What is a provocation?

A provocation can be many things. A provocation can be anything that helps students engage with their prior knowledge of a topic while also intentionally introducing new learning. The term provocation is used frequently in early education and is often drawn from the pedagogy of Reggio-Emilia. It can be helpful to think about a provocation as 'a hook' that has relevance to the outcome-oriented goals for a unit. The kinds of provocations we used during our unit were:

• photos
• read-alouds
• field trips
• hands-on materials
• songs
• poetry
• unusual objects
• thinking routines