The Project Approach:
The Developmental-Interaction Approach
An early-twentieth-century approach (Kilpatrick, 1918) to learning through long-term study of topics that allowed teachers to integrate different areas of the curriculum is enjoying something of a reemergence as the Project Approach (PA). The PA is most closely associated with Lilian Katz and Sylvia Chard, who describe the project method’s origins in the progressive movement in their 1989 book Engaging Children’s Minds: The Project Approach. Dr. Katz wrote on her personal blog, “I became involved with the Project Approach when I visited the infant schools in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and saw wonderful project work being done by very young children. I then began teaching teachers how to incorporate projects into their curriculum. So, I have been involved in the Project Approach since about 1970.” Sylvia Chard explains on the Project Approach website that “Projects typically do not constitute the whole educational program; instead, teachers use them alongside systematic instruction and as a means of achieving curricular goals.”
While there are many ways to lead children through an integrated study of a topic, the distinguishing characteristic of the Project Approach as described by Katz and Chard is the framework for how that can be accomplished. Katz and Chard recommend that teachers conduct projects in three stages or phases:
- Teachers and children together identify a topic of general interest. Teachers use multiple strategies to uncover children’s prior knowledge, questions, and predictions.
- Children investigate the topic, again using various strategies to collect information and learn about the topic. They represent and communicate their emerging understanding with media of different kinds.
- Teachers and children revisit their initial thinking about the project topic and reflect on what they have learned (Katz & Chard, 2000).
More From the Field
Critical Thinking Question
- What does Meghan seem to view as primary benefits of a project-based curriculum?
In this way, each project investigation is unique and personalized to the particular child investigators, as two groups of children could study a topic such as “Birds” with entirely different goals, activities, and outcomes. Or a project can serve to help children process experiences, such as this description of a project about Hurricane Katrina:
Project Katrina
Conducted by the LSU Child Development Laboratory Preschool in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this project emerged in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina. It serves as an excellent example of a teaching team turning a challenging local event into a valuable learning opportunity through community involvement and service. Note how the project evolved naturally from students’ needs to make sense of the natural disaster and to tell stories from their own lives. (http://www.projectapproach.org/pre-k_to_k.php)
Because the Project Approach is a rearticulation of the approach as originally defined, it is also influenced by curricula that have emerged since. Katz and Chard recommend using many strategies similar to those used in the Reggio Emilia (see below) approach to represent what and how children are learning. They also emphasize the value of documentation as a reflective process for teachers.
Bank Street (The Developmental-Interaction Approach)
The Bank Street curriculum was developed as a play-based curriculum at the demonstration program for the Bureau of Educational Experiments, founded in 1919 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell and Harriet Johnson; that institution is now known as Bank Street College in New York City. It was renamed and articulated as the Developmental-Interaction Approach for inclusion as the traditional preschool model for the Head Start Planned Variation and Follow Through initiatives (Biber, 1977).
Basic Principles
Most curricula today that emphasize developmentally appropriate practice and development of the whole child are influenced by ideas embedded in the Bank Street approach. These “big ideas” include the following:
- Teaching decisions are based on knowledge and understanding of all the developmental domains and cognitive processes.
- Teachers function as researchers; they record their observations and use them to learn about children and their families and adapt curriculum to meet children’s needs.
- The physical environment is arranged to promote exploration, social interactions, and active participation.
- The curriculum is grounded in social studiesbuilding awareness of community and a sense of belonging and civic responsibility.
- Play serves as an important context for consolidating and integrating understanding and solving conflicts (Mitchell & David, 1992).
Bank Street conceives teaching as a “work in progress,” since teachers adapt and change activities and topics of study according to the interests and abilities of the children (Goffin & Wilson, 2001). Table 2.2 shows how the Bank Street theoretical approach has evolved over time. It is grounded in the psychosocial perspectives of Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and others. It has also long been characterized as representative of John Dewey’s progressive approach to education. A Bank Street classroom models democracy in action through emphasis on the importance of community, collaborative rule making, cooperation, and respect for others (Mitchell & David, 1992, p. 19).
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