Early Childhood Curriculum and Pedagogy 1: the Sciences

Preservice teachers will build their knowledge of how languages are articulated in early childhood centres of Reggio Emilia, Italy as a means for young children to express themselves as human beings. As part of the unit, pre-service teachers will engage with the languages of maths, science, and technology developing an understanding of the structures of each of these languages and how these languages can inspire multi-disciplinary experiences for young children to make meaning of their worlds. Additionally, this unit will interrogate dominant understandings of physical activity and health as defined in policy documents, stage development theories, and curriculum frameworks that teach about movement through concepts of exercise, fitness, movement skills, and physical literacy. This unit focuses on constructing early childhood pedagogies that think with moving, rather than about movement, as pre-service students consider how moving happens in ways that do not fit pre-existing [or inherited] criteria for teaching, understanding, or describing movement. Intentional working with movement through inquiry and wonder offers students an experience in exploring how children move with/in the world, and how this informs teaching and learning that is complex, ethical, and political.