Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Reggio Emilia approach'

Studien är en kvalitativ intervjustudie som baseras på fyra intervjuer med pedagoger som arbetar på en nyöppnad Reggio Emiliainspirerad förskola. Studien har ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv där människors upplevelser sätts i centrum för att kunna urskilja gemensamma drag och mönster.  Efter andra världskriget växte Reggio Emiliafilosofin fram i norra Italien under ledning av Loris Malaguzzi. Denna filosofi introducerades i Sverige i början av 1980-talet av Anna Barsotti och Karin Wallin. Reggio Emiliafilosofin talar om de tre pedagogerna – de vuxna, barnen och miljön, som alla samspelar och påverkar varandra. Syftet med studien är att ta reda på hur pedagoger upplever sin förändring i sin yrkesutövning efter att ha börjat arbeta Reggio Emiliainspirerat. I litteraturgenomgången redogörs det för Reggio Emiliafilosofins ursprung, grundtankar och intåg i Sverige. Våra slutsatser är att pedagogerna är positiva till de förändringar filosofin har medfört inom fem områden: samarbetet i arbetslaget, den gemensamma synen på barns lärande, pedagogisk dokumentation, projektbaserat lärande samt synen på miljöns påverkan i lärandet.

This is a qualitative examination based upon four interviews with educationalists who is working on a recently opened preschool inspired by the philosophy of Reggio Emilia. The study has a phenomenologist perspective where people’s experiences are in focus to discern common aspects and patterns. After the Second World War the Reggio Emilia philosophy grew in northern Italy under the management of Loris Malaguzzi. This philosophy was introduced in Sweden in the beginning of 1980 by Anna Barsotti and Karin Wallin. The philosophy of Reggio Emilia speaks about the three pedagogues – the preschools teachers, the children and the environment, and how they all interplay and affect one another. The purpose of this study is to find out how educationalists have experienced change working Reggio Emilia-inspired. In the literary part of the study we describe the origin of the Reggio Emilia’s philosophy, the fundamental ideas and the emergence in Sweden. Our conclusions are that the attitude of the educationalists has changed positively within five occupational areas: cooperation within the workgroup, the common perspective of children’s capabilities, the educationalist documents, the project-based learning and the vision of the environment role in learning.

The purpose of this dissertation study is to describe, explain, and analyze teachers’, supervisors’, and educational administrators’ perspectives, or self-reported opinions, regarding their current practices and policies of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Saudi Arabia (SA), and the challenges and the benefits of adopting the Reggio Emilia approach (REA) into early childhood institutions in SA. ECE faces many challenges in SA, such as: the traditional role of the teachers, a standard curriculum that is planned in advance, lack of collaboration with families, centralized education management, and the image of the child as passive learner (Metwaly, 2007). With these in mind, I argued that implementing the REA in Saudi kindergartens in a way that suits the social, culture, and religious context may help overcome some of the challenges that are confronting ECE in SA today.

Three theoretical frameworks guided this study: social constructivist theory, the community of collaboration perspective, and the theoretical foundation of ECE in SA. The social constructivist theory and community of collaboration perspective offered a comprehensive understanding of the RE philosophy and its core principles by explaining how children learn and the critical importance of community collaboration. In addition, examining the theoretical foundations of ECE in SA guided my understanding of current Saudi ECE practices and policies.

This study used in-depth interviews to explore and analyze ECE teachers’, supervisors’, and educational provincial administrators’ perspectives in Riyadh about the potential benefits and challenges of implementing the REA into the Saudi ECE context. Audiotapes and transcriptions from individual interviews with participants were used as data sources, along with documents and analytic memos. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative analysis approach; this can provide opportunities to explore the participants’ opinions about the likelihood of implementing the REA, what it would take to adopt it if possible, and how it could be modified to fit the social, cultural, and religious context in SA.

Studien är en kvalitativ, empirisk undersökning som baseras på intervjuer med sex pedagoger som arbetar på Reggio Emilia-inspirerade förskolor. Reggio Emilia-filosofin växte fram i norra Italien efter andra världskriget och introducerades i Sverige under början av 1980-talet. Inom Reggio Emilia anser man att barn är rika och kompetenta och man arbetar kontinuerligt med att utvärdera och utveckla verksamheten genom att bland annat använda pedagogisk dokumentation som arbetsredskap. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om och i sådana fall på vilka sätt pedagoger på två Reggio Emilia-inspirerade förskolor anser att deras förhållningssätt förändrats jämfört med deras tidigare yrkesutövning inom förskoleverksamhet. I litteraturgenomgången redogörs för ursprunget till Reggio Emilia-filosofin, hur framväxten av den svenska förskolan sett ut, när och hur Reggio Emilia introducerades i Sverige samt de grundtankar vi funnit centrala inom Reggio Emilias filosofi. Resultatet visar på att pedagogerna har förändrat sitt förhållningssätt inom fem områden. De menar att de har förändrat sin syn på barn och sitt sätt att arbeta med dokumentation. De strävar efter att göra både barn och föräldrar mer delaktiga i förskolans verksamhet samt att göra förskolan mer delaktig i samhället. De har även förändrat miljön på förskolan för att barnen ska kunna bli mer självständiga och de arbetar nu med åldersindelade barngrupper. I diskussionen reflekterar vi bland annat över vikten av att pedagogerna kan motivera inför föräldrar vad de grundar sitt sätt att arbeta på samt förmedla vad ett Reggio Emilia-inspirerat förhållningssätt innebär för dem som pedagoger.

This is a qualitative, empirical study based on interviews with six educationists working at Reggio Emilia inspired pre schools. The Reggio Emilia philosophy originates from northern Italy, where it developed after the Second World War. It was introduced in Sweden in the early 1980’s. The opinion within Reggio Emilia is that all children are rich and competent, and you constantly work on evaluation and development of the practice by help of pedagogical documentation, for example. The aim of the study is to examine if the educationists at two Reggio Emilia inspired pre schools are of the opinion that their approach has changed, compared to how they earlier exercised their profession in pre school. In the literary part of the study we describe the origin of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, the development of the Swedish pre school, and also when and how Reggio Emilia was introduced in Sweden. Furthermore we describe the fundamental ideas we have found to be the core of the Reggio Emilia philosophy. The result of the study shows that the educationists have changed their approach in five areas. They are of the opinion that they have changed their view of children and the way they work with documentation. They strive to involve children and parents more in the pre school activities, and also to make their pre school more involved in the community. The educationists have also changed the surroundings at the pre school to give the children the possibility to be more independent, and they are now working with age divided groups of children. In the discussion we reflect upon the importance for educationists being able to motivate to parents what their practice is based on, and also being able to explain the meaning of a Reggio Emilia inspired approach.

The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a year-long implementation of the Reggio Emilia approach on transitional kindergarten (TK) programs of a large public school district in southern California. Teachers in 3 TK classrooms had received training from the trainer (researcher for this study) on Reggio approach prior to the onset of the school year and the beginning of this research study. The study used a multi-site case study design involving three teachers, three principals, and three parents drawn from three schools. Data was collected through interviews, an observational checklist, field notes, and reflective journal entries in three phases of the study: before, during, and after the school year.

Relevant documents were also collected during each phase. Results of the year-long research documented some improvements in teaching strategies and classrooms managements as well as factors that pose challenges to implementing the Reggio approach in TK programs: (a) teachers’ lack of in-depth knowledge of the Reggio approach, (b) high teacher-child ratio of TK classrooms, and (c) utilization of a hybrid curriculum that unsuccessfully attempted to merge California preschool learning foundation and the kindergarten common core standards. Other important challenges included lack of family involvement, high demand on academics that ignored inquiry-based learning, focus on imagination, and the whole child approach, which were the hallmarks of the Reggio philosophy. Children’s formal assessment based on school district’s benchmarks and mandates also contradicted Reggio’s emphasis on authentic assessment through documentation.