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The article analyses two defining assumptions about the Reggio Emilia (RE) approach: the absence of a planned curriculum designed in advance as a basis for educational work and children's participation in preschools. The authors demonstrate that different approaches to planning preschool education have advantages and disadvantages, which we cannot avoid, even if we decide against curriculum planning. They believe it is more reasonable to insist on the convergent use of the strategies of curriculum planning, which helps maintain their advantages, while providing safeguards against their shortcomings. When discussing children's (and parents') participation in preschool, the authors emphasise that such participation has objective limits, which the RE approach fails to address. In preschools it is not only such rules that apply which have been agreed upon and where it has been possible to reach a consensus. We should not overlook the fact that the preschool is an institution which functions according to the rules and norms whose important elements are imposed from the outsidethat is, they do not come from the institution's management, its professional workers or parents. Preschool, therefore, cannot function as if its teachers, parents and children had no limits other than those they decide and agree upon themselves.Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 23:44 26 December 2014 forma de elementos de suma importanciaes decir, no son estipuladas ni por la dirección del centro ni por los maestros o los padres. Es por eso que los centros de educación infantil no pueden funcionar como si no existiesen otras limitaciones para los maestros, padres y niños, aparte de las que se han establecido y acordado entre ellos.

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The text questions the assumption of the Bologna reform that student-centered learning will improve the quality of university study. Research conducted on a sample of 429 students from various study programs at two faculties of the University of Ljubljana, whom we asked about their reading and study habits, showed that relying on the subjective motivation of students alone is not enough to ensure that they read compulsory reading material and thus acquire the knowledge that only this type of study can bring. We therefore emphasize in the conclusion that calling for motivation that is tied to interest may actually have the effect of putting students off reading material that is not related to their direct interest or does not show directly applicable value. The results of the study also show that students are clearly attentive to the requirements and expectations of individual faculty member and therefore adapt their method of study (and the amount they study) in such a way as to satisfy these (frequently low) expectations.

Following the adoption of the conceptual design proposed by the White Paper in 1995 and the legislation adopted on this basis, the reform of primary school transformed its overall image. In the present paper, we discuss only some of the solutions and consider the events and changes that have occurred in the last twenty years, devoting special attention to the systemic, programme and process levels. At the systemic level, where the starting point was primarily to ensure justice and equal opportunities, we have managed to maintain an adequate public network and programme structure, despite various attempts to implement the solutions indicated in the White Paper of 2011, and notwithstanding interventions in the system that were not in fact always well thought out. Nonetheless, more attention should have been paid to reducing inequalities related to sociocultural circumstances and different regions in Slovenia. On the programme level, a consensus needs to be reached on what quality general education means to us; this would alleviate conflicting demands placed on teachers, students and planners of programme solutions. On the process level, however, we find that there is a lack of adequate professional support and systematic evaluation studies, as the quality of school cannot be judged solely on the basis of results from international research. In order to take a step forward on the process level, there is need for quality school-linked school policy that is based on various professions and aimed at raising quality rather than at self-promotion and budget cutting in the field of education.