Our View of Learning

What children learn depends on how they learn it. That is why we take into consideration the social and physical context in which learning takes place, as well as the life circumstances of our children.

From our perspective, learning is inseparable from social and emotional well-being. At Kaleide we actively seek to make each child feel comfortable, and we do so by trying to meet their needs for safety, emotional connection, play and autonomy. All of this is only possible by maintaining very low ratios and within a small community in which all of us know each other and can interact without barriers, based on mutual respect and care.

Essential to our approach is the understanding that children learn through play and through diverse interactions with adults, other children and the environment. They learn through their curiosity, and by attending to those things which spark their interest and their motivation. They learn through observation, imitation, trial and error, and reflection. They learn with their minds, but also through all their senses and with their whole bodies. They learn in conscious, deliberate, ways, and in ways which escape volition –but are nonetheless powerful. They learn from our words, but more importantly, from our actions.Learning is not a linear process: it is complex, with stops and starts along the way, ‟a gradual ebbing and flowing of the frequencies of alternative ways of thinking”, in the words of Professor Robert Siegler. A child doesn't learn skills and concepts just once –he or she relearns them at successively more mature levels.

An experiential and active approach to learning requires an environment which fulfills children's need to learn through play, exploration and discovery; from adults and from their peers; by taking risks, assessing and challenging their own capacities and skills. Bearing this in mind, we have developed a coherent framework which involves several interdependent foundations of learning:

• Social and emotional well-being;

• Low adult to children ratios;

• Small community;

• Age-mixed groups;

• Freedom and responsibility;

• Free play;

• Free movement;

• Risk-taking;

We will now explain each of these in greater detail.