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In the Italian speaking
canton of Tessin there has been a wide range of pedagogical
methods used in pre-school education. Among those are: the «Asilo
infantile», «kindergarten», the «Casa
dei bambini montessoriana» and the «Scuola materna»
models. In the last decade a further and newly defined model
has been developed. It is called the «scuola dell’infanzia»
or «Childhood school» which has been adopted in
the official «Orientamenti prommatici» or «Education
Program Guidelines» for the year 2000.
The new model aims to combine and harmonise the most outstanding
characteristics of the past models into an education process
adequately designed to deal with the child’s needs inside
the "Scuola dell’infanzia”. It takes into account
the child’s verbal and non verbal com-munication, their
emotional and affective life, their behaviour and cognitive
sphere.
The current work describes, through key questions, the steps
taken and the reasons which lead to the current «Scuola
dell’infanzia». A description of the strengths and
a critical view of the still pending challenges is also reported
to show where potential improvements are needed. Furthermore
a specific list of observation points is given to describe how
the school sees its capability to deal with many challenges.
Among these challenges are the child’s needs including
social needs, the ability of the teaching staff to be at the
same wavelength as their educational tasks and the continuity
of the education system between the «scuola dell’infanzia»
and the Elementary school along with the specific pedagogical
tools. |
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