IMPLICATIONS OF THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT ON EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES IN EARLY EDUCATION
IMPLICATIONS OF THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT ON EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES IN EARLY EDUCATION

Summary/Abstract: According to Albert Einstein, the environment is „everything that is not me”. His perspective on the concept of environment is broad and comprehensive and is applicable to educational contexts. In this vision, the environment designates the learning taken together with the whole physical, socio-cultural framework in which it takes place. The concept of learning environment, as stated in a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) dedicated to this issue, is an „organic, holistic one that includes the learning processes and the contexts that host them; it is an ecosystem that integrates learning activity and outcomes.” (OECD, 2013, p. 22) Some clarifications are required for the clearer delimitation of the term stated above: The term speaks about the socio-educational space and not only about the physical one, although this limiting perception is very common. The concept also refers to classrooms, furniture, arrangement of walls and centers of interest, their ability to provide healthy learning contexts that respect the rules of hygiene and ergonomics, the possibilities of positive interaction. Without all this, based on the pyramid of needs in a kindergarten, it is difficult to build effective teaching approaches that facilitate the socialization and preparation of the child for school as part of the preparation for social life. In this sense, the concept does not only refer to „spaces”, „facilities”, „material base”, but also their integration in relevant activities in order to ensure the well-being of children and reach at the end of preschool the competence profile of the child ready for type learning. school and the success of the later adult. That is why the physical learning environment is closely related to the learning environment - called by Loris Malaguzzi „the third teacher” - which implicitly and explicitly creates teaching options for teachers and children. Space makes tacit but visible statements, „space speaks”, as E.T. Hall, speaks in front of teachers and sometimes in their place. The same theory is supported by Maria Montessori whose philosophical essence in this consists in the idea that „the environment / space instructs”.

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