Implementing Regio-Emilia and Kumon Methods

The assignment requires an analysis of the Regio-Emilia and Kumon methods, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. It also involves a discussion on implementing these methods in a sustainable and holistic approach for primary school education. The student needs to provide references from relevant studies and papers to support their argument.

Running head: PERSPECTIVE ON CHILDHOOD LEARNING
PERSPECTIVE ON CHILDHOOD LEARNING
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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PERSPECTIVE ON CHILDHOOD LEARNING
Introduction
The aim of this paper is to discuss my perspective on children that have informed my
pedagogical framework of early childhood education. The paper highlights the perspectives
and approaches that have been influential in the teaching and learning of primary children.
Through these elucidations and explorations, I reflect on my outlook regarding effective
teaching and learning that would enable the children to realise their potential. The paper has
been organized on the themes of my beliefs about children and learning, my beliefs on
teaching and the contemporary view on teaching.
Beliefs about children and learning
Children need to grow and nurture rather than being pushed to stiff and cut-throat
competition. The dominant images of children are that they are innocent and dependant thus
reinforcing perpetual guardianship to monitor their activities. While I strongly believe that
children need monitoring and attention, however I do not subscribe the view that they need
patronizing care (Luke, 2018). Education of children should try to bring out their potential
and stoke their interests towards learning. Children should be treated as autonomous
individuals and the role of the teacher and parent should be to ignite them an interest for
learning. Children should be motivated to realize their full potential and their morale should
be boosted so that they become responsible individuals (Hennessey & Dionigi, 2013). The
Montessori philosophy emphasizes that the classroom should be an environment that should
be collaborative in nature by the children, teacher and the environment (Ahmadpour &
Mujembari, 2015). The children would autonomously make individual choice that would
provide them an opportunity to make decisions for themselves and learn to take
responsibilities of their own. Steiner’s philosophy of education would also be useful in the
development of the child as this philosophy proposes for a curriculum and educational setting

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that would inspire the child to learn. This can be done through the means of creative play,
stories, songs and interaction with the nature and involvement of the child (Kelemen et al.,
2014). This framework would encourage the child to explore the environment, imbibing
important skills, the values of sharing and culminate to the emotional quotient of the children.
Children are imaginative and spontaneous and therefore, the purpose of education should be
to nurture that spirit within the children. Children also tend to imitate the adults and for them
the immediate role models are the older children. The older children tend to reinforce their
learning on the younger children (Cutter-Mackenzie., & Edwards, 2013). Therefore, multi-
age groupings would inculcate the spirit of peer-group learning. Dr. Maria Montessori opine
that in the phase of childhood, children experience sensitive periods, also known as windows
of opportunity.
The Reggio Emilia movement ushered in a wave of change in the field of primary
school education for education. This philosophical tenet of this movement is in consonance
with my view of the child. Unlike, the traditional constructions of children as dependant, this
philosophy recognize the agentic quality of the child. I feel that childhood is an important
phase where the children can make sense of themselves. Secondly, the children should
interact with the adults and they are co-learners. Children should learn and develop by
participating in the designing of the school curriculum. The feature of this curriculum
children and adults collaborating. The planning in this kind of approach should be based on
documenting the language of the child, observation and recording of interests and ideas of the
child that would enhance and underline the agency of the child. There should be assessment
that is based on the portfolios comprising of the work selected and decided by the student in
collaboration with their teacher. There should also be interviews with children about their
learning and promote peer review and augment the agency of the children.

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Beliefs on teaching
The Kumon method of teaching and learning propounded by Toru Kumon of Japan
has been revolutionary in the field of early childhood education. This method makes the
students equipped to handle methods without being directly taught to them (Bray, 2013). The
highlight of this method is that it incorporates new content that is imbibed and retained by the
students even after they graduate from school. The effectiveness of the method lies in its
systematic approach towards the education of the child. The first step of teaching a new
concept is with the adequate use of illustrations. In the subsequent stage, the difficulty level
of the students is increased with the aim that this would enhance their learning. This allows
students to learn how to form links with the concepts and the topics that they have already
learnt in the class. Another feature of the Kumon method that is sustainable for the learning
outcome of the children. This feature of providing individualized instruction to each of the
children and would enable to bring out their potential and promote the holistic development
of their academic capabilities (Hayat, 2017). The instructor makes a close observation of the
students and evaluates their abilities. This is followed by guiding each of the children based
on their potential. The last stage is collecting feedback from the children and improvising on
the teaching technique of the students.
The Kumon educator inspires the students to be responsible and cultivate a positive
outlook towards academics. The kumon teachers also believe that students should feel
confident and independent. To materialize this outlook, the educators continuously evaluate
the performance of the child and encourage the students to participate with keenness in their
academic endeavour (Lillard, 2013). Based on the philosophy and features of the kumon
method of learning, I feel method would be effective and pragmatic to teach and learn
children for a better future. As a teacher, my role would be guide my students and help them
to realize their potential. I do not affirm to the notion of education that is premised on spoon-

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feeding the children. Teaching should not amount to being a crutch for the student but rather
being an efficient educator who equips the students to use all the skills in the right manner. I
feel that merely teaching a concept without providing illustrations is not impactful. Studies
have shown that the use of illustrations intensify the understanding capacity and retaining
power of the children. If a children forgets what is being taught and imparted in the
classroom, it is because the correct method is not being followed. Therefore, as a teacher it
would be my goal to instill confidence and curiosity in children so that they are interested to
take on new challenges.
The curriculum design should be in such a manner that level of toughness in terms of
the module is in an ascending order, providing the students to learn and then take on the next
set of hurdles. Teaching and learning is a two-way process. I need to understand whether the
children are able to understand the contents of the module, whether they are facing
difficulties or whether there is a need for improvement. This can be done when I have
feedback from the children. This will also encourage children to understand their individual
learning capacities and embolden me to provide attention to them based on their personalized
learning outcome.
Beliefs about contemporary views
In the contemporary times, the Reggio Emilia approach that views the child as
capable, strong and agentic have been quite popular. The Reggio-Emilia approach stood out
for its view considering the child as an autonomous individual who is capable of realising his
or her own potential (Bond, 2015). Multi-arts approach has been one of the highlights of the
Reggio-Emilia philosophy. This approach empowers students to learn and retain better
information for a protracted period of time. Children are also able to apply the techniques
learnt in their own artwork and create superior quality artwork (Slipp, 2017). The Reggio-

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Emilia approach perceives children as capable learners who can acquire knowledge through
their instinctive curiosity. In this process, what they decides to become, will turn into an
important element in their growth as an individual. The collaborative and collective
disposition of the Reggio-Emilia approach goes a long way in the effective learning of the
child. The parents, teachers and children are equal partners in the development of the child
(Arseven, 2014). Apart from independent learning of the child, it also documents the learning
progress of the child through taking pictures, collecting transcripts from children and their
artwork. It believes there is no one way of learning and there should be the adoption of
multiple learning tools and instruments at the disposal of the teachers for teaching the
children. But as a teacher I have identified certain drawback of this method as it leads to a
complete loss of control in contrast to the earlier modes of teaching. Another shortcoming of
this method is that there is not a fixed curriculum as it is the interest of the children that
informs the curriculum plan (Hočevar, Šebart & Štefanc, 2013). This can be challenging and
time-consuming. I feel that this lack of standardization can add unnecessary burden on the
teacher and pose demand for more teachers for the children.
Conclusion
Through this paper I have put forth my understanding of the child and therefore, I
have emphasized that a child should be allowed to grow and nurture in a compatible
environment. The Montessori and Regio-Emmilia method are helpful in this endeavour. But
as a teacher I feel that the approaches and underlying principles of the Kumon method is
something I intend to implement. Although, the Regio Emilia approach have generated
momentum in the present context but it has certain shortcomings that a teacher can pose a
setback. Otherwise, I recommend a sustainable and holistic approach for framework of the
primary school education.

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References
Ahmadpour, N., & Mujembari, A. K. (2015). The impact of Montessori teaching method on
IQ levels of 5-year old children. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 205, 122-
127.
Arseven, A. (2014). THE REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH AND CURRICULUM
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS. International Journal of Academic Research, 6(1).
Bond, V. L. (2015). Sounds to share: The state of music education in three Reggio Emilia–
inspired North American preschools. Journal of research in music education, 62(4),
462-484.
Bray, M. (2013). Shadow education: Comparative perspectives on the expansion and
implications of private supplementary tutoring. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 77, 412-420.
Cutter-Mackenzie, A., & Edwards, S. (2013). Toward a model for early childhood
environmental education: Foregrounding, developing, and connecting knowledge
through play-based learning. The Journal of Environmental Education, 44(3), 195-
213.
Hayat, H. (2017). The Use of Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) Method in Teaching
Reading Comprehension on Narrative Text, A Quasi Experiment at First Grade
Senior High School of Al-Irsyad Banten (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Islam
Negeri" Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin" BANTEN).
Hennessey, A., & Dionigi, R. A. (2013). Implementing cooperative learning in Australian
primary schools: Generalist teachers' perspectives. Issues in Educational
Research, 23(1), 52-68.

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Hočevar, A., Šebart, M. K., & Štefanc, D. (2013). Curriculum planning and the concept of
participation in the Reggio Emilia pedagogical approach. European early childhood
education research journal, 21(4), 476-488.
Kelemen, D., Emmons, N. A., Seston Schillaci, R., & Ganea, P. A. (2014). Young children
can be taught basic natural selection using a picture-storybook
intervention. Psychological science, 25(4), 893-902.
Lillard, A. S. (2013). Playful learning and Montessori education. American journal of
play, 5(2), 157.
Luke, A. (2018). The social construction of literacy in the primary school. In Critical
Literacy, Schooling, and Social Justice (pp. 46-92). Routledge.
Slipp, K. (2017). The Image of a Child and the Reggio Emilia Philosophy.