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Education 533 - Integrated Methods 1
Early Childhood/Elementary Curriculum Methods
Education 533, Fall, 2003
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Class Constructed Conceptions |
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This page contains ongoing and emergent coursework that has been generated during our time in class together. Written and published while it is being discussed, it is a new approach to the construction and organization of our collective understanding. This page will continue to evolve throughout our work together on this course. |
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The Nature of Curriculum
ECE Curriculum Models |
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Class 1. The Nature of Curriculum
What exactly is the reason our children are in school anyway?
-Parents aren't teaching.
-Equal opportunities, equal access to information
-Conforming to the norms of society.
-In order to compete on a global level. "Nation at Risk"
-To help children reach their personal potential.
-Agricultural model: school from September to June ~ year round schooling?
-Economic reasons: adolescents taking up jobs.
-Not Dewey's notion of getting students to vote.
What is a curriculum and why do we need one? What good is it?
-A set criteria that we want students to learn; the knowledge they learn as a whole.
-Planning, building & designing of subjects to be taught.
-A predetermined set of goals that you want your students to achieve (opposite=spontaneity).
-Takes into account developmentally appropriateness.
-Provide uniform framework so that one class is not getting taught different things than another.
-Are professionals/educators in the field planning the curriculum?
-Each individual is unique; what is realistic? Each student has different needs & it is the responsibility of the teacher to adapt to these needs (but they must get to the same endpoint).
-"...to pass the test..."
-The process to get the RIGHT answer.
*Curriculum is the content, process, and final product that guides the educator in implementing and evaluating students' learning.
• On what should the curriculum be based?
-Real life ~ preparing kids for the future; authentic experience.
-Developmentally appropriate practices. (According to who & appropriate for whom? Is the data correct or updated?)
-Organized knowledge.
-Interesting & fun for the students because it will be more meaningful to them ~ they will be more engaged, positive attitude, better retention & understanding.
-Interactive ~ so kids don't think they're learning.
-Concrete & manipulative - i.e. a human clock.
-Societal & moral values (but this means something different for everyone & for every situation).
-Cultural practices.
*Curriculum should be based on an integration of knowledge and values and should include opportunities for authentic experiences and formal practices that are developmentally appropriate and demonstrate an understanding of the content.
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ECE Curriculum Models |
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Montessori
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Reggio Emilia
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Waldorf
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| Philosophical Underpinnings |
Develop autonomous individuals
Children learn best by absorbing carefully prepared materials.
Respect for materials
Teachers follow the child
Teachers facilitator, directress or guide
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Heavily scaffolded
Project based
Documentation of what students do on a daily basis
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Hands,heart,head...
Connection with school and home.
Organic and evocative
A vision of wholeness
no academic content in kindergarten. "sense of wonder"
Children relate learnings to own experiences
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| Psychological Assumptions |
Learning through five senses
Children absorb materials
Self-paced
Self-correcting materials.
Its acquiring, not constructing.
Use the materials for only what they are intended for.
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Focus on light.
Visual direction, color formed by students work
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children learn by communing with the world
developmental
Learning is non-competitive
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| Values |
Beauty
Materials
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Beauty
Children's quest for understanding
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learning by doing
non-denominational, but believe in a spiritual dimension.
Encourage creativity & free-thinking
Cater to needs of the children
Historical festivals observed
Mastery of oral communication
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| Management |
Teacher guided self-management
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Student projects emanate from student ideas
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Students have same teacher through 8th grade
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| Practical Ramifications |
Mixed age rooms
Arranged by subject area (cooking, cleaning, gardening, art, etc.)
Children free to move around the room
Manipulatives
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interdisciplinary curriculum
No reading until 2nd grade
No textbooks....make their own.
No grading in elementary school
Teachers concern that electronic media hampers development of young children.
Computers introduced in high school
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| Overview |
Multi age grouping
Manipulatives have meaning
Children learn through guided manipulatives
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Waldorf teachers are dedicated to creating a genuine love of
learning within each child. By freely using arts and activities in the
service of teaching academics, and internal motivation to learn is
developed in the students doing away with the need for competitive
testing and grading.
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High Scope
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Banks Street
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Direct Instruction
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| Philosophical Underpinnings |
Children learn by doing
Children do the planning
Learning comes from within
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Child-centered education
Discover environment in which children grow and learn
Experience-based, Interdisciplinary, and Collaborative
Educating the whole child
Focus is on progressive education
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External, learning comes from outside in. Children are “blank slates” (Locke’s “tabula rasa” belief)
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| Psychological Assumptions |
Children are active learners
Constructivism
Adults help children learn by using a problem-solving approach
Build on intrinsic motivation to learn
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Students learning is based on the depth of understanding and the interpretation of the material from a number of perspectives
Students learn through experiences
Child is maker of meaning
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Empty vessel theory, children are empty, in need of filling. Teacher transfers knowledge to students.
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| Values |
Adults strive to focus on children's strengths rather than deficits
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Hands-on activities
Democratic thinking
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Teachers approach comes first.
Mastery learning, use of scripts, choral responses, teacher controlled self-regulation.
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| Management |
A predictable sequence of events known as the daily routine
Daily plan-do-review sequence
58 key experiences:social, intellectual, & physical
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No hard or fast rules for handling situations
No time-outs
Help build consciousness by building firm & consistent rules
Grouped by lower (3-6 yrs), middle (6-10 yrs), & upper (10-13 yrs)
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Cues, signals, very high expectations, teacher in complete control.
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| Practical Ramifications |
Diverse materials and nurturing interactions
Assessments are done with anecdotal notes and portfolios-better than traditional standardized tests
Computers are not required, but if available they should be freely accessible and integrated into the curriculum.
Key experiences as a focus of classroom activities
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Teacher facilitates activities for daily living
Want children to learn democracy
Turning the world into a laboratory, demanding ethical standards as well as scientific attitudes
Working in an ever changing world
Child is maker of meaning
Less topics, more in depth
Process & content emphasized for experience
Social learning
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Independent work, teacher-initiated, teacher-directed, teacher supported no play (work!)
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| Overview |
The High Scope method believes that children are active, constructive learners that should be guided to problem-solving and that a daily routine fosters their learning.
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Student-centered
Developing the whole child
Experience based
Interdisciplinary
Collaborative
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Rubric for Assessing Project TEAM |
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5
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3
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1
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| Demonstrate their understanding of the process of designing and teaching a lesson by planning, writing, and teaching a lesson to the students in their placements |
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| Demonstrate the ability to apply their understanding of appropriate expressive arts methods by successfully facilitating learning during an expressive arts lesson |
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| Demonstrate the ability to reflectively evaluate a lesson by editing their iMovie to include insightful reflections on the lesson |
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| Demonstrate their valuation of collaboration with their mentor teacher by working with their mentor to teach, record, and reflect on a lesson, and to produce an iMovie documenting the story |
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| Apply their understanding of using video editing software to tell a story, by creating a learning story telling about and reflecting on their lesson |
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