Essay On Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia Approach

The Reggio Emilia is an approach originated in Italy, specifically from a city that has the same name. (DaCosta & Seok, January 2014). After, the Second World War, a small group of parents began to be concerned about the rising deficiency of services in early childhood settings. Based on that matter, they opened the first model preschools and infant-toddler center in 1970, under the leadership of Loris Malaguzzi (Edwards, 2007). Currently this education system is being applied in Australia, Asia, North America, and other parts of the world (Mercilliott, 2001). This approach tackles four main areas related to the role of the children, the role of the teachers, documentation and negotiated learning (Kin& Farr, 2009).

According to Kin and Farr (2009) children in Reggio Emilia approach are perceived as skilled, original, inquisitive, and full of capabilities. Mercilliott (2001) enclosed this definition by alluding that children are “natural researchers”. By this, the author meant that children have a real interest to formulate questions, to investigate, and to anticipate consequences. Besides that, under this approach children have “100 languages’’ or ways of expression to display whatever they know (Edward, 2007). Moreover, Reggio Emilia teachers take the role of collaborator, co-learner, guide, and facilitator. It is indispensable that that teachers continuously reflect about what is teaching and what is learning in order to execute these convoluted responsibilities. In addition, Reggio educators follow an emergent curriculum. Edward, (2007) pointed out that documentation is also essential in Reggio Emilia practice. Through documentation, teachers are involved in reasoning the observed information, and us...

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...legitimacy of operant conditioning, I believe that this theory relegates humans to their basic behavioral modality. It takes away conscious choice and initiative. In terms of education, the system of reward proposed by the behaviorism theory avoids even the possibility of children to find the meaning of their learning or intrinsic motivation in their education. Children start doing assignments because they are looking for good grades, for example, instead of studying simply because this is something meaningful in their lives. A result of that, children may not perform as desired when reinforcements were terminated creating a heavy dependence on external factors and lack of self-control. As educators, I consider that we should transmit to students the fact that behaviors are probably not going to be reinforced each and every time they occur in real- world settings.