Brain Research
In the past two decades research in the field of neuroscience has provided irrefutable evidence of the importance of the early childhood period to the development of the brain (this is discussed more fully in Chapter 4 and later chapters). As a result, early childhood curriculum developers are learning more and more about the architecture of the brain and its structures, the nature of intelligence, and the influence of emotions (Rushton, 2011). This research confirms long-held theoretical and intuitive beliefs about the value of active learning and socially reciprocal relationships during early childhood.
We first mentioned Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (1983) in Chapter 1. Gardner is part of a research consortium at Harvard University known as Project Zero. Philosopher Nelson Goodman of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education initially began the project in 1967 to study ways to use the arts to improve education. Project Zero focuses on “understanding learning in and through the arts . . . while drawing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to examine fundamental questions of human expression and development” (Project Zero, n.d., para. 1). But many of the projects are inextricably linked with new information coming from neuroscience. Of particular interest to early childhood educators is the “Making Learning Visible” (MLV) project, which explores the benefits of group learning and the documentation processes, originally developed in the Reggio Emilia preschools in Italy, to represent learning visually over time. As a result, teachers are encouraged to use a wide variety of tools and strategies to describe what and how children are learning.