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The question being pondered was; where does learning take place? For Lella, teaching
and learning take place when children encounter a problem during the course of active
exploration with materials. Presented with new information, they experience cognitive
dissonance. When a teacher recognizes this cognitive conflict, an authentic teaching and
learning opportunity presents itself. Giving the example of a child trying to affix two
balls of clay together, Lella suggests that the lesson be embedded in that real experience,
for it is at this time that the teacher can scaffold the skill of applying small amounts of
water to the structure. In this way teaching and learning is holistic, natural, and authentic.
There is an understanding in a Reggio classroom that learning does not happen in
isolation. For teachers it is an opportunity to collaborate and find shared meanings and
common values. Planning involves making hypotheses and predictions or “projections”
about “contexts, materials, tools and instruments” needed to create “opportunities
pertinent to the learning process at hand.” Documentation provides the basis for “true
professional training of teachers” (Rinaldi, 1998, p. 122). It is an opportunity for inservice
professional development as teacher and child engage in reciprocal learning.
Working with students and early childhood educators, I struggle with providing
the training necessary to help them become adept at pedagogical documentation that
reveals children’s thinking processes. I have presented loose parts and examples of
interesting items to provoke their own questions and musings. Even when interesting
theories emerge, there seems to be a fixation on finding the right answer.
When children ask questions such as the omnipresent, “Why is the sky blue?”
teachers have the opportunity to elicit theories. When children explore natural objects and
wonder how the sound of the ocean gets into the conch shell, then teachers can proceed