The hidden curriculum can be defined as the set of rules, customs, beliefs, languages and symbols that are manifested in the structure and operation of an institution (Acevedo, 2010), which are produced in parallel with the intentions of the explicit, manifest or written curriculum, and precisely through the practices with which it is developed. It refers to learning that is acquired by students although these aspects are not included in the official curriculum.
Any environment, including social, recreational and traditional activities, can lead to unintentional learning, since learning is not only connected to schools, but also to the experiences that a person has. In this case, it is at the pre-school or higher education level. It is everything that can be seen and heard, but transmitted and received unconsciously, at least without any recognised intentionality.
According to Parcerisa (1999), the hidden curriculum transmits, above all, values and attitudes through a process of analysis and reflection, on many other occasions through what Bandura calls “vicarious learning” produced by teachers in their way of acting and through their intervention.
References
Acevedo Huerta, J. E. (2010, noviembre). El currículo oculto en las enseñanzas formales. Aspectos menos visibles a tener en cuenta para una educación no sexista. Temas para la educación. Recuperado de: https://www.feandalucia.ccoo.es/docu/p5sd7590.pdf
Parcerisa, A. (1999). ¿Qué es el currículum oculto?
Authorship
Paula López Peña, Marcos Ruiz Vadillo, Lidia San Emeterio Uslé y Sandra Viso Sotorrío, 2020.
The hidden curriculum is transmitted, without an explicit intention, by the faculty. That is, it is what is transmitted without being aware of it. This make reference to the not write curriculum. This does not always coincide with what we, as teachers, expect to teach and even we can find ourselves in situations in which we are unconscious transmitters of guidelines and values contrary to what we really want to transmit. It is important to say that always exist an hidden curriculum, because the teachers can’t´stop make influence on their student body in multiple ways, many of them unaware. The learning of this type of curriculum occurs, on many occasions, through what Bandura calls “vicarious learning”. That is, it is learning by imitating the way of acting of a model figure, such as, for example, the teacher. We have to be clear about the transcendence of this curriculum, considera all the elements in a doublé perspective: that of the explicit curriculum and that of the implicit one, to make the hidden curriculum visible. In addition, we must be clear that neutral education is a myth since we are always influencing.
References
Artur Parcerisa Aran. (1999). Eufonía. [Versión electrònica]. Revista Eufonía 17.
Free-play allows the students to conduct their own actions while being the protagonists of that moment (Fernández, 2014). This process is creative and ruleless, it benefits spontaneity, creativity, imagination as well as it frees the children from the pressure they may feel and it allows them to get on in an independent way (Caurcel, 2010). Therefore, free and spontaneous play is very essential for it promotes creativity and generates pleasure in the people who participate in it (Arnaiz, de Basterrechea y Carreño, 2011).
Spanish schools, at the beginning of the 20th century started to position themselves on a more transformative and whole view of childhood; this process wanted to leave behind the rote and intellectualist approach and focus the process of teaching and learning on the children, which also helped the value of the ludic activities to be recognised (Rico, 2007).
Although nowadays the importance of free-play is well known for its benefits, it still lacks opportunities for it to be appreciated. The concept of free-play that we explain in this document is not related to the reality that this process goes through in schools. In spite of the awareness of the teachers about the importance of free-playing they are still resistant to leave time for it in class. This usually happens because these teachers still have a more traditionalist view of playing. They may see it as a spare time activity with no correlation to education. Alternatively, the goal is to not see it as a waste of time but as something rich and productive within the educational process (Rico, 2007).
Certain reason as to why free-playing lacks rich and educational purposes are as followed: lack of pedagogical training the teachers have, the lack of support from the administrative team, the opinions of the families, the pressure of the curricular content and the ratio of students per classroom.
As we mentioned earlier, teachers do not count with a strong support from the administrative team of the school to add the free-playing to their programme, as well as they are not given enough and a specific time for this activity (Mañós, Balagué, Virgili y Montalá, 2019). Moreover, Malaguzzi (2011) tells us about the need of a timeless time, without any rushes, where every kid does as they please, experimenting, building relationships and knowledge. Children have different ways of interacting with people, different ways of expressing themselves and experimenting, so, this process needs to have its own time respecting every child’s right to have their rhythm.
Having finished seeing the reality of free-playing in schools, we can conclude there is no correlation between the traits of free-playing in reality and the concepts we went through in this paper. One of these concepts is that each individual has different way of participating, understanding, contemplating, playing and interpreting and these should be done in a free context. If we allow this process to happen, we will allow the kids to create their own map through the unconscious and the mental representations of the reality (consciousness) (Abad, 2008). In a similar way, children conceive playing as their own basic way to act. Even though they do it for pleasure, the main reason behind this activity is because the feel the need to do it (Arnaiz, de Basterrechea, Carreño, 2011).
For this process to be done correctly, adults, specifically teachers, must present materials in an organised way so that it can provoke a sense of transformation in the children. In this way, the kids will be able to make the places of play their own, physically and mentally. In free-play there should be place for disorganising, destruction, reuse of materials, etc. Teachers must see this process not as an error, but as a way of getting to know the children in a more global way while using the observation as a way of documenting (Abad, 2008).
Using a real-life example, there is a proposal of a teacher of a three years olds classroom that includes a crib, a bench and some fabric. This teacher got mad at the fact that the students did not go through the materials as she had planned but instead, they went in a completely different direction.
We have to take into account that playing is not a one-room activity, but it is recommendable to take place in other spaces outside of the classroom. A more natural surrounding is beneficial thus the free-play enables the students to enjoy, experimenting and learning in a more global way. An example can be school trips in the outside (Rico, 2007).
Once we have seen the evolution of the concepts of free-playing throughout the years and the ones that we have now in the school context, we can say that students are not getting everything they can from it. Schools tend to rely on publishing houses that offer them pseud-games that are far from giving the children the liberty of action that they deserve. The fact that they kids are told the “limits” that certain materials have also limits their learning. Moreover, as we mentioned earlier, the time for creating and experimenting is overlapped by the obligatory assignments that they have to do. as a result, playing has way less time than these previous activities (Hoyuelos, 2015). Playing is not wasting time, but limiting the possibilities of reaching a full growth.
References
Abad, J. (2008). El Placer y el Displacer en el Juego Espontáneo Infantil. Arteterapia- Papeles de arteterapia y educación artística para la inclusión social, 167-188.
Caurcel, M. J. (2010). Contextos de desarrollo y juego en la edad infantil. En A. Muñoz García, Psicología del desarrollo en la etapa de Educación Infantil (págs. 176-193). Madrid: Pirámide.
Fernández, L. (2014). El juego libre y espontáneo en educación infantil. Una experiencia práctica. Santander.
Hoyuelos, A. (2015). Cultura de la infancia y ámbitos de juego. En A. Hoyuelos, & M. A. Riera, Complejidad y relaciones en educación infantil (págs. 113-130). Barcelona: Rosa Sensat
Mañós, R. V., Balagué, À. G., Virgili, N. A., &Montalá, M. D. (2019). Percepción de los maestros sobre el derecho al juego libre en educación infantil y educación primaria. Estudio desarrollado en Barcelona (España). Bordón. Revista de Pedagogía, 71(4), 151-165.
Rico, A. P. (2007). Consideraciones pedagógicas sobre los valores y posibilidades educativas del juego en la España contemporánea (1876-1936). Historia de la Educación, 26.
Authorship
Laura Cabeza Badía y Cristina Rojo Santamaría, 2020.
Game, as Huizinga mentioned (1984), is a voluntary activity with spatial and temporal limits, based on a freely accepted rule and a goal. In it, feelings of joy, tension, as well as the awareness of experiencing something different from what is happening in life, are developed. This activity, quite the opposite of the fame it has received in education, is not a harmful occupation that should be reduced. Free play is fundamental to children’s development, therefore should not be the activity they have access when they have finished what the teacher considers academic because it does not allow them to carry out an activity that is very necessary for their growth. Besides, the game should not be used as a pseudo-game to work on curricular content because it loses its essence and denatures the activity (Hoyuelos, 2015). In this sense, it is necessary to be clear about the idea that the author explains that playing is uncertain, unpredictable activity and this is what makes it so fascinating. In these moments of free play children imagine what might happen, they feel differently, try things out, imagine, etc. Children use the game to go through paths that otherwise wouldn’t be possible (Hoyuelos, 2015).
Furthermore, through play, children put into practice their ability to see everything around them from a poetic perspective, even when the topics are as complicated as loneliness, abandonment, friendship, etc. On many occasions children use play as a tool to address all those topics not considered for children. However, we are not aware of the great capacity for understanding and poetic process, which is surprisingly natural, that children develop through play to deal with such topics that we consider inappropriate for their age. Another characteristic of this activity is that it is typical of childhood because adults can not play, we try to represent it in the best possible way, but we do not be part of the game as children do. We may, therefore, be constantly asking ourselves what the purpose of this is, as if it had to be an activity based on logic. This does not mean that the game is incoherent, on the contrary, those who are immersed in it are able to perceive and interpret its meaning (Hoyuelos, 2015)
On the other hand, at the moments of free play children will be influenced by their age and the materials provided. They may develop pre-symbolic or symbolic play, although the latter increases between the ages of two and five (Gallardo & Gallardo, 2018). Moreover, it is essential to bear in mind that different types of materials lead to different types of play.
References
Gallardo, P & Gallardo, J.A. (2018). Teorías sobre el juego y su importancia como recurso educativo para el desarrollo integral infantil. Revista Educativa Hekademos, 24.
Hoyuelos, A. (2015). Cultura de la infancia y ámbitos de juego. En Hoyuelo, A y Riera, M.A. Complejidad y relaciones en educación infantil. Barcelona: Rosa Sensat.
Huizinga, J. (1984). Homo Ludens. Madrid: Alianza.
Authorship
Sofía Cuevas Llorente y Lucía Martínez Gutiérrez, 2020.
In the 31st Article of the Convention of the Rights of the Child it is established their right to have a spontaneous and free play. Moreover, Molina (2008) declares the transforming power that this kind of play has on the children, for it is through this type of activity that they represent their own reality. Since in Early Childhood Education our goal is the whole growth of the children, free-play must be seen and taken into account as a right and a need that helps that process. Therefore, it is essential to recognise the value of this moment while not forgetting the school context.
The teachers of Early Childhood Education consider free-play as an educational moment that favours the evolutive growth of the children. Hence, there is more implication from these professionals when observing and evaluating this moment as an educative activity. Nonetheless, in the school reality, the lack of help from the administrative team, the possible judgment of the families and the limit that the school hours impose are the main barriers that the professionals have to get over to be able to offer spaces and moments of meaningful and rewarding free-play to the children (Mañós, Balagué, Virgili, & Montalá, 2019).
From our own experience as teachers in the practicum, this moment, the free-play, was not taken as a valuable one. Instead, it was carried out in the spare time when the kids had finished their assignments. Form another point of view, the free-play acquires a strict concept as it is guided with a lot of rules imposed by the teachers. This changes its dynamic and it turns it into a guided activity where there is no place for the children’s experimentation and creativity. Therefore, their needs are not fulfilled.
Free-play, according to Cuba & Palpa (2015) and with our agreement as students of Education, are as follow: it is a natural and individual process given that the kids are the protagonists of their own actions; through the symbolic play children can create their own conceptual schemes; this must be an enjoyable and pleasant moment for the children; it must have a flexibility that allows the kids to do and undo everything as the want; finally, free-play is not a way through which the children obtain a goal, but it has meaning in itself. All these characteristics can and should be applicable to an Early Education classroom. Therefore, we believe that we must leave behind the concept that the free-play
is something the kids can do when there is nothing left to do, but a moment that has a meaning in itself.
And now, we will present to you a design of a free-play documentation that we can do in our classrooms of Early Childhood Education. This will be a guide about how to document this natural process in the school context.
First of all, our study subject will be our own Early Childhood Education classroom, specifically a classroom of three years olds. Our main goal is to do follow up of this group throughout the nine months of school period. The documentation will be done using a register notebook in which we will write down the visible behaviours that we may believe are more meaningful while free-playing.
The end of this process will be presented to the families of the children through an expositive panel, which will be exposed at the entrance of the classroom, and will be updated every month. In addition to this, we will use a PowerPoint presentation which will be shown to the families in every trimestral meeting. This format will allow us to add photos and videos that will guide the narration of the story that will be told. Each of these formats will answer to certain needs and different moments.
Given that free-play is more productive and enjoyable when presented with certain natural and spontaneous scenarios we will offer some that will be adequate to the kids and efficient when documenting. These proposals will be followed by these rules. First of all, free-play must have a time assigned within our classroom schedule. It is essential that this process of playing does not take place in the same classroom every single time, therefore the children can have the opportunity of experimenting in other places such as the playground, halls, other groups’ classrooms, library. This process will help the kids acquire a sense of continuity that will reinforce their sense of belonging to the school and to the group that they are in. It is also very important that the resources given to the kids (toys and other materials) are available and accessible to the children for them to make use of them.
As teachers, we try to interpret and explain the meanings behind the actions of the kids while the process of play occurs. From a more objective point of view, we will tell systematically, the actions that take place while playing. So, the information that we be shown in the panels, will be more objective. This means that, once every meaningful fact
(if possible) is written down in our notebook, they will be selected attending to the following questions: what did theydo? how did they do it? with what? with whom? When did it happen?
Nevertheless, with the trimestral meeting PowerPoint presentation we will be showing a more subjective perspective of the interpretations of the kids’ actions when they play. This presentation will answer to the next questions: why did they do it? why didn’t they do that? why does each child act in a different way to the same stimulus? what do they want to achieve? This way, we try to inform the families about the innate behaviour of childhood through free-playing and our pedagogical interpretation of it.
We will present the information, as we mentioned earlier, through an expositive panel and a PowerPoint presentation. The first one will be presented in an A3 paper. We will attach photos of the children playing with a brief descriptive text of what they are doing. These will be in a chronological order. Whereas the PowerPoint presentation will be more of a visual support to help the families follow the story that the teachers will be telling with it (photos and videos). This way of presenting the information will also help the families understand the meanings and representations that their children’s actions have when the interact in a natural environment such a free-play.
To sum up, we would like to point out the importance of documenting and making visible the daily practice of playing in school. Furthermore, we urge to rethink, reinterpret and reflect about what happens in school so we can make some changes and aim to a better and more productive, as well as enjoyable (for the children) future. Also, we aim to make the families aware of their kids’ actions in school since they do not act the same way in different contexts.
References
Cuba, M, N. L., & Palpa, M, E. (2015). La hora del juego libre en los sectores y el desarrollo de la creatividad en los niños de 5 años de las IEP de la localidad de Santa Clara.
Mañós, R. V., Balagué, À. G., Virgili, N. A., & Montalá, M. D. (2019). Percepción de los maestros sobre el derecho al juego libre en educación infantil y educación primaria.
Estudio desarrollado en Barcelona (España). Bordón. Revista de Pedagogía, 71(4), 151- 165.
Molina, J. A. (2008). El Placer y el Displacer en el Juego Espontáneo Infantil/Pleasure and Displeasure in Children’s Spontaneous Play. Arteterapia, 3, 167-188.
Unicef. (2006). Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño.
Authorship
Alejandra Albo, Claudia Biancotti y Verónica Cuesta, 2020.
Eating not only consists on satisfying the physiological needs to achieve physical development, but this is the moment in which you can dialogue, acquire habits, attitudes, develop cultural and social skills, among others. That is why, at school, the dining rooms, schedules, spaces and planning must be adapted, so that children of the first age are stimulated and can appreciate the mealtimes as pleasant periods and of relationships with others.
Infants need to practice, learn new things, help, and collaborate in this moment. When they are very young, little by little they acquire abilities to bite and chew. Also, they require hands to grab food, touching and playing with food is the best way for them to learn and know different things. At the same time, they imitate their close people, so it is important to know which example we are transmitting.
It should be noted that it is not only important that the food provided is healthy to have a healthy development, but that the eating moments should be considered as educational spaces in which the boys and girls talk with their families, their classmates, their teachers, etc., the areas should be quiet and spacious, everyone can participate according to their abilities (setting the table, collecting the dirty plates, helping), and where the opinions and/or tastes of each one are taken into account (choose with whom sit, what to eat and how much to eat, even though all this is supervised by an adult).
Now, it is important to take into account the environment, the presentation of the dishes, the proximity of the silverware or things that are needed, the placement and size of the chairs and tables according to the age of the children. In this way, they don’t need to constantly depend on an adult to get comfortable or to pick up a fork. This is how they can acquire autonomy, in addition to being able to experiment and know their surroundings.
Considering the role of teachers, it is necessary to say that they should see this lunch time as one more educational process that takes place in the school. The person in charge of the dining room must know the students perfectly, in such a way that they know what they like, if they have any allergies, their personal situation, etc., in addition, to be able to talk with their families regularly. It should be said that communication is essential at this time, the adult has to present the food, explain what there is to eat (whether it is meat or fish), what silverware we need and what rules must be done and respected.
References
Geis, A. (2016). La hora del almuerzo en la escuela infantil: Un momento educativo. Aula de Infantil, (87), 9-13. https://bit.ly/3fmjQSc
Guia Infantil (Ed.) (2016). Alimentación para niños de 2 a 3 años.https://bit.ly/3fk2bKZ
Organización Mundial para la Educación Preescolar (Ed.) (s.f). Aprender a comer en la Escuela Infantil. Experiencias Educativas. https://bit.ly/332xCVg
Pequelandia (Ed.) (2017). La alimentación del niño de 1 a 3 años: Consejos para padres. Escuelas Infantiles Privadas. https://bit.ly/2KkO3FU
Authorship
Noelia Puente Revilla y Cristina Vela Castillo, 2020.
Feeding is a daily activity that takes place every day. As this is an activity that is present so many times in our lives, adults tend not to give it the importance it really has, seeing these moments as a process of ingesting food for survival or necessity, losing the pleasure of eating, relating to others or learning (Ritscher, 2010).
At these moments, different things always happen, because as Rabotti (2020) mentions that relationships, words, games or feelings, among others are intertwined. For this, it is important to pay special attention, even to the smallest details, and to accompany the children in these acts to promote their autonomy and personal development. For it, a series of criteria will be defined below which, from our point of view, will define this act in a kindergarten (0-3 years).
First, it is essential that children’s schools for 0-3 years have their own kitchen. In this way, children will be able to eat freshly made and homemade food and not food provided by a caterer because it is pre-cooked food. In addition, kitchens can be used as a kind of “laboratory” where they can interact with the food. In this way, lunchtime will be a moment to long awaited and with which they will enjoy (Ritscher, 2010). Besides, the kindergarten has to provide quality food, that is, it must promote and encourage healthy eating.
On the other hand, attention should also be paid to the atmosphere surrounding this activity, avoiding and removing all types of noise conflicts, unpleasant moments, televisions or toys, among others, because this can lead to children being distracted and they don’t want to eat.
Another important aspect to have in mind is the furniture and cutlery. These should be adjusted to the size of the children in order to not hinder the process of eating.
Finally, it is advisable to organise the children in shifts (depending on the number of children) so that the teacher can give the necessary time to this event, as well as establish a bond of trust with each of the children through interaction between them. In this way, lunchtime will become a learning space where children will have the opportunity to develop and promote their autonomy, communication and relationships with their teacher and their schoolmates (Sensat, 2019).
On the other hand, the activities of daily life at school are quite different from reality, being much faster and more stressful (Ritscher, 2010). Besides, adults have this act internalized, so they don’t tend to capture the processes and successes of children. Therefore, it is important to plan intentionally what we want to happen (Blasi, 2003).
In the same way, it is important that meals time resemble the children’s subjective time. Therefore, the moments related to feeding have to be flexible, adapting and adjusting to the individual rhythms of each child (Fabrés, 2006). Besides, meal time shouldn’t be longer than necessary because some children can’t sit in a chair for a long time, others need little time to eat, while others need more time to carry out this act (Thió, 2011).
Therefore, the teacher has to take care of their behavior and he has to adapt to the needs of each child at lunchtime. Patience and empathy are attitudes you have to have. It is important that during the meal, the teacher interacts with the child, explaining at all times what is being done. Besides, it is essential that if any pact is made with the child, it is fulfilled because the child may feel cheated (Thió, 2011). In the same way, the teacher doesn’t have to focus only on whether the child has eaten everything, he has to focus more on how the child is eating in order to know what are your achievements and difficulties for helping you (Ritscher, 2010). Finally, it is important to let the children experiment, let them decide how to eat, as well as serve their own food. Therefore, it is necessary to let them free because in this way, the memento of the meal will be fun, entertaining and attractive (Thió, 2011).
References
Blasi, M. (2003). La vida cotidiana de 0 a 6 años. Aula de Infantil, 11.5-10.
Fabrés, M. (2020). En el día a día nada es banal, nada es rutina. Revista In-fan-cia, 100, 14-17.
Ritscher, P. (2010). Comer con todo detalle. Infancia: Educar de 0 a 6 años. 119, 25-27.
Sensat, R. (2019). Una mirada a las rutinas cotidianas. Infancia en Europa hoy. Infancia, 1.
Thió, C. (2011). La comida más allá de la nutrición: autonomía, autoestima, responsabilidad. Aula de Infantil, 59, 44-45.
Authorship
Raquel Gómez Ruiz y María Cristina Ocejo Arce, 2020.
Children’s education involves different educational agents, mainly the family and the school. For this reason, it is especially important that there is a good relationship based on communication between both, since this way they are jointly involved in their development and can exchange information about them, their progress, their difficulties, their activities outside of school … A way for the teacher to understand the context of the child and for the family to get to know the person in charge of the child’s education, as well as the things that happen within the educational center.
Everyday life has moments that promote communication between family and school, and, according to Arnaiz (2012), it allows improving the quality of the child’s identity and responding to the child’s needs by reinforcing personal relationships between their personal references with the aim of knowing the child’s life more closely.
In this case we are going to focus on the moments of entry and exit since, due to its informal nature and its frequency, it favors the exchange of relevant information about the child and its context. Some of the issues that may arise are: aspects related to health, conflicts, development of skills, behaviors, interests … It is very important that the teacher takes into account the lack of privacy at this time when transmitting certain information (both verbal and physical), the presence of the child and the sensitivity of the family (Menendez, Ruiz & Rebaque, 2002).
Once we have contextualized what we understand by communication between family and school in moments of everyday life, we are going to present the analysis of the results of listening and observation.
After analyzing the internship colleges we have been to, we can affirm that most centers do not promote communication with families, not even in everyday life. In the experiences we have had, communication is based on arranged meetings when there is a specific and clear problem, however, on a daily basis it is not considered or only superficially to deal with issues related to physical aspects (diarrhea, constipation, wounds, blows, sleep …). Therefore, we consider that they do not take advantage of the opportunities offered by daily life to communicate and consequently understand each other, know each other, support each other and jointly promote the optimal development of the child, as stated by Arnaiz (2012) and López-Herranz (2004).
However, due to what has been worked on the subject Psychoeducational Attention from 0 to 3 years and what was explained at the beginning of the document, the theory is far from the reality that the three of us have observed on this subject.
Some example of how daily life can be carried out to promote communication between family and school and take advantage of the benefits it has, could be: avoiding that the entrances to the school are an exchange of children in which the family deposits their children in line and the teacher picks them up (in reverse at the exits), but there is a meeting between the agents in which they can have a conversation. Another possibility would be that the teacher shows interest and concern in knowing and understanding the contexts of each of her students, since we consider that one of the barriers that make communication difficult is that it is more difficult for families to take the step due to shyness or shame.
On the other hand, one of us states that in one of the centers where she has carried out internships, communication between the family and the school is more common and is carried out naturally in everyday life. At the entrances to the classroom, the tutor goes out into the hall to receive children and families, greet them, chat with them and invite them to enter the classroom. Although it was more present, it is true that it did not develop in an individual way but rather globally because the teacher did not stop to talk with each one, only with those with whom it arose spontaneously or with whom she had to exchange some type of information.
This is closer to what was worked in class since there is a closer and more frequent communication than in the first example.
From all this, we conclude with the idea that Fabrés (2006) exposes by highlighting the importance of the way in which these moments are carried out since they define the interaction between both educational agents.
References
Arnáiz, V. (2012). ¿Cómo se cuida la identidad del niño en nuestra escuela? Aula de Infantil, 65, 27-28.
Fabrés, M. (2006). En el día a día nada es banal, nada es rutina. In-fan-cia, 100, 14-17.
López-Herranz, R. (2004). Aula de Infantil. Revista Aula de Infantil, 18
Menendez, L., Ruiz, J.M. & Rebaque, M.O. (2002). La tutoría en educación infantil. Praxis.
Authorship
Alejandra Massot, Leire Pérez y Rebeca Vega, 2020.
The chosen topic has been the product of the desire to want to discuss, debate and reflect on the importance of spaces in the educational center. Due to the need to want to go beyond the classroom, which seems to always be the protagonist, and get closer and give visibility to the many spaces and facilities that are also part of the life ofthe center and where very interesting stories are also told.
The concept “facilities” has to do with the complexes of buildings and infrastructures of a certain place. In this case, from an educational center with students from 0 to 3 years old. With this concept, classrooms, corridors, recreation areas … are taken into account. However, with this work, we have wanted to go further. We have wanted to combine formal and legislative aspects that must be kept in mind when building an educational institution (measures, materials, architectural elements …) But we have also seen it necessary to reflect how each space is and how it influences children and their relationship with spaces, with their peers and with teachers.
We also wanted to convey the need for certain spaces to exist in the center what, a priori, They may not seem very important, but they really add a lot of richness to the school experience for little ones.
We wanted to base this work on a series of ideas that summarize our work and our intention with it:
How and in what way does the need to build schools comes up and how the works and pedagogies of certain authors have influenced it.
Identify the most common facilities in educational centers, as well as their functionality, their use and the reason for their need.
Identify the less commonly facilities present in schools and investigate why does it happen and why they should or should not have more presence in the centers.
The meaning that the different spaces of the center have not only for the children, but for all the staff and those who participate in its life.
Regulations and guidelines to comply with for the projection of a center.
The numerous conceptualizations that appears when projecting spaces.