Early Childhood
Articles available from the EarlychildhoodNEWS site, http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/
|Theories of Child Development: Building Blocks of Developmentally Appropriate Practices |
|By Terri Jo Swim, Ph.D. |
|“The best teacher is not the one who fills the student’s mind with the largest amount of factual data in a minimum of |
|time, or who develops some manual skill almost to the point of uncanniness, but rather the one who kindles an inner fire,|
|arouses moral enthusiasm, inspires the student with a vision of what she may become, and reveals the worth and permanency|
|of moral and spiritual and cultural values." |
|– Harold Garnet Black |
| |
|Many individuals enter the field of early childhood education because they love children. You may be one of them. How |
|could a person not love children or, at least like them a great deal, in order to spend so much time with them on a |
|daily, weekly, and yearly basis? For many years, practitioners in early childhood education have assumed that this love |
|of children was a primary component in the “quality equation.” In other words, if you love young children enough, then |
|you would provide high-quality care and education for them. Jane Weichel (2003), President of the National Association |
|for the Education of Young Children says is this no longer the formula. Scholarly research on the relationship between |
|teacher qualifications and child outcomes now supports the notion that, first and foremost, teachers must have knowledge,|
|skills, and dispositions about
|Theories of Child Development: Building Blocks of Developmentally Appropriate Practices |
|By Terri Jo Swim, Ph.D. |
|“The best teacher is not the one who fills the student’s mind with the largest amount of factual data in a minimum of |
|time, or who develops some manual skill almost to the point of uncanniness, but rather the one who kindles an inner fire,|
|arouses moral enthusiasm, inspires the student with a vision of what she may become, and reveals the worth and permanency|
|of moral and spiritual and cultural values." |
|– Harold Garnet Black |
| |
|Many individuals enter the field of early childhood education because they love children. You may be one of them. How |
|could a person not love children or, at least like them a great deal, in order to spend so much time with them on a |
|daily, weekly, and yearly basis? For many years, practitioners in early childhood education have assumed that this love |
|of children was a primary component in the “quality equation.” In other words, if you love young children enough, then |
|you would provide high-quality care and education for them. Jane Weichel (2003), President of the National Association |
|for the Education of Young Children says is this no longer the formula. Scholarly research on the relationship between |
|teacher qualifications and child outcomes now supports the notion that, first and foremost, teachers must have knowledge,|
|skills, and dispositions about
References: |Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32, 513-531. | | | |Chess, F. & Thomas, A. (1987). Know your child. New York, NY: Basic Books. | | | |Cowles, M. & Aldridge, J. (1992). Activity-oriented classrooms. Washington, DC: NEA. | | | |Eddowes, E.A., & Aldridge, J. (1990). Hyperactivity or ‘activity hyper’ – helping young children attend in | | appropriate environments |Keogh, B. (1986). Temperament and schooling: Meaning of “Goodness of Fit.” In J.V. Lerner & R.M. Lerner (Eds.), Temperament| |and social interaction in infants and children | (1986). Temperament and social interaction in infants and children. San Francisco: Josey Bass. | | | |Pullis, M.E., Cadwell, J. (1982). The influence of children’s temperament | |characteristics on teachers’ decision strategies