ABSTRACT

The present study examined the roles of teachers, peers, and materials in the environment in supporting children’s inquiry processes at a Reggio Emilia-inspired preschool. Reggio Emilia is an educational system originally developed post-WWII in Italy and now has become a pedological approach that influences early childhood education programs all over the world. Seventeen children and their two teachers were observed over 24 days in the spring and/or fall of one calendar year. Forty-one events in four days were coded for children’s inquiry processes (i.e. observing and questioning, predicting, evaluating, comparing, and concluding) and how they were guided (i.e. by teachers, peers and/or materials). The activity context (including art, storytelling, gardening, mapping, constructing, and pretend play) in which the inquiry exchange occurred was also examined. Findings revealed that teachers, peers, and classroom materials supported children’s advanced inquiry processes. In addition, advanced inquiry processes were utilized across all six activity contexts.

摘要

本研究调查了教师、同伴和环境中的材料在支持雷焦艾米利亚幼儿园儿童探究过程中的作用。雷焦艾米利亚教育系统最初是在二战后在意大利发展起来的，现在已经成为影响世界各地幼儿教育计划的一种教育方法。在一个日历年的春季和/或秋季，对 17 名儿童和他们的两名老师进行了 24 天的观察。四天内的 41 个事件被编码用于儿童的探究过程（即观察和提问、预测、评估、比较和总结）以及它们是如何被引导的（即由教师、同伴和/或材料）。活动背景（包括艺术、讲故事、园艺、制图、建造、和假装游戏），其中发生了询问交流。调查结果显示，教师、同伴和课堂材料支持儿童的高级探究过程。此外，在所有六个活动环境中都使用了高级查询流程。