Early Childhood Development and Learning New Knowledge for Policy (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers
Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers
Pages 21-42
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a~er to learn Educating Our Preschoolers Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy Barbara T Bowman, M
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, Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development, Chicago W STEVEN BARNETT, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University LINDA M
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It focuses on programs provided outside the home, such as preschool, Head Start, and child care centers. As the twenty-first century begins, there can be little doubt that something approaching voluntary universal early childhood education, a feature of other wealthy industrialized nations, is also on the horizon here.
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From page 26... ...
Educators have an opportunity and an obligation to facilitate this propensity to learn and to develop a receptivity to learning that will prepare children for active engagement in the learning enterprise throughout their lives. This report argues, therefore, that promoting young children's growth calls for early childhood settings (half day or full day, public or private, child care or preschool)
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Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Early Childhood Institute) and the Office of Special Education Programs, the Spencer Foundation, and the Foundation for Child Development.
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Indeed, the striking feature of modern research is that it describes unexpected competencies in young children, key features of which appear to be universal. These data focus attention on the child's exposure to learning opportunities, calling into question simplistic concep-tualizations of developmentally appropriate practice that do not recognize the newly understood competencies of very young children, and they highlight the importance of individual differences in children, their past experiences, and their present contexts.
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A number of distinct, but overlapping, research literatures provide relevant insights. Several decades of research have been conducted on the effects of a wide range of preschool programs on children's learning and development.
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Social skills and physical dexterity influence cognitive development, just as cognition plays a role in children's social understanding and motor competence. All are therefore related to early learning and later academic achievement and are necessary domains of early childhood pedagogy.
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Many children, especially those in low-income households, are served in child care programs of such low quality that learning and development are not enhanced and may even be jeopardized. The importance of teacher responsiveness to children's differences knowledge of children's learning processes and capabilities, and the multiple developmental goals that a quality preschool program must address simultaneously all point to the centrality of teacher education and preparation.
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Moreover, these activities important in their own right can provide opportunities for developing language, reasoning, and social skills that support learning in more academic areas. An extensive body of research suggests the types of activity that promote emergent literacy skills.
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Since preschool programs serve so many ends simultaneously, multiple pedagogical approaches should be expected. ASSESSMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION If the trend of increasing enrollments in early childhood education programs continues in this country, the use of assessments and tests as instruments of education policy and practice is also likely to increase.
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RECOMMENDATIONS What is now known about the potential of the early years, and of the promise of high-quality preschool programs to help realize that potential for all children, stands in stark contrast to practice in many perhaps most early childhood settings. In the committee's view, bringing what is known to bear on what is done in early childhood education will require efforts in four areas: (1)
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Professional Development At the heart of the effort to promote quality early childhood programs, from the committee's perspective, is a substantial investment in the education and training of those who work with young children. Recommendation 1: Each group of children in an early childhood education and care program should be assigned a teacher who has a bachelor's degree with specialized education related to early childhood (e.g., developmental psychology, early childhood education, early childhood special education)
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that suggest the value of this sort of supervised student teaching experience. Recommendation 5: All early childhood education and child care programs should have access to a qualified supervisor of early childhood education.
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Opportunities to see curriculum and pedagogy in action are likely to promote understanding of complexity and nuance not easily communicated in the written word. Internet communication groups could provide information on curricula, results of field tests, and opportunities for teachers using a common curriculum to discuss experiences, query each other, and share ideas.
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Recommendation 12: A single career ladder for early childhood teachers, with differentiated pay levels, should be specified by each state. This career ladder should include, at a minimum, teaching assistants (with child development associate certification)
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Systematic and widespread public education should be undertaken to increase public awareness of the importance of providing stimulating educational experiences in the lives of all young children. The message that the quality of children's relationships with adult teachers and child care providers is critical in preparation for elementary school should be featured prominently in communication efforts.
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Research on programs for any population of children should examine such program variations as age groupings, adult-child ratios, curricula, class size, and program duration. These questions can best be answered through longitudinal studies employing random assignment.
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Parents are relying on child care and preschool programs in ever larger numbers. We know that the quality of the programs in which they leave their children matters.
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