Thinking Critically About Environments for Young Children

Thinking Critically About Environments for Young Children PDF Author: Lisa P. Kuh
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807773085
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using a practice-based focus and a researcher lens, the contributors consider the ways in which environments for children enhance or diminish educational experiences, how social constructs about what is good for children influence environmental design, and what practitioners can do in their own work when creating learning environments for young children. There are copious examples from practice, lessons learned, and illustrations and photographs of key aspects of the environments they discuss. Organized into three parts, this essential text addresses: Aesthetics, politics, and space configurations in school environments for young children. Outdoor spaces, beginning with intentionally designed playscapes, children’s gardens, and spontaneous improvisational play venues. The role of environments outside school, including informal learning environments that promote science knowledge, museum spaces, and virtual environments. “Through rich examples and clear explanations of the historical, political, and aesthetic dimensions of design, [Kuh and her colleagues] help us think critically about environments and provide theoretical and practical tools to support our efforts.” —Benjamin Mardell, professor, Early Childhood Education, Lesley University. “An enlightening book that gives educators new lenses for thinking about and creating the kinds of places that can optimize children’s growth and learning, especially in this era of standardization. Educators need this book!” —Nancy Carlsson-Paige, professor emerita, Lesley University “For everyone who wants to take educational settings beyond minimal standards, this collection is a thoughtful and inspiring guide.” —Louise Chawla, professor, Environmental Design Program, University of Colorado, Boulder

Thinking Critically About Environments for Young Children

Thinking Critically About Environments for Young Children PDF Author: Lisa P. Kuh
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807773085
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using a practice-based focus and a researcher lens, the contributors consider the ways in which environments for children enhance or diminish educational experiences, how social constructs about what is good for children influence environmental design, and what practitioners can do in their own work when creating learning environments for young children. There are copious examples from practice, lessons learned, and illustrations and photographs of key aspects of the environments they discuss. Organized into three parts, this essential text addresses: Aesthetics, politics, and space configurations in school environments for young children. Outdoor spaces, beginning with intentionally designed playscapes, children’s gardens, and spontaneous improvisational play venues. The role of environments outside school, including informal learning environments that promote science knowledge, museum spaces, and virtual environments. “Through rich examples and clear explanations of the historical, political, and aesthetic dimensions of design, [Kuh and her colleagues] help us think critically about environments and provide theoretical and practical tools to support our efforts.” —Benjamin Mardell, professor, Early Childhood Education, Lesley University. “An enlightening book that gives educators new lenses for thinking about and creating the kinds of places that can optimize children’s growth and learning, especially in this era of standardization. Educators need this book!” —Nancy Carlsson-Paige, professor emerita, Lesley University “For everyone who wants to take educational settings beyond minimal standards, this collection is a thoughtful and inspiring guide.” —Louise Chawla, professor, Environmental Design Program, University of Colorado, Boulder

Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves

Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves PDF Author: Louise Derman-Sparks
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781938113574
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
Anti-bias education begins with you! Become a skilled anti-bias teacher with this practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers.

Creating Diversity-Rich Environments for Young Children

Creating Diversity-Rich Environments for Young Children PDF Author: Angèle Sancho Passe
Publisher: Redleaf Press
ISBN: 1605546666
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 76

Get Book Here

Book Description
Early childhood educators have the power to help all children learn to respect themselves and others. Creating Diversity-Rich Environments for Young Children is an easy-to-use guide that shows how early childhood professionals can create a positive and inclusive environment for children of all cultures. The newest addition in the Redleaf Press Quick Guide series includes elements of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) developmentally appropriate practice and ethical standards, early childhood progress indicators, and best practices in adult learning. Guides for reflection and planning for educators and cross-cultural competence checklists will be included to further assist educators.

From Children's Interests to Children's Thinking

From Children's Interests to Children's Thinking PDF Author: Jane Tingle Broderick
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781938113635
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Get Book Here

Book Description
Learn how to connect your curriculum planning to children's interests and thinking. With this book, educators will discover a systematic way for using documentation to design curriculum that emerges from children's inquiries, what they wonder, and what they want to understand. Get strategies for designing a classroom environment at the start of the year to facilitate emergent inquiry curriculum. Each chapter guides teachers to document and reflect on their thinking through each of the five phases of a cycle of inquiry process, including observing, interpreting the meaning of the play they see, and developing questions to engage children.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Contemporary Early Childhood Education

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Contemporary Early Childhood Education PDF Author: Donna Couchenour
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1483340341
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 1567

Get Book Here

Book Description
The general public often views early childhood education as either simply “babysitting” or as preparation for later learning. Of course, both viewpoints are simplistic. Deep understanding of child development, best educational practices based on development, emergent curriculum, cultural competence and applications of family systems are necessary for high-quality early education. Highly effective early childhood education is rare in that it requires collaboration and transitions among a variety of systems for children from birth through eight years of age. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Contemporary Early Childhood Education presents in three comprehensive volumes advanced research, accurate practical applications of research, historical foundations and key facts from the field of contemporary early childhood education. Through approximately 425 entries, this work includes all areas of child development – physical, cognitive, language, social, emotional, aesthetic – as well as comprehensive review of best educational practices with young children, effective preparation for early childhood professionals and policy making practices, and addresses such questions as: · How is the field of early childhood education defined? · What are the roots of this field of study? · How is the history of early childhood education similar to yet different from the study of public education? · What are the major influences on understandings of best practices in early childhood education?

Assessment of Young Children

Assessment of Young Children PDF Author: Lisa B. Fiore
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000293912
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book Here

Book Description
In an era where assessment mandates tend to minimize or dismiss individual differences and creativity, resulting in punitive outcomes or inertia, this essential guide provides teachers with a collaborative approach to assessment that emphasizes the importance of bringing children and families into the process. Now in its second edition, Assessment of Young Children explores both standardized and authentic assessment, work sampling systems, and observation skills. Fully updated with current standards and research, this new edition also features an enhanced focus on trauma-informed practices, culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and family involvement. Lively and engaging, chapters help readers cultivate developmentally appropriate practice, create appropriate expectations, examine and celebrate children’s work, interact in groups, and improve their reflective teaching. Accounts of real experiences from children, families, teachers, and administrators provide on-the-ground models of assessment strategies and demonstrate how children are affected. Exploring a variety of ways to observe and assess young children in their natural environments, this critical volume encourages an assessment strategy where the child remains the focus and collaboration with children, families, and colleagues creates an image – not a diagnosis – of the child that is empowering rather than constraining.

Nurturing Creativity

Nurturing Creativity PDF Author: Rebecca T. Isbell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781938113215
Category : Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Get Book Here

Book Description
Tap into children's natural curiosity and scaffold their creative abilities across all domains of learning--and nurture your own creativity!

Thinking Critically About Child Development

Thinking Critically About Child Development PDF Author: Jean Mercer
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1483370100
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the updated Third Edition of Thinking Critically About Child Development, previously titled Child Development: Myths and Misunderstandings, Jean Mercer offers 59 essays that confront popular misconceptions and fallacies about the field. Intriguing vignettes and critical thinking questions frame each essay, encouraging readers to think like social scientists and become better consumers of media messages and anecdotal stories. Timely topics and DSM-5 references make the book an engaging supplement for both chronologically and topically arranged child development texts.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309324882
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 587

Get Book Here

Book Description
Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Nurturing Nature and the Environment with Young Children

Nurturing Nature and the Environment with Young Children PDF Author: Janice Kroeger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429559690
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book, at the intersection of early childhood and reconceptualizing practice, looks at how practitioners, theorists, and teachers are supporting young children to care about the environment differently. Despite the current popularity of post-human perspectives, in social science more broadly and in early childhood studies more specifically, this is one of few to make visible international practices and perspectives that emerge at the intersection of early childhood education, environmental justice, sustainability, and intergenerational/interspecies communities. The book provides an innovative exploration of the links between children, elders, and nature. With contributions from established scholars, practitioners, and newcomers this book reframes educating for social justice within an ecological landscape; one in which young children and their elders are mobilized to understand, reconceptualize and even undo negative environmental impact, whilst grappling with the ways in which the earthly forces are acting upon them. Specific theoretical chapters (spirituality, nature, critical and post-human/materiality, pragmatics, and constructivism approaches) are blended with applications of pedagogic strategies from across the globe. This book responds to a growing interest among early childhood professionals and scholars for sustainably focused and ethically reimagined programs. This collection rewards the reader with opportunities to critically reflect on their own practice, delves into new terrestrial collectives, and explores new pedagogical pathways. It will be essential reading for practitioners and scholars alike.