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1、What Does Research Say About Early Childhood Education?S. Bredekamp, R.A. Knuth, L.G. Kunesh, and D.D. ShulmanNCREL, Oak Brook, 1992 Early Childhood Education (ECE) is the term frequently applied to the education of young children from birth through age 8. Although early childhood education has exis
2、ted since the creation of kindergarten in the 1800s, the last decade has seen a tremendous amount of attention devoted to the subject of early education for young children. The first national goal focuses directly on the early childhood years: By the year 2000, all children in America will start sch
3、ool ready to learn. We believe that from the time of birth, all children are ready to learn. However, what we do or dont do as individuals, educators, and collectively as society can impede a childs success in learning. For example, if we do not provide adequate health care and nutrition for our you
4、ngsters, those children entering the public schools will already be behind their healthier, properly fed peers. The current educational practices of testing children for kindergarten entry and placement, raising the entrance age to kindergarten, adding an extra transitional year between kindergarten
5、 and first grade, and retaining children in preschool, kindergarten, or first grade are attempts to obtain an older, more capable cohort of children at each grade level. These educational strategies suggest that current curriculum expectations do not match the developmental level of the children for
6、 whom the grade is intended. In effect, these strategies blame the victims, the children, rather than confronting the real problem-an inappropriate curriculum. The focus of this program, therefore, is to address curriculum and assessment issues related to the education of young children and discuss
7、ways schools can change to become ready for children. Information that follows has been excerpted from position statements and guidelines developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments
8、 of Education (NAECS/SDE) for appropriately educating young children, ages 3 through 8. The Need for Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment GuidelinesThe decade of the 1980s saw numerous calls for widespread school reform, with changes recommended in teacher education, graduation requirements, sc
9、hool structure, and accountability measures. With the advent of the 1990s, school reform finally took on the essential question: what to teach (Rothman, 1989). Critiques of prevailing curriculum content and methods, and calls for sweeping change were issued by such national organizations as the Nati
10、onal Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1989), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989), the International Reading Association (1989), the National Council of Teachers of English (Lloyd-Jones & Lunsford, 1989), the National Commission for the Social Studies (1989), the Nationa
11、l Association of Elementary School Principals (1990), the National Association of State Boards of Education (1988), the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (1989), and others. The early childhood profession, represented by the NAEYC, entered the educational reform debate by issuin
12、g influential position statements defining developmentally appropriate practices for young children (Bredekamp, 1987). These reports reflect a growing consensus that the traditional scope and sequence approach to curriculum with its emphasis on drill and practice of isolated, academic skills does no
13、t reflect current knowledge of human learning and fails to produce students who possess the kind of higher-order thinking and problem-solving abilities that will be needed in the 21st century. Past success in improving basic skills in the 3 Rs has not been matched by success in improving reading com
14、prehension, writing fluency, or math problem-solving ability. In addition, it is evident that our schools are failing to produce future generations with even a working knowledge of the natural, physical, and social sciences, much less the kinds of minds that will create new knowledge in these areas.
15、 Specifically, these national organizations call for schooling to place greater emphasis on: *Active, hands-on learning *Conceptual learning that leads to understanding along with acquisition of basic skills *Meaningful, relevant learning experiences *Interactive teaching and cooperative learning *A
16、 broad range of relevant content, integrated across traditional subject matter divisions At the same time, these national organizations unanimously criticize rote memorization, drill and practice on isolated academic skills, teacher lecture, and repetitive seatwork. These national organizations also
17、 have raised concerns about the negative effects of traditional methods of evaluation, particularly standardized paper-and-pencil, multiple-choice achievement tests. There is increasing recognition that curriculum reform must be accompanied by testing reform. National organizations are now calling f
18、or more performance-based assessments that align with current views of curriculum and more accurately reflect childrens learning (Fair-Test, 1990; Kamii, 1990; NCTM, 1989; NAEYC, 1988; Bredekamp, 1987; National Commission on Testing and Public Policy, 1990). While NAEYCs previously published positio
19、n statements provided clear guidance about how to teach young children, they were less specific on what to teach. In implementing developmentally appropriate practice, teachers and administrators must make decisions about what to teach and when, and how to best assess that learning has taken place.
20、Curriculum development should take into account the many sources of curriculum: *Child development knowledge *Individual characteristics of children *Knowledge base of various disciplines *Values of our culture *Parents desires *Knowledge children need to function competently in our society (Spodek,
21、 1988; 1977; in press) The task of developing curriculum is made more difficult by the fact that these diverse sources of curriculum may be in conflict with one another. For example, the values and priorities of parents and the community are significant factors to be considered in determining what s
22、hould be learned; however, parents and community will not necessarily agree on all goals. The expertise of early childhood professionals should also influence decisions about appropriate goals for children (Katz, 1989). To some extent, curriculum decisions should represent a negotiation process with
23、 parent and community expectations about what is taught influenced by professional expertise about how to teach and when content is appropriate. Theoretical Principles of Child Development and LearningThe following are theoretical principles of child development and learning that are critical in dev
24、elopmentally appropriate practice (DAP). These principles are based on the work of Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson, and others. PrinciplePractice Children learn best when their physical needs are met and they feel psychologically safe and secure.DAP respects childrens biological needs. For example, childr
25、en are not made to sit and attend to paperwork or listen to adult lectures for long periods of time. DAP calls for active play and periods of quiet, restful, activity. The environment is safe and secure where everyone is accepted.Children construct knowledge.Knowledge is constructed as a result of d
26、ynamic interactions between the individual and the physical and social environments. In a sense the child discovers knowledge through active experimentation. Central to experimentation is making constructive errors that are necessary to mental development. Children need to form their own hypotheses
27、and keep trying them out through mental actions and physical manipulations - observing what happens, comparing their findings, asking questions, and discovering answers - and adjust the model or alter the mental structures to account for the new information.Children learn through social interaction
28、with other adults and other children. A prime example is the parent-child relationship. The teacher encourages and fosters this relationship as well as relationships with peers and other adults by supporting the child in his or her efforts and later allowing the child to function independently. The
29、teachers role is one of supporting, guiding, and facilitating development and learning.Children learn through play.Play provides opportunities for exploration, experimentation, and manipulation that are essential for constructing knowledge and contributes to the development of representational thoug
30、ht. During play, children examine and refine their learning in light of the feedback they receive from the environment and other people. It is through play that children develop their imaginations and creativity. During the primary grades, childrens play becomes more rule-oriented and promotes the d
31、evelopment of autonomy and cooperation which contributes to social, emotional, and intellectual development.Childrens interests and need to know motivate learning.Children have a need to make sense of their experiences. In a developmentally appropriate classroom, teachers identify what intrigues the
32、ir children and then allow the students to solve problems together. Activities that are based on childrens interests provide motivation for learning. This fosters a love of learning, curiosity, attention, and self-direction. Human development and learning and are characterized by individual variatio
33、n.A wide range of individual variation is normal and to be expected. Each human being has an individual pattern and timing of growth development as well as individual styles of learning. Personal family experiences and cultural backgrounds also vary. Early Childhood GuidelinesAn important contributi
34、on to the field of child development and early childhood education was the creation of Guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum and Assessment in Programs Serving Children 3 through 8. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of E
35、arly Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE) jointly developed these guidelines to assist teachers and supervisors to: 1) Make informed decisions about appropriate curriculum, content, and assessment; 2) Evaluate existing curriculum and assessment practices; and, 3) Advoc
36、ate for more appropriate approaches. The early childhood profession believes that curriculum and assessment should be based on the best knowledge of theory and research about how children develop and learn with attention given to individual childrens needs and interests in a group in relation to pro
37、gram goals. It is important, therefore, to clarify the definitions of these important terms. Curriculum is an organized framework that delineates the content children are to learn, the processes through which children achieve the identified curricular goals, what teachers do to help children achieve
38、 these goals, and the context in which teaching and learning occur. Assessment is the ongoing process of observing, recording and otherwise documenting the work children do and how they do it, to provide a basis for a variety of educational decisions that affect the child. Assessment is integral to
39、curriculum and instruction. In early childhood programs, assessment provides a basis for: 1) planning instruction and communicating with parents; 2) identifying children with special needs; and 3) evaluating programs and demonstrating accountability. For making decisions about developing or selectin
40、g curriculum content for young children, or assessing childrens progress, NCREL recommends Guidelines for Appropriate Curriculum and Assessment in Programs Serving Children Ages 3 Through 8 (NAEYC & NAECS/SDE, 1990). The Guidelines, rephrased as questions, appear in Section 4 of this guidebook. Next
41、 Steps: Determining Appropriate ContentLearning and development are so individualized, it is not possible nor desirable to establish uniform age-appropriate expectations. However, it is possible to identify parameters to guide decisions about the appropriateness of curriculum expectations. The frame
42、work that follows is useful for determining age-appropriate curriculum content. This framework reflects the cycle of human learning-movement from awareness, to exploration, to inquiry, to utilization. * Awareness is broad recognition of the parameters of the learning-events, objects, people, or conc
43、epts. * Exploration is the process of figuring out the components or attributes of events, objects, people, or concepts by whatever means available; it also is the process whereby children bring their own personal meaning to their experiences. * Inquiry is the process of developing understanding of
44、commonalities across events, objects, people, or concepts. At this point, children begin to generalize their personal concepts and adapt them to more adult ways of thinking and behaving. * Utilization is the functional level of learning, at which children can apply or make use of their understanding
45、 of events, objects, people, or concepts. To learn something new, children must become aware, explore, inquire, use, and apply. This process occurs over time and reflects movement from learning that is informal and incidental, spontaneous, concrete-referenced, and governed by the childs own rules to
46、 learning that is more formal, refined, extended, enriched, more removed in time and space from concrete references and more reflective of conventional rule systems. Model of Learning and TeachingWhat Children DoWhat Teachers DoAwarenessExperienceAcquire an interestRecognize broad parametersAttend P
47、erceive Create the environmentProvide the opportunities by introducingnew objects, events, peopleInvite interest by posing problem or questionRespond to childs interest or shared experienceShow interest, enthusiasmExplorationObserve Explore materialsCollect informationDiscoverRepresentFigure out com
48、ponentsConstruct own understanding Apply own rulesCreate personal meaningFacilitateSupport and enhance explorationExtend playDescribe childs activityAsk open-ended questions, such as What else could you do?Respect childs thinking and rule systemsAllow for constructive error InquiryExamine Investigat
49、ePropose explanationsFocusCompare own thinking with that of othersGeneralizeRelate to prior learningAdjust to conventional rule systemsHelp children refine understandingGuide children, focus attentionAsk more focused questions, such as What else works like this? What happens if?Provide information when requestedHelp children make connectionsAllow time for sustained inquir
