EDUC: 00087 a0005 Early Childhood Curriculum and Developmental Theory S M-Y Lim, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore C Genishi, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA ã 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. p0005 The term curriculum refers largely to planned approaches Influenced by Plato’s and Rousseau’s images of the to teaching and learning that are guided by theoretical innately good child unfolding naturally over time, Pesta- and philosophical beliefs about the nature of learners and lozzi founded the doctrine of Anschauung (direct, concrete about the kinds of knowledge(s) that should be taught. observation), and capitalized on children’s spontaneity and From this perspective, a curriculum contains specific adult or peer-guided activity (Weber, 1984). Through object content knowledge, objectives and goals, teaching proce- lessons that encouraged children to observe and explore dures, and assessment strategies. From another perspec- objects collected from the natural environment, Pestalozzi’s tive, curriculum is less planned in advance and seen as curriculum acquainted children with form, language, and developing through interaction between teacher and stu- number classifications and encouraged children to cultivate dents. Regardless of the exact definition, it is generally their own powers of seeing, judging, and reasoning. An acknowledged that no curriculum is ideologically neutral. underlying curricular principle was to introduce abstract Curriculum makers, like other educators, have philosoph- concepts through concrete objects, always progressing grad- ical, political, and pedagogical beliefs that underlie the ually and cumulatively from the easier to the more diffi- curriculum they create (Apple, 2004). cult concepts. It was Friedrich W. Froebel who documented a curric- p0020 ulum for young children in Germany in the 1800s, based s0005 Early Childhood Curriculum: Reflections on Pestalozzi’s work. He also drew from the philosophical of Images of Children thinking of Plato, Rousseau, and Comenius, complement- ing his own religious beliefs and intuitive understanding p0010 In the field of early childhood education (for children of the child as a naturally creative and productive being birth through age 8), there is a wide range of curricular (Weber, 1984). Froebel’s enduring significance to early approaches and models that are guided by different philo- years of education was through his formulation of the sophical beliefs about young children as learners and be- kindergarten (a combination of two German words: kin- liefs about the kinds of knowledge that are worth teaching der [children] and garten [garden]) system with its children. The field (as discussed below) may be character- emphasis on play and its use of gifts (didactic play materi- ized by multiple, sometimes opposing or overlapping, als) and occupations (hands-on activities). Singing, danc- images of the child as learner: ing, and gardening were included in order to develop the whole child, although much of the curriculum highlighted child as organism unfolding over time; the learning of mathematical concepts and symbolic rela- child as scientific subject; tionships through manipulative objects such as blocks, child as creative player; spheres, and cylinders. Froebel invented the kindergarten child as active thinker; and to prove that children under 7 years of age were capable of child as relational and cultural agent. obtaining intellectual and emotional skills through These varied imagesSEVIER of children have shaped curricular SECONDstructured forms of play PROOFand adult guidance. models for young children. Some models are closely guided The success of Froebel’s model resulted in compulsory p0025 by educational policies that serve specific groups of chil- kindergarten education for all children in the Austro- dren, whileEL others attempt to be more inclusively serving Hungarian Empire by 1872. The gradual spread of the children with a full range of learning abilities and interests. kindergarten movement can be traced across other parts of Europe and the USA in the second half of the 19th century. Its introduction into the USA is accredited to the s0010 Child Unfolding: Early Conceptualizations of efforts of educators such as Elizabeth Peabody and Susan Curriculum Blow. With the establishment of free kindergartens in p0015 One of the earliest systematic conceptualizations of cur- working-class neighborhoods in the 1870s, advocates of riculum in the field was created by Johann Heinrich Pes- kindergartens in the USA began to suggest that the proper talozzi, well-known for his school for mixed-age groups education of these children could eventually alleviate of orphans in Yverdon, Switzerland (established 1805). urban poverty. 1 EDUC: 00087 2 Early Childhood Curriculum and Developmental Theory s0015 Child as Subject: Scientific Views and Curricula and it was a plan for systematic classroom instruction as Early Intervention to modify children’s thoughts, behaviors, and feelings (i.e., develop desirable habits). p0030 At the turn of the twentieth century, the child study Outside of the USA, in Italy around 1916, Maria Mon- p0045 movement began in the USA. Seminal publications in tessori (the first female doctor in her country) began psychology and philosophy that influenced early child- advocating for her educational method for children who hood education included G. Stanley Hall’s Contents of were then considered cognitively defective and those who Children’s Minds (1883), Edward L. Thorndike’s Animal lived in extreme poverty in Rome. Enduring initial dis- Intelligence (1898), and John Dewey’s The School and Society missal by educators, including progressive educators in (1900). Influenced by scientific observation methods, the USA, the Montessori approach is ironically still popu- especially those of Darwin in The Origin of the Species lar around the world among some middle- and upper-class (1859), Hall advocated the use of systematic and direct communities, both as an academically focused approach in observations of individual young children to inform cur- private schools and as a homeschooling method (Goffin riculum. Arnold Gesell expanded on Hall’s work by exam- and Wilson, 2001). It has also been modified to suit indi- ining the correlation of ages and developmental stages vidual culture’s values and needs while maintaining its and charting growth gradients of individual children. emphasis on the training of young children’s senses for Such scientific studies of young children in the burgeon- intellectual development. ing field of developmental psychology appealed to many early childhood educators who subsequently propagated the generalized theoretical belief that there was an opti- mal period in the early years in which learning would be Child as Creative Player: A Psychodynamic s0020 most effective. and Developmental View p0035 The Froebelian kindergarten curriculum was to remain popular until the 10-year debate (1903–1913), which In contrast to child development study that focused on p0050 marked a turning point in early childhood curricular observable behaviors and outcomes, Freud’s psychoana- approaches. The debate was between those who supported lytic theory encouraged early childhood educators to Susan Blow and Elizabeth Peabody who argued for the focus on the inner worlds of young children as biological continued relevance of the Froebelian kindergarten cur- and sexual beings. Over time however, his theory was mod- riculum in the twentieth century, and progressive educa- ified and neo-Freudian psychodynamic classrooms fea- tors such as Patty Smith Hill who were influenced by tured curricula that encouraged children’s self-expression John Dewey and Edward L. Thorndike arguing for curric- and creativity through messy play with materials such as ular revision in order to keep up with the shifting socio- paints, clay, blocks, sand, and water. Lawrence Frank, a political context of society in the USA (Weber, 1984). prominent American linked to the Laura Spelman Rock- Curriculum influenced by Dewey’s educational philoso- efeller Memorial Fund, built on the image of the child as phy placed social studies at the core of the curriculum an emotional being and highlighted the importance of since the purpose of education was for life in a democratic free play in the curriculum for healthy socioemotional society. In contrast, Thorndike’s behaviorist theory came growth. Influenced by the theories of Erikson and Freud, to underlie the image of child as subject in the context of Frank believed that emotional security and personality curriculum and of standardized testing. adjustment were keys to developing confident, social, yet p0040 Progressive educators increasingly influenced curricu- independent learners. He advocated that teachers recog- lum from the early 1900s and their work also drew upon a nize individual differences among children, synthesizing growing body of knowledgeSEVIER contributed by developmen- SECONDpsychodynamic work with PROOF the theory of Jean Piaget tal psychologists. An example of one of the earliest eclec- (Weber, 1984). tic curricula written by an educator of the progressive By the 1930s, in part because of Frank, many child dev- p0055 movement was the Conduct Curriculum for Kindergarten and elopment institutes and their corresponding lab schools First GradeEL(1923) by Patty Smith Hill at Teachers Col- had appeared in the USA. The research carried out at lege, Columbia University. The curriculum was influ- these