Italian Approaches to Early Childhood Education: The Montessori Method and the Reggio Emilia Approach
Abstract
The paper presents two Italian approaches to early childhood education: the Montessori method and the Reggio Emilia approach. Although they emerged in different historical periods and socio-political realities, these two approaches have a lot in common with regard to values like love and respect for children and their developmental rights. Moreover, they share a belief in the potential and boundless resources of the child as well as shifting the emphasis from a teacher’s activity to that of the child. In comparison to the Montessori method, the Reggio Emilia approach strongly highlights the importance of relations and interactions in the children’s learning process. Group work, which has been one of the fundamentals of the Reggio Emilia approach from the very beginning, is the main difference between these two approaches. The article presents the background of each pedagogical idea (the Montessori method – the beginning of 20th century, Reggio Emilia – the 1950s). The description of the ideas is based on such aspects as the image of a child, the image of a teacher and the role of environment in education. In the article, the authors refer mainly to the thoughts of Montessori, the creator of her own method, and Loris Malaguzzi, who was the leader of the educational experience in Reggio Emilia.
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