Project Zero, Reggio Emilia, combine for study on documenting learning

The preschools of the Italian province of Reggio Emilia are known internationally for their innovative pedagogy. Researchers from Project Zero, a research project at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, have studied how children learn in a partnership with Reggio Emilia schools. Harvard Professor Howard Gardner says the research should do away with common preconceptions about early childhood education. "You may think that learning is necessarily individual, but it's not," Gardner said. What's more, assessment of learning is not necessarily tests, and documentation need not be private. "It can be an intrinsic and magnificent part of learning," said Gardner. The research results appear in a new book, "Making Learning Visible: Children as Individual and Group Learners."