Ndlovu Pre-school project: Dennilton, South-Africa: “It takes a village to raise a child.”

Abstract

This masterthesis is the report of a realistic evaluation of the implementation of a Reggio Emilia based intervention at three pre-schools in Moutse district, South Africa. A fantasy play centre based on the Reggio Emilia Approach is implemented and evaluated by monitoring the fantasy play of the children and by measuring the cognitive development (working memory, inhibition and concentration) to be compared with the control group (for two pre-schools) and to the baseline study (the third pre-school). The results show that the development of fantasy play is significantly influenced by the centres. The results of the cognitive test show a development on all subjects compared to the baseline. The comparison with the control group showed to be unreliable. The second study focuses on an intervention which aims to improves the parent involvement at the pre-schools. Results show that the community and parents desire more influence and involvement.