ERIC Identifier: ED354988
Publication Date: 1993-00-00
Author: New, Rebecca S.
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood
Education Urbana IL.
Reggio Emilia: Some
Lessons for U.S. Educators. ERIC Digest.
During the past several decades, U.S. educators have
increasingly turned their attention to other nations' policies
and practices to inform deliberations on American child care
and early education. One internationally acclaimed program
that supports and challenges American notions of appropriate
early education is the municipal early childhood program in
Reggio Emilia, Italy. For the past 25 years, this affluent
northern Italian community has committed 12% of the town
budget to the provision of high quality child care for
children six years and under. Today the community boasts 22
preprimary schools and 14 infant-toddler centers serving about
half of the city's young children.
There is much about Reggio Emilia's approach to child care and
education that distinguishes it from other efforts both inside
and outside of Italy and that attracts worldwide attention. Of
special interest is the emphasis on children's SYMBOLIC
LANGUAGES in the context of a project-oriented curriculum.
This feature has been well-documented in two traveling
exhibitions. The Reggio Emilia approach is made possible
through a carefully articulated and collaborative approach to
the care and education of young children.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT AND PARENTAL
INVOLVEMENT
Reggio Emilia's tradition of community support for families
with young children expands on Italy's cultural view of
children as the collective responsibility of the state. In
Reggio Emilia, the infant/toddler and preprimary program is a
vital part of the community, as reflected in the high level of
financial support. Community involvement is also apparent in
citizen membership in LA CONSULTA, a school committee that
exerts significant influence over local government policy.
The parents' role mirrors the community's, at both the
schoolwide and the classroom level. Parents are expected to
take part in discussions about school policy, child
development concerns, and curriculum planning and evaluation.
Because a majority of parents--including mothers--are
employed, meetings are held in the evenings so that all who
wish to participate can do so.
ADMINISTRATIVE POLICIES AND
ORGANIZATIONAL FEATURES
The administration of the Reggio Emilia early childhood
program is moderately representative of other Italian
community-based programs. A head administrator, who reports
directly to the town council, works with a group of
PEDAGOGISTA (curriculum team leaders), each of whom
coordinates the efforts of teachers from five or six centers.
Each center is staffed with two teachers per classroom (12
children in infant classes, 18 in toddler classes, and 24 in
preprimary classes), one ATELIERISTA (a teacher trained in the
arts who works with classroom teachers in curriculum
development and documentation), and several auxiliary staff.
There is no principal, nor is there a hierarchical
relationship among the teachers. This staffing plan, coupled
with the policy of keeping the same group of children and
teachers together for a period of three years, facilitates the
sense of community that characterizes relationships among
adults and children.
Other features of Reggio Emilia's approach to early education
that have generated interest among American educators include
the concept of teachers as learners, the importance attributed
to the role of the environment, the use of long-term projects
with small groups of children as the major curriculum
strategy, and the emphasis on children's many symbolic
languages.
TEACHERS AS LEARNERS
Teachers' long-term commitment to enhancing their
understanding of children is at the crux of the Reggio Emilia
approach. Their resistance to the American use of the term
model to describe their program reflects the continuing
evolution of their ideas and practices. They compensate for
the meager preservice training of Italian early childhood
teachers by providing extensive staff development
opportunities, with goals determined by the teachers
themselves. Teacher autonomy is evident in the absence of
teacher manuals, curriculum guides, or achievement tests. The
lack of externally imposed mandates is joined by the
imperative that teachers become skilled observers of children
in order to inform their curriculum planning and
implementation.
Teachers routinely divide responsibilities in the class so
that one can systematically observe, take notes, and record
conversations between children. These observations are shared
with other teachers and the ATELIERISTA and parents in
curriculum planning and evaluation. Teachers of several
schools often work and learn together under the leadership of
the PEDAGOGISTA as they explore ways of expanding on
children's spontaneous activities.
THE ROLE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
The organization of the physical environment is crucial to
Reggio Emilia's early childhood program. Major aims in the
planning of new spaces and the remodeling of old ones include
the integration of each classroom with the rest of the school,
and the school with the surrounding community. Classrooms open
to a center piazza, kitchens are open to view, and access to
the surrounding community is assured through wall-size
windows, courtyards, and doors to the outside in each
classroom. Entries capture the attention of both children and
adults through the use of mirrors (on the walls, floors, and
ceilings), photographs, and children's work accompanied by
transcriptions of their discussions. These same features
characterize classroom interiors, where displays of project
work are interspersed with arrays of found objects and
classroom materials. In each case, the environment informs and
engages the viewer.
Other supportive elements of the environment include ample
space for supplies, frequently arranged to draw attention to
their aesthetic features. In each classroom there are studio
spaces in the form of a large, centrally located atelier and a
smaller mini-atelier, and clearly designated spaces for large-
and small-group activities. Throughout the school, there is an
effort to create opportunities for children to interact. Thus,
the single dress-up area is in the center piazza; classrooms
are connected with phones, passageways or windows; and
lunchrooms and bathrooms are designed to encourage playful
encounters. It is no wonder that Reggio Emilia teachers refer
to the environment as OUR THIRD TEACHER.
LONG-TERM PROJECTS AS VEHICLES FOR
LEARNING
The curriculum is characterized by many features advocated by
contemporary research on young children, including real-life
problem-solving among peers, with numerous opportunities for
creative thinking and exploration. Teachers often work on
projects with small groups of children, while the rest the
class engages in a wide variety of self-selected activities
typical of preschool classrooms.
The projects that teachers and children engage in are distinct
in a number of ways from those that characterize American
teachers' conceptions of unit or thematic studies. The topic
of investigation may derive directly from teacher observations
of children's spontaneous play and exploration. Project topics
are also selected on the basis of an academic curiosity or
social concern on the part of teachers or parents, or
serendipitous events that direct the attention of the children
and teachers. Reggio teachers place a high value on their
ability to improvise and respond to children's predisposition
to enjoy the unexpected. Regardless of their origins,
successful projects are those that generate a sufficient
amount of interest and uncertainty to provoke children's
creative thinking and problem-solving and are open to
different avenues of exploration. Because curriculum decisions
are based on developmental and sociocultural concerns, small
groups of children of varying abilities and interests,
including those with special needs, work together on projects.
Projects begin with teachers observing and questioning
children about the topic of interest. Based on children's
responses, teachers introduce materials, questions, and
opportunities that provoke children to further explore the
topic. While some of these teacher provocations are
anticipated, projects often move in unanticipated directions
as a result of problems children identify. Thus, curriculum
planning and implementation revolve around open-ended and
often long-term projects that are based on the reciprocal
nature of teacher-directed and child-initiated activity.
THE HUNDRED LANGUAGES OF CHILDREN
As children proceed in an investigation, generating and
testing their hypotheses, they are encouraged to depict their
understanding through one of many symbolic languages,
including drawing, sculpture, dramatic play, and writing. They
work together towards the resolution of problems that arise.
Teachers facilitate and then observe debates regarding the
extent to which a child's drawing or other form of
representation lives up to the expressed intent. Revision of
drawings (and ideas) is encouraged, and teachers allow
children to repeat activities and modify each other's work in
the collective aim of better understanding the topic. Teachers
foster children's involvement in the processes of exploration
and evaluation, acknowledging the importance of their evolving
products as vehicles for exchange.
CONCLUSION
Reggio Emilia's approach to early education reflects a
theoretical kinship with Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner,
among others. Much of what occurs in the class reflects a
constructivist approach to early education. Yet, Reggio
Emilia's approach challenges some American conceptions of
teacher competence and developmentally appropriate practice.
For example, teachers in Reggio Emilia assert the importance
of being confused as a contributor to learning; thus a major
teaching strategy is to purposefully allow for mistakes to
happen, or to begin a project with no clear sense of where it
might end. Another characteristic that is counter to the
beliefs of many American educators is the importance of the
child's ability to negotiate in the peer group, which renders
teacher intervention in children's conflicts minimal. One of
the most challenging aspects of the Reggio Emilia approach is
the solicitation of multiple points of view regarding
children's needs, interests, and abilities, and the concurrent
faith in parents, teachers, and children to contribute in
meaningful ways to the determination of school experiences.
Teachers trust themselves to respond appropriately to
children's ideas and interests, they trust children to be
interested in things worth knowing about, and they trust
parents to be informed and productive members of a cooperative
educational team. The result is an atmosphere of community and
collaboration that is developmentally appropriate for adults
and children alike.
FOR MORE
INFORMATION
Edwards, C., Gandini, L., and Forman, G. (Eds.) THE HUNDRED
LANGUAGES OF CHILDREN: THE REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH TO EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993.
Forman, G. "Helping Children Ask Good Questions." In B.
Neugebauer (Ed.), THE WONDER OF IT: EXPLORING HOW THE WORLD
WORKS. Redmond, Washington: Exchange Press, 1989.
Gandini, L. "Not Just Anywhere: Making Child Care Centers into
'Particular' Places." BEGINNINGS (Spring, 1984): 17-20.
Katz, L. "Impressions of Reggio Emilia Preschools." YOUNG
CHILDREN 45, 6 (1990): 11-12. EJ 415 420.
New, R. "Excellent Early Education: A City in Italy Has It."
YOUNG CHILDREN 45, 6 (1990): 4-10. EJ 415 419.
New, R. "Early Childhood Teacher Education in Italy: Reggio
Emilia's Master Plan for 'Master' Teachers." THE JOURNAL OF
EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION 12 (1991): 3.
New, R. "Projects and Provocations: Preschool Curriculum Ideas
from Reggio Emilia." MONTESSORI LIFE (Winter, 1991): 26-28.
New, R. "Italian Child Care and Early Education: AMOR MATERNUS
AND OTHER CULTURAL CONTRIBUTIONS." In M. Cochran (Ed.),
INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK ON CHILD CARE POLICIES AND PROGRAMS.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.
New, R. "The Integrated Early Childhood Curriculum: New
Perspectives from Research and Practice." In C. Seefeldt
(Ed.), THE EARLY CHILDHOOD CURRICULUM: A REVIEW OF CURRENT
RESEARCH. Revised edition. New York: Teachers College Press,
Columbia University, 1992.
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