Early Childhood

Curriculum Chapter 2
CURRICULUM PLANNING
Teachers use curriculum to intentionally plan ways for
children to construct knowledge in order to make sense
of their experiences. Appropriate curriculum content
focuses on all four developmental domains: cognitive
(language and literacy, mathematical, and scientific
thinking); physical; social and emotional; and creative
aesthetic expression.
A meaningful curriculum is integrated so that
learning experiences encompass many content areas.
It must be based on children’s interests and presented
in a context that stimulates children to invest in their
work. Learning takes time. Children need to interact
with the curriculum – to explore it, utilize it, question it
and evaluate it in their own way of learning. Children’s
engagement ensures purposeful and sustained learning.
Curriculum also must provide opportunities for children
to see and explore who they are within the context of
their family life and culture (Curtis and Carter, 2006).
Family involvement must be promoted and encouraged,
with respect and appreciation for the value of the home
culture. This enhances children’s self-esteem.
Essential Curriculum Planning Components
1. Performance standards or objectives for
children
2. Ongoing assessment of children’s skills,
development and abilities
3. Content in language and literacy,
mathematical concepts, and scientific
inquiry
4. Processes and experiences in a learning
context that capture the energy of the
children’s curiosity
5. Teacher interaction that balances teacherdirected
and child-initiated behaviors
and strategies
6. Organization of the environment,
schedule and materials
There are four aspects of curriculum when it is
created to be challenging and achievable:
• content worth knowing;
• specific indicators for children’s performance;
• attention to developmental characteristics;
and
• meaningful experiences built on children’s
natural curiosity (Katz and Chard, 1989).
In addition, ongoing daily interactions where
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teachers observe and assess children’s thinking and
progress help teachers set learning goals and plan
instruction. Observation, reflection and assessment
provide information for adjusting the teaching
environment to individual as well as group needs.
When assessment focuses on performance standards
the teacher can provide a scaffold within each learning
experience appropriate to the child’s emerging abilities.
Educators define curriculum as “an organized
framework that delineates the content that children are
to learn, the processes through which children achieve
the identified curricular goals, what teachers do to
achieve these goals, and the contexts in which teaching
and learning occur” (Bredekamp and Rosegrant, eds.,
1995).
A report from the National Research Council
(2001) describes three principles of learning that are
directly applicable to teaching:
• Children develop ideas and concepts early
on. Therefore, teaching strategies must
foster connections between new learning
and existing ideas.
• The learning environment must foster
both skills and conceptual understanding
to make knowledge usable. Therefore,
planning must take performance standards
into account, providing both content
knowledge and experiences that use the
information gained in meaningful ways.
• Children need guidance to learn how
to monitor their thinking, to be able to
understand what it means to learn and how
to do it. Planning must include strategies
that promote the development of thinking
skills, attitudes and dispositions (National
Research Council, 2001). Early childhood
teachers know that young children need
environments that are active and social, and
includecaringteachers. Timeforexploration
and play is not enough. Teachers also must
support children’s growth and learning to
help them reach new levels of competence
(Bredekamp and Rosegrant, 1995). Keeping
in mind Vygotsky’s theory on teaching and
learning, the teacher plays an integral role
in scaffolding a child’s learning by using
varied teaching behaviors and strategies
to nudge the child toward discovery and
understanding. No one teacher behavior
or strategy is best or used all the time.
Piaget points out that the context of the
experience and an environment with
many opportunities to explore materials is
fundamental to the learning process. These