Emergent Curriculum in Early Childhood Settings: From theory to practice (Author: Susan Stacey)
“The children choose what to do, do it with great energy, and move on to the next challenge. The caregiver, watching the children, is an active learner too. She’s asking herself: Who are these Children? What do they care about? What are their skills? What are they practicing? What should I offer them next?” ~Betty Jones
Children:
· Learn when their interest is caught
· They are wired to construct their knowledge of the world through constant practice.
Teachers:
· Respond to children’s inherent motivation to learn
· Follow the children as models for their own adult curiosity
· Learning with children and about them
· Watching>Thinking>Responding=Emergent Curriculum
Emergent Curriculum:
· Is invented by its participants
· Requires continual alertness
· It’s full of surprises and new challenges
· It can’t really be written until after it’s happened [reflection process]*
Documentation:
· Take notes, pictures and examples of children’s work to create visual representations of children’s emergent learning [and open dialogue with the community].*
· [Requires ‘deep reflection’ analyzing/evaluating data]*
The Task for Us All:
· To reflect on what you believe about curriculum
· To reflect on what you want in your classroom
· Create choices and act upon them
Be Attitude:
· Be careful thinkers
· Be willing to explore, practice and dialogue
Know:
· When children explore through play their own theories about how the world works are engaged, exercised, tested and modified.
· “Teachers who value children’s ideas want to support those ideas and take the children’s learning to higher levels without interfering in their play.” What does this mean and how does it translate in our practice?
Remember the potential of the child
· What are our obstacles to emergent practice?
· How to prepare yet remain open to curricular possibilities?
· How to show in curriculum development that we value the child and the child’s ideas?
Susan’s Definition of Emergent Curriculum (p.6):
· While framed by the teacher, it is child initiated, allowing for collaborations between children and teachers, and giving everyone a voice.
· It is responsive to the child, thereby allowing teachers to build upon existing interests.
· In its practice, the teacher takes on the role of facilitator, taking what she sees and hears, and bringing to children the opportunity to discover more, dig deeper, and construct further knowledge.
· It is flexible in that curriculum planning, rather than being done well in advance, is constantly developing. Curriculum is dynamic, neither stagnant nor repetitive.
· It enables children’s learning and teachers’ thinking to be made visible through varied forms of documentation.
· It builds upon the theories of the recognized theorists in our field: the work of Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky supports the philosophy of emergent curriculum. Practices embedded in emergent curriculum make visible the work of these theorists—no longer is it contained only in early childhood texts.
[liz]9.20.12
Children:
· Learn when their interest is caught
· They are wired to construct their knowledge of the world through constant practice.
Teachers:
· Respond to children’s inherent motivation to learn
· Follow the children as models for their own adult curiosity
· Learning with children and about them
· Watching>Thinking>Responding=Emergent Curriculum
Emergent Curriculum:
· Is invented by its participants
· Requires continual alertness
· It’s full of surprises and new challenges
· It can’t really be written until after it’s happened [reflection process]*
Documentation:
· Take notes, pictures and examples of children’s work to create visual representations of children’s emergent learning [and open dialogue with the community].*
· [Requires ‘deep reflection’ analyzing/evaluating data]*
The Task for Us All:
· To reflect on what you believe about curriculum
· To reflect on what you want in your classroom
· Create choices and act upon them
Be Attitude:
· Be careful thinkers
· Be willing to explore, practice and dialogue
Know:
· When children explore through play their own theories about how the world works are engaged, exercised, tested and modified.
· “Teachers who value children’s ideas want to support those ideas and take the children’s learning to higher levels without interfering in their play.” What does this mean and how does it translate in our practice?
Remember the potential of the child
· What are our obstacles to emergent practice?
· How to prepare yet remain open to curricular possibilities?
· How to show in curriculum development that we value the child and the child’s ideas?
Susan’s Definition of Emergent Curriculum (p.6):
· While framed by the teacher, it is child initiated, allowing for collaborations between children and teachers, and giving everyone a voice.
· It is responsive to the child, thereby allowing teachers to build upon existing interests.
· In its practice, the teacher takes on the role of facilitator, taking what she sees and hears, and bringing to children the opportunity to discover more, dig deeper, and construct further knowledge.
· It is flexible in that curriculum planning, rather than being done well in advance, is constantly developing. Curriculum is dynamic, neither stagnant nor repetitive.
· It enables children’s learning and teachers’ thinking to be made visible through varied forms of documentation.
· It builds upon the theories of the recognized theorists in our field: the work of Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky supports the philosophy of emergent curriculum. Practices embedded in emergent curriculum make visible the work of these theorists—no longer is it contained only in early childhood texts.
[liz]9.20.12
Emergent Curriculum: Theory to Practice (Susan Stacey)
Chapter One “Emergent Curriculum and Your Teaching Journey”
Examine beliefs
Consider how those beliefs affect or are non-existent in your work
When visitors enter Steppers, how do they perceive our values?
How do we protect and value play as a vehicle for learning?
How does your curriculum reflect your values, training and beliefs?
How does your curriculum build upon kid’s ideas?
Do policies/procedures and expectations support emergent curriculum practices?
How do we value children’s work?
An observer looking at the walls and shelves will see the kinds of investigations under way, the art, the available materials, and the accessibility of those materials, all of which tell a story—the story of what happens in this space.
Are our values visible?
Emergent curriculum offers an opportunity to work with the ideas of both children and teachers, to address children’s developmental needs, and to keep play-based curriculum at the forefront.
Image of Curriculum
Emergent Curriculum is not linear—it is organic, constantly growing and evolving. Sometimes it is even circular, as we observe, discuss, and examine documentation, raise questions, and observe again.
Emergent Curriculum is formed by relationships
Child: researcher, explorer, constructs knowledge, ventures into community, collaborates, represents ideas through play.
Pay attention to disposition of the child and teacher.
Emergent Curriculum requires the disposition of genuine curiosity about children and their play. A teacher who is curious, who wonders why children are doing a particular thing in a particular way, will be genuinely interested in finding a meaningful response.
The disposition of the reflective practitioner is one of keeping an open mind and examining one’s own practice, of taking a frequent and hard look at why things are done in a certain way, of always questioning and always thinking.
Prior Knowledge
We (teacher/child) come to classroom with prior experience/knowledge of the world. The child expresses knowledge/experience through play ideas.
The teacher demonstrates professional expertise through the decision-making and scaffolding she provides. Professional expertise also includes knowledge of kids: their development, their interests, their families, and their culture--And is knowledgeable about their previous play, questions, misunderstandings, and investigations.
Where children’s and teachers’ dispositions and prior knowledge meet with observations of kids interests, emergent curriculum can begin to take shape.
Attributes of Emergent Curriculum:
Teacher’s practice: “Facilitating Deep Exploration”
Documentation: Through graphic means, documentation shows the process of children’s investigations and learning, enabling teachers and children to revisit the work, reflect upon it, and uncover meaning and future directions. A form of teacher research.
*By the November Staff meeting everyone will have at least one piece of documentation shared on our walls/website highlighting your thread of interest.
The Documentation will contain the following: A photo, the observational story (with children’s dialogue—if possible), teacher reflection and questions, and quote from a theorist or contemporary thinker/book that supports and expands upon your story/reflections.
Emergent Curriculum asks you to reexamine your beliefs about why you do what you do in the classroom and how you can work in collaboration with both adults and children. “What are you doing and why?” is a constant question to the reflective teacher. “What do you think the kid’s are doing and why?” How does the environment or how can the environment support what’s happening and why. What changes can you make and why? Creating disequilibrium and leading to new insights/knowledge/strength of teaching practices.
Does your teaching practice fit with your beliefs?
Does our teaching structure/environment fit with emergent practices.
Given your thread of interest consider: What will happen to our classroom environment, to our routines, and to the kinds of activities we are doing?
What are the children’s developmental tasks right now? What are our kid’s individual preferences for understanding, constructing and representing their worlds? (Just an interesting question)
The Teacher as Researcher: Switch from knowing what will happen to questioning what will happen. Stand back and look carefully at what the children are doing, and really think about it. If something doesn’t work out, we can’t attribute that to the children—it’s for us to think about…what can we change or try differently?
“We have very few behavior issues because the children are too busy with meaningful work—meaningful to them, and supported by us. “ Where are things going awry with children or particular children—how can we tap into their interests to keep the day meaningful?
Teacher Disposition: Openness to change, willingness to try new things, commitment to learning, tendency to engage in child-centered practices—teaching with curiosity and willingness to reflect on own practice. Developing as a deep thinker, researcher and contributor to the team. Willingness to develop through change—create change. In order to think deeply and find meaning [and share in meaning-making], we need to collaborate and engage in dialogue with other teachers (Rinaldi, 2006)
Change—how does it feel?
Observation, Facilitation, collaboration and curiosity are key to teaching emergently: watching, making notes, talking, collecting artifacts, and taking photographs.
In order for curriculum to be responsive to children’s ideas, teachers must notice small events during play. When we’re paying attention to children’s play ideas and writing them down, we have many {potentially meaningful] choices of directions to take.
(Notes by Liz 10/21/12)
Chapter One “Emergent Curriculum and Your Teaching Journey”
Examine beliefs
Consider how those beliefs affect or are non-existent in your work
When visitors enter Steppers, how do they perceive our values?
How do we protect and value play as a vehicle for learning?
How does your curriculum reflect your values, training and beliefs?
How does your curriculum build upon kid’s ideas?
Do policies/procedures and expectations support emergent curriculum practices?
How do we value children’s work?
An observer looking at the walls and shelves will see the kinds of investigations under way, the art, the available materials, and the accessibility of those materials, all of which tell a story—the story of what happens in this space.
Are our values visible?
Emergent curriculum offers an opportunity to work with the ideas of both children and teachers, to address children’s developmental needs, and to keep play-based curriculum at the forefront.
Image of Curriculum
Emergent Curriculum is not linear—it is organic, constantly growing and evolving. Sometimes it is even circular, as we observe, discuss, and examine documentation, raise questions, and observe again.
Emergent Curriculum is formed by relationships
Child: researcher, explorer, constructs knowledge, ventures into community, collaborates, represents ideas through play.
Pay attention to disposition of the child and teacher.
Emergent Curriculum requires the disposition of genuine curiosity about children and their play. A teacher who is curious, who wonders why children are doing a particular thing in a particular way, will be genuinely interested in finding a meaningful response.
The disposition of the reflective practitioner is one of keeping an open mind and examining one’s own practice, of taking a frequent and hard look at why things are done in a certain way, of always questioning and always thinking.
Prior Knowledge
We (teacher/child) come to classroom with prior experience/knowledge of the world. The child expresses knowledge/experience through play ideas.
The teacher demonstrates professional expertise through the decision-making and scaffolding she provides. Professional expertise also includes knowledge of kids: their development, their interests, their families, and their culture--And is knowledgeable about their previous play, questions, misunderstandings, and investigations.
Where children’s and teachers’ dispositions and prior knowledge meet with observations of kids interests, emergent curriculum can begin to take shape.
Attributes of Emergent Curriculum:
- Framed by teacher--child initiated, allowing for collaborations between children and teacher, and giving everyone a voice
- Responsive to child,--allowing teachers to build upon existing interests.
- Teacher>role of facilitator, taking what is seen and heard, and bringing to children the opportunity to discover more, dig deeper, and construct further knowledge.
- Rather than being done well in advance, is constantly developing.
- Enables visibility of kid’s learning and teacher’s thinking.
- Builds upon theorists: Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky
- Thru observation we notice details play, uncover kid’s thinking, tnetions, and understandings and misunderstandings.
- Thru dialogue with co-teacher, you attempt to find the meaning, intentions, or explorations of play and plan for collaborations with children.
- When we succeed in uncovering deep interests, we also learn something about teaching—we learn, over time, how to make curriculum decisions more easily, how to recognize children’s big play ideas, and what kinds of ideas recur over and over again, reminding us that for the children these topics are important ideas.
Teacher’s practice: “Facilitating Deep Exploration”
- Inviting to discover more, dig deeper, and construct further knowledge.
- When a child engages in further exploration, the teacher scaffolds. She brings her knowledge and experience to the situation, thinking deeply about where the child is and how she as a teacher might further the child’s interest, knowledge and engagement with the topic.
- Planning Flexibly: constantly developing>Dynamic. “Plan and let go”. Setting aside plan to make room for the child’s real interests.
Documentation: Through graphic means, documentation shows the process of children’s investigations and learning, enabling teachers and children to revisit the work, reflect upon it, and uncover meaning and future directions. A form of teacher research.
*By the November Staff meeting everyone will have at least one piece of documentation shared on our walls/website highlighting your thread of interest.
The Documentation will contain the following: A photo, the observational story (with children’s dialogue—if possible), teacher reflection and questions, and quote from a theorist or contemporary thinker/book that supports and expands upon your story/reflections.
- Vygotsky: Just like teachers, when children show each other what to do or assist younger children, they are scaffolding for the less experienced child. When do we see this happen at Steppers—thru teacher encouragement or initiated by the children themselves?
- Piaget: Constructing knowledge through experience and hands-on work, by providing many opportunities for joining things together and using trial/error till best method comes clear to child. When does this happen at Steppers?
- Dewey: study real life>research real community members>represent learning in classroom. (Or purposeful work?)
Emergent Curriculum asks you to reexamine your beliefs about why you do what you do in the classroom and how you can work in collaboration with both adults and children. “What are you doing and why?” is a constant question to the reflective teacher. “What do you think the kid’s are doing and why?” How does the environment or how can the environment support what’s happening and why. What changes can you make and why? Creating disequilibrium and leading to new insights/knowledge/strength of teaching practices.
Does your teaching practice fit with your beliefs?
Does our teaching structure/environment fit with emergent practices.
Given your thread of interest consider: What will happen to our classroom environment, to our routines, and to the kinds of activities we are doing?
What are the children’s developmental tasks right now? What are our kid’s individual preferences for understanding, constructing and representing their worlds? (Just an interesting question)
The Teacher as Researcher: Switch from knowing what will happen to questioning what will happen. Stand back and look carefully at what the children are doing, and really think about it. If something doesn’t work out, we can’t attribute that to the children—it’s for us to think about…what can we change or try differently?
“We have very few behavior issues because the children are too busy with meaningful work—meaningful to them, and supported by us. “ Where are things going awry with children or particular children—how can we tap into their interests to keep the day meaningful?
Teacher Disposition: Openness to change, willingness to try new things, commitment to learning, tendency to engage in child-centered practices—teaching with curiosity and willingness to reflect on own practice. Developing as a deep thinker, researcher and contributor to the team. Willingness to develop through change—create change. In order to think deeply and find meaning [and share in meaning-making], we need to collaborate and engage in dialogue with other teachers (Rinaldi, 2006)
Change—how does it feel?
Observation, Facilitation, collaboration and curiosity are key to teaching emergently: watching, making notes, talking, collecting artifacts, and taking photographs.
In order for curriculum to be responsive to children’s ideas, teachers must notice small events during play. When we’re paying attention to children’s play ideas and writing them down, we have many {potentially meaningful] choices of directions to take.
(Notes by Liz 10/21/12)