What ever happened to the pre-operational stage?

How many times have I taught my students and covered the stages of Piaget, particularly those which most affect the field of early childhood education, the sensorimotor and pre-operational stage?  And yet suddenly we were having the discussion about the shift from sensorimotor to pre-operational in one of my classes and it struck me that in many of our educational practices currently and the incredible high stakes testing push we are skipping this incredibly important stage and the repercussions I feel will be severe.  We quickly remove active learning for passive, abstract thinking when we know children cognitively cannot process half of what we ask of them, all in the name of what?  Worksheets according to Piaget would prove obsolete to the learning process and yet teachers continue to cling to them as proof that children are "learning".  Learning what, to follow directions and robotically complete them as fast as they can in order to escape this mundane work?  On the whole we continue to appropriately support children birth to three and yet the removal of developmentally appropriate practices continues to be pushed to younger ages.  One student shared with me that she observed word of the week in a toddler classroom (what are we doing to our young childen?)  We are robbing our children of childhood which in mind truly is a criminal act that will prove detrimental not only to the children, but society as a whole.  It is time to return childhood back to our youngest, to support them developmentally and stop cramming obsolete, unnecessary experiences into our early childhood classrooms.  We need to engage them with the things of the world, not disengage them from who they are and how they learn.

http://www.earlychildhoodwebinars.org/presenters/dr-sylvia-c-chard/

Dr. Sylvia Chard has been a wonderful mentor for me and so I invite anyone interested in pursuing projects in more depth to explore this wonderful opportunity and resource.  Sylvia is open and willing to take you to another level of work in project work, but more importantly in how you see children, the world and teaching and learning.

The power of Nature

My students and I were truly lucky to have the possibility of having Linda Rose, teacher and administrator of Out and About Preschool.  The power of nature and outdoor experiences in the lives of young children must be advocated for over any other experience, skill, and knowledge in earl childhood education, but so far removed from children's experiences.  We truly must question the lack of scientific inquiry and hands-on experience that children used to naturally have. Linda discussed the role of emerging themes, building on children's interest and engaging them in the "skills and knowledge" deemed necessary in meaningful ways.  Consider this, how many preschoolers truly understand the life cycle. Linda took the teachable moment of a deer being hit outside of her preschool classroom and provided numerous experiences that build upon social skills (moving the deer off the road and into an area for investigation); science (decomposition and what leads to decomposition); social studies (the animals that live within the region of Ohio that live off of the deer); and language (oral discussions, vocabulary, observation drawings, etc).  While there is still so much I wish to share about her visit with my students and the power of projects I leave you with this at this time, when a parent responded to the documentation of this experience with young children in a repulsive way. "oh, that's gross", her daughter came up to her and said, "mom, that's not gross, that' life".  When do we stop protecting our children and begin to provide experiences that teach them how to engage in the content of the world and support them as the competent individuals we know them to be. 

I have been going back through Sylvia Chard's study guides recently as the means of finding the "spark" that would really get us to think about the value of Project Work to learning.  I didn't have to go far: right on page 2 of her Practical Guide 1 (found on her project approach web site - very user friendly and excellent source of information for anyone seeking to implement projects in their classroom).  She begins with "in making decisions about student learning, it is important to make sure the curriculum reflects considerations of the following:  knowledge, skills, dispositions and feelings". If we look at these four considerations, my first question is, how often do we hear words such as dispositions and feelings and yet, they are so key to education.  How we feel about what we do directly correlates to how we go about tasks and learn and yet, we so often seek to remove the emotional and social self from the picture.  Why?  All you have to do is look at these photos taken of a group of children engaged in the process of making adobe bricks to understand the role of feelings in learning.  As Sylvia discusses in her guide, students become absorbed in a task and take ownership of their work.  The children in these photos needed to: understand their different roles; know what their strengths; collaborate with others; problem solve and overcome some frustrations with the materials in order to work towards geting a "successful" brick.  Throughout the experience, I was able to observe the children's increased levels of competence and confidence.  I could return to the skills and knowledge they gained from this experience, but I think I will leave this for another time.  For now, I ask that you merely look closely at these photos and consider the role of feelings in learning.  And consider the role of the senses and the whole  body experience for young children.  When did we as adults last experience this full body, sensory engagement in a learning experience?

The power of Projects

Our body, something all children have experience with and which can generate many questions.  The above web is where this group of children  began, but through the facilitation of a wonderful teacher, look at the vocabulary and knowledge they gained. 

Just consider the vocabulary, knowledge and self awareness they have gained.  And this is just a small sampling of what this group of children did during this project.  The power of projects to differentiate (one  child was very intrigued by his butt and was able to build vocabulary to gluteus maximus) to the knowledge of the structure of our body.  Does this not show the benefits of a non-standardized curriculum and the power of projects.

disruptive wonder, kelli anderson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvI5JuB6ThE

How do we create disruptive wonder in our current educational system, how do we discover the hidden talents in every day things?  I think this is a wonderful question to pose in our current educational environment.  Teachers who engage in project work help children discover the hidden talents in every day things, bu also help us discover the hidden talents in children and in ourselves.  I believe that through curricular approaches like the Project Approach, we push the boundaries of what is expected in education and we reject the normal order of traditional education.  The Project Approach calls for use to expect more than our current reality, a reality most teachers claim doesn't benefit the students or themselves as educators.  So, why do we continue to accept the normal order of things in education?  I would appreciate any comments or feedback because I struggle with this when working with teachers.  While they don't like the norm, they find it so difficult to make the paradigm shift towards discovery.  Thoughts?

The 4C's

Communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity:  The 4C's.  With our fast paced world it is almost impossible to be able to dictate what exact knowledge and skills our children will need in the future.  Curricular approaches like the Project Approach and Emergent Curriculum naturally support the above "standards" or what Sylvia Chard and Lillian Katz (along with others) describe as dispositions.  The 4C's are no longer just a checklist of knowledge and skills, but dispositions (how we approach teaching, learning and problems). 

To generate some thinking about the 4C's I am posting this wonderful story/video created by one of my favorite children's authors, Peter Reynolds called Above and Beyond.  How do you consider the 4C's and how do you respond to this challenge of the 21st centruy.  How do you think schools are or should be supporting the 4C's?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KMM387HNQk&feature=player_embedded