Reggio Emilia Approach Essay

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The Reggio Emilia Approach- Italy
In Italy, Reggio Emilia is an educational philosophy that espouses creativity and expressiveness in learning, based on a interpretive approach. It developed out of Italian preschools begun shortly after World War II. In 1963, teachers and parents, with the help of Loris Malaguzzi, a local teacher, founded the first formal Reggio Emilia school near the town of the same name in Italy. Initially, the program served 3- to 6-year-olds, but by 1970 it had expanded to serve children as young as 3 months old. The town has a strong ‘tradition of co-operation and inclusion that cuts across social and economic boundaries, and politically the people continue to show their support for the Socialist Parties.’(Edwards et …show more content…

In common, both approaches take a child-led approach and the adult to act as a facilitator in learning. This is supported by Vygotsky who theorised ‘The zone of proximal development, which is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. (Vygotsky 1978). Having conserved this, the EYFS is underpinned by a reassurance in instrumental beliefs, as it aims to provide guidance to early childhood practitioners so that children can be prepared children for the next stage of schooling. The practitioners role is to ‘map children learning and development in order to ensure a broad balanced curriculum’ (Palaiologou 2009.p.180). Bruner was also a psychologist and was influenced by the work of Vygotsky. His theory of constructivism known as Scaffolding theory, proposed the idea that providing support in learning can help children read their ZPD (Brunner 1960), This theory is also in accordance with the Reggio approach. (Rose & Rogers 2012.p.13) states that the ‘adult role viewed as a guide, support, prompt or scaffold’. Therefore there is a lot of times where there is adult -led activities in order to meet curriculum targets for each subject. The Welsh Assembly Government set out a project to support early years teachers in their desire to engage further with Reggio philosophy and to explore Reggio-inspired approaches in their classrooms. The main aim of this project, then, was to encourage teachers to use Reggio as a ‘different lens’ in order to gain a greater understanding of their own professional practice. However, teachers found challenges in trying to support children in following their own interests and exploring their own theories. Furthermore, teachers feared that it was not appropriate to allow children to continue with misconceptions and they ‘needs to be told the right answer’.Given the requirement to meet prescribed targets and outcomes this have been

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