Phase 1 Principles and Approaches of Early Childhood Educationatielearning.com/tutorial/1436171567PPTT_Phase-1.pdf · Friedrich Froebel Play is a natural instinct of the children

ATI Pre & Primary Teachers Training Course Phase-1 Page 1

Phase – 1

Principles and Approaches of Early Childhood Education

Principles and approaches to teaching young learners relate teaching to learning. Teaching

facilitates learning by promoting, nurturing a culture of learning & building connections

between knowledge. Teaching should facilitate the construction of meaning, promote

understanding, and connect theory and practice.

Learning is commonly defined as a process that brings together cognitive, emotional,

environmental influences. It leads to experiences for acquiring, enhancing, or making

changes in one's knowledge, skills, values, and world views (Illeris, 2000; Ormorod, 1995).

Learning as a process focuses on what happens when the learning takes place.

Explanations of what happens constitute learning theories. A learning theory is an attempt to

describe how people and animals learn, thereby helping us to understand the inherently

complex process of learning. Learning theories have two chief values according to Hill

(2002). One is in providing us with vocabulary and a conceptual framework for interpreting

the examples of learning that we observe. The other is in suggesting where to look for

solutions to practical problems. The theories do not give us solutions, but they do direct our

attention to those variables that are crucial in finding solutions.

Maria Montessori

We begin with the Montessori approach to teaching:

Maria Montessori (picture to the left) was, in many

ways, ahead of her time. Born in the town of Chiaravalle,

in the province of Ancona, Italy, in 1870, she became the

first female physician in Italy after her graduation from

medical school in 1896. In her medical practice, her

clinical observations led her to analyze how children learn,

and she concluded that they build themselves from what they find in their environment. What

ultimately became the Montessori method of education developed there, based upon

Montessori's scientific observations of these children's almost effortless ability to absorb

knowledge from their surroundings, as well as their tireless interest in

manipulating materials. Every piece of equipment, every exercise, every method Montessori

developed was based on what she observed children to do "naturally," by themselves,

unassisted by adults.


Children teach themselves. This simple but profound truth inspired Montessori's lifelong

pursuit of educational reform, methodology, psychology, teaching, and teacher training—all

based on her dedication to furthering the self-creating process of the child.

Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk, Holland, in 1952, but her work lives on through

the Association Montessori International (AMI), the organization she founded in Amsterdam,

Netherlands, in 1929 to carry on her work.

PRINCIPLES OF MONTESSORI METHOD

The Montessori method is based on several principles. Montessori believed that learning is

a “natural, self-directed process” that follows several fundamental laws of human nature.

According to Montessori principles, a child will naturally become in harmony with his or her

environment during the learning process as long as the environment is properly prepared

and maintained. The role of the adult in the child’s learning process is to simply prepare the

environment and to make sure this environment remains intact. Montessori’s principles state

that the adult who is preparing the environment needs to be committed to several things:

observation, individual liberty, and sufficient preparation. Montessori believes that as long as

the adults involved in the learning process follow these guidelines the children will engage

themselves in their own learning process.

The teaching methods used in the Montessori

classroom (picture to the left) are very specific.

The Montessori teacher must be sure to include

work tasks and activities that involve all of the

individual intelligences. These intelligences

include musical, kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal,

intrapersonal, intuitive, linguistic, and logical.

Children are given the opportunity to explore

different activities that address these different

areas of knowledge.

A Montessori class usually consists of 30 to 35 students and one to two teachers. Children

are grouped in three-year spans, which allow the children to remain with the same teacher

for three to six years. The classroom is usually divided into center stations. The center

stations are grouped by category such as daily living materials (washing station, cleaning

supplies, etc.), sensorial materials (sand, sound cylinders, etc.), academic materials (books,


pencils, etc.), and cultural/artistic materials (paints, crayons, markers, etc.). The materials

found in each station are carefully organized and usually remain in the same location

throughout the entire school year.

The materials used in the classroom are also an important aspect of the Montessori school

system. The materials used are specific to the Montessori school and each serve a very

specific purpose. When new material is introduced into the classroom the teacher carefully

demonstrates to the children exactly how the material should be used. After this

demonstration the children are expected to only use the material the way it is supposed to

be used. If the teacher sees the child using the material in a different way he or she will

demonstrate the proper use of the material once again. An example of such a material is the

dried pea work task. The child is given a bowl of dried peas along with a spoon and an

empty bowl. The teacher demonstrates to the child how to spoon the dried peas into the

empty bowl. The child is then left to complete this task on his or her own. If the teacher

were to see the child using the peas for any other play or work he or she would demonstrate

the task again.

Montessori claims that their school system, unlike traditional school systems, provides

children with the opportunity to grow into independent and self-sufficient individuals with a

deeply rooted love for learning.

How her Basic Principles came about :

Montessori kept a list on what children like:

• Children like to repeat exercises; once they discover certain activities they

want to repeat them constantly in order to master them (sensitive period).

• Children like to choose on their own.

• Children have the need to check on themselves.

• It is a challenge to them to come up with the right solution.

• Children like it when human movements are analyzed. How do you do a

specific movement? Is it a beautiful movement?

• Children enjoy silence exercises.

• Children favor good manners in their social behavior.

• Children like an ordered environment in which everything has a fixed place.

This gives them a sense of security and safety.


• Children feel a need to take care of their own body, for instance, washing,

blowing their nose.

• Children in the ages from three to six are geared toward their senses; through

their senses they learn to explore and order their environment.

• Children write before they start reading (no books yet).

Friedrich Froebel

Play is a natural instinct of the children. It has been effectively used

for teaching. Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel (picture to the left)

was the father of the Kindergarten system, "Children's Garden" a

system which encourages fun and play based learning. Froebel

characterized play as the "work" of childhood and described it as "the

purest, the most spiritual, product of man at this stage."

Froebel sought to encourage the creation of educational environment that involved practical

work and the direct use of materials. Through engaging with the world, understanding

unfolds. Hence the significance of play. It is both a creative activity and through it children

become aware of their place in the world. He went on to develop special materials (such as

shaped wooden bricks and balls - gifts), a series of recommended activities (occupations)

movement activities, and linking set of theories. His original concern was the teaching of

young children through educational games in the family. In the later years of his life this


became linked with a demand for the provision of special centers for the care and

development of children outside the home.

We have seen the development of kindergartens, and the emergence of a Froebel

movement. For informal educators, Friedrich Froebel's continuing relevance has lain in his

concern for learning through activity, his interest in social learning and his emphasis on

the 'unification 'of life.

Froebel labeled his approach to education as "self-activity". This idea allows the child to be

led by his or her own interests and to freely explore them. The teacher's role, therefore, was

to be a guide rather than lecturer.

Froebel's kindergarten was designed to meet each child's need for:

physical activity

the development of sensory awareness and physical dexterity

creative expression

exploration of ideas and concepts

the pleasure of singing

the experience of living among others

satisfaction of the soul

The Kindergarten Curriculum

Froebel’s Gifts

Froebel developed a series of gifts and occupations

for use in kindergartens. Representing what Froebel

identified as fundamental forms, the gifts had both

their actual physical appearance and also a hidden

symbolic meaning. They were to stimulate the child to

bring the fundamental concept that they represented

to mental consciousness. Froebel's gifts were the

following items.

Six soft, colored balls

A wooden sphere, cube, and cylinder

A large cube divided into eight smaller cubes

A large cube divided into eight oblong blocks

A large cube divided into twenty-one whole, six half, and twelve quarter cubes


A large cube divided into eighteen whole oblongs: three divided lengthwise three

divided breadth wise

Quadrangular and triangular tablets for arranging figures

Sticks for outlining figures· Whole and half wire rings for outlining figures

Various materials for drawing, perforating, embroidering, paper

cutting, weaving or braiding, paper folding, modeling, and interlacing

The occupations were items such as paper, pencils, wood, sand, clay, straw &sticks for use

in constructive activities. Kindergarten activities included games, songs, and stories. The

activities are designed to assist in sensory, physical development and socialization. By

playing, children socialize, imitate adult social and economic activities as they are gradually

led into the larger world of group life. The kindergarten provided a milieu that encouraged

children to interact with other children under the guidance of a loving teacher, and this is

followed in KG schools all over the world even today.

Jean Piaget

Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is

renowned for constructing a highly influential model of child

development and learning. Piaget discovered that children think and

reason differently at different periods in their lives. He believed that

everyone passed through an invariant sequence of four qualitatively

distinct stages.

Invariant means that a person cannot skip stages or reorder them. Although every normal

child passes through the stages in exactly the same order, there is some variability in the

ages at which children attain each stage.


Piaget identified four major stages: sensory-motor, preoperational, concrete operational

and formal operational. Piaget believed all children pass through these phases to advance

to the next level of cognitive development.

• Sensorimotor stage: from birth to age 2. Children experience the world through

movement and senses (use five senses to explore the world). During the sensorimotor stage

children are extremely egocentric, meaning they cannot perceive the world from others'

viewpoints. The sensori-motor stage is divided into six sub-stages: "(1) simple reflex (2) first

habits and primary circular reactions (3) secondary circular reactions (4) coordination of

secondary circular reactions (5) tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity and (6)

internalization of schemes."

• Simple reflexes are from birth to 1 month old. At this time infants use reflexes such

as rooting and sucking.

• First habits and primary circular reactions are from 1 month to 4 months old. During

this time infants learn to coordinate sensation and two types of scheme (habit and

circular reactions). A primary circular reaction is when the infant tries to reproduce an

event that happened by accident (ex: sucking thumb).

• The third stage, secondary circular reactions, occurs when the infant is 4 to 8 months

old. At this time they become aware of things beyond their own body; they are more

objects oriented. At this time they might accidentally shake a rattle and continue to do

it for sake of satisfaction.

• Coordination of secondary circular reactions is from 8 months to 12 months old.

During this stage they can do things intentionally. They can now combine and

recombine schemes and try to reach a goal (ex: use a stick to reach something).

They also understand object permanence during this stage. That is, they understand

that objects continue to exist even when they can't see them.

• The fifth stage occurs from 12 months old to 18 months old. During this stage infants

explore new possibilities of objects. They try different things to get different results.

• The preoperational stage usually occurs during the period between toddlerhood (18-

24months) and early childhood (7 years). During this stage children begin to use

language, memory and imagination also develops. In the preoperational stage,

children engage in make believe. They can understand and express relationships

between the past and the future. More complex concepts, such as cause and effect


relationships which they have not learned. Intelligence is egocentric, intuitive &not

logical.

• The concrete operational stage typically develops between the ages of 7-11 years.

Intellectual development in this stage is demonstrated through the use of logical and

systematic manipulation of symbols, which are related to concrete objects. Thinking

becomes less egocentric with increased awareness of external events, and involves

concrete references.

• The period from adolescence through adulthood is the formal operational stage.

Adolescents and adults use symbols related to abstract concepts. Adolescents can

think about multiple variables in systematic ways, can formulate hypotheses, and

think about abstract relationships and concepts.

Piaget's Key Ideas (SUMMARY)

Adaptation What it says: adapting to the world through assimilation and

accommodation

Assimilation

The process by which a person takes material into their mind from

the environment, which may mean changing the evidence of their

senses to make it fit.

Accommodation

The difference made to one's mind or concepts by the process of

assimilation.

Note that assimilation and accommodation goes together as you

can't have one without the other.

Classification

The ability to group objects together on the basis of common

features.

Class Inclusion

The understanding of more advanced than simple classification,

that some classes or sets of objects are also sub-sets of a larger

class. (E.g. there is a class of objects called dogs. There is also a

class called animals. But all dogs are also animals, so the class of

animals include that of dogs)

Conservation The realization that objects or sets of objects stay the same even

when they are changed about or made to look different.

Decantation The ability to move away from one system of classification to

another, one that is appropriate.

Egocentrism The belief that you are the center of the universe and everything


revolves around you: the corresponding inability to see the world

as someone else does and adapt to it. Not moral "selfishness", just

an early stage of psychological development.

Operation

The process of working something out in your head. Young

children (in the sensor motor and pre-operational stages) have to

act, and try things out in the real world, to work things out (like

count on fingers). Older children and adults can do more in their

heads.

Schema(or

scheme)

The representation in the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas,

and/or actions, which go together.

Stage A period in a child's development in which he or she is capable of

understanding some things but not others

Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage Characterized by

Sensori-motor

(Birth-2 yrs)

Differentiates self from objects

Recognises self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally:

e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a

noise

Pre-

operational

(2-7 years)

Achieves object permanence: realises that things continue to exist

even when no longer present to the sense (pace Bishop Berkeley)

Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and

words Thinking is still egocentric, has difficulty taking the viewpoint of

others.

Classifies objects by a single feature e.g. groups together all the red

blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of

colour

Concrete

operational

(7-11 years)

Can think logically about objects and events.

Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight

(age 9).

Classifies objects according to several features and can order them

in series along a single dimension such as size.

Formal Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses


operational

(11 years and

up)

systematically.

Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological

problems.

THE REGGIO EMILIA APPROACH

The Reggio Emilia approach is a form

of alternative education which focuses on

teaching children through a strong sense of

community. It is usually applied to young

students in pre-school and primary school

grades. This philosophy proposes interactive

methods of teaching, which often involve the

parents, educators and environment in a

variety of ways.

Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994) founded the 'Reggio Emilia' approach at a city in northern Italy

called Reggio Emilia. The 'Reggio' approach was developed for municipal child-care and

education programs serving children below six. The approach requires children to be seen

as competent, resourceful, curious, imaginative, inventive, possess a desire to interact and

communicate with others.

The 'Reggio' vision of the child as a competent learner has produced a strong child-directed

curriculum model. The curriculum has purposive progression but not scope and sequence.

Teachers follow the children's interests and do not provide focused instruction in reading and

writing. Reggio approach has a strong belief that children learn through interaction with

others, including parents, staff and peers in a friendly learning environment.

The Reggio Emilia approach was conceived, encompass and implement the theoretical

contributions of thinkers including Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. Collaboration

among children, teachers, parents, and the community is highly valued and the centers are

open to all families regardless of income and supported by the town.


This approach originated in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia after World War II. At that time,

some of the schools in the city rejected the traditional approach of teaching children through

strict discipline and guidelines. It adopted a more flexible method. Gradually, this new way

gained popularity around the world because it encourages child development through

exploration of interests and building relationships with others.

One of the key elements of the Reggio Emilia approach is the school environment. Small

and colorless classrooms are thought to be unproductive and limiting to a child’s

imagination. This philosophy suggests lessons be held in much bigger rooms with plenty of

light, space and real plants. The idea

behind the principle is to stimulate a

student’s sense of exploration from an early

stage. Some schools following the Reggio

Emilia approach try to limit the barriers

between classrooms to encourage

interaction between students.

Parents and friends are very important to

this alternative form of education. The children’s development is often seen as the

responsibility of the entire community. Parents are strongly encouraged to assist their

children, not only with homework, but also by being involved in the child's school activities.

The Reggio Emilia approach places a great value on parental input, and most school boards

hold open meetings on issues like school curriculum and policy.

A major innovation brought about by this type of philosophy is the role of educators.

Learning material is typically designed to enhance the teachers’ own education, to allow

them to learn along with their students. Many of these teaching methods include learning

from physical experience, such as touching, hearing or seeing. Examinations, such as

achievement tests, are often limited and a greater focus is put on helping the children to

comprehend the practical ways they can use what they are learning.

Another important aspect of the Reggio Emilia approach is that it gives children some control

over the way they learn things. Parents and teachers are often instructed to find ways to

incorporate individual student interests into a child's learning process. Children are also

motivated to express themselves through various means, such as writing, drawing and play-

acting. These works are often shared, and even revised, by their peers, to encourage

collective participation.


This model was conceived after World War II when the women of Reggio wanted to build a

school, literally from the rubble of the devastated town. The curriculum is based on close

observation and documentation of the children’s ideas by the teacher who co-constructs

knowledge with the children. Their ideology expanded and deepened and special roles are

given to the atelierista (helps children express ideas) and the pedagogista (the teacher and

connector of teachers). Parents continue to be engaged as partners in their child’s learning.

The environment is used as a valuable source of learning both to inspire, reflect, and to

promote the work of the children, which is done in small groups.

Here are some key features of Reggio Emilia's early childhood program:

The role of the environment-as-teacher

Within the Reggio Emilia schools, the educators are very concerned about what their

school environment teach children. Hence, a great attention is given to the look and

feel of the classroom. It is often referring to the environment as the "third teacher".

The aesthetic beauty within the schools is seen as an important part of respecting the

child and their learning environment.

A classroom atmosphere of playfulness and joy pervades.

Teachers organize environment rich in possibilities and provocations that invite the

children to undertake extended exploration and problem solving, often in small

groups, where cooperation and disputation mingle pleasurably.

Documentation of children's work, plants, and collections that children have made

from former outings are displayed both at the children's and adult eye level.

Common space available to all children in the school includes dramatic play areas

and work tables for children from different classrooms to come together.

Children's multiple symbolic languages

Using the arts as a symbolic language through which to express their understandings

in their project work

Consistent with Dr. Howard Gardner's notion of schooling for multiple intelligences,

the Reggio approach calls for the integration of the graphic arts as tools for cognitive,

linguistic, and social development.

Presentation of concepts and hypotheses in multiple forms such as print, art,

construction, drama, music, puppetry, and shadow play. These are viewed as

essential to children's understanding of experience.


Documentation as assessment and advocacy (Rather unique in Reggio approach)

Documenting and displaying the children's project work, which is necessary for

children to express, revisit, construct and reconstruct their feelings, ideas and

understandings.

Similar to the portfolio approach, documentation of children's work in progress is

viewed as an important tool in the learning process for children, teachers, and

parents.

Pictures of children engaged in experiences, their words as they discuss what they

are doing, feeling and thinking, and the children's interpretation of experience

through the visual media are displayed as a graphic presentation of the dynamics of

learning.

Teachers act as recorders (documenters) for the children, helping them trace and

revisit their words and actions and thereby making the learning visible.

Long-term projects

Supporting and enriching children's learning through in-depth, short-term (one week)

and long-term (throughout the school year) project work, in which responding,

recording, playing, exploring, hypothesis building and testing, and provoking occurs.

Projects are child-centered, following their interest, returning again and again to add

new insights.

Throughout a project, teachers help children make decisions about the direction of

study, the ways in which the group will research the topic, the representational

medium that will demonstrate and showcase the topic.

The teacher as researcher

The teacher's role within the Reggio Emilia approach is complex. Working as co-

teachers, the role of the teacher is first and foremost to be that of a learner alongside

the children. The teacher is a teacher-researcher, a resource and guide as she/he

lends expertise to children.

Within such a teacher-researcher role, educators carefully listen, observe, and

document children's work and the growth of community in their classroom and are to

provoke and stimulate thinking

Teachers are committed to reflection about their own teaching and learning.


Classroom teachers working in pairs and collaboration, sharing information and

mentoring between personnel.

Home-school relationships

Children, teachers, parents, community are interactive. They work together. Building

a community of inquiry between adults and children.

For communication and interaction can deepen children's inquiry and theory building

about the world around them

Programs in Reggio are family centered. Loris's vision of an "education based on

relationships" focuses on each child in relation to others and seeks to activate and

support children's reciprocal relationships with other children, family, teachers,

society, and the environment.

Reggio approach is not a formal model with defined methods (such as Waldorf and

Montessori), teacher certification standards and accreditation processes. But rather, the

educators in Reggio Emilia speak of their evolving "experience" and see themselves as a

provocation and reference point, a way of engaging in dialogue starting from a strong and

rich vision of the child. In all of these settings, documentation was explored as a means of

promoting parent and teacher understanding of children's learning and development.

The Reggio Emilia approach on early childhood education, it did not play down on the other

approaches such as Waldorf and Montessori. Each approach has its own strengths and

weaknesses as well as areas of difference.

The Pre-primary Schools of Reggio Emilia

In contrast, the educators in the preprimary schools of Reggio Emilia are very concerned

about what their school environments teach children, often referring to the environment as

the "third educator" in conjunction with the two classroom teachers (Gandini, 1998, p. 177).

The environment reflects the schools' grounding in John Dewey's educational philosophy

and Vygotsky's social constructivist learning theory (Malaguzzi, 1998). It embodies Reggio

educators' belief that children are resourceful, curious, competent, imaginative, and have a

desire to interact with and communicate with others (Rinaldi, 1998, p. 114). They believe that

children can best create meaning and make sense of their world through living in complex,

rich environments which support "complex, varied, sustained, and changing relationships

between people, the world of experience, ideas and the many ways of expressing ideas"

(Cadwell, p. 93) rather than from simplified lessons or learning environments. They also

believe that children have a right to environments which support the development of their

many languages (Reggio Children, 1996).


There is great concern for what the environment is teaching. The design of the schools

represents the structure of the community. The schools reflect a diversity of ages and

architectural styles yet each school is designed around a piazza which corresponds the

central piazzas of the city. These are not solely vehicles for moving through to get

someplace else but serve as gathering places for children from all the classes and

comfortable meeting spaces for parents and teachers. Entering the Diana School, a visitor

looks down the piazza where floor to ceiling windows and plants blur the boundaries

between outside and in, supporting the concepts of transparency and osmosis. Lights and

shadows reflect and flicker across the floor. The piazza offers many possibilities: a store,

stocked with real vegetables a kaleidoscope large enough to hold several children; and

fanciful dress-up clothes all invite investigation, lingering, conversation and collaboration.

Reggio educators include aspects of a home into the school: vases of flowers, real dishes,

tablecloths, and plants. There is attention to design and placement of objects to provide a

visual and meaningful context. The objects within the space are not simplified, cartoon like

images that are assumed to appeal to children, but are "beautiful" objects in their own right.

For example, dried flowers hang from the ceiling beams and attractive jars of beans and

seeds are displayed on shelves in the dining area of Arcobaleno Infant-Toddler Center. On

the 1997 study tour to Reggio, I was struck by the beautiful wooden table with a large bowl

of flowers and wooden sideboard in one of the rooms in La Villetta School. I imagined being

in a fine Italian dining room! Manufactured and natural materials available for art projects are

carefully displayed in transparent containers, or objects are set on or before mirrors to

provide multiple views and capture children's attention. The strong role of the arts in Italian

culture is clearly evident in the place of the atelier (art studio), mini ateliers adjacent to each

classroom and the role the atelierista (artist-teacher) plays in supporting children and

teachers in their work.

The walls hold the history of the life within the school in the form of documentation panels of

children's words and photos which synthesize past projects and chronicle current ones.

Children's work and words are highly visible within the space. Communicating clearly to the

children, their parents & the community. Having respect and value for children's abilities,

potential, creating another form of transparency and osmosis between the school and

surrounding community.

According to John Dewey Education is life itself


John Dewey (1859-1952) believed that learning being active and

schooling was long and restrictive. His idea was that children

came to school to do things and live in a community which gave

them real, guided experiences which fostered their capacity to

contribute to society. For example, Dewey believed that students should be involved in real-

life tasks and challenges.

• Math could be learnt via learning proportions in cooking or figuring out how long it

would take to get from one place to another by mule

• History could be learnt by experiencing how people lived, geography, what the

climate was like, and how plants and animals grew, were important subjects

Dewey had a gift for suggesting activities that captured the center of what his classes were

studying. Dewey's education philosophy helped forward the "progressive education"

movement, and spawned the development of "experiential education" programs and

experiments.

THE THEMATIC APPROACH (INTEGRATED CURRICULUM)

Thematic teaching is about students actively constructing their own knowledge. Theorists

Piaget and Vygotsky were strong proponents of this constructivist approach. Piaget (1926)

believed that knowledge is built in a slow, continuous construction of skills and

understanding that each child brings to each situation as he or she matures. He also

emphasized the cognitive growth that takes place when students cooperate and interact with

one another. Vygotsky (1997, 175) suggested that social interaction and collaboration were

powerful sources of transformation in the child's thinking: "In education it is far more

important to teach the child how to think than to communicate various bits of knowledge to

him."

Therefore, thematic teaching can be defined as the process of integrating and linking

multiple elements of a curriculum in an ongoing exploration of many different aspects of a

topic or subject. It involves a constant interaction between teacher and students and their

classroom environment. Among the important elements that foster success in any thematic

project are initiation of the theme, the teacher's role, group exploration, integration of the

theme with the curriculum and learning centers, and building and maintaining spirit and

enthusiasm.


Various Web sites also can aid in the initiation of a theme. For younger students, visit the

Web site of Jan Brett, author of Gingerbread Baby (1999) as well as many other children's

books (www.janbrett.com). Older students can research their interest in particular aspects of

a theme via the library and the Internet.

Thematic Teaching and Curriculum Integration are established with the following

goals in mind:

INSTRUCTION is planned to accommodate individual interests, abilities, and rates of

learning while fostering a climate of teamwork and mutual support. Students are grouped

into heterogeneous, mixed-age classes that are taught by a two-teacher team. Students stay

with these teachers for two years. They work in groups of all sizes and composition,

engaged in activity-based, learning projects. They have many opportunities to make

decisions about their own learning and to develop responsibility. Students’ progress at their

own best rate and move on when they are ready. There is no ceiling on the level of work

they can do.

CURRICULUM is interdisciplinary/integrated, organized around themes, with many hands-on

activities and in-depth study of content. All levels focus on the skills of communicating well in

oral and written forms and using mathematical concepts to solve problems. A strong

citizenship program emphasizes perseverance, responsibility, and other life skills.

Assessment of learning is based on individual growth and performance.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT is encouraged and recognized as essential for creating a

nurturing, family-like, school environment. Many parents work in the classroom and

throughout the school.

Thus, thematic teaching is about bringing together various aspects of the curriculum into

meaningful association to focus upon broad areas of study. It views learning and teaching in

a holistic way and reflects the real world, which is interactive. In general, integrated

curriculum or interdisciplinary curriculum include:

• A combination of subjects


• An emphasis on projects

• Sources that go beyond textbooks

• Relationships among concepts

• Thematic units as organizing principles

• Flexible schedules

• Flexible student groupings.

Recommended reference reading:

Gardner, H. 1993. l-rarncs of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences, 10th

anniversary ed. New York: Basic Books.

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