Horouf Reggio Education Conference Hears ‘Beauty’ Should be Part of School Curriculum

On the second day of the UAE’s first Horouf Reggio Education Conference, a packed audience at Al Qasba Theatre in Sharjah heard that beauty, space, the environment and interaction were key to an innovative school curriculum which should be constantly monitored and reconstructed through intense research and study.

The teachers and education professionals attending the conference, which explores the benefits of the alternative ‘Reggio Emilia Approach’ to education, have been encouraged to rethink traditional classroom methods in favour of a natural learning environment, where children are stimulated by self-expression and innate curiosity.

Speaking at the Horouf Reggio Conference, organized by Horouf, a subsidiary of Kalimat Group, hosting representatives from Italian Reggio Children Centre, Claudia Giudici, President of Reggio Children, told delegates: “Through an ever-evolving curriculum, we can give credit and value to the children who constantly guide us as a compass to the world. Children are born with many resources and have a natural curiosity with which they marvel at the world around them. To a large extent they are autonomous and work with the teachers to set their own curriculum.”

The alternative education concept, which was founded in the Northern Italy city of Reggio Emilia, has 26 children in each class, with two teachers and an artist who focus on individual creativity, skills and capabilities, enhancing the children’s confidence to express their ideas. The Reggio Children Centre believes that the youngsters, who are enrolled from aged 1-11 years, learn the basics of traditional mathematics, space, measurements and language through play, thinking and speaking during their daily activities.

Claudia Giuduci added: “In Italy, many schools are cold, technical places where children go purely to learn. There is no beauty in those schools and that needs be part of any curriculum whether it is through the space in which children learn, aesthetics or the environment.”

Also addressing the conference, which concludes tomorrow (Thursday 8th March), Marina Castagnetti, a pre-school teacher at the Diana School of Reggio Emilia, which has a presence in 140 countries said: “Space and the environment is crucial in learning and we see through our research that keywords such as ‘relationships’ and ‘osmosis’ play a crucial role. For instance, there is a natural osmosis between the outside world and the classroom where we can learn the time of day by the position of the sun and feel the rhythm of the city through its sounds.”

The UAE Ministry of Education and the Sharjah Education Council are the conference’s Strategic Partners, with Sharjah Islamic Bank as the Official Sponsor, GEMS Education Group, Zayed University and Skyline University College acting as Educational Sponsors, the ‘1001 Titles’ initiative and Knowledge without Borders are sponsoring Atelier (the workshop), Sharjah Media Corporation and Sharjah Government Media Bureau are Media Sponsors, Al Qasba is the Venue Sponsor, and the Bank of Sharjah, Sharjah Cooperative Society and Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry are Conference Sponsors.

Established in 2013, Horouf, an imprint of the Sharjah-based Kalimat Group, aims to create contemporary and innovative educational methods for children in Arabic. Its portfolio has numerous print and digital works, in addition to interactive applications. Prior to its official launch, Horouf worked on research projects with 30 schools in Sharjah to explore, develop and understand best practices in educational publishing, and children’s development.