HOW THE PRINCIPLES OF REGGIO EMILIA ARE SUPPORTED BY NEUROSCIENCE FINDINGS OF SUCCESSFUL LEARNING

THE PRINCIPLES AND PEDAGOGY OF THE REGGIO EMILIA PRESCHOOL FINDINGS ON WHAT PROMOTES SUCCESSFUL LEARNING IN YOUNG CHILDREN

The Reggio Emilia Approach, which originated in northern Italy after World War II, has gained global recognition and a wide following among educators. The influence has been active in Australia since 1994 when the ‘Hundred Languages Exhibition’ was staged in Melbourne. ' The Hundred Languages of Children' is an international travelling exhibition that has informed audiences about the Italian-based Reggio Emilia educational pedagogy for over 25 years. 

What makes the Reggio Emilia Approach so compelling?

There are many answers to that question, and indeed, in 1991, Newsweek selected the Reggio Emilia Preschools and Infant-Toddler Centres as the best preschools in the world, reporting that they represented ‘an example of a grass-roots project that has become an international role model’ (Newsweek, 1991).

In this article, I aim to explore the principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach in light of recent findings in modern neuroscience on what supports learning success. Twelve principles are documented and published (Istituzione del Municipio di Reggio Emilia, 2010).

I categorise the principles into four groups, as shown below.

The Principles of the Reggio Emilia Preschools and Infant-Toddler Centres

A. Vision

1. Organisation

2. Professional Development

B. Relationships

3. The Image of the Child

4. Participation

C. Methodology

5. Progettazione

6. Research as a Key Activity

7. The Hundred Languages of Expression

8. The Environment as the Third Teacher

9. Learning as an Individual and Group Construction

D. Assessment

10. The Pedagogy of Listening

11. Documentation

12. Assessment

How do the Principles of Reggio Emilia Reflect the Neuroscience of Successful Learning?

In the discussion below, I will explore the principles related to brain research on experiences and interactions that support learning. The brain, a miraculous organ, is the only organ created within and beyond the body. What children experience has a profound impact on their identity and self-esteem.

A. Principles that encapsulate the VISION of the schools

1. ORGANISATION

2. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Organisation

Organisation creates stability and a sense of belonging

Organisation as a Hologram

Loris Malaguzzi has described the Reggio Emilia educational system as a hologram, an entity in which ‘each small part should reflect the ideas and choices that inspire the whole system and above all should make the wellbeing of the entire organisational system possible’ (Project Zero; Reggio Children, 2001).

The organisation of the whole reflects each part, and each part reflects the whole. The organisation of work, space, and time are based on choices and values that cohere. There is an assumption of shared responsibility. As a guiding vision, the organisation brings coherence between its principles and daily organisational decisions.

How does this organisation link with neuroscience?

A brain is a pattern-seeking machine. Humans develop their sense of self and self-esteem through interactions with others (Solomons, 2013). We are more likely to feel significant if we experience continuity, receptiveness and stability. Carla Rinaldi, one of the leading spokespersons for the pedagogy, describes how their role as educators recognises each child as an individual and that the child is taken out of anonymity (Rinaldi, 2006). The Reggio Emilia pedagogy is renowned for its innovation, but the way children are regarded and the style of engagement are consistent. A sense of safety and predictability is essential for learning. If children are unsure of how they will be treated or experience uncertainty, they will be anxious and less able to focus on novel, incoming information. Everyone, including the cooks and ancillary staff, is versed in the philosophy and listens to and works with children accordingly. Children are open to learning When they are safe and feel a sense of belonging.

2. Professional Development

Even the thousand-mile journey starts with one first step

In Reggio Emilia, professional learning is seen as both a right and a responsibility. The pedagogy is complex, but everyone working in the schools is supported to learn how things are done. When educators work together to understand the principles underlying and guiding projects within the centres, they develop a shared language and understanding that brings alignment and clarity of ideas.

For educators, professional learning is conducted in-house, and they have access to two unique professionals who work with them on-site to enhance and facilitate their work. Loris Malaguzzi, the progenitor of philosophy, introduced these revolutionary roles because he believed in collaborative planning and learning. A pedagogista works with and supports educators from several centres bringing an overarching perspective. Meetings are scheduled to conduct a dialogue about current projects to determine the direction they might take to most benefit the students’ interests and research.

The atelieristas were introduced to the centres as a disruptive influence, or ‘sand in the machinery’, to take learning in innovative directions in concert with children’s curiosity and inventiveness. These specialised art educators do not teach the children to create art; instead, they work with them to create art that supports and extends their learning. Besides in-house professional development, Reggio Children partners with networks and organises international study tours. We have Reggio Emilia Australian Information Exchange (REAIE) in Australia. Annual delegations travel to Reggio Emilia each year to attend study tours and advanced courses at the Loris Malaguzzi Centre.

How does this professional learning link with neuroscience?

Due to their concerted effort to educate teachers on the principles, they have a firm understanding of the methods and underpinnings of these projects. Professional learning encourages reflective practices, observations and documentation which is shared. It is contextual, not imposed by external influences.

Similarly, children feel secure in a known environment, and so it is with educators. Through continuous collaborative learning, they have become confident in their practices and processes. Both they and students derive a sense of purpose as they work on projects together. A sense of purpose is the antidote to alienation, a shared experience of teachers worldwide (Soza, 2015).

Having a collaborative process gives teachers a sense of inclusiveness. This is the opposite of what many teachers experience when they are isolated with their students behind classroom doors.

B. Principles that encapsulate the RELATIONSHIPS within the schools

3. IMAGE OF THE CHILD

4. PARTICIPATION

3. The Image of the Child

IF WE THINK THE CHILD OR ANY HUMAN IS A PROTAGONIST IN THE LEARNING ENTERPRISE, THEN THEY NEED TO BE ACTIVE. EACH TAKES PART IN THE RELATIONSHIPS IN THE LEARNING COMMUNITY AND THE CONTEXT

The child is viewed as a strong and capable co-creator of their own learning. Children assign meaning and make sense of the world around them. Curious, expressive and motivated, they have a right to be individuals within the group. Regardless of the projects you read about or observe, the overriding sense is one of children being active. They are doing, wondering, thinking and participating. However, we should also be aware of the teacher's presence, not as a director but as a facilitator and provider of resources. These resources appeal to children's intellect, emotions and senses as they interact collaboratively with their peers. The resources may include materials, equipment, technology, or actions. Learning is mediated but unobtrusively and intelligently, giving children the freedom to think and act independently.

How does this image of the child link with neuroscience?

The brain's neural pathways are the biological captures of thoughts and memories. The pathways are stimulated by sensations from both within and outside the body. By being proactive and using all their faculties, the children directly impact their neural network. Action and involvement lend the experiences a degree of attention and significance that is stronger than that of passive learning. Self-generated thoughts and the habit of thought generation build a network for critical and creative thinking. This is especially true if the activation is repeated frequently and intensely. Networks begin to communicate and fire together (Hebb, 1949; Shore, 2003). Most synapses or neural connections are produced during the early years of life. If they are not used or activated regularly, they are pruned back. When children are not encouraged to develop their thinking or independence, or when they are neglected, their neural health can be negatively impacted.

An image of a child who co-constructs their thinking is mirrored by healthy neural networks and the development of a superhighway for active rather than passive thinking (Shonkoff, Phillips, & Eds., 2000).

3. Participation

The interconnectivity of the individual, the group, the community

and the world is taken into account

A system of relationships defines the philosophy of Reggio Emilia. The child, educator and family are equal participants. There is a value and a strategy of belonging. A culture of solidarity is the basis of making learning visible to the community. The corner of the triangle representing the child is their intellectual, social, and affective identity, which is formed at the interface with others. The corner relating to the teacher serves as an entry point for the educator’s self and their metacognitive awareness of their role in educating the child. The corner relating to the parent serves as the entry point for the child’s familial and cultural identity, as well as the broadening of relationships with the community beyond the family.

The triangle rests in a space of trust and contribution.

It is customary in the Reggio Emilia preschools and infant-toddler centres to hold meetings with parents to discuss their children's learning. The points of view are sought and taken seriously.

How does participation link with neuroscience?

As mentioned, one of the most essential preconditions for efficient brain development is a feeling of security. If we do not feel comfortable in our environment, we become stressed. Stress restricts our prefrontal cortex resources. Our body responds to stress by increasing our heartbeat and releasing adrenaline into our bloodstream. We breathe more quickly, and our hands become sweaty. We focus on fight-or-flight.

In the triangle of relationships concept, children are so secure that they can give their full attention to the task at hand. They harness all their cognitive functions to identify and optimise learning opportunities. The Reggio Emilia approach views the child holistically. They accept the child on his/her terms, and the sense of belonging and nurturing is the basis of everything else. If this sounds repetitive, it is because the general organisation of the enterprise emphasises this belonging.

In attachment theory, first outlined by John Bowlby, this sense of belonging helps us develop in a healthy and balanced way (Bowlby, 1977). It is essential to recognise that not only children but also educators and families benefit from this sense of attachment.

C. Principles that encapsulate the METHODOLOGY of the schools

5. PROGETTAZIONE

6. RESEARCH AS A KEY ACTIVITY

7. THE HUNDRED LANGUAGES OF EXPRESSION

8. THE ENVIRONMENT AS THE THIRD TEACHER

9. LEARNING AS INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP CONSTRUCTION

5. Progettazione

The plan commences with a provocation in the direction of the learning. It is not prescriptive but invitational. There is a strategy of thought that can be modified

Planning is not made towards a fixed goal. Planning is a projection of well-researched possibilities. It is a map with topography that may or may not be explored but is ready to be. It allows for side paths and divergence, The pedagogy is project-based but flexible. The process of planning is serious and is characterised by intellectual rigour. Departure points beyond education are explored. In Reggio Emilia, educators draw inspiration from diverse sources. They reference the work of engineers, architects, poets, artists, designers and more. They do not plan to implement the project within the centre's walls, but they regularly take children out. Both so children can see the world and the world can see the children.

What to Teach?

The emphasis on children’s interests and the teacher's role as a facilitator has sometimes been misinterpreted and misunderstood. The term emergent curriculum is commonly used in discussions of the Reggio Emilia pedagogy. An emergent curriculum assumes that children and their interests are the driving force behind the curriculum and that the teacher's role is to follow their lead. This is not completely true.

Project-based learning

The teachers select an area of study. This may be suggested by what the children are interested in, what the teachers are interested in, or a combination of both. A period of research, resourcing, planning, and development ensues before a project is launched using a form of provocation. The provocation might be an object, an experience, an image, a display, a visitor, or anything at all that stimulates thinking and wonder.

The teachers generate learning pathways and prepare themselves in advance for many possibilities. They then offer initial experiences, which may be a provocation. They stand back to observe, act, and plan new resources in response to what occurs as children interact with the provocation. They are careful to preserve the children’s agency while following the knowledge. This view of curriculum ensures that the children remain engaged and motivated in their learning. They are the progenitors of parts of the action and will have a personal interest in the group action.

A wonderful saying from Reggio Emilia that encapsulates this is, 'Nothing without Joy.'

How is progettazione linked with neuroscience?

In neuroscience, we observe that engaging in an activity oneself is more effective than merely observing others doing it. Imitation is one level of thinking. However, when children enact the learning, they deepen their understanding, personalise it, and gain new competencies.

When children plan their actions, they develop a sense of agency that is not present if everything is prepared or done for them. When they are actively engaged, their emotional tone is positive. They may even enter a state of flow, where they become immersed in the task rather than merely doing it (Steven, 2021).

The agency is affected by emotions. When an emotion of enjoyment or excitement is present, the impulse is strong and prompts neurons to form connections and store information in long-term memory. Individual agency, intrinsic motivation, and personal action are excellent drivers of new learning.

According to Barry and Tony Buzan, some circumstances encourage learning and memory:

· We learn through all our senses

· We remember well what happened at the beginning (primacy)

· We remember well what happened at the end (recency)

· We remember what we are interested in

· We remember new things we can connect to what is already known

· We remember things that engage our emotions (Buzan & Buzan, 1993)

When children take the initiative and plan the next steps based on what has already motivated them, we can see these ideas come into play. Rima Shore, in her excellent book Rethinking the Brain, discusses how v. The actual number of dendrites in each neuron rises, and they, in turn, connect with other neurons, forming dendrite trees. Science has shown that the effect of this growth is maintained into adulthood (Shore, 2003).

Progettazione provides a well-thought-out learning landscape, rich in prior planning and a well-resourced environment to launch children’s learning and agency without being directive.

5. Research as an essential activity

Listening with all your senses, learning is a journey of mutual discovery

Each day presents a new encounter, best met with an open mind and curiosity. In Reggio Emilia, children are seen as researchers. The educators do not see themselves as ‘the sage on the stage' with all the knowledge. To quote Melbourne musicians, the Cat Empire offers children the light with no lime. The teachers stay out of the limelight. At the same time, they don’t hand it over to the children. The research is in partnership. Research means that you don’t know the answers. The innovative projects that have emerged from Reggio Emilia commence in places no one else is looking. They often work in liminal spaces, the borders between things. ‘Nature and the Digital ’ is one example where educators bring together elements that are frequently seen in opposition. Rather than reducing nature in this digital world, digital technology has given children a macro view that is barely available to the human eye. And then there is a microscope to play with!

Research in partnership with others is a collaborative effort that involves gathering knowledge and information. Research is going beyond the boundaries of the known. In Reggio, Emilia, this is not about searching on Google and repeating information; it is a genuine interaction with the real world, an authentic search for relationships, meanings, creations, and correlations. Seldom, if ever, is the first response or idea accepted when children are researching; they often return to the same place, at different times and in different circumstances, to deepen their understanding of the content.

How is research as a critical activity linked with neuroscience?

If you cast your mind back to the conditions for learning proposed by the Buzan brothers, you will remember that ‘we remember new things we can connect to what is already known.’The critical part of this research condition for successful learning is that new information is connected to what has gone before. Regularly in our classrooms across the world, teachers introduce new unrelated content. It is external to children’s current knowledge base. Jean Piaget’s concepts of assimilation and accommodation help explain why linking the unknown to the known is beneficial. Children make meaning from their experiences and build a schema of related information in their memories. When encountering something new and related, they assess the incoming data in light of what they already have in mind. If things do not match up exactly, their thinking is alerted, and they re-examine the assimilated information, accommodating and updating it (Piaget & Inhelder, 2008).

The research in Reggio Emilia is never extraneous but is grounded in what the children and educators are doing. It is real-life and contextual. This is an essential principle of design methodology, and the best innovation arrives when the focus is on fundamental issues, tangible goals, and real action (Leifert, Lewrick, & Link, 2020). When knowledge is not pre-packaged but explored personally and collaboratively, it will have more significance and fire vital neural messages. Hands-on action and self-generated thought are more memorable. The brain is naturally curious. It is always on the lookout for what is novel. Anything that has become routine or predictable has been automated. Resourcing children to be curious and inventive keeps the brain awake and active.

7. The Hundred Languages of Expression

The Child

is made of one hundred

The child has

a hundred languages

a hundred hands

a hundred thoughts

a hundred ways of thinking

From the poem by Loris Malaguzzi

(Translated by Lella Gandini)

We do not experience the world in one dimension or one modality. Loris Malaguzzi’s internationally famous poem is a call to recognise how children and adults interact with the world. The poem emphasises the multi-modal nature of communication. Communication is internal, residing in the mind and emotions, and external, expressed through the voice and body. Educators in Reggio Emilia discuss ‘the expressive, the communicative, and the cognitive languages’. These languages include music, mathematics, dance, painting, drama, puppetry, science, conversation, dialogue, sculpture, construction and many more! Due to the awareness and openness to incorporating techniques from various areas, the role of the teacher shifted from being in control of learning to facilitating collaborative learning. They plan and resource with others to encourage the students to be autonomous learners as they interact with concepts and materials. Children express their knowledge using ‘words, movement, drawing, painting, building, sculpture, shadow play, collage, dramatic play, or music’ (Edwards, Gandini, & Foreman, 1998).

The hundred languages are a collection of all the ways that children and human beings have the potential to internalise knowledge and express it. The languages work synergistically to create connections between and amongst our experiences, giving us a deep understanding of the relationships between things, not grasped episodically. As educators, we often discuss developing students’ literacy, which typically refers to verbal communication skills, including speaking, reading, and writing. But children can become literate in all modes of communication.

There is great diversity in the modes we use to communicate information and meaning: concrete manipulative, photographic, pictorial, graphic, tabular, schematic, symbolic, verbal (written and spoken), gestural, postural, locomotor, and digital. You are likely to add even more. Students thrive when they learn to decode and encode the structure and elements of each. If we harness multiple languages, the level of understanding increases, and it is the teachers' responsibility to keep these languages accessible to all students.

The addition of ateliers and atelieristas supports this aspect of the philosophy, again highlighting the importance of the schools' overarching organisation.

How do the hundred languages of expression link with neuroscience?

Every sense provides qualitatively different information along dedicated pathways in the brain. Even though a significant proportion of the population is visual learners, a substantial amount of information in schools is provided in the verbal modality through speaking and writing. The concept of a hundred languages ensures that children approach content in various ways. Often, when children transition from verbalising their ideas to drawing them, they form new connections and develop entirely new understandings about what is being explored. The more areas of the brain engaged in learning, the more successful it will be. The different sensory areas communicate and connect across the brain to build complex schemata of understanding that are more comprehensive than those formed when children only watch or listen to content (Victoria Department ofEducation and Training, 2018).

In Reggio Emilia's classrooms, children can often experiment with and explore ideas by manipulating materials. Each material has embedded concepts that are latent for learning. For example, the force of magnetism may surprise children and arouse curiosity. As they explore, they make meaning of their experiences. There is a learning interface between what is sensed, observed and interpreted. Multiply this experience by 1,000, which is the number out of 6,000 hours children typically spend at school, and you can start to imagine the density of communicating networks, synapses, in the child’s brain.

8. The Environment as the Third Teacher

WE VALUE SPACE TO CREATE A HANDSOME ENVIRONMENT AND ITS POTENTIAL TO INSPIRE SOCIAL, AFFECTIVE AND COGNITIVE LEARNING. THE SPACE IS AN AQUARIUM THAT MIRRORS THE IDEAS AND VALUES OF THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN IT

– LORIS MALAGUZZI –

A significant part of preparing for a project involves arranging the environment. The design of learning environments is one of the signature influences of Reggio Emilia. All senses, emotions, intellect and relationships are considered when an environment is arranged. Individuals and groups may be influenced by mood-enhancing music, alluring scents, individually lit spaces, furniture with diverse ergonomic designs, textured surfaces, specialized tools and equipment, and beautifully displayed natural and man-made materials. Nothing is there by chance; nothing is superfluous. The environment is an external representation of interior landscapes for thinking and feeling.

The concept of the environment as a third teacher is a testament to its careful arrangement. Very seldom do things appear by accident.

How is the environment as the third teacher linked with neuroscience?

The brain learns through action and repetition. Efficiently integrated knowledge depends on repeat encounters. One type of repetition is rote learning, which results in isolated, one-dimensional information. Of course, rote learning is sometimes valuable, but according to Roger F. Bruner from the University of Virginia, ‘The deepest 'AHAs' spring from an encounter and then a return. (Bruner, 2001)’

Multiple engagements with an idea develop critical mass in understanding concepts and connections. When an environment is set up to allow children to encounter similar ideas in various modes and activities, repetition helps develop a complex, relational understanding of the content. For example, if the idea is to explore the role of water as a life-giving force on the planet and how it appears in different states and places, then children’s experience of its various states in the classroom and interpretations in narrative and even dance, will give deeper more enduring meaning to the idea and how the idea coheres with other ideas.

Carla Rinaldi says: The physical space can be described as a language. The language of space is powerful and a conditioning factor. Its code is not always explicit and recognisable, but we perceive and interpret it from an early age. This statement attests to the child’s learning being mediated by environmental influences. This was scientifically validated by the critical longitudinal Dunedin study, which followed children from childhood into adulthood (Belsky, Caspi, Moffitt, &Poulton, 2020). Children who received more stimulation, care, and support later enjoyed greater life success. The Reggio Emilia classroom is crucial for cognitive, social, and emotional development, as you will have read in the section on the image of children and partnership.

9. Learning as an Individual and Group Construction

LEARNING OCCURS IN DIALOGUE WITH OTHERS

Collaboration and the collective were emphasised from the outset of the Reggio Emilia schools. It is part of the schools' history, politics, and processes. Loris Malaguzzi and the teachers read and explored everything about children's learning. However, they did something unique: for the first time, they regarded the child as the expert in their own learning. They sought to make the learning visible.

Piaget believed that all the concepts a child would need to learn were implicit in the child’s brain. With maturation, as each concept was introduced and practised, the children would gain proficiency. There was a trust that implicit concepts would become explicit through engagement. He posited that the ideas would emerge when the child was developmentally ready (Ginsberg & Opper, 1988).

Vygotsky developed these ideas. He believed that engagement with materials and concepts was necessary, but knowledge was socially constructed, and the child had to engage with others. Knowledge is co-constructed between the individual and society. Language is one of the powerful tools for creating co-constructed knowledge (Miller, 2014).

The Reggio Emilia Philosophy relates its work to the co-construction of learning. It has been continuously operating on the idea that we learn better when in a relationship with others. In addition to language, this learning together is also mediated by the environment and the educational tools available to the students.

How is learning, both as an individual and a group, linked to neuroscience?

In neuroscience, we learn that children’s brains seek patterns in their environment. They begin to give meaning to or interpret their experiences from the earliest age. Even before language develops, their ability to interpret actions, emotions and situations is highly active (Donaldson, 1984). The v around them has sound scientific backing. Learning from others, elders, peers, or community members, is a critical way to develop our identity. In his ecological model, Urie Bronfenbrenner discusses the influences of various social circles on our human journey (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).

Imitation learning may be the foundation of empathy, facilitating learning and understanding through the unfolding of events. However, in Reggio Emilia, the emphasis on group learning was particularly notable when it was implemented. Many schools around the world still focus on learning as an individual journey. Reggio Emilia understands that the group is impacting the child’s neural network. Still, the whole group’s mental frame and neural network are also affected. There are multiple layers to learning in a group.

D. Principles that encapsulate the ASSESSMENT in the schools

10. THE PEDAGOGY OF LISTENING

11. DOCUMENTATION

12. ASSESSMENT

10. The Pedagogy of Listening

Listening is done with all the senses

In 2000, I made my first of three study tours to Reggio Emilia. One of Carla Rinaldi's lectures reframed assessment as 'a pedagogy of listening’ (Rinaldi, 2001). When I heard her address on listening, it was the first time I recognised my value as an early childhood educator. The listening she describes uses all the educator’s intellectual and affective faculties, not just their ears. The pedagogy of listening is respectful, hears back, gives time, is multimodal, sensitive, reflective, curious, conscious of emotion, suspends judgement, and most movingly, ‘removes the individual from anonymity’.

We are listening for:

• Who is this child?

• How are they thinking, discovering, acting, communicating?

• What is their relationship with the group?

• How are they interpreting the world?

When we ask these questions, we are searching or researching. We also ask questions about ourselves. As secure as we think we are in our knowledge, research is being open. Research is about learning, relationships, seeing possibilities, finding new meaning, identifying connections, experiencing highlights, discovering points of interest, unpacking values, surfacing beliefs, recognising change, feeling emotions, and understanding how everything resonates together.

How is the pedagogy of listening linked with neuroscience?

Pedagogical listening is far more complex than the usual understanding of ‘processing auditory information’. It is a kind of meta-listening. The teacher listens to the children and indeed hears their comments, questions, hypotheses, and understanding. But they are poised to listen for much more:

• The relationships between the children

• The prior knowledge the children are mobilising

• The possibilities for further learning

• Identity formation

• New skills

• Attitudes

• Curriculum areas

• Processes

• Understanding and knowledge

• Clarifying concepts

• Artefacts

• Creative acts

From the above, we see that we are not seeing children as parts but as a whole. Everything is important and worthy of our attention, not just what we seek. Our brains are essentially lazy. They like routine and predictability. When we broaden our ideas about what we are listening for and incorporate more modalities and senses into that listening, we become more open to seeing and observing.

An essential part of listening is that it is a loop. What is heard or observed is often communicated back to the child. The child gains a perspective about their work from outside themselves. This lends their thinking more value. It becomes, in a sense, an artefact that can be interpreted, extended and analysed by others. Because the teacher observes very closely, she can reflect on children’s interpretations, inferences and extrapolations. This is observing the processes they use to make sense of the world. Reflecting is the space to connect old ideas to new ones and old insights to new ones.

In an earlier discussion, we saw that when children feel validated and their self-worth is reciprocated, they are much more likely to be motivated to learn. Professor Reuven Feuerstein, a cognitive psychologist and contemporary of Loris Malaguzzi, saw all learning as presenting two sides of the same coin: cognition and emotion. The emotion he elaborated on was not a feeling but motivational energy to engage with learning and society (Feuerstein, Rand, Hoffman, & Miller, 1980).

11. Documentation

Once documentation is created, it is a living thing open to continuous interpretation.

It can be revisited, reconstructed and re-signified

Documentation is the act of making learning visible and accessible. It is achieved through photography, capturing conversations, and offering children a hundred languages to express their thinking, meaning-making, and learning. This aspect of the Reggio Emilia approach is closely tied to the development of metacognitive thinking. One of the most powerful things we can do as educators is to enable children to appreciate and understand their thinking. Not only is the content made explicit and shared, but the actual thinking processes themselves are discussed. The documentation also removes egocentric thinking. The documentation itself becomes an artefact open to interpretation. Students learn to recognise their role in the learning process and the roles of others. They may adjust their thinking in response to the evidence presented to them and can glean information from what children have said and done on multiple occasions throughout a project, allowing them to track their progress and transformation over time. The documentation is a contextually embedded assessment tool. Teachers can glean information from what children have said and done on multiple occasions throughout a project, allowing their progress and transformation to be tracked. Because processes are documented, tracing the project's development or deeply analysing its aspects for different purposes is easy.

How is documentation linked with neuroscience?

Similarly, listening to children, which demonstrates their importance, shows that their interests and thinking processes are valued when their work is documented. When children see their work taken seriously, they feel they are being taken seriously. Externalising their ideas and actions gives them an objective identity outside of themselves, and they know they contribute to the learning community. They can see it for themselves and show others their work as an extension of themselves. Self-worth and self-esteem are essential in developing healthy identities, and it is logical to see that children will feel competent when their accomplishments are acknowledged (Solomons, 2013).

The documentation process observes all aspects of the child, not only their cognitive but also their social and emotional dimensions.

12. Assessment

Assessment is a dialogue of observation and interpretation

Assessment is the continuous attribution of meaning and interpretation. It is not an end product, but a structuring process to facilitate interpretation of the learning. Assessment in Reggio Emilia occurs at both the systemic levelto ensure the quality of interactions with parents and the community and at the individual student level to monitor and develop educational activities. Assessment plots the learning path and considers tasks, skills, processes, abilities and plans. The assessment practices can map an individual’s progress in the learning journey on many levels to identify and elaborate on:

• Knowledge

• Understanding

• Levels of skill

• Processes

• Senses of identity

• Interactions within the group

How does assessment link with neuroscience?

How we assess children depends on our internal beliefs about them and their performance. The way we assess and communicate with children can have a significant impact on their self-esteem and their interactions with others in the world. In the 1960’s Robert Rosenthal, a Harvard University professor, and Leonore Jacobson, an elementary school principal in San Francisco, published 'Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils' intellectual development'. The elementary school study suggests that we communicate both subtle and unsubtle messages that inform children about how we think they will perform or behave. Not all the cues are verbal or even conscious. ‘When we expect certain behaviours of others, we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behaviour more likely to occur.’ (Rosenthal, R & Babad, E. Y, 1985)

When the whole child is considered and complex, The elementary school study suggests assessment is in place, children are more likely to feel competent and flourish.

Summing up

Several correlations exist between Reggio Email's pedagogy and a broad spectrum of neuroscience research on practical learning.

1. Brain development is supported through thinking and activity. Several Reggio principles are applied in this active engagement, including providing children with a rich, well-planned, and well-resourced environment, making learning visible, listening to children's hypotheses and meaning-making processes, and offering rich sensory experiences.

2. Reggio Emilia encourages the robust nature of attention and engagement in learning by harnessing children's interests and personalising learning. Repetition and practice build solid neural networks. A particular piece of learning is refined, acquired more quickly and is more enduring if encountered often and in different ways. In Reggio Emelia, children are always encouraged to develop their thinking and skills through revisiting ideas.

3. New knowledge is built upon prior knowledge, and this connection is strengthened when it is reinforced in multiple ways and presented sequentially. Because the young learners in Reggio Emilia schools undertake projects that span extended periods, their learning is connected rather than episodic. Additionally, various modalities or sensory systems are employed to explore different aspects. Children gain a better understanding of the relationships. With repetition, the neurons gain myelination, the fatty white substance that surrounds them, which allows electrical information to travel more quickly along them.

5. Children develop intuitive knowledge by using and manipulating objects and materials. In Reggio education, children are offered these materials firsthand and are encouraged to explore them autonomously. But it does not stop there. The children are allowed to discuss their findings. Vygotsky emphasised the significance of the social context in learning. This is also one of the foundational stones of Reggio Emilia. The Reggio educators support the child in linking intuitive knowledge to the body of human knowledge by providing them with the use of various symbolic representations of reality from an early age, such as labels and language, to discuss it. Children begin to use multiple symbolic representations of reality from an early age. Much of what we retain in memory is symbolic, virtual transfer from reality and abstract theories. From an early age, children in the Reggio Emilia schools are being encouraged to build symbolic languages.

6. The principle of a hundred languages supports the five correspondences mentioned above between the neuroscience of how children learn and Reggio Emilia's education. Through the hundred languages, different sensory systems are harnessed for learning. No child is left out because where one path of sensory perception may be less efficient in a learner, the others are available to provide a different channel for learning. The use of various media also means that sensory areas are not ignored or under-utilised. In neuroscience, it has been found that if you don't use it, you lose it. Jack Shonkoff at Harvard University has demonstrated how children's brains undergo pruning, resulting in fewer neurons when they are fourteen than when they are four. To maintain a rich network, all sensory channels must remain active. (The opposite of this is when children suffer deprivation or under-stimulation) (Shonkoff, Phillips, & (Eds), 2000) . So, the concept of the hundred languages is crucial.

7. Finally, let's consider the effects of stress on learning in contrast to feeling engaged and in control. The Reggio Emilia philosophy of learning through joy, engagement, and collaborative partnerships also favours healthy brain development.

I want to end this discussion with this beautiful quote by Loris Malaguzzi:

All people – and I mean scholars, researchers and teachers who in any place have set themselves to study children seriously – have ended up discovering not so much the limits and weaknesses of children but rather their surprising and extraordinary strengths and capabilities linked with an inexhaustible need for expression and realisation. -Loris Malaguzzi-

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Lili-Ann Kriegler (B. A Hons, H. Dip. Ed, M.Ed.) is a Melbourne-based education consultant and author of 'The Power of Play - Mastering the 7 Dynamic Learning Zones. Lili-Ann specialises in designing advanced play- and project-based curricula (birth to 9 years), leadership, and optimising human thinking and cognition. She runs her consultancy, Kriegler-Education. Lili-Ann is a child, parent and family advocate who believes that education is a positive transformative force for humanity. Find out more at https://www.kriegler-education.com