What we do
Laboratory school
The Observation Nursery is part of the Department of Education at Concordia University. It is a model school with an enriched program that promotes the growth and development of young children. At the moment, two education courses use the nursery on a regular basis. Tuesday mornings, students in the observation course (Educ 297) spend a good deal of time watching the nursery in action.
The education department has a commitment to shared parent-teacher participation in the education of their children. On Thursday mornings, the Parenthood Studies course (Educ 264) helps students to increase their sensitivity to the role of parents. Each class, the students spend a part of the morning in the observation room watching the children as they play. There is an one hour seminar led by a university instructor, where parents and students discuss their observations of the children.
Parent discussion group
As this program is designed for parents who wish to be involved in their child's education, one parent (or both) must be willing to participate in the Thursday morning sessions.
Documentation and curriculum development
In the Observation Nursery, the teachers use observational techniques, photographs, video-and-audio-recordings, and authentic work samples to document children's learning processes. The curriculum is an emergent one, where projects are the main instructional method. Documentation panels are used to inform parents and student teachers about children's project work. The panels are also an invitation for parents to become involved in children's learning experiences and serve as visual representations of children's learning.
