The Reggio Emilia Approach

Author’s Note

I became motivated to write about the Reggio Emilia Approach when I discovered the different forms of learning and alternative approaches to education within school settings. I have always been interested in child development, the psychological impacts behind self-expression, and exploring the link between creativity and motivation for youth audiences. Therefore, narrowing down my paper to this specific educational approach felt suitable for my future goals as a clinical psychologist for children, adolescents, and families. I wrote this paper for the PSC 192: Fieldwork in Psychology class, supervised by Professor Kelly King. My greatest realization and biggest concept I learned from this internship and publication is the importance of safety and authenticity for students and children alike. My paper illustrates how establishing a space of safety and inclusion ensures greater comfort in behaving authentically. Safety in expressing oneself is critical to anyone’s development, and the earlier an individual is able to freely explore themselves, the better they can securely grow, believe in, and fulfill their own potential. My hope is that youth may feel safe in their environments so that they can not only learn better within academic spaces but also grow as individuals within their surrounding communities to improve the human condition.

Preschools and elementary schools acquire distinctive educational approaches from different psychological conceptual frameworks that typically depend on the importance of their foundational values. From educational methods such as Montessori, Outdoor, and STEM-based foundations, a wide array of diverse learning models has been developed and applied globally around the world. However, children’s individual differences constitute ambiguity in determining which approach is most effective for cognitive development and early childhood education. One prominent alternative to traditional youth educational models is known as the Reggio Emilia Approach (RE) founded by psychologist Loris Malaguzzi in 1945 in Reggio Emilia, Italy (Santín & Torruella, 2017). The RE approach values how children are central to their own learning. Initial schooling based on this approach cultivated coexisting teacher-student interactions to offer space for children to explore their creative endeavors (Santín & Torruella, 2017). This approach is derived from theories of social constructivism, in which children are the main perpetrators of learning through social interactions and stimuli in their physical environment. In particular, cognitive, social, and emotional development are all influenced by people in the environment, along with the external environment itself (Gantt, 2021). Consequently, the RE approach values unifying elements of the family, child, teacher, and art through focused project and play-based learning as modalities towards creativity and prosocial behaviors (Schroeder-Yu, 2008).

The purpose of this research paper is to investigate how specific components of various social-constructivist theories collectively constitute the RE approach. I provide explanations of each theory involved with social constructivism and an analysis on how each one enhances the efficiency of the RE approach. These theories include those conceptualized by Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Howard Gardner, and Jerome Bruner. The latter half of this research paper offers explanations of the benefits and limitations of this approach. Throughout this paper, I also offer complementary, qualitative, and observational behavioral data from my internship at Peregrine School in Davis, California, specifically analyzing creative activities and the environment inside and outside the classroom. Finally, I conclude with a coherent summary of primary emphases and implications on what makes the RE approach unique and effective for early childhood education.

Components of The Reggio Emilia (RE) Approach

The RE approach is based on social-constructivist components of the environment, the child’s self-image, parent-teacher relationships, and practices valuing children’s self-expression (Gantt, 2021). In regards to the environment, external beauty and physical aesthetics of the classroom—both indoors and outdoors—are conscientiously cared for, and teachers organize spaces that invite students to investigate, experiment, and explore (Santín & Torruella, 2017). As displayed at Peregrine School, these spaces include bright colors that showcase many students’ artwork and creative assignments. Additionally, relationships between parents and teachers are critical for offering opportunities to children so they can generate new ideas through structure and social processes (Santín & Torruella, 2017). Essentially, children are able to effectively learn by being immersed within spaces of freedom and flexibility, so that they may openly share their thoughts and engage in dialogue from a place of ease.

Furthermore, the driving principles of the RE approach include peer collaboration, cooperation, teacher documentation, projects, and attention to the visual arts (Emerson & Linder, 2019). For example, I observed how students at Peregrine School collaboratively engage with their peers and teachers in creative visual projects such as individual zines, physical models of plot scenes, and stop-motion videos, to enhance literary comprehension. Prior to the development of these driving principles and components, four preliminary social-constructivist approaches were developed by the following psychologists: Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner, and Gardner.

Piaget’s Theory for the Union of Nature and Nurture

Psychologist Jean Piaget laid one of the most significant precedents in early cognitive development through his theory that became the first to coalesce nature-nurture interaction. Piaget’s theory assumed that children construct their own knowledge in response to their experiences, known as cognitive structures (Bjorklund & Causey, 2018). Additionally, he argued that children are intrinsically motivated to learn without the need for operant conditioning, and that reality is merely constructed based on our past experiences and current cognitive structures (Bjorklund & Causey, 2018). Piaget believed that children internalize their own actions to construct their own schema, which act as the most basic unit of knowledge (Bjorklund & Causey, 2018). Through Piaget’s theory, children’s experiential structures and schema explain their cognitive operations and how they navigate the world around them.

Piaget’s theory applies to the RE approach through the specific scope of nurture and nature (Martin, 2021). Children are believed to be motivated and driven to learn on an innately intrinsic level as shown through their cognitive structures, which relates to the nature scope. The role of nurture is highly emphasized based on the aspects of children's past experiences, modes of construction, and the final products of schematic knowledge. Collectively, Piaget offered a basic and broad foundation for the RE approach to further develop in later years.

Vygotsky’s Theory for Creativity

Psychologist Lev Vygotsky developed a theory that similarly revolved around the importance of social interaction in learning, and it became distinctive due to its two main tenets: rationalism and concept development (Stone, 2012). Rationalism is encapsulated through children’s necessary use of signs, tools, toys, and objects around them. From my internship, specific hand signs to indicate silence in the classroom and digital tools, such as a photobook system to design and recollect students’ yearly projects, were both utilized to regulate behavior and nourish creativity, respectively. Moreover, children’s concepts are developed through the grouping and connection of objects known as syncretism (Stone, 2012). According to Vygotsky, the development of concepts is contextual based on the child’s engagement with their school’s establishment and integration of creativity (Stone, 2012). Essentially, Vygotsky highlighted how creativity is formed through processes of novel syncretism, which is the combination of new and different practices for increased enthusiasm for tasks on hand. In this light, creativity also became a crucial subset of the theory.

Not only does the Vygotskian perspective connect with the RE approach through their joint significance on creativity, but they both also prioritize empathy. Authentic and effective learning must stem from teacher-student connections rooted in empathy and activities that are transformative, affective, cognitive, embodied, and creative (Kim, 2014). For example, to teach about American history, students at Peregrine School reenacted historical scenes by acting out as characters from the 1930s to adopt a new identity on the school’s stage. This particular activity denotes how embodied, transformative, creative, and mentally stimulating it was for students to learn history through their ability to perform as unfamiliar historical figures. Moreover, both theories demonstrate how children need to engage in projects where they can freely express themselves. For instance, Peregrine School implemented many projects stemming from art, whether that be drawing, coloring, or using technology to edit and create. 

Through Vygotsky’s theory, effective early childhood education naturally depends on children’s active involvement and motivation, within themselves and with others. The RE approach highly attributes children’s active engagement through components including project and play-based curriculums, physical atmosphere, and the striving for an understanding of the external world. Ultimately, the Vygotsky approach offered two prominent aspects: its embedded creativity and amplified empathy into the RE approach so that children may strengthen their drive and curiosity to learn through conducive self-expression.

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

To further the social-constructivist approach, Howard Gardner evolved the theory of multiple intelligences. Through his own empirical observations, he concluded that seven different types of unique intelligence exist for every child, in accordance to their relationship with learning processes: interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, and musical (Gantt, 2021). The RE approach’s flexible curriculum to offer children multiple mediums of learning aligns with this concept of multiple intelligences. Some of these mediums of learning include visual, auditory or kinesthetic sensory channels through  paints, fabrics, inks, pencils, and watercolors. The connection to Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory can also be seen with Malaguzzi’s popular concept of the hundred languages of children, which highlighted children’s infinite potential for learning (Gantt, 2021). This latter concept robustly contributed to the RE approach by explaining how children have different modalities for self-expression, whether that be artistic, musical, or visual (Gantt, 2021). Consequently, Gardner and Malaguzzi both placed supreme importance on adaptability through an understanding of individual differences in children’s learning and comprehension. As shown in Peregrine School, students always had options with how they wanted to create their own projects related to the curriculum and daily lesson plans, which offered flexibility for individual preferences of modalities, experimentation, and creativity.

Bruner’s Perspectives for Flexibility

Psychologist Jerome Bruner developed several perspectives that laid emphasis on the concept of culture, acknowledgements of meta-cognition, and impacts of agency on the creation of a sense of self (Takaya, 2008). Culture acts as a toolkit for sense-making, meta-cognition allows children to think about their thinking processes for deeper cognition, and enhanced agency advances identity development for children’s new learning in alignment with their environment (Takaya, 2008). Bruner encountered many perceptual changes over the course of his research due to chosen areas of focus surrounding the fluidity of culture. His work in the 1970s primarily shifted from individual to communal emphases, as well as objective and subjective to “intersubjective” (Takaya, 2008). His earlier focused perspective of disciplined understanding as the deep integration of knowledge rather than performative recognition transitioned towards a cultural focus on the common ground of groups and communities within classrooms. Bruner’s theories offer valuable supplementary principles to the RE approach via social-interactionist views. Learning is not a matter of mastery of the content; rather, it is about phenomena occurring around the mastery of content—communicative processes (Takaya, 2008). In other words, learning is simply not about knowing information — it also involves how the information is communicated, passed down, and transmitted. Thus, the RE approach applies this perspective through practical application and enforcements of increased flexibility in its educational curriculums. In particular, Peregrine School headteachers consistently used visual modes with the classroom board’s projector and colorful illustrations in order to relay easily digestible information and transform them into students’ knowledge via repetition.

Benefits of the Reggio Emilia (RE) Approach

Many benefits are presented when all approaches that contribute to the RE approach are considered. Enhancements in creativity through flexible experimentation, as well as increased empathy with encouragement of prosocial behaviors, remain indicative advantages from the RE approach. One asset of the RE approach not yet discussed is the development of children’s critical thinking skills — the ability to merge all experiences, facts, and reasons together to form one’s own beliefs and behaviors. In one qualitative study conducted by Sántin & Torruella (2020), they monitored the developmental progress of classroom activities through observation grounded in a behavioral natural experimentation and intervention design. Results revealed how they most commonly observed patterns of behavior including aspects of emotion, participation, experimentation, enjoyment, play, and creation (Sántin & Torruella, 2020). Along with social relations among teachers, students, and peers, three primary aspects that contributed to these patterns most for enhanced critical thinking were documentation, experimentation activities, and the arts (Sántin & Torruella, 2020). With attention to the arts, collaboration, projects, parental engagement, and community-based activities, the RE approach poses the benefit of inclusion for children who display cognitive variability with their intellectual abilities. With my internship at Peregrine School, I have observed direct benefits of the RE approach, such as verbal non-discriminatory enforcements from teachers within the campus grounds, the sense of flexibility and adaptability with teachers in relation to students, and emotions of openness in students to comfortably express themselves through interactive engagement of all projects and activities.

Limitations of Current Research

Despite these advantages, a major limitation with the RE approach is that its effectiveness may only be restricted to a specific range for children of roughly three to five years of age. Although age differences go beyond the scope of foci in this research paper, it is unclear if this approach is more effective in children who are preschoolers than pre-adolescence. The lack of research in older ages for the RE approach also implies that it cannot be efficiently implemented into educational curricula of middle school and beyond. Furthermore, it is difficult to inspect the quality of effectiveness for this approach among different geographical locations. Variability in socioeconomic status, demographics, and affluence is not considered in this paper when providing accessibility to education framed under the RE approach. 

Discussions and Applications for Future Education

Collectively, the theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner, and Bruner cohesively connect to form the RE approach. All perspectives are equally valuable as they each offer various strengths to constitute an alternative educational philosophy, which include the coexistence of nature and nurture, creativity, multiple intelligences, and flexibility. With these connected theories in mind, the RE approach poses different benefits and limitations in early childhood education.

In sum, the RE approach offers future promising and inspirational foundations for early childhood education due to its focus on progress over outcome. Instead of purely focusing on specific grades as measures of students’ learning, the RE approach employs the exploration of new concepts through creativity, documentation, experimentation, collaboration, and activities focused on agency. These key components that create flexibility and adaptability within the educational sphere of learning allow children to embrace content material and cultivate their own reflective judgements about the world. Reflective learning processes are better for long term recognition and memory, compared to learning processes oriented on speed. Orientation to content mastery is also known to be effective for students rather than an orientation to grade performance. With shifts towards reflection and mastery rather than speed and performance, the results shown by the RE approach reveals its reliability as an alternative curriculum for future education in early childhood, despite limitations of its applications.

References

Bjorklund, D., Causey, K. (2018). Children's Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences. 6th ed., Sage Publications. 

Emerson, A., Linder, S. (2019). A review of research of the reggio inspired approach: An integrative re-framing. Early Years, 41(4), 428–442. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2019.1591350 

Gantt, B. (2021). Perceptions of the Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education. Walden University ScholarWorks. 

Kim, M. S. (2014). Doing social constructivist research means making empathic and aesthetic connections with participants. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 22(4), 538-553. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2014.947835 

Martin, E. (2021). Pioneers: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Early Years Educator. 

Santín, M. F., & Torruella, M. F. (2017). Reggio emilia: An essential tool to develop critical thinking in early childhood. Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 6(1), 50-56.

Santín, M. F., & Torruella, M. F. (2020). Developing critical thinking in early childhood through the philosophy of Reggio Emilia. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 37.

Schroeder-Yu, G. (2008). Documentation: Ideas and applications from the Reggio Emilia approach. Teaching Artist Journal, 6(2), 126–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/15411790801910735

Stone, J. E. (2012). A Vygotskian commentary on the reggio emilia approach. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 13(4), 276-289. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2012.13.4.276. 

Takaya, K. (2008). Jerome Bruner’s theory of education: From early bruner to later bruner. Interchange 39, 1–19.