A Developmental Approach to the Early Childhood Curriculum



Current Perspectives on the Early Childhood Curriculum

Lilian G. Katz, Ph.D.

Co-Director, Clearinghouse on Early Education & Parenting

Professor Emerita

University of Illinois

OPEN Eye Conference, London, Feb 16. 2008

I am delighted to have this opportunity to be here and learn more about the lively scene in early years education currently in the UK. The new Act seems to be attracting a lot of attention and many opinions – firmly held.

As I thought about what to focus on I thought I would share with you my current perspectives on the early years curriculum. However, I should warn you that the ideas and concepts that I shall present are based largely on my own experience and study, and grounded largely in North American practices, mal-practices and research.

I must leave it to you to decide which ideas are appropriate to the traditions and constraints in the contexts in which you work.

Though I must tell you that I have now lectured in more than fifty countries, I am always impressed by the similarities of the problems we early years educators face.

[e.g. low status, poor pay, and limited understanding among those who set policy and who are in charge , and so forth.] The policy and governmental strategies recently introduced here seem to have engendered strong and intense divide among various groups involved.

Some of you may be familiar with my work and will know that I like to talk in terms of what are called principles.

I make them up - not out of the blue, but based on extensive and constant study, and a long rich background of experience, my own, and the experiences teachers like yourselves who have shared their experiences and insights with me over many many years of my career.

Before I get into the principles, I think it helps to keep in mind that anyone who has to design curriculum – at any level and any subjects - must address four questions:

- Question 1: What should be learned?

- Here we think through the aims, goals, and objectives of our work.

- Question 2: When should it be learned? As we struggle to answer this question, we must take into account what we know (and don’t know) about the nature of development.

- Question 3: How is it best learned, taking into account our answers to the first two questions. These answers are usually captured by the term ‘pedagogy.’

- Question 4: How can we tell how well we have answered the first 3 questions?

Answering this fourth question involves evaluation and assessment, examining outcomes, or performance standards – as our regulatory agencies call them. But I prefer to call them effects,

A very big question for us is: when do we get the really important effects? We must worry about the possible differences between short and long term effects? This is a very serious issue in our field I shall try to come back to.

I cannot do complete justice to all these questions in such a short time – it is really a whole term’s work

Also – I should warn you that I may say something unkind about your favorite practices or activities;

Also I regret that I am not directly familiar with Waldorf-Rudolph Steiner approach to early education. I apologize for not being able to connect well to its major ideas and practices.

- Anyway, if I say something unkind about your favorite practices, don’t take it personally – take it professionally – consider what I have suggested and if it doesn’t make sense to you, dismiss it.

- Remember that we don’t all have to agree with each other – on everything.

- If we were all alike, we’d only need one of us!

- And, of course, I might be wrong! I doubt it!

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I have arranged the ideas into four parts as follows:

Part I. *What do we mean by a developmental approach to ece? Then:

Part II. *What should be learned?

Part III. *How is it best learned?

Part IV *Conclusion –and questions if there is still time.

Part I. What does it mean to take a developmental approach to the early childhood curriculum?

In terms of principles of practice:

Principle. #1 Developmental Approach means that what we teach and how we teach changes with the ages of the learners, and the experience that comes with age.

- Development is a particular kind of change. It is about change that is due to a combination of biology, maturation, and experience (environment)

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- Development has many dimensions – can’t go into detail on all of them, but will mention two important ones:

(i) The normative dimension i.e. typical by age

(ii) Dynamic dimension – the recursive cycle, how behavior patterns tend to “feed on themselves” – both positive and negative ones. Children caught in a negative cycle need the help of an adult to break the cycle.

A developmental approach to early years education takes into account both dimensions: the normative (what most children can do) and the dynamic (what young children should be able to do – based on what we know about long term development)

- It seems to me that many of us, here and in our field in the US are suffering from the “Push Down” phenomenon – that is, doing earlier and earlier to children what we probably shouldn’t do later!

I also want to note that recent research on early neurological development suggests that young children benefit greatly from continuous, contingent interactions.

The best example of such continuous contingent interactions are conversations, they are sequences of behaviors involving two (or perhaps three or four) individuals in which participants respond in contingent fashion to the other in a sequence of such behaviors. But there must be something to talk about that is of interest, of concern, and that matters to the participants.[1]

Principle #2. Just because children can do something – i.e. normative, does not mean that they should do it. What children should learn and should do must be decided on the basis of what best serves their development in the long term (dynamic) – to the extent we know it!

And there is still a great deal that we don’t know about long term effects.

Part II – What should children be learning?

Given what we do know, this is a surprisingly difficult question (example of the autumn leaves abscission layer)

I suggest we can think about it in terms of 4 types of learning goals:

(#i) knowledge/understanding - I put this first on the list, not because it is more important than the other three, but because in most societies, educational institutions are charged with the responsibility for helping the young to acquire what it considers worthwhile knowledge..

There is of course a big question concerning what is knowledge in the early years? I have attached the term understanding here for what are probably obvious reasons. But my intention is to emphasize helping children to understand more and more deeply and accurately the knowledge they are acquiring. (Examples given here)

- I suggest that if children are coerced into behaving as though they understand something, but they really don’t, we undermine their confidence in their own intellectual powers, their own questions, ideas, thoughts and soon give up (Dweck??)

(ii) Skills – Skills are different from knowledge’ they are usually thought of as small units of action that can be observed or fairly easily inferred from observation of behavior. There are very many of them, depending on how specific we want to be. There are for example,, verbal skills, many social skills, physical (e.g. fine and grow motor skilsl, etc).

Skills or skillfulness tends to require practice, and for young children should be acquired in the context of a sense of purposefulness.

(iii) Dispositions - These are difficult to define. I usually think of them as habits of mind with intentions, and motives, - (not attitudes). It may help to think of the distinction between having:

- reading skills vs. the disposition to be a reader

- listening skills vs. the disposition to be a listener

There are many examples. The main point here is that it is not much use to have the skills if the process of acquiring them is so painful that the learner never want to use them.

Clearly we want children to acquire, for example, the skills involved in reading and alongside this, the disposition to be readers – life-long disposition to be readers.

o Some main points here:

- Dispositions cannot be learned from instruction- but they can be damaged by it!

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- Many important dispositions are most likely in-born; maybe we could think of them as pre-dispositions

- And perhaps are stronger in some children than in others.

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- It seems reasonable to assume that the most important ones are in-born, e.g. dispositions to learn, make sense of experience, (examples: caterpillar; March)

- E.g. the disposition to become related to others, the disposition to cooperate, protect and defend oneself, perhaps many others, not all equally desirable, etc.

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- I suggest that unless a child lives in a chaotic environment (which by definition does not make sense) – all children have disposition to make the best sense they can of their experience

- I suggest also, that in addition to those that are inborn, many dispositions are learned from being around people who have them and who are observed enacting them – e. g. Whitehurst’s research on young children who observe adults reading and come to think of it as “something people do.”

- So I suggest that we should ask ourselves: Can the dispositions we want to encourage and support in the children we teach be seen by them in us?

Dispositions must be behaved to be strengthened

(iv) A fourth learning goals is Feelings

- Of course, many capacities for feeling are inborn

- But many important feelings learned from experience;

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- Cannot be learned from instruction, exhortation, or indoctrination, - although I do think that adults have a role in helping children to learn appropriate feelings. (e.g., if a child is very upset about not getting a turn with a toy or activity, the teacher can say matter-of-factly something like “I know you’re disappointed…..but there’s always tomorrow and it might work out better tomorrow.

- Something like early learning how to cope with set backs and disappointments - from occasional – not frequent – incidents.

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- I usually hear a lot of talk about feelings of self-esteem and their importance - especially in the US.

- I think it is a much misunderstood concept

- I suggest it is better to focus on feelings of confidence, competence

- And keep in mind that self-esteem or self confidence cannot be gained from flattery, “certificates with pictures of smiling bears saying “You’re special!”

- Self-esteem is often confused with narcissism = pre-occupation about how one looks to others, what others will think of us, a pattern of feelings that lead to emptiness, and boredom, etc.

- Self-esteem is also strengthened with experience of overcoming difficulties, coping with low-moments, observing and noting one’s own progress.

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P #3 If we want children to have self-esteem, we must esteem them.

- That means we must give them opportunities to make decisions, choices, consulted, worthwhile studies;

Genuine choices – not phony ones.

In sum:

- All four categories must be addressed and assessed explicitly, not by default

*By the way, there is interesting evidence that gang leaders have high self-esteem, and provoke incidents in which they can demonstrate to those around them how powerful they are, etc. etc (based on the research of Roy Baumeister)

- We must periodically assess the progress of children in all four categories of learning goals -- Not with tests - But by developing portfolios of their work, of observations we have made of their behavior, documenting their work, etc.,

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Principle #4 The younger the children, more important it is to strengthen their dispositions to look more closely at events and phenomena in their own environment worth learning more about.

- Must strengthen in-born disposition to make sense of their own experience.

- {e. g. Lambs like to March} {Books red/read}

- A developmentally appropriate curriculum helps children to make better, fuller, and deeper sense of their own experience.

As children get older, we must help them make better sense of other’s experiences and environments, those far away in both time and place.

Principle #5 Unless children have early and frequent experience of what it feels like to understand something in depth, they cannot acquire the disposition to seek in-depth knowledge and understanding – to engage in life-long learning

- Very important in a democracy

- Another important thing about dispositions is that once they are lost or damaged it maybe that cannot be put back in later, e.g. The disposition to go on learning, finding things out, looking things up, etc.. --- so important for citizens in a democracy who have a right to vote.

Principle #6 We must develop the habit of distinguishing between the academic and intellectual goals of education at every level.

o In US many policy makers, bureaucrats, government officials, and many parents (parents are just like people) think that during the preschool there are only two alternative curriculum approaches: “Skill and drill, academic instruction” versus “play and paste”

o Those are not the only two alternatives:

o I suggest we have a major responsibility help our leaders and decision-makers to understand the distinction between academic goals and intellectual goals

o As children grow older, we must consider both

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- It may help to distinguish between the two:

- Academic activities are small specific bits of information, knowledge, and skills

- usually they are items that can be correct, incorrect

- Usually taught out of context

- The elements are learned by rote and are regurgitated

- Memorized and practiced in worksheets and exercises

- have no internal logic, they are systems of symbols that developed over a long period of human history and activity and must be learned, e.g. the alphabet and punctuation

- Intellectual Goals

- These address the dispositions to make sense, analyze, synthesize, theorize, speculate about causes-effect relationships, make predictions, hypothesize, speculate, ponder, conjecture, and therefore they should be involved in in-depth investigations – that we refer to as projects or project work (Used to see wonderful project work all over the UK in the 60s nd 70s- where did it go and why?) (See also the work in Reggio Emilia).

Please Keep in mind also, that enjoyment is not the goal of education –it is the goal of entertainment

The goal of education is to engage the mind fully – Including it moral and aesthetic sensibilities – and when we do that well, learners find it enjoyable, satisfying, (I would emphasize satisfying - but that is a by-product of good teaching, and not the goal of teaching/education..

Children in early childhood programs are engaged in far too much mindless and banal activity. Coloring and cutting and pasting the same silly pictures. Often items made by the teachers. Coloring pre-printed pictures of smiling animals. In the US, too much time is spent on the holidays. Two weeks of Valentine cards. Etc.

Principle # 7. Introduction to formal academic instruction too early, too intensely may result in children learning the academic details, but at the expense of the dispositions to use them.

– I refer to this as the damaged disposition hypothesis

o As I have already suggested, it is not much use to acquire skills if the processes of acquiring and learning them is either so painful or boring that the dispositions to use them can be damaged, instead of strengthened.

We are also informed by the research of Rebecca Marcon who followed up very low-income children who had been in two different kinds of preschool programs – one very academic and the other based on the High/Scope curriculum. When she following these children up into their elementary school years, the children in the academic program did not have any advantage, and in fact its damaging effects seemed to be greater for boys.

Why more damaging for boys?

While this is difficult to interpret, I suggest that boys do not so easily accept being placed in a passive role implied in the academic curriculum approach, whereas girls seem to accept passivity more easily. [2]

Principle # 8 Children come to school with different frequencies of exposure to academic types of activities, e.g. counting, reading signs, listening to stories, being read to, learning songs, holding pencils, trying to write their names, etc.

- So they vary in school readiness-related skills

- but I suggest it is a good idea to assume that they all come to school with powerful intellectual dispositions – e.g. to make sense of experience

(unless they are growing in chaotic environment)

- It requires substantial intellectual skills to cope with stressful environments; just because children are poor doesn’t mean that they don’t struggle to make sense of their environments and the actions of the people around them, just as children from affluent families do.

These intellectual dispositions must be supported, appreciated, strengthened, and used;

In other words, it is important not to confuse socio-economic status. with intellectual powers, even if it may be related to academic or school readiness.

Principle # 9. The younger the children, the larger the role of adults in helping them to achieve social competence –

This is a big topic – could easily spend whole day on it.

Evidence piles up just about daily that unless child achieves at least a minimal level of social competence by about age six, he or she is at risk for rest of its life

- Risks include school failure, dropping out, employment difficulties, marital adjustment difficulties, and parenting problems.

- Many young children get into the negative recursive cycle – e.g. a child with poor social approach and communication skills may be avoided or ignored by peers and therefore lacks opportunities to polish whatever skills she or he might have and to acquire and build new ones, and is therefore more avoided and ignored, in a negative recursive cycle.

- The cycle can only be broken with the help of an adult and it must be done, and is relatively easy to do early, and very hard to do once into the primary school years.

- There is some research to indicate that children who consistently rejected by their peers eventually find each other and gain – finally – a sense of belonging to a peer group based on their shared bitterness, animosity, if not hatred, for the out-group.

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- Social competence is not learned through instruction

- Young children must have opportunity for small group work, individuals make their own contributions to the total achievement,

- They must have opportunity to take responsibility, argue, resolve differences, cooperate, listen to each other, help each other, etc. (Very well done in Reggio Emilia).

Part III – How is all this best learned?

Given this view of what should be learned, and when it should be learned, then how is all this best learned?

Principle # 10, Younger the children, the more they learn through interactive experiences, active vs. passive, interactive, vs receptive experiences, or from transmission of information.

In other words, the younger the children, the more is learned through direct experience vs. indirect experience

-That doesn’t mean children don’t learn through passive, receptive experiences – e.g. stories, movies, TV – some things we might not want them to learn.

But the disposition to go on learning – the goal of all education – - life-long learning – the later ability to learn stuff that is not yet known – requires early interactive experience, discussion, and arguing skills.

And I think we have some data to show that these kinds of dispositions and skills are better learned in mixed-age groups.

Principle # 11. Must have opportunities to work on topic over extended period of time

- The children’s work and play should be satisfying

- I think we underestimate children’s capacities to gain satisfaction from hard work, effort at something important to them.

Principle #12 Children should be working part of the time at investigating phenomena and events around them worthy of their attention and understanding

I believe that one of the responsibilities of adults is to educate children’s attention

This means that children should be involved in in-depth investigations of worthwhile topics –

Remember that teaching is not only covering the subject, it is also, uncovering the subject.

- So that children deepen their knowledge and understanding of what goes on behind the scenes, how things are made, where they come from, how they grow, the sequence in which things occur, the tools people around them use, the materials involved, the long processes, vs. instant,

What the people around them do, and know, that are responsible for their well being and safety. Therefore the project approach – that used to be so well done all over the UK in the 60s and 70s.

Part IV. Conclusion

#1 I have tried to share my own views of what education is about. To me it is about developing in the young certain dispositions. These dispositions should include being reflective, inquisitive, inventive, resourceful, full of wonder (wonder-full?), wonderment, and puzzlement. These dispositions should include the habits of searching for evidence; they should include also the dispositions to be tender, courageous, caring, compassionate and include some humor as well! But I refer you to the definition of education provided by the British philosopher R. S. Peters:

To be educated is not to have arrived at a destination; it is to travel with a different view. What is required is not feverish preparation for something that lies ahead, but to work with a precision, passion and taste at worthwhile things that lie at hand.

#2 I really believe that each of us must come to care about everyone else's children. We must come to see that the well-being of our own individual children is intimately linked to the well-being of all other people's children. After all, when one of our own children needs life-saving surgery, someone else's child will perform it; when one of our own children is threatened or harmed by violence on the streets, someone else's child will commit it. The good life for our own children can only be secured if it is also secured for all other people's children.

But to worry about all other people's children is not just a strategic or practical matter; it is a moral and ethical one: to strive to secure the well-being of all other people's children is also right.

#3. As you address those who make the national policy decisions, approach them with the assumption that they have good intentions – even if that assumption is difficult at times!

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- Do your utmost to resist the temptation to become opponents

- Remember that adversaries and enemies tend to become alike in many fundamental ways

- Come together with your colleagues – those you disagree with as well as those you agree with , and work out a position statement about what you know and what you believe. Make a well reasoned statement, and then propose modifications in the law that will address our best current understandings of how children best grow, develop, and learn – with the sincere intention of helping the decision-makers to achieve their well-meaning intentions.

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And - remember that whoever might be the leader of your country in 30 - 40 years from now might be in someone's early years program today; and I hope she is having a good experience!

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[1] Blair, C. (2002). School readiness: Integrating cognition and emotion in a neurobiological conceptualization of child functioning at school entry. American Psychologist, 57(2), 111-127. EJ 646 501.

[2] Rebecca Marcon’s report can be downloaded, free of charge at

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