Reggio Emilia: Deep Dive Analysis

This deep-dive analysis will be focused on how the Reggio Emilia pedagogy creates a positive learning environment in the Early Childhood classroom. In the Reggio approach, there are three teachers; adults, students and the environment. Children construct their knowledge through engaging with the environment to express themselves in a multitude of creative ways. Children are seen to have a hundred languages to communicate with and are celebrated for their uniqueness. As children direct their learning based on their interests teachers partner with them to co-construct knowledge.

Reggio classrooms aim to integrate with the surrounding environment including the rest of the school and its community. Believing children can best create meaning and make sense of their world through environments that support sustained, complex, changing, and varied relationships between people and a world of experiences, ideas and the many ways of expressing these ideas.

Physical Environment

Reggio preschools by and large integrate nature into the classroom with a strong focus on natural light and plants. Classrooms open out into a centre piazza (public square) with open kitchens and access to courtyards with views of the surrounding community. Large windows in classrooms and on walls are used to increase natural light and exterior doors in each classroom to seamlessly switch to outdoor play. Entries are designed to capture both adults and children's attention through the use of mirrors on all surfaces with photographs, and children's work showcased with captions showing their thoughts and discussions. The same style is present in the classrooms displaying the children's projects surrounded by natural objects and prepared classroom materials. The physical environment is designed to capture the attention of the viewer while also providing a record of the children learning.

Workstations

There are clearly designed spaces for various activities in the class with plenty of materials and space for children to work within. There will be a dedicated space for large and small group activities as well as a couple of large workstations and a few smaller workstations.

School Community

Reggio likes to encourage the school to be a community instead of walling off different classes. To do this opportunities are created throughout the school for children to interact. Classrooms will usually have glass walls that divide other classes and can include secret passageways, child-friendly inter-class phones and other innovative ways to encourage inter-class interactions. The piazza (public square) is where a dress-up area is situated for all classes to use encouraging engagement in the community space. Areas such as lunchrooms and bathrooms are also communal.

Parents & Local Community

Reggio views children as the collective responsibility of the local community with parents and the local community being viewed as partners, collaborators, and advocates for the children. Parents are respected as the first teacher in a child's life and are involved in every aspect of the curriculum. Volunteering is encouraged within Reggio classrooms and throughout the school. Parents are deeply engaged in discussions about school policy, child development concerns, and curriculum planning and evaluation. The important engagement with the community and parents creates a positive learning environment inside and outside the classroom as parents are meaningfully engaged in their child's education.

The hundred languages of children

The term "hundred languages of children" refers to the many ways that children have of expressing themselves. Reggio children are provided many ways for thinking, revising, constructing, negotiating, developing and symbolically expressing their thoughts and feelings. The goal is a better understanding between children and adults. As children develop their schema through investigating, generating and testing their hypotheses, they are encouraged to express their schema through their many symbolic languages, including drawing, sculpture, dramatic play, and writing.