Reggio Emilia Approach
The Reggio Emilia Approach was an educational philosophy developed by parents of Reggio Emilia in Italy under the leadership of Loris Malaquzzi after World War II. It focuses on early childhood education. This philosophy facilitated the creation of a program founded on principles of responsibility respect and community through discovery and exploration in an enriching and supportive environment for the children through a curriculum that is self-guided (Edwards, Gandini & Forman, 2008). These principles advocated having control of the children's' direction of learning, to be able to relate with one another and with material items around them, have the ability and opportunity to express and to learn through sight, touch and hearing.New School Model in Abu DhabiIn Abu Dhabi, several schools have embraced teaching approaches that they find favorable for their studies. For instance, they deal with the learning spaces whereby the school collaborates with the children together with the family members to give education to children between the ages of 4years to the young ones of as early as 45 days (Fraser, 2006).
The children have been given a learning environment that is exciting, inspiring and safe for them to learn. The teachers make the children co-construct their experiences in learning through intentional planning, observation, active exploration and creative environment (Abbott & Nutbrown, 2001). At the same time, the approach also enables the parents to get involved with the learning experience of their children. Their role applies both in class and outside the classroom whereby they create a strong sense of community whereby the children would be nurtured in a flexible way. In addition, the teachers also play a big role in the nurturing of the children in four essential concepts. The first concept deals with Co-constructing whereby the teacher will have to hypothesize, nurture, guide, collaborate and solve problems for the children (Fraser & Gestwicki, 2002). The second concept deals with the teachers being researchers which would involve learning, revisiting and observing the progress of the children (Mussini, Mussini & Severi, 2001).
The teachers are also documenters as they are involved in displaying, revisiting, recording and listening to the children and the parents involved. The final concept is that the teachers are advocates for the children as they are involved in the politics associated with children and speak on behalf of the children to let the community know what the children might want. Comparison between Reggie Emilia and new school modelThe new School model is different from the Emilia’s model applied in learning as majority of schools use the project approach. This approach deals with Dewey and Piaget where the aim is for the children to understand their own ability of learning with a slight help from the teachers (Fraser, 2006). The concept means that the children are given the opportunity to attain an in-depth learning and children have the ability to make decisions based on what they are interested in (Abbott & Nutbrown, 2001). At the same …
