What Is the Reggio Emilia Strategy to Schooling?

The Reggio Emilia strategy in training began in a city in Italy. At present, greater than 1,200 faculties in the US use the Reggio Emilia strategy. It’s one of many many faculty choices that folks and early childhood educators have once they’re on the lookout for preschools. However what’s it, precisely?

When did the Reggio Emilia strategy begin?

After World Conflict II, the Italian authorities gave funds to communities for rebuilding. Round Reggio Emilia, a small city in northern Italy, the neighborhood determined to spend money on early training.

Picture: Our Italian Journey

The neighborhood constructed a college for infants and toddlers by changing supplies destroyed within the battle. Native educator Loris Malaguzzi, who based the varsity, believed that kids weren’t “clean slates” however had the flexibility to provoke and assemble their very own studying. Malaguzzi thought that kids had a pure curiosity and the instructor’s job was to domesticate and encourage that curiosity. He additionally believed that kids are all the time trying to categorical themselves, and he’s recognized for his concept that kids have “100 languages.”

What are the core concepts of the Reggio Emilia strategy?

The core concepts of Reggio Emilia are:

• Younger kids can provoke their very own studying.
• Kids ought to participate in creating the curriculum.
• The classroom atmosphere is a “third instructor.”
• Kids ought to have time to create and categorical themselves in a wide range of methods.

What makes a college Reggio Emilia?

Picture: Cadence Schooling

There isn’t any official Reggio Emilia certification, so many colleges incorporate the concepts to grow to be Reggio Emilia–impressed. Reggio Emilia faculties are sometimes preschool solely—they don’t transcend kindergarten. Should you’re trying to work at or ship your little one to a Reggio Emilia faculty, search for the best way the varsity commits to encouraging curiosity, exploration, and expression, and the way college students take part in each a part of the day.

What does a day appear to be in a Reggio Emilia faculty?

Faculties that use the Reggio Emilia strategy wouldn’t have a set curriculum. Kids are seen as naturally curious and competent, so lecturers arrange actions that relate to college students’ pursuits. Then, kids comply with their curiosity and interact within the actions whereas lecturers direct their exploration.

Picture: New Orleans Mother

Planning in Reggio Emilia faculties takes a bottom-up strategy. Academics create the curriculum with the scholars. Based mostly on the scholars’ pursuits, lecturers will arrange actions round a subject or theme. Then, lecturers will comply with the scholars’ pursuits till the scholars have realized every little thing they need to know. For instance, a gaggle of scholars who’re within the mail system and the way the put up workplace works could spend weeks or longer learning and investigating this, whereas one other group could spend the identical time learning one thing utterly completely different.

Self-expression is a vital a part of any faculty that takes the Reggio Emilia strategy. As a part of the concept that kids talk in 100 languages, college students can have some ways to create artwork or categorical themselves by means of language, gestures, portray, shadow play, dramatic play, writing, and extra.

Picture: Teton Science

Literacy and math are embedded however not explicitly taught within the instruction. Academics additionally give attention to instructing cooperation, empathy, and inventive considering, all abilities that college students will use in kindergarten and past. Academics observe pupil studying by means of work portfolios.

What does a Reggio Emilia classroom appear to be?

Within the Reggio Emilia strategy, the classroom is a vital facet of studying, a lot in order that it’s typically known as the “third instructor.” Many Reggio Emilia lecture rooms and faculties are designed to be nice areas in their very own proper. Classroom layouts are open-ended with a lot of alternatives to discover and work together. There are not any units of supplies, however college students can draw from every little thing from artwork (clay, paint) and pure supplies (wooden, vegetation) to trendy know-how, relying on the neighborhood.

Picture: Newtowne Faculty

In a classroom, you’ll additionally see a lot of pupil work on show, typically with an outline of how the work was created.

How is the Reggio Emilia strategy completely different than Montessori?

It’s a good query—each approaches come from Italy and each give attention to self-direction and exploration. And each have a give attention to cultivating the appropriate atmosphere and neighborhood.

In Reggio Emilia, kids are on the middle of their studying and lecturers information kids’s exploration. In Montessori, kids work by means of the Montessori curriculum and lecturers direct their work.

Montessori encourages college students to direct their expertise from ready actions. College students work independently or in teams of two or three. In Reggio Emilia, lecturers plan classes based mostly on pupil curiosity and regulate classes in actual time based mostly on what they’re seeing within the college students. There’s an emphasis on collaboration and cooperative work.

Reggio Emilia lecture rooms are set as much as show pupil work and create a lot of area for initiatives. Montessori lecture rooms have an analogous construction with particular areas and supplies to offer completely different experiences. Montessori lecture rooms are multi-age, with kids ages 3 to five collectively, whereas Reggio Emilia lecture rooms are extra conventional, with college students progressing by means of one classroom every year.

Lastly, Montessori supplies are established and self-corrective, that means that if a baby fails to finish the duty appropriately, they’ll strive once more and proper their mistake. In Reggio Emilia, the classroom supplies are extra versatile and open-ended, with none prescribed approach of utilizing them.

Learn extra: What Is a Montessori Faculty?

Does analysis help the Reggio Emilia strategy?

Typically, since Reggio Emilia is a set of concepts and philosophies, not a structured curriculum, the analysis doesn’t ascribe any particular outcomes to Reggio Emilia. One examine discovered no important results of Reggio Emilia applications, in comparison with different related applications. This doesn’t imply that the concepts in Reggio Emilia wouldn’t have worth, as they’ve been integrated into many preschools, and early training immediately is way completely different than it was when Reggio Emilia was began.

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