The Movimento da Escola Moderna (MEM) - Modern school movement concerns all levels of education. It is the result of the cooperative work of teachers in Portugal over
the course of thirty years. Sérgio Niza is one of its founders and educational leaders.
This paper will discuss the formative aims proposed by the MEM Early Childhood Model and the philosophical foundations of practices applied to early childhood
classrooms, and highlights how Vygotsky’s theory of development and learning is one of
its major theoretical foundations
