Running Head: Final Project Final Project/Research Paper There are many different areas that one must focus on as they are attempting to create a developmentally appropriate curriculum for young children. All of these aspects are equally important to the learning process. Therefore, it is imperative that we as teachers take the process of planning this curriculum very seriously. Not only is it important that we understand the basic guidelines for a lesson plan, we also need to be knowledgeable of the developmental and learning theories as well. These theories will help us to understand the way a child learns mentally and physically. Once we fully understand the concepts of early education we can then take them to the classroom and apply them to our students. Back in the 1900’s a woman by the name of Patty Hill created a curriculum for kindergarten students in the United States. She also founded the laboratory school at Columbia University Teacher’s College; this was the beginning of the use of curriculum in early childhood education. Curriculum was created as an unbiased, cultured, community and parent approved way of teaching. The first national goal was to have every American child ready to start school and learn by the year 2000. Curriculum is a basic guide of implementing cognitive, physical, social, emotional, language and developmental learning skills. When using this method of teaching, the area we are trying to focus on is clear, it is important that all areas receive equal time. If our curriculum is well written out, it will reflect the philosophy and goals of what we are trying to accomplish for that school year. The creation of curriculum was invented so that young children would be able to benefit from it. If you look up the definition of curriculum in Early Education Curriculum, a textbook written by Hilda L. Jackman, it will read; a multileveled process that encompasses what happens in an early education classroom each day… The word multileveled is a perfect word to explain developmentally appropriate curriculum. When a teacher puts together a curriculum it is kind of like a balancing act. We have to make the work that the children do challenging yet not to simple. We must push our children to reach for that little extra step in their cognitive thinking. We must try to get them to succeed just a little past their limit, but not too fa... ... middle of paper ... ...make sure that we are influencing our students in a positive way. The things that we say and do are easily absorbed by little ears that we do not think here us. Guiding our students through educational work is one aspect of being a teacher, however, the other half is helping them to build their character and understand good morals and values. We must cherish our students for each of their own individual abilities and talents, recognizing that everyone has something different to offer. Not only are the teachers able to teach the students, the students can also teach us something new everyday. These young, fragile minds are so ready to learn, so we should take advantage of it while we have the chance. Works Cited Berk, L.E. (1997). Child development: Fourth Edition. A Viacom Company. Bredekamp, M., Kunesh, R.A., Shulman, D.D. (1992). What does research say about early childhood education? NCREL Oakbrook. Retrieved March 8, 2005 from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas.stw_esys/5erly_ch.htm Jackman, H.L., (1997) Early education Curriculum. Thompson Delmar Learning. Thompson Corporation. Salkind, N., (1990) Child Development: Sixth Edition. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, INC.
The Child Development Center of College of San Mateo provides early care and educational programs for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children are divided into classrooms with a “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two or three “associate” teachers. Klara attended Classroom, “A,” a stimulating and well-resourced classroom. Klara was observed for two hours on Monday from 9 am to 11 am and for two hours on Wednesday from 9 am to 11 am. During these two hours, classroom activities consisted of “free time,” “story time,” and an outside “play time.” A “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two “associate” teachers were present during observations. Additionally, a total of eighteen children were in attendance during the observed days.
Definitions for curriculum are many and varied. Broad sweeping statements claim that curriculum is what is taught in various subjects and the amount of time given to each. While a more specific view is that curriculum are performance objectives for students that focus on specific skills or knowledge (Marsh, 2010). Marsh (2010, p. 93) defines curriculum as “an interrelated set of plans and experiences” that are completed at school. The curriculum used in education can have various interpretations, it may refer to the curriculum as a plan that encompasses all the learning that is planned and directed by the school. Cu...
Curriculum has been interpreted in several ways for many decades in the past. Each educator or education professional, with whom, you ask to define and interpret curriculum, will more than likely give you a different view than others you have asked on separate occasions. It’s not just educators that have different views and opinions of curriculum; lawyers, carpenters, nurses, and even stay-at-home parents all interpret and view curriculum in different ways. This even goes for different categories of schools:
Morrison, G. S. (1976). Chapter 6: Early Childhood Programs APPLYING THEORIES TO PRACTICE. In Early childhood education today (10th ed., pp. 5-31). Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
School staff needs a clearer understanding of developmentally appropriate practice. Most schools' kindergarten programs claim to be "developmental" yet they rate themselves relatively low on some of the key classroom activities that early childhood educators define as developmental practice. Research on children's learning, as well as the recommendations of a number of national organizations, suggests the importance of developmentally appropriate practice.... The National Governors' Association's strategies for achieving the national education goals include developmentally appropriate preschool programs and age-appropriate expectations and activities in kindergarten. If school administrators and teachers believe they have already adopted a developmental orientation, they are less likely to see the need to change... (Love, 1992, p.
The Early Learning Summit For the Northwest Region: Why Early Childhood Education Matters. (2002). Received October 4, 2002 from the Internet.
Curriculum is the organized framework that explains the content that children are to learn, the processes through which children achieve the identified curricular goals, what teachers do to help children achieve these goals and the context in which teaching and learning occur. The best curriculum for early childhood teacher is developmentally appropriate curriculum that allows teachers to set-up an effective learning environment for children.
According to Glatthorn, Boschee and Whitehead (2006, p.74), a curriculum theory is a set of related educational concepts that affords a systematic and illuminating perspective on curricular phenomena. In a simpler term, a curriculum theory is an academic discipline devoted to examining and shaping educational curricula (Wikipedia, curriculum theory). One that would be a proponent of a structured-oriented curriculum would be concerned primarily with analyzing the components of the curriculum and their interrelationships. They will tend to be descriptive and explanatory in intent whereas, one that is a proponent of a value-oriented curriculum would be concerned primarily with analyzing the values and assumptions of curriculum makers and their
In 1949, a small book had a big impact on education. In just over one hundred pages, Ralph W. Tyler presented the concept that curriculum should be dynamic, a program under constant evaluation and revision. Curriculum had always been thought of as a static, set program, and in an era preoccupied with student testing, he offered the innovative idea that teachers and administrators should spend as much time evaluating their plans as they do assessing their students.
A curriculum is a compilation of study materials that are used at all grade levels, classroom and homework assignments and a set of teacher guides. It could also include a list of prescribed methodology and guidelines of teaching and some material for the parents etc. It is generally determined by an external governing body. However, there are some cases where it may be developed by the schools and teachers themselves.
Curriculum is important being it’s the underlying factor that plays a role in determining ones growth, achievement and success. The majority of curriculum con...
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)
In his book, Steppingstones to Curriculum, Van Brummelen discusses four popular perspectives on curriculum through curriculum orientations. “A curriculum orientation sets out basic worldview assumptions and how these suggest an overall vision for education, a view of knowledge and of the person, and how these affect classroom learning and teaching, and how we go about planning, and the general aims of curriculum” (pg.25). Curriculum orientations provide the teacher with a clear and distinct sense of direction for an educational program. A curriculum orientation is what a teacher teaches to. Each orientation has a different view on what’s important and gives the teacher clear focus. The four orientations are traditional, process/mastery, experimental, and Christian. When planning out curriculum, the traditionalist approach views curriculum as a conveyor of information and ideas. Their focus is on transmission. They focus on building basic skills and reasoning through gaining knowledge in key disciplines. Process/mastery supporters focus on the process. They view curriculum as a controlled and efficient process. Their knowledge and learning emphasis are on investigating, mastering, and applying data in small, defined, manageable steps. Experimentalist view curriculum as a quest for personal meaning. They focus on constructing knowledge. They’re all about learning through experience. They put emphasis on autonomous creation and negotiation of knowledge and meaning. Christians view curriculum as a reflection/ interpretation of God’s truth. They focus on responsibility. Their curriculum answers questions such as how do we foster students’ positive responses toward God, their fellow creatures, society, and themselves. They put emphasis on understanding and unfolding God’s revelation through experience, observation, conceptualization, and
From a Latin word for course, later to define course of syllabus, Curriculum is now a formal outline to assist teachers by providing the core structure to learning and it constitutes a wide and inclusive range of planned educational experiences. Recent times have shown an understanding of curriculum to be that it “represents the expression of educational ideas in practice” (Prideaux, 2003).
Curriculum a term with a wide range of definition, for example, Bobbitt explains curriculum as “series of things which children and youth must do and experience by way of developing abilities to do the things well...” (Flinders & Thornton, 2017, p.13). Another explanation by Harden who states curriculum is “a formal course of study that the students completed” (as cited by Wayne Au, in Flinders & Thornton, 2017, p.295). Overall (combining both explanations) the definition of curriculum is “the lessons and academic content taught in a school or in a specific course or program” (The glossary of Education Reform).