The long-awaited new edition of NAEYC's book Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs is here, fully revised and updated! Since the first edition in 1987, it has been an essential resource for the early childhood education field. Early childhood educators have a professional responsibility to plan and implement intentional, developmentally appropriate learning experiences that promote the social and emotional development, physical development and health, cognitive development, and general learning competencies of each child served. But what is developmentally appropriate practice (DAP)? DAP is a framework designed to promote young children's optimal learning and development through a strengths-based approach to joyful, engaged learning. As educators make decisions to support each child's learning and development, they consider what they know about (1) commonality in children's development and learning, (2) each child as an individual (within the context of their family and community), and (3) everything discernible about the social and cultural contexts for each child, each educator, and the program as a whole. This latest edition of the book is fully revised to underscore the critical role social and cultural contexts play in child development and learning, including new research about implicit bias and teachers' own context and consideration of advances in neuroscience. Educators implement developmentally appropriate practice by recognizing the many assets all young children bring to the early learning program as individuals and as members of families and communities. They also develop an awareness of their own context. Building on each child's strengths, educators design and implement learning settings to help each child achieve their full potential across all domains of development and across all content areas.
This book describes in simple terms exactly how schools should align and organize professional learning to ensure significant positive change in teaching and student learning. The author's partnership principles-a humanizing approach to professional learning-apply to workshops, intensive learning teams (a focused form of professional learning communities), and instructional coaching. This is the first in a two volume series that is designed to provide a simple (not simplistic) framework and a set of tools for improving teaching in schools. (The second volume, The Big Four, was proposed last year.)
In this concise and accessible guide, the authors are sympathetic to the particular demands of teaching three to eight year olds and offer practical solutions to the complex issues that are currently faced by early years educators. In recognizing the demands on practitioners, they provide new and challenging frameworks for an understanding of the practice of teaching young children and draw upon international research to offer a sound model of early years subject-structured teaching which has the quality of children's learning at its centre. Their aim is to support teacher expertise through stimulating teachers' thinking about children's development, motivation, ways of learning and the subjects they teach. These topics are clearly set in the complex institutional settings in which practitioners work and ways of taking and evaluating action are offered.
In university teachers'' hectic lives, finding space to reflect, restore, renew, and recommit can seem impossible. Jean Koh Peters and Mark Weisberg believe regular reflection is critical and have designed A Teacher''s Reflection Book to help teachers and other professionals find that space. Growing out of the authors'' extensive experience facilitating retreats and leading teaching and learning workshops, the book builds on their discoveries in those settings, supporting and promoting teachers'' self-directed development. Inviting that development, A Teacher''s Reflection Book is a cornucopia of stories, exercises, and examples that will inspire teachers to make reflection a cornerstone of their daily lives. With its multiple suggestions and strategies, it offers something for every reader, and is responsive to teachers'' needs at all stages of their careers. The book''s six chapters offer readers several perspectives from which to reflect. Some sections offer glimpses of teachers in the midst of their daily teaching lives, while others step away, inviting readers to reflect on what it means to have a vocation as a teacher. The book explores how we listen, a crucial yet rarely taught skill, essential for reflecting, as well as for learning and teaching. And it invites teachers to reflect on their students: who they are, and what and how they learn. For those latter reflections, the authors turn the focus on fear, which so pervades university life and which can distort learners'' and teachers'' perspectives and responses. Throughout this book, readers will visit several classrooms and listen to the evocative voices of several thoughtful students. Revelatory, practical, and wise, A Teacher''s Reflection Book is a valuable companion and guide. "One key strength of the book is its authentic writing style, which engages the reader and builds the trustworthiness of the authors. Another strength is the book''s wealth of readings and the activities it offers to catalyze teacher reflection." -- Teaching Theology and Religion, Ryan S. Gardner "This excellent book should be part of every teacher''s professional library. It is a book pitched at all teachers in higher education and, through the processes of reflection, a book that advances important principles of good teaching practice that are usually introduced all too briefly in the basic texts on teaching in higher education. ...Several descriptive words come to mind when reading this book. It is a polite and gentle book. Politeness is revealed in the book''s sub-title - ''Exercises, stories, invitations''. It is the idea of invitation that characterizes much of the book. It is not didactic but rather invites us to use the book and the processes described in it in ways that work best for us. It does this through questions and inductive approaches to reflection. Through these approaches and the careful use of real-life examples, we are gently invited to explore the perspectives presented in the text and apply these to our personal and professional lives. It is also an accessible book. Most refreshingly, it is not burdened with unnecessary technical jargon and convoluted language that sadly cripples too much writing in education today and makes learning inaccessible to many, particularly for those readers whose first language is not English." -- Higher Education Research & Development (HERDSA), Robert Cannon "I was asked to write a book review but I find that, instead, I want to write a thank you note thanking Jean Koh Peters and Mark Weisberg for the gift of their book, A Teacher''s Reflection Book. ...The reflections, examples and exercises you offer in the book make reflecting about both challenging and positive moments in my life as a teacher feel like something I can do easily and regularly. ...In this book, you have found a way to model, encourage and help create a compassionate space where teachers can make the deepest connection between who they are and what they do. You give us permission to find our truth in and the courage to bring our hearts to our teaching and writing. You have made a home for reflection." -- The Law Teacher, Kimberly Kirkland, University of New Hampshire School of Law "We are all so busy. We race from task to task. We attempt to multi-task; dividing and depleting our energies. How many times do we arrive in class breathless with hardly a moment to think about what we have planned for the day? I harbor no illusions that a blog entry is going to change our lives, but I would like to use this one to reiterate the need to make time for reflection, for contemplation about what we do, and how and why we do it. The value of doing so is laid out clearly in [this] new book..." -- Teaching Professor Blog, Maryellen Weimer
This book includes full coverage of the content of professional studies modules and goes beyond to support trainees on placements and in their learning on the course.
This volume explores transgender children and internalized body normalization in early childhood education settings, steeped in critical methodologies including post-structuralism, queer theory, and feminist approaches. The book marries theory and praxis, submitting to current and future teachers a text that not only presents authentic narratives about trans children in early childhood education, but also analyzes the forces at work behind gender policing, gender segregation, and transphobic education policies. As the struggles and triumphs of trans individuals have reached a watershed moment in the social fabric of the United States, this text offers a snapshot into the lives of ten transgender people as they reflect on their earliest memories in the American educational system.
This book provides a timely overview of the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework and explores what this means for early years' pedagogy and practice. As well as discussing the philosophy and rationale underpinning the changes, there are practical suggestions to support practitioners with the implementation of the revised framework, as well as insights from experienced professionals who share their knowledge and understanding and support you in reflecting on your own principles and practice. The book: Fosters deep understanding of the revised EYFS framework Provides a valuable source of reference for early years students and practitioners Promotes and helps develop good practice in early years Offers reflections and insights from experienced professionals into key areas of practice Makes links between the EYFS and current research, theory and practice The book draws on a wealth of expertise to provide an essential handbook for all early years students, practitioners and academics who are privileged to be involved with the care and education of young children. "This contemporary and relevant text explores, from multiple perspectives, the key challenges facing early years practitioners at a time of unprecedented change in education. It systematically explores and offers insights into the many agencies including education, health and social care that work together to enable high quality early years practice to be developed. By drawing on a range of professionals in the field, it challenges the reader to critically analyse the characteristics of effective early learning and to consider the key underpinning pedagogy that informs it. It is accessible to a wide audience including students, researchers, teacher trainers and practitioners. I would strongly recommend it as a set text on our Primary and Early Years PGCE course." Derval Carey-Jenkins, Principal Lecturer: PGCE Primary and Early Years Course Leader, University of Worcester, UK "This contemporary book focusing on the new Early Years Foundation Stage is an essential read for those studying and delivering early years curriculum and pedagogy. The book draws on theory, research, policy and practice and ensures that the chapters have significance to all early years practitioners. It challenges the reader to think reflectively about the EYFS and what is appropriate provision to support and develop young children's learning. The book is effectively organised into four relevant parts and is a very accessible read, often exemplifying high quality provision through interesting research observations, case studies and scenarios." Dr Avril Brock, Principal Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK Contributors: Jan Ashbridge, Pat Beckley, Emma Butcher, Elizabeth Carruthers, Liz Creed, Julie Kitchen, Rachel Sparks Linfield, Estelle Martin, Jane Murray, Jackie Musgrave, Kathy Ring, Anita Soni, Corinne Syrnyk
In 2001, The Guardian launched a competition called The School I'd Like, in which young people were asked to imagine their ideal school. This vibrant, groundbreaking book presents material drawn from that competition, offering a unique snapshot of perceptions of today's schools by those who matter most - the pupils. The book is wonderfully illuminated by children's essays, stories, poems, pictures and plans. Placing their views in the centre of the debate, it provides an evaluation of the democratic processes involved in teaching and learning by: identifying consistencies in children's expressions of how they wish to learn highlighting particular sites of 'disease' in the education system today illustrating how the built environment is experienced by today's children posing questions about the reconstruction of teaching and learning for the twenty-first century. This book offers a powerful new perspective on school reform and is essential reading for all those involved in education and childhood studies, including teachers, advisors, policy-makers, academics, and anyone who believes that children's voices should not be ignored.
Sharing insights of various theoretical perspectives to help understand the complex root causes of children’s behaviour, Supporting Positive Behaviour in Early Childhood Settings and Primary Schools highlights key responses that can encourage positive mental health, resilience and behaviour. Drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks, this book: Translates theoretical insights into adaptable and practical responses Considers children's strengths and needs with regards to resilience and mental health Includes case studies, tasks and questions for reflection Identifies innovative practical strategies for supporting positive behaviour in educational settings Combining theoretical perspectives on supporting positive behaviour, Supporting Positive Behaviour in Early Childhood Settings and Primary Schools is user-friendly and conceptually unified. It gives early childhood and primary students and teachers a clear understanding of what to do to facilitate positive behaviour and why to do it, encouraging true professionalism in education, and ensuring children learn and develop to their highest potential.
