Features of the Reggio Emilia Approach

Teacher Role:

  • to co-explore the learning experience with the children
  • to provoke ideas, problem solving, and conflict
  • to take ideas from the children and return them for further exploration
  • to organize the classroom and materials to be aesthetically pleasing
  • to organize materials to help children make thoughtful decisions about the media
  • to document children’s progress: visual, videotape, tape recording, portfolios
  • to help children see the connections in learning and experiences
  • to help children express their knowledge through representational work
  • to form a “collective” among other teachers and parents
  • to have a dialogue about the projects with parents and other teachers
  • to foster the connection between home, school and community

Projects:

  • can emerge from children’s ideas and/or interests
  • can be provoked by teachers
  • can be introduced by teachers knowing what is of interest to children: shadows, puddles, tall buildings, construction sites, nature, etc.
  • should be long enough to develop over time, to discuss new ideas, to negotiate over, to induce conflicts, to revisit, to see progress, to see movement of ideas
  • should be concrete, personal from real experiences, important to children, should be “large” enough for diversity of ideas and rich in interpretive/representational expression

Media:

  • explore first: what is this material, what does it do, before what can I do with the material
  • should have variation in color, texture, pattern: help children “see” the colors, tones, hues; help children “feel” the texture, the similarities and differences
  • should be presented in an artistic manner–it too should be aesthetically pleasing to look at–it should invite you to touch, admire, inspire
  • should be revisited throughout many projects to help children see the possibilities
  • This overview of the Reggio Emilia Approach was taken from a packet of information available at The Hundred Languages of Children traveling exhibit.