrinsically engage children in learning (Edwards, 2002).

• The Emilia Reggio approach agrees with Piaget’s concepts of children’s reciprocal relationships, as children’s family, teachers, society and environment all contribute to the “child’s holistic development“ (Edwards, 2002).

• Children’s cognition and abilities will develop symbolically through the Reggio Emilia ‘project approach’ to learning, which represent the child’s feelings and ideas that children can explore and investigate expressively using their “hundred languages” (as cited by Edwards et al, 2011).

• The teacher is required to make “an artful balance” between traditional methods of curriculum expectations and developmental appropriate practices (Edwards, 2002; Killen, 2003). This also facilitates an “outcome based education,” which values the child’s “hundred languages” (Edwards et. al., 2011) of self-expression within “appropriate context” (Killen, 2003) that is given extra support in the classroom via an “artist in residence” (Edwards et. al., 2011).

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Collaborative partnerships.

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Historically, the nature of all three principles reiterates the common needs of communities at the time the methods where developed (Edwards, 2002). The approach to education was born from the direct needs of communities reflecting the social, cultural and partnership between communities and families that shared common values and learning objectives for the holistic development individual children.

Montessori key principles…

• Montessori values the integrated influences and interactions of peer relationships based on the child’s ability to first observe and then imitate, reflecting Montessori’s stages of development, but also Bundara’s self-efficacy concepts (Bundara, Ross & Ross as cited in Lillard, 2005, p.195). Multi-age classrooms that span across child ages of up to three years reiterating the importance of peer observations in providing child opportunities to imitate (Lillard, 2005).

• Communication or the child’s artefacts exchange between parents, teachers and children daily or weekly, creating an approach that fosters children to develop “resilient mind-set[s]” and creating a learning sense of “mutual respect” (as cited in Drake, 2008; Edwards, 2002).

• Montessori conceded to a didactic approach that was inclusive of parent involvement which indicates the moral, ethics and nurturing of a child’s mindset is critical in developing the whole child education potential in lifelong learning (Drake, 2008). The value of the family’s morals, ethics and nurturing expectations impacts on the child’s learning according to Bronfenbrenner’s “ecological systems theory” (Bee & Boyd, as cited in Kearns, 2010). Identifying the nature of learning environments, families and community relationships a crucial element in lifelong learning.

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Steiner key principles…

• It is common within the Waldorf policies that the teachers spend time observing the child within their own home, to better understand the child’s opportunities to ‘imitate’ and facilitate the teacher’s acknowledgement in identifying the parent’s aims and goals, for their child (Williams & Johnson, 2009). Acknowledging Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory that child development “cannot be separated from its social and cultural context (as cited by Vialle, et. al., 2008).

• The Steiner approach identifies partnerships with parents as being a successful indicator of quality educational outcomes for the child, these ideologies are present within the current EYLF: 1 and 2 Principles of “secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships and principle and partnerships” (DEEWR, 2009; Williams & Johnson, 2009).

• Teaching and learning with the Steiner Method values the importance in reciprocal relationships with the teacher staying with the same children in the first cycle of development, from birth to seven years on changing once at three years and in the next cycle of development from seven to fourteen the children remain with the same teacher (Edwards, 2002). Developing relationships with children is a quality area defined in the NQS: 5 (ACEQA, 2014).

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Reggio Emilia key principles…

• The founding existence of the Reggio Emilia philosophies are embedded within the historical movement of the Reggio Emilia community. Collective partnerships of the community where used to develop a system, would ensure the ‘holistic development’ of the communities children (New, 2007). Australia’s commitment to the expectations of quality education in the early years, is reflected within the NQS quality area six: where collaborative partnerships with families and communities are essential in maintaining individual learning objectives of individuals, families and communities (ACECQ, 2014).

• The interaction between families and communities, Malaguzzi (as cited in New, 2007) envisions the practicality of  the child making meaning or learning in a context, that is ‘real’ and valid to the child’s own development (New, 2007). The context of this partnership extends beyond just communicating, it validates and shapes the curriculum content, however, it remains a shared approach with parents and fosters John Bowlby’s “theory of attachment relationships” which embeds nurturing of holistic development in community curriculum expectations (as cited in Kearns, 2010).

• Collaborative partnerships is practical and visible with in the Reggio Emilia Method, from making parents feel welcome by offering ‘comfy couches’ to the transparency of openness created by the actual environment (New, 2007).

Learning environments

Learning environments are critical components to each method, as it reflects the image of the child, pedagogy approaches to learning and child development while disclosing the full intentions of the method. The environment provide educators to pedagogically influence learning aims and objectives, present children with challenges, which stimulates and further engages a child’s interest (Edward, 2002). It also makes learning visible to parents and communities fostering partnerships (Duncan, 2011; Edward, 2002).

Montessori key principles…

• Montessori environments should be well organised and aesthetically beautiful. Learning materials are all in their allocated place, labelled and accessible by the child at all times, free of clutter and unnecessary items removed (Lillard, 2005).

• A range of “scaled down” tools, or experiences which encourage children to explore quality ‘real life’ learning materials using their senses (Mooney, 2005).

• The self-correcting atmosphere of Montessori learning environments, ‘scaffolding’ with peers encourage children to seek answers themselves (Edwards, et. al, 2011). It is Montessori’s attention to intrinsically stimulate children to find their own answers, which empower children to develop a, “passion for learning” (Montessori, 2013). Igniting passion in a child’s learning is embedded within the Melbourne Declaration of Goals for Young Australians commitment to action (MCEETYA, 2008).

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Steiner key principles…

• Steiner’s theory views academic instruction in the early years, before the age of seven is inappropriate (Williams & Johnson, 2009). Learning environments are void of digital technology, books, text and loud colours but foster harmonious interaction in caring for the living and natural worlds (Edwards, 2002).

• Steiner’s theory suggest that environments should be void of sensory overload, the objects in the learning environment are ‘open ended’ to encourage the child’s imagination and creativity (Edwards, et. al., 2011). The environment is adorned with natural fibres, handmade objects, pastel coloured walls are a part of implementing quality sensory teaching practices (Williams & Johnson, 2009). Natural objects in Steiner environments reflect current AC recommendations that children learn to foster sustainable practices (ACARA, 2014).

• There is no place for technology in the Steiner environment (Williams & Johnson, 2009). Opposing recommended practices in EYLF: 4.4 and 5.5 which suggest that children in the early years access technology for a range of purposes (DEEWR, 2009). 

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Reggio Emilia key principles…

• The Reggio Emilia values the role of the environment to coincide with the role of the teacher, which considers, “the environment [as] the third teacher” (Strong-Wilson & Ellis, 2007).

• The environment provides a child in a Reggio Emilia program, provocation, insightful experiences that explore the child’s senses. The environment, as suggested by Tarini and White (1998) should be a “delicate balance” between free child exploration and structure (as cited in, Strong-Wilson & Ellis, 2007)

• Emilia Reggio environments foster ‘holistic’ wellbeing of a child, by providing seating for parents in the learning environment establishes a positive and welcoming transition process from home to school (Fraser & Gestwicki, 2002).

• The classrooms are filled with lots of windows, lights and transparent experiences revealing embedded practices of ‘openness’ for families while supporting a child’s creative development (Fraser & Gestwicki, 2002). The selection of quality resources both commercial and natural, in which children can explore (Fraser & Gestwicki, 2002).

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Reflection and Assessment

No formative assessment methods are used in Montessori, Steiner or Reggio Emilia approaches (Edwards, 2002). The similarities are evident through the collection of observations, reciprocal relationships, child produced artefacts, displays and environments, which extend on making teaching and learning visible to children, families and communities (Edwards, 2002). The integration and combination of measuring learning objectives and outcomes is reflected in each of the three methods using ‘authentic’ assessment as oppose to the measurement and collection of ‘formative’ assessment (Duncan, 2011

Montessori key principles…

• Assessment in the Montessori approach is “typically based on extensive teacher observation,” (Torrence, 2005) which is directly available to Montessori teachers through asking children to practice the lesson objectives after explicit instruction or observations of children’s work, child’s cooperation and social interactions as a collective.

• The teacher builds a collective of observations for each individual child (Torrence, 2005). The observations provide a detailed and accurate context of the child’s own “zone of proximal development” (Vygotsky, as cited by Vialle, et. al., 2008, p.67). The teacher is directly able to respond by modifying the lesson, the environment or curriculum content reflecting the individual need of the child (Rogoff and Vygotsky, as cited by Vialle, et. al., 2008; Torrence, 2005).

Steiner key principles…

• Although Waldorf graduates may meet latter academic success (Oppenheimer, as cited in Williams & Johnson, 2009) formal developmental checklist or government testing is nowhere to be found in the early years. Teachers observe the children’s development not for academic success but to ensure Steiner’s founding principles of children developing “their thinking, feeling, and willing” (Edwards, 2002, p. 7). For every, individual child to “develop a love of learning” reiterating Steiner’s focus on “find their strength in community, not competition” (Williams & Johnson, 2009).

• Teachers in the early years learning environments, use observation methods while the children are engaged in play or imaginative play (Williams & Johnson, 2009). This observation forms a more interpersonal, holistic and formative approach to the assessment of individual children (Williams & Johnson, 2009).

Reggio Emilia key principles…

• The nature of Reggio Emilia is not pertaining to a defined curriculum, with specific material, specific subject content or certification of complying to set standards of Reggio Emilia approach leaves the question of assessment belong to validation our own cultural expectations (Gandini, 2007).

• Children’s learning is made visible to parents, other teachers but also to the child. The collections of individual children’s work samples, observations, commitments, actions and experiences allows the child and their peers to revisit their work and express their own ideologies and facilitate the exploration in the development of new ideas critical in facilitating the Australian Curriculums, General Capability of developing individual children’s “critical and creative thinking (Edwards, et. al., 2011).

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