Preschool Curriculum

Curriculum development is the systematic procedure utilized to improve the courses offered by a school, college, or university. It must incorporate new findings into educational curricula as the world changes. Innovative methods and approaches for teaching (such as active learning or blended learning) are constantly devised to improve the student learning experience.  

The current curriculum can be broken down into two broad categories: the product category and the process category. The product category is results-oriented. Grades are the prime objective, focusing more on the finished product than the learning process. However, the process category is more open-ended and focuses on how learning develops over time. When creating a curriculum, these two groups must be considered. 

Implementing various organizational and instructional strategies is part of curriculum planning to achieve the best possible student development and learning outcomes. A teacher’s curriculum may be organized around daily lesson plans, a particular project, a coursework section, certain sections of a class, or an entire educational program. 

Teachers think about things that could help or impede their lessons during the curriculum planning phase. These include institutional requirements, for example. Each university administrator or college administrator will have standards, concepts, and frameworks teachers must use when developing their courses. It is the responsibility of educators to make sure that the curriculum they design will suit the educational needs of their students. Current and comprehensive materials are used. 

Educators should use the curricular approach that best integrates the six elements of effective teaching. These elements apply to both undergraduate and graduate programs levels: 

There are three models for creating curricula: subject-centred, learner-centred, and problem-centred design. 

Focused on a specific subject matter, such as biology, literature, or mathematics. This curriculum design paradigm emphasizes the content more than the students. It is the most common standardized K–12 public school standardized curriculum. 

Lists of subjects and particular illustrations of how they should study them are compiled by instructors. In large university or college classes in higher education, this teaching style is frequently observed when lecturers focus on a particular subject or discipline. 

Compared to other types of curriculum design, subject-centred curriculum design is not student-centred and is less concerned with individual learning preferences. Students responsive to this paradigm may stay caught up, affecting their motivation and engagement. 

Design is centred on the student’s needs, interests, and objectives. It recognizes that pupils are all different but rather unique people and that they should only sometimes follow a standardized curriculum. 

This strategy tries to give students the power to choose how to pursue their education. Plans for differentiated Instruction allow teachers to select tasks, lessons, or other current and pertinent activities. It has been demonstrated that this style of curriculum design motivates and engages pupils. This method of curriculum design has the problem that it may put pressure on authors to generate content that caters to students’ tastes and needs in terms of learning. Finding these insights in a hybrid or online learning setting might take much work. It balanced each student’s interests with the outcomes demanded by the course. Please look at our free course planning template by clicking here—learner-centred approach to build a curriculum. 

Students learn problem-solving techniques through design. Because they are exposed to real-world problems and transferrable abilities, students learning in a problem-centred curriculum model are more likely to engage in authentic learning. It has been demonstrated that using a problem-centred approach to curriculum design makes the material more relevant and promotes innovation, creativity, and teamwork among students. This model’s flaw is that it sometimes needs to consider each student’s unique demands and interests. 

Before starting to plan, teachers can select the ideal model for their students and their course by thinking about all three models of curriculum design. 

Every educator is aware that a sound curriculum model offers the theoretical foundation required to run a successful preschool program and gives kids a chance to be prepared to learn. The Montessori Method, the Kamii-DeVries constructivist approach, the Bank Street developmental-interaction approach, the Dodge creative preschool curriculum, the High/Scope curriculum, and the direct instruction model are six well-known early preschoolerhood curriculum models that educators may want to take into consideration. 

The Bank Street College of Teaching in New York City, which confers graduate degrees in education, bears the name of the technique known as Bank Street Developmental-Interaction. The primary principle of the method, developed by Lucy Sprague Mitchell in 2000, is the development of the whole preschooler through active learning, inspired by John Dewy’s educational philosophy. Beginning in 1928, Barbara Biber shaped the methodology using psychodynamic theory. Bank Street later developed a curriculum plan for the government Follow Through early education project (Rose, 2010; Spring, 2007).

Diane Trister Dodge created the Creative Curriculum for Preschool. Her career working with preschool teachers served as the foundation for the strategy. By setting up their classrooms to promote teachers’ developmentally appropriate practice and Preschooler’s active learning, which is focused on developing social competence, the approach aids instructors in aligning their practices with their aims for Preschooler. Teachers in the classroom set up ten interest areas: art, blocks, cooking, computers, houses, libraries, music and movement, outdoor activities, water, sand, and table toys (Dodge, 2010a). Dodge established Teaching Strategies, Inc. intending to present the Creative Curriculum for the first time in 1979. For the first five years of a baby’s life, Dodge has supplied a parent’s handbook, an associated creative curriculum for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers (Dodge, 2010b), and a creative curriculum for family preschooler care (2009). However, teachers learn the Creative Curriculum predominantly by self-instruction rather than through training, even though Creative Curriculum experts admit that support from trainers is essential (Dodge, 1988, 2000b). 

The High/Scope Curriculum was created by the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation staff under the direction of David P. Weikart in the 1960s and 1970s (Hohmann, Banet, & Weikart, 1979; Hohmann & Weikart, 1995; Weikart, 1997). The High/Scope Curriculum, founded on Piaget’s constructivist theory of preschooler development (Piaget, 1970), initially targeted underprivileged preschoolers (Weikart, 2005). The strategy includes all kids and all preschool settings (Brickman, 2004a, 2004b, 2005; Kruse, 2006; Rush, 2009). The High/Scope Curriculum encourages hands-on activities and classrooms with distinct, specialized focus areas (Epstein, 2006). Preschooler follow a daily schedule that gives them time to prepare for, carry out, evaluate their learning and engage in small-and-large group activities. Adults support Preschooler’s active learning by setting up the environment and creating a regular daily schedule, creating a positive social environment, encouraging Preschooler’s planned activities, problem-solving, and verbal reflections, planning small- and large-group learning experiences and interpreting Preschooler’s behaviour in terms of the High/Scope key experiences in preschooler development. High/Scope has identified 58 critical events in preschooler development for the preschool years. Ten categories—creative representation, language and literacy, initiative and social interactions, movement, music, classification, seriation, number, space, and time—comprise the essential experiences. 

Constance Kamii and Rhetta DeVries created the Kamii-DeVries Constructivist Perspective (Kamii & DeVries, 1980, 1991, 1993, 1999; DeVries & Kohlberg, 1994; DeVries & Kamii, 2001). The viewpoint is based on Piaget’s constructivist theory, in which Preschooler gain knowledge, intelligence, morality, and personality through interactions with the outside world within a logical-mathematical framework. Preschooler can learn through mental action by engaging in physical activities. Teachers with a strong foundation in traditional preschool teaching employ a preschooler-centred approach. Teachers build up the environment for active learning, be aware of what their students are thinking, respond to their points of view, and assist students in developing their ideas. The theory has recently been extended to include teaching young Preschooler physics using a constructivist approach and integrating technology evaluation to improve student learning (Kamii & DeVries, 2003). (DeVries, & Kamii, 2011). 

Maria Montessori (Lindauer, 1993; Schwegman, 2011), a doctor who worked with underprivileged Preschooler in Italy, invented the Montessori Method. The Montessori approach, which focuses on fostering Preschooler’s senses, academic abilities, practical life skills, and character, is still used today by Montessori educators worldwide. In order to enable Preschooler to learn on their own, Montessori items are carefully placed in program settings by Montessori teachers (Isaacs, 2011). Each set of resources has a specific way that kids can use to teach themselves a particular idea or skill. After demonstrating how to use the materials, Montessori teachers let the kids choose which ones they will use and expect them to put them back where they belong when they are done. 

Siegfried Englemann and Carl Bereiter ran the behavioural learning principles-based preschool program in 1966 at the University of Illinois – Urbana. The middle of the 1960s was when the concept started. The Distar materials were produced due to the model’s expansion to Follow Through early education programs and were released by Science Research Associates (Rose, 2010). Academics are the main focus of direct Instruction, particularly the material covered on achievement and intelligence tests (Sindelar, 2011). They use the Direct Instruction Model, where teachers lead small groups of Preschooler in precisely planned 20-minute question-and-answer lessons in language, mathematics, and reading (Doty, 2010; Overton, 2012; Russell, 2012). There are no distracting materials allowed in the classroom. According to the programmers, direct Instruction works better for elementary school teachers than preschool teachers. Instead of attempting to convert educators to learner-centred education, the model aims to enhance the teacher’s teacher-centred approach. 

A workable curriculum model provides the theoretical underpinnings needed to manage a successful preschool education program and to provide Preschooler with an opportunity to be prepared to learn. There are six well-known early preschoolerhood curriculum models: the Bank Street developmental-interaction method, the Dodge creative preschool curriculum, the High/Scope curriculum, the Kamii-DeVries constructivist approach, the Montessori Method, and the direct instruction model. The curriculum models were not even attempted to be compared to one another. We will only be able to fully realize the educational potential of our Preschooler’s preschool experiences once instructors of preschool programs embrace reliable curriculum models and support work with parents and community organizations.