Sarah and Maria Solve a Problem

Rules vs. Guidelines

As early educators work to help children develop self-regulation, they need to identify socially acceptable behaviors as goals for them to achieve. Traditionally this has meant establishing a set of classroom rules for children to follow. However, research has shown that rules for young children tend not to be helpful because they:

• Are usually stated as negatives (e.g., don’t hit, no running, etc.), which can suggest to children that such behaviors are expected to occur (Wien, 2004)
• Tend to define the teacher’s role as one of technician/enforcer (Gartrell, 2012)
• Don’t provide information about what children should do (Gartrell, 2012; Readick & Chapman, 2000)
• Can result in labeling (e.g., good/bad children) and uneven application (i.e., being lenient with “good” children, stricter with “bad”) (Gartrell, 2012)
• Can lead to long-term problems with aggression (Gartrell, 2012)

While teachers need to set expectations for individual and group behavior, many experts recommend using a few broad guidelinesrather than many specific rules and punishmentsso as to construct a positive classroom dynamic and climate (Gartrell, 2012). Guidelines for preschoolers and children in the primary grades should frame expectations in positive terms, such as, “We are careful with our bodies,” or “We use words to solve problems.” Guidelines should also be framed as open-ended statements to allow children to infer more specific friendly behaviors (like sharing a toy) from the general statement, “We are friendly with others.” They should be displayed or posted in the classroom or care setting with pictures and words as visible reminders of desired behavior. Caregivers who work with infants and toddlers (who are too young to verbalize guidelines) should use gentle prompts and modeling to help children meet expectations.

Positively worded guidelines function as standardsdefining common goals that the community as well as individuals work together to achieve (Gartrell, 2012, p. 57). Finally, guidelines provide teachers and caregivers with opportunities to involve children in setting goals for behavior and problem solving. Preschoolers are generally able to participate in talking about and creating guidelines, and many teachers use the framework of a class meeting to do so.

The Class Meeting

An extension of the time-honored custom of “circle time” (which traditionally includes group activities or routines planned by the teacher) is the class meeting, a forum for informal and intentional discussions including those that help foster self-regulation (Gartrell, 2012; Pawlina & Stanford, 2011; Vance & Weaver, 2002) Like its adult counterpart, a classroom meeting can be a regular part of the daily or weekly schedule or called as needed (by either a teacher or child) when situations arise that require consideration by the group as a whole. Examples of functions that might be carried out in a group setting include:

• Problem solvingaddressing issues that affect the group or helping individuals brainstorm solutions for a problem with which they are struggling
• Creating, discussing, or revising guidelinesincluding children in this process enhances their sense of community involvement and investment in the welfare of the group
• Role playing/demonstrating appropriate actions or behavior
• Affirmations/acknowledging efforts and accomplishments
• Making joint decisions about curriculum that can involve children, such as choosing a field trip destination, determining what direction a project should take, or making a plan for how the garden will be planted

Class meetings teach children about the purpose of shared goals and foster a sense of partnership in a learning community (Galinsky, 2012), where all members learn from each other and actively engage in meaningful and relevant decision making.

Time Out

Many teachers (and parents) believe that designating a chair or spot where a child can be sent for time out supports the development of self-regulation and fulfills a commitment to peaceful discipline, giving children a chance to calm down, think about what they did wrong and what to do next, and be ready to return to group play when released. Rules of thumb such as one minute in time out per year of age are commonplace.

However, an increasing number of early childhood researchers observing children placed in time out find fault with this traditional format and believe that it should be discouraged if not discontinued (Hendrick & Weissman, 2007; Karson, 2014; Readick & Chapman, 2000). Among their findings are that time out can result in feelings of isolation, sadness, and not being liked by the teacher; confusion about why they were there; and uncertainty about what to do when released. Moreover, when time out is used routinely for noncompliance rather than reserved for the most serious problem behavior, its effectiveness dramatically decreases (Readick & Chapman, 2000).

To avoid these negative outcomes, teachers who use time out should modify the practice to provide the child with a more active and meaningful role in self-regulation, by:

• Reserving time out for only the most serious negative behaviors (i.e., hurting someone else or damaging property) when other strategies such as redirection have failed.
• Keeping the child with an adult rather than sending him or her to a corner or isolated location. (This maintains the teacher-child connection and also reduces the possibility that the adult might forget about the child!)
• Helping the child use words to discuss what happened and how to make a better decision.
• Rather than imposing a specified time, let the child indicate when he or she is ready to return (modified from recommendations from Hendrick & Weissman, 2007).

9.4 Social Studies

A large piece of the development of the whole child involves helping each child acquire a sense of self in the world. The content area of social studies focuses on how children learn about themselves and groups of people in relation to others (National Council for the Social Studies [NCSS], 2010). The integrated study of the social sciences draws from several disciplineshistory, geography, political science, economics, anthropology, archaeology, psychology, religion, philosophy, and sociology (Seefeldt, 2001).

Social studies today evolved from an early-twentieth-century focus on citizenship education, influenced by John Dewey and others, which was intended to provide children (especially immigrant children) with direct experiences using a project-based curriculum orientation (Mindes, 2005). A 1988 position paper by the NCSS Task Force on Early Childhood/Elementary Social Studies spoke to the importance of the social studies for young children:

The social studies in the early childhood/ elementary years are crucial if we expect the young people of this nation to become active, responsible citizens for maintaining the democratic values upon which this nation was established. Unless children acquire the foundations of knowledge, attitudes, and skills in social studies in the important elementary years, it is unlikely that teachers in the junior and senior high schools will be successful in preparing effective citizens for the 21st century.

Social Studies Standards

Today, a high-quality and developmentally appropriate approach to social studies in early childhood is one that is integrated with other areas of the curriculum and includes experiences that are meaningful to children’s lives and understanding and are highly engaging (Seefeldt, 2001). The national standards focus not just on content knowledge but also on the skills and methods of social scientists, attitudes, and values. The preschool/primary classroom or group-care setting provides a natural environment from which to learn about democracy and practice citizenship. The Bank Street School, discussed in Chapter 2, has demonstrated this idea and social studies as the heart of the curriculum for nearly one hundred years.

The revised national standards released by NCSS in March 2010 continue to organize content around ten themes that reflect the variety of disciplines within the social studies:

1. Culture
2. Time, continuity, and change
3. People, places, and environments
4. Individual development and identity
5. Individuals, groups, and institutions
6. Power, authority, and governance
7. Production, distribution, and consumption
8. Science, technology, and society
9. Global connections
10. Civic ideals and practices

Early childhood educators and researchers have reservations about the developmental advisability of some standards and performance indicators that address abstract concepts such as time (history) and spatial relationships (geography) (Jantz & Seefeldt, 1999). But the NCSS explanations of each theme suggest “big ideas,” or avenues of inquiry teachers can explore with young children, that are developmentally appropriate, especially in curricular activities that focus on:

• The self in social settings
• Individuals in school and family life
• The neighborhood
• Sharing the planet with others (Jantz & Seefeldt, 1999; Mindes, 2005)

The remainder of this chapter will focus on inquiry themes and strategies early childhood educators can use to develop key concepts, skills, and values embedded in the NCSS standards.

Identifying and Organizing “Big Ideas”

In choosing ideas for social studies themes, teachers should guide children toward questions that promote sustained investigation, with many opportunities to integrate other areas of the curriculum. Remember from Chapter 6 (Planning) that activities can be preplanned and also emerge as work progresses to change the direction of an original idea.

Planned Big-Idea Themes

Table 9.5 identifies nine inquiry themes that many teachers and curricular programs choose to use because they relate to children’s immediate environment, prior experiences, and typical interests. These themes are also flexible and can be readily adapted to the age/developmental level of children, and connected with local or regional culture, geography, demographics, and history. Alongside the big ideas, Table 9.5 lists key inquiry questions, coded to the ten NCSS themes listed above, and ideas for activities and strategies.

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