Tags / 24 quotes from 1 source
#teaching
Theories of Childhood, Second Edition (Carol Garhart Mooney)
Say it so great-aunt Gertrude can understand
The teacher who most affected me in my undergraduate years made a similar comment to Mead’s in his existential philosophy course. “This course,” he was known to say, “attracts those who want a podium. If you have something to say . . . it best be said in a way that my…
Enjoying children beats college theory
“When I hire those college students, they are full of theory but don’t know what to do in the classroom. I’d rather hire someone with no college but a true enjoyment of young children.”
Teachers need both joy and theory
We need teachers who have both a true enjoyment of children and a true understanding of how they grow and learn. It seems that we have not been successful at presenting child development as a usable tool for working with young children more effectively. Perhaps we need to take…
Dewey's Laboratory School and progressive education
Dewey’s Laboratory School established the University of Chicago as the center of thought on progressive education, the movement toward more democratic and child-centered education. Progressive education was a reaction to the rigid, more formal style of traditional education…
Children's interests drive the curriculum
“The child’s own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting-point for all education” (6). According to Dewey, children’s interests form the basis for curriculum planning. He believed that the interests and background of each child and group must be…
Progressive teaching demands more planning, not less
Dewey was concerned that many teachers of his time were claiming to be part of progressive education merely because they departed from more traditional approaches. He recognized the danger in moving away from one direction without clearly understanding the new direction one…
Dewey's criteria for an educational experience
Dewey thought that rather than saying, “The children will enjoy this,” teachers need to ask the following questions when they plan activities for children: How does this expand on what these children already know? How will this activity help this child grow? What skills are…
A project that leaves children curious
This story is an example of what Dewey would call an educational experience. The teacher observed and asked questions to find out what the children already knew. She set up experiences for them to discover things they didn’t already know. She used her knowledge of child…
Montessori's child-sized classrooms
Montessori created a school environment to make up for the impoverished conditions of many of the children’s homes. She determined that to be comfortable, young children need furnishings their own size and tools that fit their small hands. Because such things were not available…
Montessori's legacy: independence and repetition
Montessori understood that it is sometimes much easier to do something for children than it is to take the time and energy to teach them to do it for themselves. But she also believed that for children to grow and develop skills, the adults in their lives need to make…
Teach little, observe much
Montessori teachers, on the other hand, are trained to teach little and observe much. Teachers, of course, must plan activities and have materials on hand to support the children’s interests, as suggested by Dewey’s ideas in chapter 1. However, it is important to recognize the…
Careful observation as Montessori's method
Since Montessori trained as a doctor, she brought the skills of a scientist to the classroom. When she turned her energies toward the education of young children, it seemed only natural to use her scientific skills. She believed that if you are going to teach, you need to know…
Holding and responding build trust
Erikson believed that two actions on the part of parents and teachers help babies develop this basic sense of trust: holding babies close and having warm physical contact with them when they are being fed and responding right away to their distress when they cry or fuss. Both…
The myth of spoiling babies
In every child development course I’ve ever taught, someone has asked about “spoiling” children by responding to them when they cry. Once an infant teacher rolled her eyes at me as she walked with a screaming baby and said, “This child is just too attached to her parents! I’m…
Learning to cope in small doses
Current studies (Young-Eisendrath 2008) as well as Montessori’s original work on developing independence and Magda Gerber’s 1997 (among her other) work on competence have all stressed the importance of learning to cope. Babies whose needs are consistently met quickly can learn…
Babies cannot be too attached
Erikson’s theory of infant development assures teachers and parents that it is impossible for babies under a year of age to be “too attached” to the special adults in their lives. The teacher in the story above who wanted to teach the baby that adults can’t always be there was…
Offer a choice of how, not whether
Many teachers make the mistake of offering toddlers a choice when there really isn’t one. It’s very confusing for children who are trying to learn how much control they really have to be asked a rhetorical question. Adults and school-age children can understand that “Would you…
Supporting initiative in preschoolers
To support children’s development of initiative in the third stage, Erikson says that teachers can encourage children to be as independent as possible; focus on gains as children practice new skills, not on the mistakes they make along the way; set expectations that are in line…
Ask questions rather than tell
Piaget’s theory tells us that it will be more effective to ask questions that help children think through the problem on their own than to tell them flat out, “An iron would hurt the baby.” If they construct that knowledge for themselves by puzzling through the teacher’s…
Open-ended activities and questions
Open-ended activities do not have a predetermined result or product. For example, when a teacher plans a science experiment to which she already knows the answer, the experiment is not open-ended. However, when children plant seeds and chart the days until the shoot breaks…
The zone of proximal development
One of the most important concepts of Vygotsky’s theory is that of the zone of proximal development, or ZPD. Vygotsky defined this as the distance between the most difficult task a child can do alone and the most difficult task a child can do with help. He believed that a child…
Scaffolding a child's learning
Vygotsky referred to the assistance a teacher or peer offers a child as scaffolding. A house painter working on a house uses a scaffold to reach parts of the house that would otherwise be out of reach. In the same way, adults and peers can help a child “reach” a new concept or…
Vygotsky versus Piaget on stretching children
Curriculum planning is perhaps the area most affected by Vygotsky’s theory. Unlike Piaget, who thought children’s cognitive learning was more internal than interactive, Vygotsky believed that interaction had a huge impact on cognitive development. Until Vygotsky’s work became…
Scaffolding self-regulation in young children
In addition, research shows that children develop the foundational skills for self-regulation in the first five years of life. These findings have many implications for early childhood education and highlight the important role teachers play in helping young children develop…