The Reggio Emilia Classroom
More From the Field
Critical Thinking Question
- Consider Meredith’s statement that Reggio teachers consider the environment a “third teacher.” What does that mean to you and why might it apply to a Reggio classroom?
Malaguzzi stated that the goal of the Reggio Emilia system was to create, “an amiable schoolthat is, a school that is active, inventive, livable, documentable, and communicative. . . . a place of research, learning, revisiting, reconsideration, reflection.” (Malaguzzi, 1993, p. 9). Toward these ends, the preschool Reggio Emilia classrooms in Italy and those inspired by them in the United States are aesthetically beautiful and filled with details that are intended to intrigue, delight, and surprise children as they encounter and interact with the environment. The environment is considered part of the curriculum and even referred to as the “third teacher.”
Each Reggio classroom is unique because it is intended to reflect those who inhabit the space. Teachers carefully design space for individuals, social interactions, and “marginal” community areas like kitchens and bathrooms (Gandini, 1993). Reggio Emilia schools usually also include an “atelier”a studio space that includes art materials of all kinds, so that children can express and represent their ideas. Here children work to master techniques and media that add to their repertoire of “languages” and teachers come to broaden their understanding of how children are thinking. The atelier also serves as an archive for present and past work (Gandini, 1993). When American teachers using a Reggio Emilia approach do not have access to an entire room for the atelier, they create a “miniatelier” space within the classroom.