Curriculum Models provide a framework for organizing children's planning experiences. The following provides an overview of some commonly used early childhood curriculum models.
Bank Street Model
Lucy Sprague Mitchell founded Bank Street, an integrated approach.
In this model, the environment is arranged into learning centers, and planning is organized by using materials within the learning areas (centers).
Art
Science
Sensory/Cooking
Dramatic Play
Language/Literacy
Math/Manipulative/Blocks
Technology
Outdoors: Water and Sand Play
The Bank Street curriculum model represents the ideology of Freud, Erikson, Dewey, Vygotsky, and Piaget. This model draws upon the relationship between psychology and education. By understanding developmental domains and creating interest centers with materials that promote specific areas of development, children’s individual preferences and paces of learning are the focus.
“A teacher’s knowledge and understanding of child development is crucial to this approach. Educational goals are set in terms of developmental processes and include the development of competence, a sense of autonomy and individuality, social relatedness and connectedness, creativity, and integration of different ways of experiencing the world” (Gordon).[1]
Creative Curriculum Model (Diane Trister Dodge)
The Creative Curriculum model focuses primarily on children’s play and self-selected activities. The Environment is arranged into learning areas, and large blocks of time are given for self-selected play. This model focuses on project-based investigations as a means for children to apply skills, addressing four key areas of development: social-emotional, physical, cognitive, and language.
The curriculum is designed to foster the development of the whole child through teacher-led, small and large group activities centered around 11 interest areas:
blocks
dramatic play
toys and games
art
library
discovery
sand and water
music and movement
cooking
computers
outdoors.
The commercial curriculum provides teachers with details on child development, classroom organization, teaching strategies, and engaging families in the learning process. Child assessments are an important part of the curriculum, but must be purchased separately. Online record-keeping tools help teachers maintain and organize child portfolios, individualized plans, and report production.[2]
High Scope Model (David Weikert)
The High/Scope Model focuses on developing learning centers similar to the Bank Street Model and emphasizes key experiences for tracking child development. The key experiences are assessed using a Child Observation Record for tracking development and include areas of:
Creative Representation
Initiative
Social Relations
Language and Literacy
Math (Classification, Seriation, Number, Space, Time)
Music and Movement
The High Scope Model also includes a “Plan-Do-Review” sequence, in which children begin their day by planning activities they will participate in, followed by participation in those activities and a review session at the end of the day. Teachers can use this sequence format to help children learn how to organize choices of activities and to reflect upon what they liked or would do differently at the end of the day. The High/Scope Model reflects the theories of Piaget, Vygotsky, and Reggio Emilia by emphasizing the construction of knowledge through hands-on experiences and reflection techniques.
Montessori Approach (Dr. Maria Montessori)
The Montessori Approach refers to children’s activity as work (not play); children are given long periods of time to work, and a strong emphasis on individual learning and individual pace is valued. Central to Montessori’s method of education is the dynamic triad of child, teacher, and environment. One of the teacher’s roles is to guide the child through what Montessori termed the 'prepared environment, i.e., a classroom and a way of learning that are designed to support the child’s intellectual, physical, emotional, and social development through active exploration, choice, and independent learning.
The educational materials have a self-correcting focus, and the curriculum consists of art, music, movement, and practical life (for example, pouring, dressing, and cleaning). In the Montessori method, the goal of education is to allow the child’s optimal development (intellectual, physical, emotional, and social) to unfold.
A typical Montessori program will have mixed-age grouping. Children are free to choose what they work on, where they work, with whom they work, and for how long they work on any particular activity, all within the limits of the class rules. No competition exists between children, and no system of extrinsic rewards or punishments is in place.[3]
Waldorf Approach (Rudolf Steiner)
The Waldorf Approach, founded by Rudolf Steiner, features connections to nature, sensory learning, and imagination. Steiner's educational worldview centers on understanding the child’s soul, development, and individual needs.
The Waldorf approach is child-centered.[4] It emerges from a deep understanding of child development and seeks to support the particular developmental tasks (physical, emotional, and intellectual) children face at any given stage. Children aged 3–5, for example, develop a keen interest in the world, which is supported to a large extent by their freedom of movement. They must be encouraged to follow and deepen their curiosity through the encouragement of their sometimes endless questions (Van Alphen & Van Alphen, 1997). This approach supports children’s naturally blossoming curiosity, rather than answering the teacher’s questions. At this stage, children’s play becomes increasingly complex, with them spontaneously engaging in role-plays as they construct and act out imaginative situations based on their own experiences and stories they have heard. Thus, in Waldorf schools, ample time is allocated for free imaginative play, which serves as a cornerstone of children’s early learning.[5]
The environment should protect children from negative influences, and the curriculum should include exploring nature through gardening, as well as developing practical skills such as cooking, sewing, and cleaning. Relationships are important, so groupings often last for several years, facilitated by a process known as "looping".
Reggio Emilia Approach (Loris Malaguzzi)
The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education is based on over forty years of experience in the Reggio Emilia Municipal Infant/Toddler and Preschool Centers in Italy. Central to this approach is the view that children are competent and capable.
It emphasizes children’s symbolic languages in the context of a project-oriented curriculum. Learning is viewed as a journey; education is building relationships with people (both children and adults) and creating connections between ideas and the environment. Through this approach, adults help children understand the meaning of their experiences more completely by documenting children’s work, making observations, and engaging in continuous teacher-child dialogue. The Reggio approach guides children’s ideas with provocations, not predetermined curricula. Collaboration occurs on multiple levels, including parent participation, teacher discussions, and community engagement.
Within Reggio Emilia schools, great attention is given to the aesthetic and visual aspects of the classroom. The environment is considered the “third teacher.” Teachers carefully organize the space for small and large group projects, as well as small, intimate areas for one, two, or three children. Documentation of children’s work, plants, and collections that they have made during former outings is displayed at both children’s and adults’ eye level. Common space available to all children in the school includes dramatic play areas and worktables.
There is a center for gatherings called the atelier (art studio), where children from different classrooms can come together. The atelier in these schools provides children with the opportunity to explore and connect with a variety of media and materials. The studios are designed to give children time, information, inspiration, and materials so that they can effectively express their understanding through the “inborn inheritance of our universal language, the language that speaks with the sounds of the lips and the heart, the children’s learning with their actions, their signs, and their eyes: those “hundred languages” that we know to be universal. There is an atelierista (artist) to support this process and instruct children in the arts.[6]
The Reggio Emilia Approach is an emergent curriculum. One method many early childhood educators use when planning emergent curriculum is curriculum webbing based on observed skills or interests. This method utilizes brainstorming to generate ideas and connections that build upon children’s interests, thereby enhancing their developmental skills. Webbing can look like a “Spider’s Web” or be organized in a list format.
Webbing provides endless planning opportunities as extensions continue, from observing the activities to following the skills and interests exhibited. As an example demonstrates, a web can begin with a skill to develop, but it can also be used in a thematic approach, such as transportation, friendships, animals, nature, etc. In our class, we will use the idea of "webbing" as we develop themes to be implemented in the preschool.
Project Approach
The Project Approach is an in-depth exploration of a topic that may be child- or teacher-initiated and involve an individual, a group of children, or the whole class. A project may be short-term or long-term depending on the children’s interests. What differentiates the project approach from an inquiry-based approach is that, within the project approach, there is an emphasis on creating a specific outcome that may take the form of a spoken report, a multimedia presentation, a poster, a demonstration, or a display. The project approach provides opportunities for children to take agency of their own learning and represent this learning by constructing personally meaningful artifacts. If utilized effectively, possible characteristics may include: active, agentic, collaborative, explicit, learner-focused, responsive, scaffolded, playful, language-rich, and dialogic.[10]
In the project approach, adults and children investigate topics using a six-step process: Observation, Planning, Research, Exploration, Documentation, and Evaluation.
Observation: A teacher observes children engaging with each other or with materials and highlights ideas from the observations to explore further.
Planning: Teachers talk with children about the observation and brainstorm ideas about the topic and what to explore
Research: Teachers find resources related to the topic
Explore: Children engage with experiences set around the topic to create hypotheses, make predictions, and formulate questions
Documentation: Teachers write notes, create charts, and children draw observations and fill in charts as they explore topics/questions
Evaluate: Teachers and children can reflect on the hypotheses originally developed and compare their experiences to predictions. Evaluation is key in determining enhanced skills, what did or didn’t, and why.
The benefits of a project approach are that young learners are directly involved in making decisions about the topic focus, research questions, investigation processes, and the selection of culminating activities. When young learners take an active role in decision-making, agency and engagement are promoted.
As young learners take ownership of their learning, they ‘feel increasingly competent and sense their own potential for learning so they develop feelings of confidence and self-esteem’ (Chard, 2001).[11]
References
[1] Gordon, A. M. & Browne, K. W. (2001) Beginnings and Beyond, 8th edition. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. (pg. 364)
