@nformer

Symposium on innovative childhood learning
process to be held at Capilano College

arly Childhood Care and Education

instructor, Lois Rennie, has been
busy coordinating the second
symposium in British Columbia on an
innovative approach to child care.

Reflections on the Reggio Emilia
Approach Symposium II will be held at
Capilano College on May 28, 29 and 30
with two renowned experts presenting
workshops.

Dr. Lella Gandini is an author of
children’s books, books for parents and
teachers, and a correspondent for the
Italian early education magazine
Bambini. She interprets current trends
for North American educators interested
in the Reggio Emilia approach. Lella
holds a doctorate in early childhood
education from the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst, and devotes
her research efforts to cross-cultural
studies of parenting and early
education.

Dr. Carolyn Pope Edwards is
professor of Psychology and Family and
Consumer Sciences at the University of
Nebraska. She received her bachelor’s
degree in anthropology and doctoral
degree in human development from
Harvard University, where she studied
child rearing in diverse cultures and
was research associate a the Child
Development Research Unit, University
of Nairobi, Kenya. Her introduction to
Reggio Emilia came in 1983 when she
was a Visiting professor at the National
Research Council in Rome. She has
also published books, research articles
and chapters about family life, child
development, and early childhood
education around the world.

Lella and Carolyn co-edited the book
The Hundred Languages of Children:

Approach

Symposium Il

at Capilano College.

The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early
Childhood Education, which has found
a home on the book shelves in the
Early Childhood Care and Education
department. The book documents the
process of learning in schools which is
sustained by philosophy and practice in
a connected and reciprocal way.

Through the Reggio Emilia
approach, educators and children
together, with the support of parents
and the community, construct learning
experiences and reflect on them
through explorations, activities and
projects. Within a system of supportive
relationships, the children represent
thoughts, hypotheses and ideas through
many expressive languages as a way to
communicate with peers, themselves
and adults.

Assisting Lois with the symposium
is ECCE instructor Anne Carr. Anne
joined the department in 1993. “That
year,” she says, “Lois went to Italy to
investigate the Reggio Emilia approach
and I attended a workshop by Italian
educators at the University of Illinois in
Michigan. Ever since, Lois and the
department has been interested in this

process of learning.

“Lois has worked very hard to
make this symposium a success,”
Anne says, adding, “and John Potts
enabled it to happen. He’s a very
supportive dean of innovative ECCE
training.”

Last August, the ECCE
department held symposium number
one at Whistler. Attendees included
approximately 70 ECCE instructors
and care givers from across North
America. “This year we expect
hundreds of participants,” Anne says,
including local people, ECCE
instructors, and parents.

“I’m very excited about the
symposium and the number of people
attending,” she adds. “It means that
more and more people are becoming
aware of this learning process.”

For more information on the
symposium, contact Pamela Robb at
local 4923.

May ig
Child Care Month

@ e@= Capilano
@em College

Vol. XX No.5
May 19/98