ECED 3100 - Jessi White - Midterm Study Guide

What is Developmentally Appropriate Practice?

Practice based on how children grow and develop within individual social and cultural contexts.

What is advocacy for children?

The act of engaging in strategies designed to improve the circumstances of children and families. Advocates move beyond their day-to-day professional responsibilities and work collaboratively to help others.

Qualities of an early childhood professional

An educator who successfully teaches all children, promotes high personal standards, and continually expands his or her skills and knowledge.

What professional organization developed the code of professional ethics for early

childhood education?

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Know the different types of “knowledge” that teachers must possess to build meaningful

curriculum.

1. Knowledge of the processes of child development

2. Knowledge of the child as an individual

3. Knowledge of the social and cultural contexts in which children live

What is a philosophy of education?

A set of beliefs about how children develop and learn and what and how they should be taught.

Describe the type of learning environment you should create as an early childhood

professional. What qualities does that learning environment possess?

Children are healthier, happier, and more achievement-oriented when cared for and taught in enriched environments. To attain this goal for all children, provide them with environments that are healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging.

Healthy Environments

Environments that provide for children’s physical and psychological health, safety, and sense of security.

Respectful Environments

Environments that show respect for each individual child and for the child’s culture, home language, individual abilities or disabilities, family context, and community.

Supportive Environments

Environments in which professionals believe each child can learn, and that help children understand and make meaning of their experiences.

Challenging Environments

Environments that provide achievable and “stretching” experiences for all children.

Child Development

The stages of physical, social, cognitive, emotional, and linguistic growth that occur from birth through age 8.

Content Knowledge

The knowledge, facts, ideas, and information of the content areas and subjects that teachers teach.

Developmentally and Culturally Responsive Practice

Teaching based on the ability to respond appropriately to children’s and families’ developmental, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds and needs.

Three-way Process of Assessment

1. Gathering data using observation, different assessment tools

2. Using data to plan and make instructional decisions

3. Sharing assessment data with colleagues and families.

How does the past influence current and future practices in early childhood education? Why is it important to become knowledgeable about those influences?

There are at least five reasons why you and other early childhood professionals need to know about the ideas and theories of great educators who have influenced, and continue to influence, the field of early childhood education.

1. Rebirth of Ideas

2. Contributions of Key Individuals to Early Childhood Education

3. Building the Dream - Again

4. Implementing Current Practice

5. Inspiring Professionals

Martin Luther

• Translated the Bible from Latin to vernacular language, allowing people to be educated in their own language

• Advocated establishing schools to teach children how to read

John Locke

• Said children are born as blank tablets, or tabula rasa

• Believed children’s experiences determine who they are

• Experiences are the basis of all learning

John Amos Comenius

• Wrote Orbis Pictus, the first picture book for children

• Thought early experiences formed what a child would be like

• Said education should occur through the senses

John Dewey

• Progressive education movement

• Children’s interests form the basis of the curriculum

• Educate children for today—not tomorrow

Maria Montessori

• The Montessori method for educating young children

• All knowledge comes intrinsically from sensory experiences

• Learning materials to meet the needs of young children

• Sensory-based materials that are self-correcting

• Prepared environments are essential for learning

• Respect for children is the foundation of teaching

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• Advocated natural approaches to child rearing

• Felt that children’s natures unfold as a result of maturation according to an innate timetable

Friedrich Froebel

• Believed children develop through “unfolding”

• Compared children to growing plants

• Founded the kindergarten, or the “Garden of Children”

• Developed “gifts” and “occupations” to help young children learn

• Believed children can and should learn through play

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

• Advocated that education should follow the course of nature

• Believed all education is based on sensory impressions

• Promoted the idea that mothers could best teach children

Lev Vygotsky

• Sociocultural theory, which emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relationships in social and cognitive development

• Concept of the zone of proximal development—children can learn more with the help of a more competent person

• Communication between teachers and children can act as a means of scaffolding to higher levels of learning

Jean Piaget

• Theory of cognitive development based on ages and stages

• Children are “little scientists” and literally develop their own intelligence

• Mental and physical activities are important for cognitive development

• Project approach to learning

Abraham Maslow

• Theory of self-actualization based on needs motivation

• Human development is a process of meeting basic needs throughout life

• Humanistic psychology

Erik Erikson

• Theory of psychosocial development—cognitive development occurs in conjunction with social development

• Life is a series of eight stages, with each stage representing a critical period in social development

• How parents and teachers interact with and care for children helps determine their emotional and cognitive development

Inclusion

Including children with disabilities in early childhood programs, together with their peers without disabilities.

Whole Child Initiative

Promotes child-centered practices because they lead to children who are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged in their education

Differentiated Instruction

An approach that enables teachers to plan strategically to meet the needs of every student by teaching to the needs of each child and supporting diversity in the classroom.

Blank Tablets

The belief that at birth the mind is blank and that experiences create the mind.

Sinful Child

View that children are basically sinful, need supervision and control, and should be taught to be obedient.

Investments in the Future

View that investing in the care and education of children reaps future benefits for parents and society.

Constructivism

Theory that emphasizes the active role of children in developing their understanding and learning.

Active Learning

The view that children develop knowledge and learn by being physically and mentally engaged in learning activities.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth - 2yrs)

2. Preoperational Stage (2yrs - 7yrs)

3. Concrete Operations Stage (7yrs - 12yrs)

Sensorimotor Stage

The first of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, in which children primarily use their senses and motor reflexes to develop intellectually.

Preoperational Stage

The stage of cognitive development in which young children are not capable of mental representations.

Concrete Operations

The stage of cognitive development during which children’s thought is logical and they can organize concrete experiences.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The range of tasks that children can perform with help from a more competent partner. Children can perform tasks below their ZPD on their own, but they are not yet able to learn tasks or concepts above their ZPD, even with help.

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development

1. Trust vs Mistrust

2. Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt

3. Iniative vs Guilt

4. Industry vs Inferiority

Hierachy of Needs

Maslow’s theory that basic needs must be satisfied before higher-level needs can be satisfied.

1. Life essentials, such as food and water

2. Safety and security

3. Belonging and love

4. Achievement and prestige

5. Aesthetic needs

Egocentrism

Preoperational children’s belief that everyone thinks as they think and acts as they do for the same reasons.

Assimilation

The process of taking in sensory data through experiences and impressions and incorporating them into existing knowledge.

Accomodation

The process of changing old methods and adjusting to new situations.

Adaptions

The process of building schemes through interaction with the environment; it consists of two complementary processes—assimilation and accommodation.

Equilibrium

A balance between the cognitive processes of assimilation and accommodation, allowing children to successfully understand new data.

Scheme

A unit of knowledge that a child develops through experience that defines how things should be.

Unoccupied Play

The child does not play with anything or anyone; the child merely stands or sits without doing anything observable.

Solitary Play

Although involved in play, the child plays alone, seemingly unaware of other children.

Onlooker Play

The child watches and observes the play of other children; the center of interest is others’ play.

Parallel Play

The child plays alone, but in ways and with toys or other materials similar to the play of other children.

Associative Play

Children interact with each other, perhaps by asking questions or sharing materials, but do not play together.

Cooperative Play

Children actively play together, often as a result of the organization of the teacher.

Emergent Literacy

The process of how children interact with books and with writing and acquire important foundational skills, even though they cannot read or write in a conventional sense.

Redshirting

The practice of postponing the entrance into kindergarten of age-eligible children to allow extra time for social–emotional, intellectual, and physical growth.

Developmental Kindergarten (DK)

A kindergarten designed to provide children with additional time for maturation and physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development.

Transitional Kindergarten (TK)

A kindergarten designed to serve children who may be old enough to go to first grade but are not quite ready to handle all of its expectations.

Gift of Time

The practice of giving children more time in a program or at home to develop physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively as preparation for kindergarten.

Mixed-Age Grouping

Students in two or three grade levels combined in one classroom with one teacher.

Looping

An organizational practice in which a teacher spends two or more years with the same group of same-age children.