What is the Reggio Emilia approach, in plain language?
7 min read · Updated · Untuk Anak Learning Space
The short answer
The Reggio Emilia approach is an early childhood philosophy from northern Italy that treats children as capable, curious people. Instead of following a fixed lesson plan, teachers observe what children are interested in and build projects around those questions, using real materials, documentation and close relationships.
Where it comes from
The approach grew out of the town of Reggio Emilia in Italy after the Second World War, when parents rebuilt schools themselves and Loris Malaguzzi helped shape a very different idea of what a school could be: not a place that fills children up, but a place that takes their thinking seriously.
The core ideas
key points
- The child is capable — full of theories, not empty of knowledge
- The environment is a third teacher — light, materials and space shape learning
- Learning is relational — it happens between people, not inside worksheets
- Documentation makes thinking visible — photos, notes and children's own words
- Curriculum is emergent — it follows the child's questions
What it looks like on an ordinary morning
A child notices that water disappears from a puddle. A teacher does not answer with a fact. She brings out containers, a funnel, a cloth, a sunny spot and a shady one, and asks what the child thinks will happen. Over the next two weeks that question becomes measuring, predicting, drawing, arguing with a friend, and eventually writing a label for a chart. That is literacy, numeracy and science — grown from one puddle.
What Reggio is not
- It is not beige shelves and wooden toys — the aesthetic is a by-product, not the method
- It is not unstructured. Teachers plan carefully; the plan simply starts from the child
- It is not a certified franchise. Schools are Reggio-inspired, and honest ones say so
- It is not anti-academic. Reading and maths are woven in with real purpose
How to spot a genuinely Reggio-inspired school
- 1.Ask to see documentation from a current project, with children's own words in it
- 2.Ask what a teacher changed last month because of something a child said
- 3.Look at the walls: are they full of identical crafts, or of real, unfinished thinking?
- 4.Ask how much planning time teachers actually get — observation is impossible without it
At Untuk Anak we are Reggio-inspired with Montessori-informed independence, in a mixed-age group where children are known individually. We are open about what we borrow and why.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Reggio Emilia approach in simple terms?
- It is an approach to early education that sees children as capable thinkers and builds learning around their own questions, using real materials, careful observation and strong relationships instead of a fixed worksheet curriculum.
- Is Reggio Emilia better than Montessori?
- Neither is better; they answer different questions. Montessori emphasises structured, self-correcting materials and independence, while Reggio emphasises open-ended projects and children's own theories. Many schools, including ours, thoughtfully combine both.
- Do children learn to read in a Reggio-inspired preschool?
- Yes. Phonics and early literacy are introduced through purposeful, hands-on experiences — labels, signs, stories and children's own writing — rather than through worksheets.
Written by the team at Untuk Anak Learning Space in Kediri, Tabanan, Bali — a Reggio-inspired preschool and daycare for children aged 5 months to 7 years. This article is general guidance, not a substitute for individual professional advice.