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Clear Guidelines for Teachers The HighScope Preschool Curriculum includes defined teaching practices that enable adults to create effective early childhood programs. These practices are discussed in detail in HighScope training and publications. Three topics are particularly important for teachers who want to strengthen their programs — adult-child interaction, classroom layout and materials, and the daily routine. Adult-Child Interaction Adult-child interaction is the process of working alongside children and communicating with them both verbally and nonverbally to encourage learning. A key strategy for adult-child interaction is sharing control with children. Additional strategies include supporting children's play, using encouragement
Fifty-six years ago, a working-class town located in Michigan created a program that undoubtedly changed lives. It was called the Perry Preschool, which was a program for 3 to 4-year-olds that focused on early education. Over 5 decades later, the results from their hands-on curriculum and well-prepared educators are hard to ignore. Those children who are now in their 50s are much better off in life.
Did you know there are many kinds of programs and approaches used in early childhood education? The 20th century was the start of inclusive classrooms and about the idea of education for all. Education in the early preschool years boomed with early childhood development programs. While there are many popular approaches, I find that Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner have the reliable strait forward and captivating approaches to early childhood education.
The assessment checklist for children, completed over time at routine intervals, which assesses children on 30 developmental outcomes in all domains. Teachers carry out the assessment by observing children’s normal activities. In this way, the process of gathering information will be natural and comfortable for children and teachers, and the results more accurately reflect children’s performance and development in school time. Authentic assessment provides teachers with valuable and practical information to understand and plan for the developmental needs of their students in everyday classroom activities. The emphasis on family connection is another advantages of High Scope. Scheweinhart (2003, as cited in Follari, 2014) mentioned that one of High Scope’s intervention programs is the significant of meaningfully building connecting between school and family. Home visits and family literacy programs are being implemented to foster strong family connections and involvement. Every child’s unique family culture is welcomed into the classroom and parents are invited to the classroom to tell stories or jokes from their own country. Making connection between children and their families is a way to make the curriculum meaningful for children (Hill, 2015). The typical High Scope classroom routine is
The results of quality preschool programs can be seen early after they begin. Children learn many important life le...
Additionally, a high quality early childhood program highlights on developmentally appropriate curriculum. I believe an early childhood classroom should be flexible, stimulating, clean, safe and organized. It should be a place where students can be engaged in learning through interacting with things around them.
Chapter 12 of our textbook, Infant & Toddler Development and Responsive Program Planning, is entitled “Creating a Relationship-Based Curriculum.” This chapter provides the necessary information to aid us in either creating a curriculum or determining if a pre-designed curriculum being used for Infants and Toddlers meets the requirements of a relationship-based curriculum. The relationship-based curriculum involves a planning process that involves respect, reflection, and relating. Its primary focus is the mental health and is based on the perspective and needs of infants and toddlers. Care teachers create the environment and then vary it as indicated by the changing developmental levels and interests of the infants and toddlers.
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2002). NAEYC Standards for early childhood professional preparation. Retrieved from
...interact with their caregivers and through interaction not only their cognitive abilities are shaped by also their personality and behaviour in later stage of their life (Triandis & Suh, 2002). The essay is considering the background that social relation flourishes, namely interaction child – adult and peer relations. Through their early experiences with others, children develop their understanding of the world. By simple activities that are carried out on daily basis between children and caregivers, children are able to gain the meaning of new techniques and learning strategies, they expand their existing knowledge and experience new things. The interesting aspect is to elaborate on social interaction within different groups of children. Although the cognitive abilities may not fully develop in every child, social interaction encourages and prompts the progress.
High Scope promotes the developmental domains in their Key Developmental Indicators (KDIs). KDIs break down the developmental domains, and it talks about how they can be incorporated in the curriculum. Cognitive development is promoted through their children exploring objects through their five senses, exploring similarities and different in on things in the environment, one to one correspondence, numbers, Seeing things form different perspectives, time intervals, and cause and effect. High Scope also promotes Cognitive development through their large and small group times. Social and emotional developments are promoted through teacher- child interactions, child- child interactions through play, group participation, children forming attachments to primary care teacher, and children distinguishing themselves from other. The KDIs helps as a tool for teachers to help promote positive and strong relationships with adults and children. KDIs also help promote physical development through movement abilities, fitness, and healthy behavior in the classroom. High Scope helps to...
As an early childhood educator my job is not to simple play with children. I must plan, provide and supervise all while “playing” with my students. The classroom serves as the physical environment for the children for most of their waking hours. These classrooms need to be attractive and function effectively. Concerns for any early childhood educator should always include space, equipment and materials used, outdoor space and the daily schedule to ensure that all students are provided ample opportunities to learn and grow within a safe and secure environment.
Koza, W. (2007). Managing an effective early childhood classroom. Huntington Beach, USA: Shell Educational Publishing.
Entering my kindergarten teaching experience in the last quarter of school year I had to quickly become familiar with kindergarten content standards and the school’s curriculum. To do this I observed my mentor teachers instructional time with the children and gained as much information as I could about the children’s educational standing by developing a professional relationship with the my mentor teacher and the children. I learned that the majority of my kindergarten children had not previously attended preschool and that this was their first year of school. I found that interacting with the children in social activities provided me with great insight to their literacy, math, science, and social studies development. In reviewing the children’s class projects, school displays, and an array of their work sample along with my mentor teachers year-long assessments I was able to recognize challenging, emerging and advanced content areas of the children’s core curriculum. These emerging and challenging content areas is what I centered my curriculum planning around. “Information about each child’s learning and development is used to evaluate teaching effectiveness. This may lead to changes in schedule, curriculum and teaching strategies, room set up, resources, and so on.” (Bredekamp and Copple, p. 249)
Sylva, M., Kyriacou, M., Wild, M. and Glenny, G. (2009). (2009). Learning, Playing and Interacting Good practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage. [online], available: http://www.keap.org.uk/documents/LearningPlayingInteracting.pdf [accessed 5 March, 2014].
Early childhood education plays a key role in a child’s academic development because he or she learns soft skills, job skills, and develop positive traits. Preschool is not like kindergarten, but instead a stepping-stone that prepares young students for the years of schooling they will have later in life. As more schools began to open families wanted to be able to verify that programs would benefit and protect their children. In response, the National Association for the Education of Young Children was made to help families find the best care for their children, by providing the early childhood educators with training and ensuring the quality of children’s daily experiences. (“NAEYC”5).
Wortham, S. (2009). Early childhood curriculum developmental bases for learning and teaching. Pearson Education Inc. New Jersey, USA.