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The Reggio Emilia Approach is an innovative educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It was started after World War II by parents in the villages around Reggio nell'Emilia, Italy, a city now recognized worldwide for the Reggio Emilia approach to education. Many American and Canadian preschool programs have adopted it also. The Reggio Emilia program is based upon the following set of principles:


 * Children should have some control over the direction of their learning.
 * Children should be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, seeing and hearing.
 * Children should explore their relationships with other children and with material items in the world.
 * Children should have numerous ways and opportunities to express themselves.

The Reggio Emilia approach puts the natural development of children as well as the close relationships that they share with their environment at the centre. Proponents of Reggio Emilia adopt the viewpoint that teaching must respect the child and that children must have control over their day-to-day activities so that learning will make sense to the children themselves.

Parents are a vital component to the Reggio Emilia approach, being viewed as partners, collaborators and advocates for their children. Teachers respect parents as each child's first teachers, and they involve parents in every aspect of the curriculum. Parents commonly volunteer within Reggio Emilia classrooms throughout the school and incorporate many of the principles within their parenting and home life. Some adjustment is needed when a Reggio Emilia child transfers to a non–Reggio Emilia school, its advocates concede, but intellectual curiosity is rewarded in most school environments, so students continue to benefit from early exposure to Reggio Emilia.

Community support and parental involvement
Reggio Emilia's tradition of community support for families with young children expands on Italy's cultural view of children as the collective responsibility of the state. In Reggio Emilia, the infant/toddler and pre-primary program is a vital part of the community, as reflected in the high level of financial support. Community involvement is also apparent in citizen membership in La Consulta, a school committee that exerts significant influence over local government policy.

The parents' role mirrors the community's, at both the schoolwide and the classroom level. Parents are expected to take part in discussions about school policy, child development concerns, and curriculum planning and evaluation. Because a majority of mothers and fathers are employed, meetings are held in the evenings so that most parents who wish to participate can do so.

Teachers as learners
Teachers' long-term commitment to enhancing their understanding of children is at the crux of the Reggio Emilia approach. Their resistance to the American use of the term "model" to describe their program reflects the continuing evolution of their ideas and practices. They compensate for the meagre pre-service training of Italian early childhood teachers by providing extensive staff development opportunities, with goals determined by the teachers themselves. Teacher autonomy is evident in the absence of teacher manuals, curriculum guides or achievement tests. The lack of externally imposed mandates is joined by the imperative that teachers become skilled observers of children in order to inform their curriculum planning and implementation.

Teachers routinely divide class responsibilities so that one teacher can systematically observe, take notes and record conversations among children. These observations are shared with other teachers and a specialized teacher called the atelierista, who uses art in a space in the school called an atelier (studio) as an integrated way for children's symbolic expression. Parents are also involved in curriculum planning and evaluation. Teachers of several schools often work and learn together under the leadership of the pedagogista as they explore ways of expanding on children's spontaneous activities.

The role of the environment
The organization of the physical environment is crucial to Reggio Emilia's early childhood program, and is often referred to as the child's "third teacher." Major aims in the planning of new spaces and the remodelling of old ones include the integration of each classroom with the rest of the school, and the integration of the school with the surrounding community. The preschools are generally filled with indoor plants and vines, and are awash with natural light. Classrooms open to a central piazza, kitchens are open to view, and access to the surrounding community is assured through wall-sized windows, courtyards and doors to the outside in each classroom. Entryways capture the attention of both children and adults through the use of mirrors (on the walls, floors, and ceilings), photographs and children's work accompanied by transcriptions of their discussions. These same features characterize classroom interiors, where displays of project work are interspersed with arrays of found objects and classroom materials. In each case, the environment informs and engages the viewer.

Other supportive elements include ample space for supplies, frequently rearranged to draw attention to their aesthetic features. Each classroom has studio spaces in the form of a large, centrally located atelier and a smaller mini-atelier, with designated spaces for large- and small-group activities. Throughout the school there is an effort to create opportunities for children to interact. Thus, the single dress-up area is in the central piazza; classrooms are connected with telephones, passageways or windows; and lunchrooms and bathrooms are designed to encourage community.

Long-term projects as vehicles for learning
The curriculum is characterized by many features advocated by contemporary research on young children, including real-life problem-solving among peers, with numerous opportunities for creative thinking and exploration. Teachers often work on projects with small groups of children, while the rest of the class engages in a variety of self-selected activities typical of preschool classrooms.

The projects that teachers and children engage in are distinct in a number of ways from those that characterize American teachers' conceptions of unit or thematic studies. The topic of investigation may derive directly from teacher observations of children's spontaneous play and exploration. Project topics are also selected on the basis of an academic curiosity or social concern on the part of teachers or parents, or serendipitous events that direct the attention of the children and teachers. Reggio Emilia teachers value their ability to improvise and respond to children's predisposition to enjoy the unexpected. Regardless of their origins, successful projects generate sufficient interest and uncertainty to provoke children's creative thinking and problem-solving and are open to different avenues of exploration. Because curriculum decisions are based on developmental and sociocultural concerns, small groups of children of varying abilities and interests, including those with special needs, work together on projects.

Projects begin with teachers observing and questioning children about the topic of interest. Based on children's responses, teachers introduce materials, questions, and opportunities that provoke children to further explore the topic. While some of these teacher provocations are anticipated, projects often move in unanticipated directions as a result of problems children identify. Thus, curriculum planning and implementation revolve around open-ended and often long-term projects that are based on the reciprocal nature of teacher-directed and child-initiated activity.

The hundred languages of children
As children proceed in an investigation, generating and testing their hypotheses, they are encouraged to depict their understanding through one of many symbolic languages, including drawing, sculpture, dramatic play and writing. They work together toward the resolution of problems that arise. Teachers facilitate and then observe debates regarding the extent to which a child's drawing or other form of representation lives up to the expressed intent. Revision of drawings (and ideas) is encouraged, and teachers allow children to repeat activities and modify each other's work in the collective aim of better understanding the topic. Teachers foster children's involvement in the processes of exploration and evaluation, acknowledging the importance of their evolving products as vehicles for exchange.

Conclusion
Reggio Emilia's approach to early education reflects a theoretical kinship with John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner, among others. Much of what occurs in the class reflects a constructivist approach to early childhood education. Reggio Emilia's approach does challenge some conceptions of teacher competence and developmentally appropriate practice. For example, teachers in Reggio Emilia assert the importance of being confused as a contributor to learning; thus a major teaching strategy is purposely to allow mistakes to happen, or to begin a project with no clear sense of where it might end. Another characteristic that is counter to the beliefs of many Western educators is the importance of the child's ability to negotiate in the peer group.

One of the most challenging aspects of the Reggio Emilia approach is the solicitation of multiple points of view regarding children's needs, interests, and abilities, and the concurrent faith in parents, teachers, and children to contribute in meaningful ways to the determination of school experiences. Teachers trust themselves to respond appropriately to children's ideas and interests, they trust children to be interested in things worth knowing about, and they trust parents to be informed and productive members of a cooperative educational team. The result is an atmosphere of community and collaboration that Reggio Emilia proponents view as developmentally appropriate for adults and children alike.