Reggio Emilia Approach

The Reggio Emilia philosophy supports emergent curriculum, which develops over time based on the interests of the students and the staff. Relationships and communication among children and staff are encouraged to build each child's learning and communication skills. Creative expression and representation of learning are developed through the "hundred languages," meaning children can use language, drama, painting, drawing, and other modes of symbolic expression to illustrate their learning. Children's rights to learn, and learn about their individual interest, are strongly supported.

Overview

What is Reggio Emilia?

Reggio Emilia is an educational philosophy that espouses creativity and expressiveness in learning. It developed out of Italian preschools begun shortly after World War II. In 1963, teachers and parents, with the help of Loris Malaguzzi, a local teacher, founded the first formal Reggio Emilia school near the town of the same name in Italy. Initially, the program served three- to six-year-olds, but by 1970 it had expanded to serve children as young as three months old. Over the years, Malaguzzi, in collaboration with teacher, parents, and the Reggio Emilia community, developed and disseminated the program's philosophy and principles.

The program is grounded in the "image of a child who has great potential for development and is the subject of rights, a child who learns and grows in relation with others, through the hundred languages of doing, being, reflecting, and knowing" (North American Reggio Emilia Alliance, 2007[b], p. 2). The program's educational philosophy is rooted in "a firm belief in collective responsibility for children" (Drummond, 2004), and envisions children as "rich, strong and powerful, rather than weak, ignorant and incompetent" (Drummond, 2004). It shares similarities with constructivist ideas of learning, which suggest that children create and construct their own learning based upon their own experiences, as well as what they learn from those around them about those experiences. There are no set curricula, manuals, or policies, in Reggio Emilia schools. Instead, the curriculum emerges from the desires and interests of the children and the staff.

Further Insights

Some of the essential elements of the Reggio Emilia program are environment, child-child and child-teacher relationships, real-life learning, documentation and observation, creativity and expressiveness, the atelier, family participation, staff reflection, and qualitative assessments.

An Emphasis on Environment

The school's physical environment encourages children to interact with their environments both inside and outside school. Each classroom is, ideally, integrated with the rest of the school, and the school is integrated with the wider community. Opportunities for interaction are encouraged throughout the building; materials and supplies are attractively displayed and accessible to children; projects and found objects are displayed and may form the basis for learning as well.

The Brainy Child website notes that the environment is often called the "third teacher" in Reggio schools. Classrooms are designed to encourage an atmosphere of "playfulness and joy," and aesthetic beauty is strongly emphasized. In addition:

• "Teachers organize environments rich in possibilities and provocations that invite the children to undertake extended exploration and problem solving, often in small groups, where cooperation and disputation mingle pleasurably.

• Documentation of children's work, plants, and collections that children have made from former outings are displayed both at the children's and adult eye level.

• Common space available to all children in the school includes dramatic play areas and work tables for children from different classrooms to come together" ("The Brainy Child," 2007).

Relationships

The Reggio approach is a philosophy in which social and cognitive learning and development are inextricably linked. Malaguzzi emphasized that "developing relationships that are personal and individual with every child" is central to the Reggio approach, as these relationships "set the foundation for the group work that takes place" (Rankin, 2001, p. 82). This primacy of relationships is based upon the idea that a child learns and grows not just within themselves, but also within the context of the group with which they are learning. Child-to-child relationships are therefore critical to the learning process, as are child-to-teacher relationships.

The interactions between children are critical, said Malaguzzi, not only to encourage the children to develop language and means of expression and to understand their place within the social context, but also so that teachers can understand what children are taking from the experience. "Interaction must be an important and strong word," he said.

"You must write it in the entrance to the school. Interaction. That is, try to work together to produce interactions that are constructive, not only for socializing, but also for constructing language, for constructing the forms and meaning of language. This helps to give order to communication which needs order, and which requires children to find the right word. Much communication seems to be interrupted not because of distraction by one or the other, but because communication does not take place" (Rankin, 2001, p.84).

Malaguzzi also outlined a distinctive approach to child-teacher relationships. He noted that each child is unique and therefore learns in a unique way. He suggested that teachers may not initially perceive the individuality of each child, and must therefore become more familiar with each child. Doing so, they will better understand how each child learns, and what, specifically, each gains from a learning experience. "Every child receives his advantage in different ways," said Malaguzzi (Rankin 2001, p.83). In these respects, the Reggio Emilia program focuses on each individual within the greater context of the group as they learn and express learning in different ways.

Real-Life Learning

Since there is no set curriculum in Reggio Emilia programs, projects and studies instead emerge from the stated interests and interactions of the children, the staff, and the community. Projects begun in this manner may be open-ended and ongoing, and are likely to include various means of exploration and expression that reflect the interests and skills of the students involved.

Documentation & Observation

Documentation and observation are considered critical to the program as they give concrete indicators of learning. Staff members are assigned to record the daily activities of other staff and students, and use these records to plan learning activities and understand how and what a child is learning. According to Malaguzzi, "If you record the behavior of children, I believe you will have material that you can think about and reflect on. If you record their voices, the pauses, the overlaps, the meanings that children give, this also is material for important analysis and interpretation" (Rankin, 2001, p.83).

In Reggio Emilia programs:

"Teachers routinely take notes and photographs and make tape recordings of group discussions and children's play. They meet each week to focus on their observations. Teachers and directors review the documentation and strive to hear the strongest currents of interest within children's flow of ideas. They then use what they learn to plan activities that are truly based on children's interests and to gain insights into children's individual personalities and into child development as a whole" (Loris Malaguzzi Founder, 2001, p.1.)

The Brainy Child (2007) reports that the following are common elements of Reggio Emilia programs:

• "Documenting and displaying the children's project work, which is necessary for children to express, revisit, and construct and reconstruct their feelings, ideas and understandings.

• Documentation of children's work in progress is viewed as an important tool in the learning process for children, teachers, and parents.

• Pictures of children engaged in experiences, their words as they discuss what they are doing, feeling and thinking, and the children's interpretation of experience through the visual media are displayed as a graphic presentation of the dynamics of learning.

• Teachers act as recorders (documenters) for the children, helping them trace and revisit their words and actions and thereby making the learning visible."

Documentation is considered essential to the process, not only because it helps the teacher understand what the children are learning, but also because it provides the opportunity for children to examine their own work, and reflect on what they have learned. Students, too, are expected to represent their learning through a form of their own choosing and to review what they have discovered.

Emphasis on Creativity & Expressiveness

In hand with the expectation of documentation is an emphasis on creativity and expressiveness, reflecting an understanding that there is more than one way to document learning and growth. The "Hundred Languages of Children" is a term used in Reggio Emilia programs that reflects the idea that "children have the right and the ability to express their thinking, theories, ideas, learning and emotions in many ways. Therefore, Reggio educators provide children with a wide range of materials and media, and welcome a diversity of experiences, so that children encounter many avenues for thinking, revising, constructing, negotiating, developing and symbolically expressing their thoughts and feelings" (NAREA, 2007 [b]).

Some symbolic representations of learning may include drama, puppetry, music, painting, language, or building.

Malaguzzi described an ideal situation in which two children are able to communicate with each other, and noted that more than language is involved in these communications. "The situation with a group of two is extremely rich," he said, "because it facilitates the progress of socialization through communication that evidently is conveyed through hands when they work and when they manipulate, but evidently also is conveyed through verbal communication and gestures" (Rankin, 2001, p.82).

The Atelier

Each school has a central studio, and a staff person (the atelierista) who acts as a coordinator for the children's expression of ideas and learning. The art teacher, or atelierista, plays an essential role in that reflection. Thulson (2000) described this role in detail:

"Students come to the atelier to work on projects that involve clay, wire, mirrors, beautiful papers, drawing materials, and paints. Reggio instructors see these materials as languages that children use to construct and express many kinds of knowledge. Teachers trace the children's discoveries through the artwork, and together with the atelierista, document and reflect on the children's learning."

Further, she reported that:

"In Reggio schools, documentation is an art form in itself. . . . the atelierista gathers student work, photographs, and accompanying texts and arranges them with great care and artistry on beautiful black and white display panels . . . thus surrounding the whole community with student learning."

Family Participation

Malaguzzi emphasized the critical role of parents, both through their initiation of the program, and through their ongoing involvement in shaping the program to reflect their values, desires, and "collective wisdom." Since the very first Reggio Emilia school building was created out of the planning and physical labor of the families of young children, families have been drawn into the Reggio process. Parents often volunteer within Reggio Emilia schools and bring their perspectives to the learning experiences of the students.

Staff

Staff in a Reggio Emilia program are necessarily committed to collegial relationships and to ongoing communication with their students and with parents. Drummond cites insatiable curiosity as a necessary characteristic of Reggio staff, along with an understanding that staff learn from children, just as children learn from them.

The staff are seen as researchers, and are involved in selecting their own professional development. They also reflect on and share their understandings among themselves and with parents. They meet regularly with parents and share their perspectives on the growth and development of the children.

Assessment & Research

Although Reggio Emilia programs are based on inquiry, research and measurement of the programs are not considered essential elements of programs. Progress is evaluated through portfolio-type assessments, the 'hundred languages' believed to provide adequate representation of whether and what students have learned along the way.

Likewise, assessment and accountability are considered impossible, or are at least frowned upon in this model, since each individual program will vary based on the needs and wishes of participating families and staff. Discussing replication as an asset to program evaluation efforts, Schweinhart (2002, p.13) noted that proponents of programs like Reggio Emilia believe in the "application of general principles of child development that teachers are to interpret for themselves to develop their own educational models, albeit within parameters of acceptability." He noted that such an approach "also defines educational models by professional standards, but eschews external model assessment and accountability as inappropriate and even impossible."

Regardless of their lack of objective evaluation, Reggio Emilia programs are positively perceived by many early childhood educators, especially so for the strong role the child plays within the programs.

Conclusion

Reggio Emilia describes a philosophy of early childhood education that began in Italy in the 1960s. The program is very child-focused, promoting each child as an individual citizen with rights and wishes that should be accommodated in enhancing learning. Learning is viewed as a positive activity, and the assessment or expression of that learning can take many qualitative forms in a Reggio Emilia program.

Programs include a strong focus on the physical environment, including access to other classrooms and the community, an emphasis on aesthetically pleasing work spaces, and the public display of children's expressions of learning throughout the school. Curriculum emerges from the interests and values of the children, staff, and parents involved in the program, and may change over time to reflect ongoing learning and interests.

Documentation on the efficacy of Reggio Emilia programs is slim, as each program varies in content from others, and the program discourages standardized measures of success or achievement.

Terms & Concepts

Atelier/Studio: The atelier, or studio, in Reggio Emilia schools was developed to encourage the use of varied forms of expressions and new ways of learning, as well as to allow former teachers, parents, and community members to work together.

Constructivist: Constructivist learning theory, based on the writings of John Dewey, Jean Piaget, and Vygotsky, suggests that children learn best through experience and reflecting on their experiences.

Emergent Curriculum: An emergent curriculum is one that emerges from the interests and activities of the students, staff, parents, and community members involved in the school. It is not, therefore, set down before the school year begins, and it may change and develop as new interests or directions surface.

Environment: In the Reggio Emilia program, "the environment is viewed as the third teacher, with the power to provoke curiosity and learning, and encourage interaction" (NAREA, 2007[b]).

Hundred Languages of Children: The idea that children can express their understanding through various media, including but not limited to language. They might, therefore, use drama, painting, drawing, building, or any other expression of their learning to communicate with teachers and other children.

Portfolio Assessment: Portfolio assessment involves gathering selected examples of a student's work over time to demonstrate knowledge or understanding as well as individual development.

Bibliography

The Brainy Child. (2007.) The Reggio Emilia approach. Retrieved November 12, 2007, from

Drummond, J. (2004, August 27). Thinkers behind the theories The Times Educational Supplement, p. 16. Retrieved November 12, 2007, from

Hocevar, A., Šebart, M., & Štefanc, D. (2013). Curriculum planning and the concept of participation in the Reggio Emilia pedagogical approach. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 21, 476-488. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete.

Loris Malaguzzi founder: The Reggio Emilia approach believing in the power of the child. (2001.) Early Childhood Today, 15 , 46. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier.

Martalock, P.L. (2012). "What is a wheel?" The image of the child: Traditional, project approach, and Reggio Emilia perspectives. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 40, 3-11. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete.

North American Reggio Emilia Alliance (NAREA). (2007[a]). Schools of Reggio. Retrieved November 12, 2007, from

NAREA (2007[b]). Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved November 12, 2007, from

Rankin, B. (2004). The importance of intentional socialization among children in small groups: A conversation with Loris Malaguzzi. Early Childhood Education Journal, 32 , 81-85. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier.

Saab, J., & Stack Jr., S.F. (2013). John Dewey and Reggio Emilia: Using the arts to build a learning community. In Advances in Early Education & Day Care(pp. 115-133). Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete.

Schweinhart, L. (2002). Making validated educational models central in preschool standards. Ypsilanti, MI: High Scope Educational Research Foundation. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED470208). Retrieved November 12, 2007 from EBSCO Online Education Research Database.

Thulson, A. (2000.) The art of documentation. The Web, 8 . Retrieved November 12, 2007, from

Suggested Reading

Cadwell, Louise B. (1997.) Bringing Reggio Emilia home: An innovative approach to early childhood education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Cadwell, Louise B. (2003.) Bringing learning to life: A Reggio approach to early childhood education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (Eds.) (1993.) The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Gandini, L., Hill, L., Cadwell, L., & Schwall, C. (Eds.). (2005.) In the spirit of the studio: Learning from the atelier of Reggio Emilia. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Lewin-Benham, A. (2005). Possible schools: The Reggio Approach to urban education. New York: Teachers College Press. Reggio Emilia. (2007). Retrieved November 12, 2007, from . Wurm, J. (2005). Working in the Reggio Way: A beginner's guide for American teachers. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.