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Why Is It Important for You to Think about Curriculum? Think of the maxim “Practice what you preach.” It will be relevant every day of your teaching career, as your actions represent what you believe about teaching and learning. Consciously and unconsciously, whether adhering to a curriculum approach or using specific materials from a curriculum […]

Politics, Government, and Early Childhood Curriculum Getty Images President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the War on Poverty legislative initiative in August 1964. This program included authorization for the Head Start Programs, which continue today. Trends in early childhood curriculum can be significantly affected by public policy and government intervention, innovations in technology and media, and

A Century of Advocacy Over the past century, early childhood advocates have addressed poverty, child labor, access to high-quality affordable day care, health, and nutritionall issues that affect children. Currently early childhood professionals and organizations are working to promote many issues that directly relate to or impact early childhood curriculum, including Federal, state, and local

NAEYC and the DAP Position Statement Many professional organizations advocate for the rights and welfare of young children and their families (see Feature Box 1.2). Among these groups, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which originally organized in 1926, is the largest, with approximately 60,000 members and 50 affiliate chapters (NAEYC,

Developmental vs. Academic Curriculum Organization Every curriculum articulates what children should learn from both theoretical and organizational perspectives. In early childhood, two different approaches predominate. In some curricula, goals, concepts and activities are designed and organized in terms of academic content areas such as math, science, social studies, reading, and writing. In other curricula, these

What Is DAP? More From the Field In this clip Diana McGawley, an intervention specialist, emphasizes the importance of a developmental perspective. Critical Thinking Question Why should teachers be concerned about “pushing” children academically? DAP is not a curriculum but a framework for how to think about curriculum in a way that takes into account

The Big Picture: Developmentally Appropriate Practice In this section, we consider the relative position of early childhood curriculum within the larger framework of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP). The early childhood period from birth to 8 years of age is unique in life-span development in terms of growth and learning. Curriculum for young children reflects and

Transmissional, Transactional, and Transformational Views of Education In short, the transmissional view is traditional, in that students are expected to master information delivered by the teacher. This reflects a teaching method that was standard around the world until the twentieth century. The transactional perspective is more egalitarian, and people with a transformational orientation believe that

The Importance of Our World View The goals, foundations, and characteristics of curriculum can be directly affected by changes in our societal world view, or the way individuals and groups of people perceive reality and how those perceptions affect the way they function in their day-to-day lives. For example, during the Great Depression of the

How Has Thinking about Curriculum Changed over Time? The theories and ideas of the individuals profiled above, as well as those of others, continue to affect our thinking about early childhood curriculum. Other factors that influence curriculum development today include society’s values, standards, accountability systems, research findings, community expectations, culture and language, and individual children’s