Classroom Influenced by Bronfenbrenner’s Theory

Classroom Influenced by Bronfenbrenner’s Theory

Lesson 7

Theoretical and Research Base: Creative Learning Environments

The work of Urie Bronfenbrenner (2004), Maria Montessori (1909, 1964), Loris Malaguzzi (1995), and Lev Vygotsky (1967, 1978), among others, provide important insights into creative environments that engage all children. Following is a brief statement of each of these theorists’ assumptions about the influence of the environment on children’s creativity and how their theories might look in early childhood classrooms.

Bronfenbrenner

From Bronfenbrenner we learn about the important interactions of many environments, such as the family, school, neighborhood, peers, and media that are all connected and influence not only one another but also the developing child. His theory provides one way to view the effects of the social contexts of children’s lives on the child in the classroom.

An early childhood classroom influenced by Bronfenbrenner’s theory would include:

· Strong connections between home and school by listening to what families have to say about their children and their home interests so that both teachers and children can learn about every child’s community and culture.

· Families that are involved in children’s learning activities that you send home.

· Family members that are involved in a variety of roles in the classroom.

· Strong relationships with the community.

Montessori

From Montessori we learn that children need a carefully prepared, well-organized environment with authentic, homelike materials to reflect order and calm. The environment contains aesthetically pleasing and sensory-rich materials, child-sized furnishings, and self-correcting materials to be used in a specific way. Teachers carefully structure the environment for the children to complete tasks and develop at their own pace.

This girl is building a tower using Montessori cylinders in a prepared environment

A classroom environment influenced by Montessori would have:

· An aesthetically pleasing classroom with a wide selection of sensory materials and experiences for self-expression.

· Low shelves with materials that children can access easily and return materials to their original place.

· Large, open floor spaces.

· Considerable freedom for children to choose activities that have been prepared by the teacher.

· Teachers who respect children, guide their use of materials, and offer help if asked.

Malaguzzi and Reggio Emilia Schools

Malaguzzi calls the classroom environment the child’s “third teacher,” which conveys its powerful impact on children’s thinking and feeling. In Reggio schools, environments are places of beauty that are designed to promote children’s relationships, sense of community, and aesthetics. They are also places that value children’s relationships as a basis of learning. Reggio teachers respect children’s curiosity, ask focused questions, document children’s learning, and display children’s work that reflects their conversations, interests, and experiences.

This video shows key principles of the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Notice the Reggio environment. How does it impact children’s creative thinking?

Classrooms inspired by Malaguzzi and Reggio Emilia schools would have:

· An aesthetically pleasing environment with lots of light and welcoming entryways.

· Children collaboratively exploring topics of interest to them for long periods of time.

· A variety of open-ended materials and media that stimulate children’s senses and curiosity and encourage investigation, inquiry, and discovery.

· Places for children’s “in progress” projects or products.

· Displays of children’s work that show children and their work are valued and respected.

Vygotsky

Vygotsky theorizes that a hands-on, interactive environment is children’s opportunity to work together. Teachers scaffold children’s thinking and relationships with one another. They guide children in creating themes based on their interests and focus on child-directed play for preschool children and productive activities in the primary grades.

Environments based on Vygotsky’s ideas would have:

· Small-group work that focuses on social interaction and learning from one another.

· Choices of projects for which children can seek help if needed.

· Dramatic play that includes children’s plans of what they want to do to increase the complexity of their play.

· Teachers who serve as partners in learning until children can apply a skill on their own.

Each of these theorists helps us understand the importance of the environment in promoting children’s creative thinking. Now, recall some of your own classrooms in which you were comfortable, felt valued, and looked forward to learning as compared to those in which you were uncomfortable, felt devalued, and felt like learning was a chore. Think about those classrooms as you read about the elements of creative classroom environments.

An aesthetically pleasing environment with lots of light impacts children’s creativity

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.