Preparing Early Childhood Teachers to Use Art in the Classroom

National Art Education Association

Preparing Early Childhood Teachers to Use Art in the ClassroomAuthor(s): Katherina Danko-McGhee and Ruslan SlutskySource: Art Education, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Jul., 2003), pp. 12-18Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3194059 .

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do you get when

faculty in early childhood education and art education collaborate? In this case, a shared interest in Reggio Emilia led to a university class that combined art education with the

Reggio approach to early childhood education. This article discusses the content of the course, shows examples of

projects, and shares students' responses to the Reggio philosophy.

The Importance of Art in Early Childhood

Although learning and development occur naturally in young children, they will not occur automatically without conscious contributions from adults (Lasky & Mukerji, 1980). One way to nurture child development is through art: "The arts, properly taught, are basic to individual development since they, more than any other subject, awaken all the senses" (Arts, Education and Awareness Panel, 1977, p.6).

Young children are generally sponta- neous in activities that are art oriented. Artmaking is a natural developmental process that young children engage in to illustrate and explain the world in which they live. Children can communicate thoughts and feelings in art before they develop more conventional means of expressing ideas and emotions in words. Although children's art symbols may not always be recognized or understood by adults, those children who are given opportunities to engage in expressive artmaking use symbols that assist them in creating meaning for themselves about their world (Lasky & Mukerji, 1980).

Artmaking also serves as a precursor to literacy. Children's artmaking is

important as a nonverbal language, a system of symbols emerging from children's early scribbling (Steele, 1998). Research with younger children suggests that children who are encouraged to draw and "scribble" stories at an early age will later learn to compose more easily, more effectively, and with greater confidence than children who do not have this encouragement (Applebee, 1978,1984; Clay, 1995). As children develop in their picture-making, from scribbles to more recognizable symbols, they naturally come to a point where the adult observer is not sure if the graphic rendering is a word or a picture. Children will naturally construct visual patterns that will later be implemented in formal writing. Therefore, artmaking should be encouraged in order to nurture this natural process toward literacy.

Olshansky (1995) further states that, "The process of image finding is central to the prewriting/ideas gathering stage of the program" (p.45). Her research finding suggests that the addition of the visual imagery component (artmaking) to the writing process nurtures imagination, more fully developed story plots, the use of more descriptive language, and the sequencing of stories with a beginning, middle, and end.

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the Classroom Despite the fact that artmaking can

help to develop and nurture skills necessary for other academic areas in the curriculum, art has unique contributions that it can provide to a young child's learning experience. By engaging in art activities, children can learn to develop: * The ability to transform feelings and

ideas into a visual form; * An awareness of the aesthetic qualities

in art and life in general; * An understanding that artworks reflect

the time period and culture in which they are produced (Eisner, 2002);

* And illustrate their knowledge in multiple ways and medias (art as representation of thought). Such learning experiences can

contribute to quality of life for young children as they travel the road to adulthood. To exclude artmaking from the early childhood curriculum would short- change children from experiencing the world from a variety of perspectives, a unique contribution that art has to offer. By supporting art experiences in the classroom, the teacher allows the children the freedom to manipulate the numerous art resources (languages) available to them and to illustrate in their own ways their understandings of concepts and ideas.

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Elements of Reggio Emilia in Early Childhood Education

Reggio Emilia is a city located in northern Italy in the Reggio Romagna region. This city has and continues to be recognized by early childhood educators and professionals as the best early childhood program in the world. The schools for young children in Reggio Emilia are based on the following key elements: 1) image of the child, 2) environment as third teacher, 3) teacher as partner, and 4) documentation.

Image of the child

Reggio views children as powerful, capable, curious, and full of potential (Gandini, 1997). The activities that shape the curriculum are child-centered and furthermore are constructed by the children themselves. Teachers listen to the ideas of the children and construct a curriculum that encompasses their current interests and needs. Reggio Emilia introduced educators to the concept we know today as "the hundred languages of children." The "hundred languages" is a metaphor for all the languages that children have at their disposal to help them represent their ideas. Reggio goes beyond the oral and

written languages and stresses the arts as a form of representing one's knowledge. This view of children allows Reggio educators to implement art in authentic and meaningful ways and to allow children to constantly revisit their work and develop new ideas and hypotheses around it.

Environment The environment in Reggio schools

is considered the third teacher. Aesthetically pleasing schools and classrooms greet children every morning as they come to school. This focus on beauty and creativity is further supported in the children's classrooms. Teachers use natural and recyclable materials to engage children in art experiences. Care is taken in how these materials are presented to the children. Glass, mirrors, and other transparent containers display the materials in colorful and aesthetically pleasing ways. These colorful displays invite the children to want to look at and use the materials so beautifully presented to them. Children are encouraged to collaborate with teachers and parents to provide many of the materials (languages) used in artmaking.

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JULY 2003 / ART EDUCATION



Role of teacher Teachers in Reggio Emilia are

partners in learning. Teachers don't teach the children in the same sense we think of teaching. Their teachers collect evidence of children's work and incorporate that information into their lesson planning. Observing and listening to the children is at the forefront of the curriculum and allows teachers to work from the interests of children rather than imposing what they think the children may want to learn. Art is at the forefront of the curriculum and is often the first step children use in exploring new knowledge.

It is the atelierista who is instrumental in

bringing projects, instigated

by the child, to fruition. This

person must be flexible in

providing developmentally

appropriate feedback to the

child and must have a

plethora of "languages" to suggest to the child that

he/she can be successful in

finding solutions as dictated

by the project.

Documentations Documentations are the remarks,

discussions, artworks, photographs, and any other kind of artifacts that represent children's knowledge or understanding of a concept. The goal of documentation is to allow children, teachers, and parents to re-visit the works and see how children are progressing in their development. For children, documentation allows them to revisit the work and build upon it. This means that children don't spend time working on the same ideas over and over, but rather revisit the work previously done and find new ways to extend their thinking. Documentation of children's work is a critical process in the Reggio philosophy and is strategi- cally placed on classroom and school walls for all children to revisit and build upon throughout the school year. To further help children navigate through the "hundred languages," the schools employ art studio specialists they call "atelieristas," whose role is to help children express their ideas in a multitude of ways.

The Role of the Atelierista in Reggio Schools

The role of the atelierista is a unique one to early childhood education in the United States. This person is well versed in art and early childhood education. Such a combination is critical to the success of a Reggio Emilia classroom. It is the atelierista who is instrumental in bringing projects, instigated by the child, to fruition. This person must be flexible in providing developmentally appropriate feedback to the child and must have a plethora of "languages" to suggest to the child that he/she can be successful in finding solutions as dictated by the project. The atelierista oversees the atelier, where appropriate media is housed for use as a language in the exploration of various themes related to a particular project. These materials are arranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner and are mostly natural in composition. Under the guidance of the atelierista, children can explore these various "languages" at their own pace and experiment with different ways of using them.

While early childhood classrooms in the United States have no such person, it becomes the duty of the early childhood teacher to assume this role. This is difficult because many early childhood educators are not artists and often do not feel comfortable teaching meaningful art experiences in their classrooms. Therefore, early childhood educators in the United States must be provided with appropriate artmaking experiences to be more competent in the use of these "languages" in their own classrooms. Such experiences were provided in our course offered at the university to prepare teachers to take on a role more synony- mous with Reggio's concept of the atelierista.

Teaching Reggio-lnspired Art Projects at the University Level

Teaching art activities that were Reggio-inspired posed a challenge. In the true spirit of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, projects using a variety of art media tend to evolve as the result of a flow of ideas between children and teachers. Planning any kind of art activities for early childhood educators was difficult. The course of action taken was to expose these teachers to a variety of media so that they would expand their horizons in the use of art materials for young children and learn how to use them appropriately. Doing so would encourage them to look into their "bag of tricks" and pull one of these ideas out at an opportune or "teachable" moment. In other words, teachers would be better prepared to examine their plethora of art ideas and match one to an evolving curriculum project with children. All the projects used in our course were inspired by what we had observed in Reggio classrooms. We took their initial projects and tried to evolve them into meaningful projects for students in the United States. All these projects require materials that are readily available and easily accessible to all teachers. Some of these activities follow:

ART EDUCATION / JULY 2003



Water Designs Using an Overhead Projector l

9 tiMaterials Needed: Overhead projectgr,glass tray filled with tater,

strings and yarns, lace,food colo c6olking oil, eye/medicine dropers, neting pipe cleaners, feathers, and any othr transparent or

semi-transparent materials.

Procedure:

I. Place the glass tray filled with water on top of the overhead

projector. 2. Turn on the projector to project light onto a screen or wall.

3. Invite the children to experiment with different materials by placing them into the water tray and watching the projected image on the screen.

4. Encourage children to use drops of color and oil to see and document interesting results.

5. Small pieces of strings and yarns can be added along with pipe cleaners twisted into interesting shapes to further manipulate the

image and see the malleable nature of the art materials.

6. Add other materials for further explorations of transparent properties, semi-transparent properties, opaqueness, and color

mixing. 7. More than one projector can be used. Images can be projected as

large as the wall to create interesting environments for children. These environments could change on a daily basis depending on the project theme ( underwater, forest, sunsets, storms, etc.). Musical selections accompanying these themes can be played while

imagery is projected.

Benefits to the Child:

This activity is a wonderful way for children to explore the different

properties of materials-transparent, opaque, and semi-transparent. It encourages experimentation with a variety of materials that nurtures critical thinking skills as children examine cause-and-effect

relationships. By engaging children in such an activity we are helping them develop a stronger sense of visual discrimination.

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Colorful Bubbles Materials: Bubble wral learipackaging tape, medicine dropper, food color, mixig cupsiwats erand scissors.

Procedure: ii:|i I. Cut a piece of bubbledwrap to a desired size. Use wrap that has at

least 5/16" heightlbubbles. 2. Using clear packaging tape, place bubble wrap onto the surface of a

glass window that is at a level reachable for young children.

3. Cut tiny slits into the tops of bubbles. Let the child decide which bubbles to cut.

4. Fill medicine droppers with food color and dispense this pigment into each bubble, filling about 3/4 of the bubble.

5. Water can be added to each color of food coloring in varying amounts to make a variety of shades.

6. The child can decide on the color choices and the arrangement of these colors on the bubble wrap. One color can be used and

varying amounts of water added in order to investigate the subtle differences in color depending on the concentration of pigment. Various colors can be mixed together to make new ones.

7. When complete, small pieces of clear tape can secure each bubble closed.

Benefits to the Child: Children engaging in this activity will enhance their visual perception skills by observing the variety of subtle color variations.They will also see how light can change these colors. Mixing colors to make new ones can be an additional learning experience with this activity. Fine motor skills are also developed in this activity as children use eye droppers and the food coloring to pour into each bubble.

JULY 2003 / ART EDUCATION N



spn lor Window YWeavings aerils: Landscape/construction fencing mesh, colored

cellophane, colored tissue paper, yarns, ribbons, lace, any other transparent colored linear materials suitable for weaving, clear packing tape.

Procedure: . Cut landscape mesh to fit over a window and secure with clear packing ape. If landscape mesh is unaailable, use any kind of mesh-like materials, such as onion bags.

2. Cut tissue or cellophane int long strips or scrunch together into long ropes and wea through landscape mesh.

3. Any other colored transparent materials can also be wn through the mesh.

4. Children can use diffrent colors of cellophane to weave through the mesh to observe the mixing of colors.

5. Opaque weaving materials can be used as well so tht children car observe the diffrent properties and teures of weaving material

Universlty Student Comments: "I can see where this activity could really mak a little one`s life a bit easier when dealing with weaving materials:' (Reggio course student)

Beneits to the Child:

By enging in this activity, childrn develop y-hand coordination and fine mor skills, visual percepton, and critical thinking skills. Tactle discrimination is also a key learning ngredient of this activity.

Painting on Plexiglass Materials: Plexiglass sheets cut to a desirable size, wooden stands or easels to secure plexiglass in an upright position, assorted tempera paints each mixed with liquid soap, assorted paint brushes, water containers, newspaper. Procedure: 1. Place plexiglass sheets on wooden stands in an upright position or

paint directly on a closed window in your classroom that is reachable to young children.

2. Cover work area with newspaper. 3. Use paper plates as palettes and put a variety of tempera paints

mixed with liquid soap on each. Soap will help the paint to adhere to the slick surface of the glass.

4. Painting can proceed in a number of ways. Children can work

individually on the plexiglass, or they can work in pairs on opposite sides of the glass. If the latter is chosen, children can take turns

painting portraits of each other using the partner's actual face as a

guide. 5. If the plexiglass is placed in front of a glass window, this will provide

an opportunity for children to observe the variety of colors and how light can affect them as each color is applied.

University Student Comments: " Painting on either side of the glass is a great way to see how children would interact with one another. Would they feel like the other child was invading their space? Or, would they interact and communicate with what they paint and where it is placed in relation to the other child's work?" (Reggio course student,

journal entry)

Benefits to the Child: This activity promotes the development of hand-eye coordination, fine motor and visual perception skills, as well as the ability to mix colors effectively.

Reflections from Students: After experiencing these Reggio-inspired art activities, a graduate student at the University had this to say:

"I am beginning to picture ways to connect Reggio ideas and

practices into a U.S. curriculum, especially with art. I'm also

beginning to think of art very differently. Learning symbolic expressions can increase overall academic performance. Like music, we are beginning to see the holistic way children learn.

Using art to communicate with children provides an insight into where the child is on the developmental spectrum. Allowing children to choose the learning medium to express their

thoughts develops life-long thinking and learning skills they can

carry with them to the next stage of their education."

This comment is indicative of what we heard from others students in the class. Many of them were making comments to us on how these Reggio-inspired activities were helping them view art and art activities in a new way. Students felt more comfortable about using these materials in the classroom and were excited to share them with their future students. Many were used as part of their final

projects for the class.




Creating a Project in the Spirit of Reggio Emilia As a result of this special course, students were required to

develop a project and documentation panel. Students were divided into small groups of four and five, and as the impetus for these projects to evolve, each group was given an art reproduction of an artwork housed in the local museum of art. Research done with young children in the museum provided us with information on the kind of artworks that children enjoyed viewing. In the true spirit of Reggio Emilia, each of these group projects would begin with the interest of the child. The following are two accounts of the process used in developing a project and documentation board.

Project 1 The first group was given a reproduction of "The Horse,"

a ceramic piece produced in the Tang Dynasty. The group was challenged due to the paradigm shift in thinking. After struggling at first, the group decided how their project should proceed:

First, we took our class to the art museum to view "The Horse." When we got back to the classroom, we decided to bring out the materials we knew we had for our class concerning horses, such as books, toy horses, and media for them to draw and create their own horses with. After collaborating as a team, we decided to open up a discus- sion concerning horses and see where that would take us. We noticed that a lot of questions were directed toward real-life horses, such as: "I wonder what they eat," "Maybe they smell like hay," "I want to brush their long hair," and "I think their favorite snack is cookies." We then called up some nearby stables and horse farms and set a date to take the class to a farm so they could experience the real-life horses. Before we took that trip, we spent time in class sketching what they thought the horses would look like. When we went on the trip to the horse farm, the kids were able to feed, ride, brush, and ask all the questions they wanted about the horses. This time, when we arrived back at the classroom, we gave them all sorts of media to use to make their second pictures of the horses. We noticed that these drawings were much more elaborate and specific than the first. We then passed out modeling clay to our children, and they, at their own pace, eventually built a clay model of their horse. (Reggio course student, journal reflection)

Understanding the Reggio Emilia approach is important for early childhood educators as it focuses on art as the main vehicle for construction of knowledge.

Project 2 At the onset of their Reggio-inspired project, Amy and

Jeanine were assigned a Pagoda clock. They visited the clock during class time and studied its properties and architectural features. They anticipated the children having the following comments about the Pagoda clock:

...it looks like a castle, we like the chime, the gold is shiny, and we would like to live there.

As a result of these comments, the Pagoda clock was now being called a castle. The children's comments also helped them to formulate the following questions to plan their project:

Since they said it looks like a castle, maybe they want to know why castles are so big, how castles are built, what are the different parts of the castle called, are there castles today?... These are some things that we said to each other as we were thinking about this. How about taking a walking trip in the city to look at different structures? We won't see a castle but they can get a feel for the enormity of some of the buildings. We should do this before they even start experimenting with their own building. These are just the comments that she and I made to ourselves as we thought through this. They'll probably be interested in the structure of the pagoda since they said it looks like a castle. Maybe they will want to explore how castles are built and the process that goes into building structures.

With the children's comments and their own questions estab- lished, the students began to look for resources (books) and manipulatives (various blocks) to help them better understand the concept of the Pagoda clock. The blocks were going to serve as a language to help children gain further insight into the characteristics of the Pagoda clock. Below is a rationale on how the resources and manipulatives helped Amy and Jeanine understand the true meaning of Reggio and the project approach:

That (manipulatives) might be a way for them to explore how something like that is put together. We should have lots of building materials available for them to use if they decide to do this: blocks, boxes, light table things, lots of writing things. Maybe we could support opportunities to build on a small scale and a large scale, like with refriger- ator boxes. One of the things that was hardest for us was that we kept saying, "We could do this and we could bring in this," which is not injive with the project approach. So we just documented our conversations. Again we had a hard time. We didn't want to tell them that there are moats around castles and that they have lots of rooms, but if that came up we wanted to be ready. As in the spirit of Reggio, Amy and Jeanine did not want to

lead the children in any particular direction, but wanted them to construct their meaning and understanding about castles. To accomplish this strategy, they chose to provide many blocks and materials to help children explore as many characteristics of castles as they could, with the Pagoda clock serving as just one model.

JULY 2003 / ART EDUCATION



One of the characteristics of the Pagoda clock was that it was also a chime. Amy and Jeanine wanted to incorporate this component into their project. Below are their ideas on how to help children construct a knowledge of what a chime is:

"We like the chimes (children talking)," is what they said and we were happy that we went upstairs because when we read this we thought it was just a chime. This has bells hanging all around it, but it's not just a chime. It really is a chime and an instrument playing. So that led us into wondering what instrument it is and the kids will want to know that too. Maybe we could provide different instru- ments for the kids to experiment with because there is like this flute kind of an instrument that plays after the chimes

go. We thought that maybe that would interest them. I have a lot of different bells. The kids might like to explore how the different bells sound. Not only different hand bells but different shapes of bells, like desktop bells. Do you think they will want to know this? They might. It is pretty complicated but they may want to know how the sound comes out of the castle. They might also want to know what is inside the castle that makes the sounds. We'll need to help them discover this. This will be hard. Kids might say, "Where does that sound come from?" We can say it comes from inside the castle. There are some bells in there. But if they keep questioning that we have to really delve into that with them.

The quote above clearly illustrates the challenges associated with implementing the Reggio approach in U.S. classrooms. Teachers must give up some of the power and decision making in order to allow children the freedom to explore and construct their own knowledge around the topics being studied. Such projects and experiences not only allow children to explore the "hundred languages," but also allows them to become critical thinkers.

Summary Collaboration between the Early Childhood Education and

Art Education Programs allowed us to develop a course that investigated the education practices of Reggio Emilia, Italy. Our course proved gratifying because it allowed us the opportunity to implement the Italian town's unique philosophies, and this implementation in turn allowed us to better understand the complex role that art can play in helping children construct knowledge. Students were asked to make a paradigm shift, and this instigated a healthy dialogue in class. Students were further challenged to put theory into practice as they developed their art projects in the spirit of Reggio. We as educators have also grown and learned from our course experiences and plan to incorporate even more languages (music, movement, and technology) to help us teach our students about the Reggio approach.

Understanding the Reggio Emilia approach is important for early childhood educators as it focuses on art as the main vehicle for construction of knowledge. Reading, writing, and math are not seen as the dominant languages. Instead, all languages that can be used to represent one's thoughts and ideas are equally justified in the Reggio approach, which is a wonderful model for teaching young children using an art-inspired curriculum.

Katherina Danko-McGhee is Associate Professor and Early Childhood Education Coordinator, University of Toledo, Centerfor Visual Arts, Toledo, Ohio. E-mail: kdankom@pop3. utoledo. edu

Ruslan Slutsky is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Toledo, Ohio. E-mail: [email protected]

REFERENCES Arts, Education and Awareness Panel (1977) Coming to our senses:

The significance of the artsfor American education. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Applebee, A. N. (1978) The child's concept of story: Ages two to seventeen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Applebee, A. N. (1984) Contextsfor learning to write: Studies of secondary school instruction. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Clay, M. (1995) What did I write?: Beginning writing behavior. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Eisner, E. (2002) The arts and the creation of mind. Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.

Gandini, L. (1997) Foundation of the Reggio Emilia approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Graves, D. H. (1983) Writing: Teachers and children at work. Exeter, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

Lasky & Mukerji (1980). Art: Basicfor young children. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Olshansky, B. (1995). Picture this: An arts based literacy program. Educational Leadership, 53(1).

Steele, B. (1998). Draw me a story. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: Peguis Publishers.




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Preparing Early Childhood Teachers to Use Art in the Classroom