When we listen to the voices/languages of children, we can create an enriched environment that is responsive to their needs and interests, one that fosters students’ curiosity and creativity. When students are considered ‘co-constructors’ of the learning environment, they are provided with opportunities to participate in meaningful, joy filled learning activities that support, engage and challenge. To cite Nachmanovitch (1990), “Education must tap into the close relationship between play and exploration; there must be permission to explore and express. There must be validation of the exploratory spirit, which by definition takes us out of the tried, the tested, and the homogenous” (p. 188).

When we engage the students’ whole body in the learning process, we provide active experiences, which integrate knowing, doing, feeling and exploring. Active, hands-on, bodies-on, minds-on learning involves the students’ cognitive and motor functions and emotions. Utilizing the body as a learning tool, activates the brain, reinforces educational concepts, and supports a lively and engaging learning environment. Movement, art, drama and music involve the whole child and by integrating these creative explorations into the curriculum, educators can foster the ‘100 languages’ of the child (Malaguzzi, n.d.).

Participants in this workshop will be actively involved in creative explorations that can be adopted and adapted into various teaching and learning contexts.

Dr. Paula Rosehart

I am currently working as an In-Service Faculty Associate in Field Programs at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in British Columbia, Canada. As an In-Service Faculty Associate, I promote, develop, facilitate and instruct in-service teachers working towards a Graduate Diploma in Education. The programs that I coordinate and develop are focused on ‘Learning in the Early Years (Reggio Emilia philosophy), and Exploring Arts Education. Another position that I currently hold is with ‘The Friends Of Simon’ tutoring project, which is an award-winning SFU Faculty of Education initiative. This outreach project brings together an attitude of inquiry, instructional knowledge, and university students, in order to provide literacy tutoring for newcomer school-aged children and youth. My other instructional pursuits in the Faculty of Education at SFU have been in the Undergraduate Department teaching courses in education: ‘Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice’, and ‘Movement Language Elements, for Dance in Education’. I hold a Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts Education, a Masters in Arts Education, and a PHD in Arts Education with a focus on somatic forms of knowing, being and doing in teacher education and classroom education. The session that I will be facilitating focuses on my research on embodied, creative approaches to curriculum development and delivery, and delves into my current work with teachers inquiring into Reggio-inspired, play-based pedagogies.

Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive, Burnaby
British Columbia, Canada, VSA 156
[email protected]

For more information, contact Patricia Upczak, Synchronicity Publishing, LLC