Facilities I

Throughout this text, authors such as Ángeles Ruiz de Velasco, Pablo García González, Isabel Recio and Javier Abad, will be the protagonists who will offer to the discourse the pedagogical sense that this proposal of the facilities requires. Before beginning, it should be noted that Javier Abad, is one of the most representative figures of the methods of work from the facilities, where for him, these are part of a scenario where action-transformation is collected by children.

The facilities are characterized by generating symbolic and presymbolic games in childhood, with the ultimate purpose of developing creative, relational and emotional capacities in the students creating an atmosphere of freedom and joy. That is, as Dávila (2015) points out, 

“The emotional climate changes and, therefore, the dynamics of the classroom guarantees the participation of children in a reliable, peaceful and democratic environment, where trust, security and care are experienced, elements that build children’s personality and prosocial behaviors as the basis of Good Living” (Dávila, 2015, citado en OMEP ECUADOR, p.250).

Orienting the discourse, according to Ruiz de Velasco y Abad (2014) and other authors such as those mentioned above, the most important aspects to take into account when designing and implementing the proposed facilities are based on the following questions:

What are the facilities?

The facilities follow the idea of configuring spaces as mediators for the game of meanings and situations of discovery. That is to say, they are settings designed from the encounter between the most aesthetic, artistic and psychomotor part, where interacting to favor the symbolic and presymbolic play of childhood.

The proposal of the facilities is to propose a symbolic space where represent an intentional idea or message by offering minors the fact of being able to “enter into play” through different modes of interpretation and interaction (Ruiz de Velasco and Abad, 2014).

The facilities, ultimately, from the educational point of view, consist of a proposal where children can be offered places to experiment and transform based on the interests adopted by the youngest, that is to say, they are educational practices where the uncertainty, motivation, creativity and imaginibility are enhanced in the schoolchildren.

What spaces, materials and times do the facilities offer?

The facilities offer beautiful and child-friendly spaces, where it is very simple to appeal to the attention of the child. They are structured spaces, arranged beautifully, and where all the elements are reflected in an organized way, in order to allow infinite possibilities of action and play from imagination and creation.

When designing the scenario for the proposal it is essential to try to offer opportunities to develop in the children the symbolic and presymbolic game spontaneously. They are scenarios where three key ideas are given priority: that they are broad places with ease of movement and action, that the proposal is in the center of the place, offering it full prominence and frequently, the materials are distributed geometrically.

In short, the facilities offer spaces that allow to be interpreted by each and every one of the students, thanks to the offer of materials arranged occupying all the space.

The materials of the facilities must offer diversity of action, relationship and discovery. They must be divergent and varied materials, so that they can be used by several infants at the same time or more individually. In addition, it is important that they are unstructured materials that allow to pass the full and the empty, the inside and the outside, the calm and the movement, the presence and the absence. In short, materials that offer countless possibilities for action.

Finally, from a temporary point of view, the facilities must offer an unlimited amount of time to children. That is, a time without haste that respects the learning rhythm of each and every small.

What is the teaching role in the facilities?

The professional in the facility is in charge of designing and organizing with certain aesthetics and care the proposal. He acts as mediator and observer, where he participates in children’s games as long as he considers it necessary. Its main function is to observe and document through a field diary the game of childhood, so that everything that happens in the proposal is visible. For this alternative, the teacher plans how he wants the installation to be, then designs it with the materials chosen, to finally expose it to childhood and begin their play.

In short, it is a proposal where the teacher tries to document all the routes he observes in childhood, in order to better and keep updated his educational practice according to the demand and needs of his schoolchildren.

What is the role of the student?

The students are the central protagonist of the whole proposal. Their function is to arrange, rebuild and transform through their individual or shared spontaneous play. The students in the facilities, initially observe the proposal to, later, be able to choose and select their preference of game, space and material.

The facilities “are a true recreational ecosystem configured by the adult to provoke from an initial order and a concrete aesthetic proposal their deconstruction, transformation and new reconstruction by children through shared play” (Ruiz de Velasco y Abad, 2016, p.45)

References 

García González, P. (2017). Escenarios de juego. Infancia: educar de 0 a 6 años, 162, 27-35.

Recio, I. (2014). Pistas para la evaluación: Instalaciones. Revista Aula de Infantil, 77.

Ruiz de Velasco, A. y Abad, J. (2014). Contextos de simbolización y juego. La propuesta de las instalaciones. Revista Aula de Infantil, 77, 11-28.

Ruiz de Velasco, A. & Abad, J. (2016). Lugares de juego y encuentro para la infancia. Revista Iberoamericana de educación, 71(1), 37-62.

Dávila, M. P. V. (2015). 4.10. Instalaciones Lúdicas Interacción, creatividad y libertad en la Primera Infancia. Memorias del 3 Encuentro Internacional de Educación Infantil, 241.

Authorship

Laura Santos de la Mata, Elena Solana Fernández y Sandra Zamorano Pérez, 2020.