Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia ([ˈreddʒo eˈmiːlja], also [ˈrɛddʒo]; Emilian: Rèz, Latin: Regium Lepidi) is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants[1] and is the main comune (municipality) of the Province of Reggio Emilia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia

The Reggio Emilia Approach is an Educational Philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It was started by Loris Malaguzzi, who was a teacher himself, and the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy after World War II. The destruction from the war, parents believed, necessitated a new, quick approach to teaching their children. They felt that it is in the early years of development that children form who they are as individuals. This led to creation of a program based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment based on the interests of the children through a self-guided Curriculum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia_approach

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 wide variety of self-selected activities typical of preschool classrooms.

The projects (PBL) that teachers and children engage in are different 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 teachers place a high value on their ability to improvise and respond to children's predisposition to enjoy the unexpected. Regardless of their origins, successful projects are those that generate a sufficient amount of interest and uncertainty to provoke children's creative thinking and problem-solving and are open to different avenues of exploration.