Reggio Emilia Approach to Education

[Quinn]

Hi! I'm new to this on-line discussion forum, and am wondering if any of you have thoughts on the Reggio Emilia approach to educating young children? You can see a very brief history of this approach on Wikipedia at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia

This philosophy involves creative art-making practices used throughout all endeavors in and out of the classroom environment...
I would appreciate ANY and ALL thoughts and ideas!

Thank you!
-Quinn

[Joy Jackson]

I think the Reggio Emilia approach is a great way to educate children. Since they learn best through hands-on activities, this is an ideal learning environment. A problem often seen with this approach is that sometimes teachers take the idea of a self-guided curriculum too far, and let the children be too unfocused and sometimes the classroom gets out of control. While the children should help shape the day-to-day activities, the teachers do need to have a lesson plan to fall back on to help guide the students.

[Francesca]

Hi Quinn and welcome,

I also became a member just a few days ago.
About the Reggia Emilia approach, I don't know much but I feel that approaches that emphasize art-making
are great for cognitive and emotional development. Not only for children, but also for adults.

These days I am busy studying alternative teaching approaches for languages in particular, but not only. In fact the way you learn covers all subjects, there are strategies that include all topics, not what but how you learn is the matter. Thus teaching, say, a science topic through a collage or painting seems great to me.
I'll gather more information about this specific approach and will let you know what I think more thoroughly.

Speak to you soon,
Francesca

[Francesca]

Hello Quinn,

I don't know if you are still around... it took me a while to come back with a more informed view about the Reggio-Emilia group.

I found out that one of the main figures in the teaching process is an "atelierista", that is a teacher that deals mainly with art making and sets up an atelier for children to use in the classroom. I find that this is a great idea, to bring back the visual arts into schooling.
I also saw that the Reggio Emila is a pre-primary school only approach, am I right?
Why is that? I am not sure whether they think art will develop only children's intellectual abilities?
Any way I find that the idea of developing intellectual abilities through art is challenging and countercultural, as for a long time the two have been considered seraparately, whereas many scientific studies today show that analytical and global processes should go hand in hand for optimal learning.
Also I find it great that they stress "process" rather than end result: thus the way a child acquires knowledge is through experience and the strategies he learns this way are transversal and transferable, which is fundamental in order to learn how to learn.

I would appreciate your further input on this approch and how you think it would be applicable to adults, if at all.

Thank you!

[Quinn]

Hi Francesca! Thanks for responding to my very broad discussion...I've actually recently began my own Community of Practice, so I haven't been researching this one as much since then...you're welcome to check it out : http://actionart.ning.com/
I'm reading a lovely book called "In the spirit of the studio" which talks all about how to learn from the atelierista's working with the Reggio approach. It's full of wonderful experiences, and one thing I've really taken away from it is the idea that a teacher cannot merely take what they learn about the Reggio approach and apply exactly what they see or read about to their own school environment; rather, a teacher must be aware enough, observant enough, to create the kind of learning environment appropriate for their particular students in their particular context.
Also, I still haven't figured out why the Reggio Emilia education philosophy is only used with pre-primary school children. And I wonder what kind of schools those children attend after their Reggio experience...
Hope you enjoy my new web page!
Talk to you soon...
Quinn

[Francesca]

Hi Quinn!
You've got beautiful photos there and it looks like children are having a good time making art:-)
Do you teach in a Reggio School or are you applying the method to your school environment? Are you working with other teachers as well?

Do you know anything about the Steinerian education method and how it works with arts and crafts? Is there any possible relation between the two approaches?

Uh! A lot of questions!!

Talk to you soon,


Francesca