Structuring Thinking Environments
Thinking Environments, a professional development model, is an awareness, understanding and a process focused upon the design, interface and impact with the environment of the physical learning space. The environment is ‘The Third Teacher’ (Reggio Emilia) where we focus on designing the physical space with the ‘Image of the Child’ as a root understanding. The ‘Image of the Child’ (Reggio Emilia) respects and understands the child’s frame of reference in regards to how children see, sense, use and interface within the environment. The teacher’s decisions:
- with intentionality — impact the classroom and school’s environment.
- are crucial to the quality outcomes of the children and youth’s learning experiences and how they model the children.
- become a model to how students learn to consider using their environment: in school, home and the greater community.