The Incorporation of Principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach in a North American Pre-school Music Curriculum: An Action Research

This study examined the experiences of children in two pre-school classes in a music curriculum that incorporated principles of the Reggio Emilia approach. Video recordings, transcriptions of child compositions, and field notes were analyzed through the lens of the Reggio principles. Findings demonstrated that light and shadow play enabled the children to make discoveries, empowered them to create their own learning experiences, and gave them agency over their learning and the learning of their classmates. Group composition provided a musical equivalent to the creation of murals in the visual arts domain of Reggio Emilia and enabled children to communicate musically in an expressive way. Reflective video documentation gave rise to the children as co-researchers. Age-based implications for the implementation of the Reggio approach were found to exist for music instruction