Early Childhood Education Compare & Contrast paper As early childhood educators we all have our own philosophies and approaches to education. There are several types of early childhood programs. Each program has its own philosophies, methods, and program goals. Every early childhood educator is unique making each early childhood program experience special. Consistently, early childhood programs offer educational foundations that prepare young students for their educational futures. In this paper I will focus on comparing and contrasting two programs that stood out to me, Ridgeline Montessori and the Whitaker Head Start. When examining early childhood programs there are many similarities and differences across the board. …show more content…
Materials and manipulatives are spread along the outside walls of the classroom and children are free to choose which type of materials they would like to work with during independent work time. You do not notice any individual desks and chairs set up in the classroom, rather a few tables and chairs grouped together. The furniture is all child size and you do not see any adult sized furniture throughout the classroom. Students spend most of their time working on the floor where they have their own individual carpets. They put them down to outline their personal workspace. Instead of there being various toys and games spread through out the classroom, there are specific sensory materials and manipulatives that are self correcting and purposeful to student’s learning. On the walls students’ work fill spaces throughout the classroom, similar to the walls of a Head Start classroom. Montessori classrooms are made up of mixed grades and ages, something that is not typical of traditional classrooms. The Head Start program I visited uses a more traditional comprehensive method. Students are all close to the same age. Since the program is federally funded there is much emphasis put on performance standards and teaching objectives. The classrooms at Head Start are a center based classroom with different areas for pretend play, math manipulatives, language/
MONTESSORI’S research shows that children learn through movement and should have environments that are specifically tailored to meet their needs. Montessori schools provide a foundation for learning that is centred on care for the environment, care for the self as individual and
What are the goals of Early Head Start? The goals or priorities of this is to provide safe and developmentally enriching caregiving. To support parent, mother and father, in the role as primary caregivers. The teaching of the children, and family in meeting personal goals. Being able to successfully achieve self sufficiency across a wide variety of domains. Communities being mobilized to provide proper resources and environment that is necessary. But also, to ensure the provision of high quality responsive services for the family. The idea of this topic, is to show the types of things that should be looked for when choosing a child care center. When choosing a child care center for whom it may involve it should be important to look for things like the quality of care, and the type of care and learning techniques that will be involved, while the child is there.
Chapter two discusses various theorists that helped to mold and shape early childhood education to where it is today. There are several different theorists that contributed to the development of early childhood education. Some of these theorists include Alfred Adler, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and John Dewey. Each theorist developed a unique theory that has caused early childhood guidance and education to flourish like it has today. Without learning and building on these theories, early childhood guidance and education would never develop or change. The chapter explains how some theories may seem strange to the contemporary families, but these theories are the foundation of how early childhood education got to where it is today. The book goes
Early Childhood Education illustrates the teaching and care of children in other environments outside of the home. Early childhood centers on the development of all children no matter their gender, race, abilities, or ethnic orientation and gives knowledge of early childhood learning process, which entails values, culture, desires of parents for their children, and especially a child’s need for knowledgeable functionality in society.
My philosophy of Early childhood education is based on research that indicates that a child’s growth is developmental. Every child is unique in terms of life experiences, developmental readiness, and cultural heritage. A high quality early childhood program that provides a safe and nurturing environment, which promotes physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive development will ensure a positive continuation of the child’s education process
Center-based learning means that teachers group materials for one type of focus together. There are a variety of centers involved in an early childhood classroom including science, math, blocks, dramatic play, music, literacy, reading, and technology. Each of these centers focuses and improves different skills and
Education has come a extensive way from the times of Plato and Aristotle, but from each new era came a person with a concept that effected the world of education eternally. Sisters, Margaret and Rachel McMillian influenced education through their development of the Open-Air Nursery School in more way then one. Not only had they introduced the idea of starting education at a younger age then the fledgling kindergarten program, but their school was devised for kids from low- income areas that needed the extra care as well. A unique concept of the time that grasped my interest and made me want to discover more about their program and it’s effect on Early Childhood Education.
In a long time since its initiation, Head Start has enhanced the lives of more than 32 million youngsters and their families. Notwithstanding life and school readiness, Head Start is likewise the country's research center for early learning development. Head Start offers an exceptional children and family program configuration combined with a conveyance framework that incorporates nearby projects, national models, observing, proficient improvement, and family interactions. This has been the reason for some resulting statewide and group
Standards of the Head Start program are to deliver comprehensive, healthy development of low income families, and individualized services to support school readiness. The new change within the Head Start program was made according to research for what has been known to work in Early Education to help develop children’s healthy development and schools readiness. The new standards are to maintain and help strengthen child safety, family engagements which are meant to help children to succeed. Head Start has 1,400 performance standards. Head start has become an outcome focus group within the head start program. The Head Start program has updated, removed, and reorganized standards to make it easier on providers. The last time the standards was advised was
Child development is the heart of the Head Start program. Each child receives a developmental and behavioral screening, and ongoing assessment. Bilingual language stimulation is a priority. The music and creative arts mental health collaborations enrich the curriculum as well and help realize the mission of maximizing children’s potential. Supporting the parents and making sure they have an active role in their child’s development is also important. Head start shows this through The Getting Ready for School collaboration, a specific initiative within the head start program to build parents’ skills as primary educators of their children. They also provide specific skills training where parents
What are the goals of Early Head Start? The goals or priorities of this is to provide safe and developmentally enriching caregiving. To support parent, mother and father, in the role as primary caregivers. The teaching of the children, and family in meeting personal goals. Being able to successfully achieve self sufficiency across a wide variety of domains. Communities being mobilized to provide proper resources and environment that is necessary. But also, to ensure the provision of high quality responsive services for the family. The idea of this topic, is to show the types of things that should be looked for when choosing a child care center. When choosing a child care center for whom it may involve it
While there are several early childhood program models from which to choose, not all programs are equal in their goals and outcomes. Parents and policy makers have shown increased awareness for the quality of care and education in childhood programs (Epstein, 1999). A high-quality program is one that ascribes to developmentally appropriate practice while allowing children to take charge of their own education (Epstein, 1999). The author will discuss Early Head Start, Chicago Child-Parent Centers, and the Abecedarian Project.
In reality, the children move about the classroom independently, choosing the order of their learning activities. There may be 15 or more activities, or ?jobs? as they are called in some Montessori classrooms, occurring at the same time with small groups or individual work, yet the classroom remains quiet, yet busy and productive, sometimes with the soft hush of classical music playing in the background. Many Montessori school classrooms place a card around the child?s neck with the day?s objectives written in the form of a checklist for the students to monitor themselves. This checklist encourages the students to take responsibility for their own learning, as well as discourages prompt-dependence, since the student need not wait for instruction. Some of the activities in a Montessori classroom include reading, pre-reading using phonics, math, discovery science and writing. Children learn skills in a way that he or she is not aware that learning is taking place. For example, a child playing in the sand box with a small rake is not aware that he or she is learning fine motor skills and how to hold and control a pencil. Another observation in a Montessori classroom is that most classrooms tend to span three grade levels. This practice allows to children to become mentors to younger students. Also, the large gap in developmental levels allows children to ?learn at their own pace? (Keller, 2001), which is another important Montessori
The success of the Montessori method depends on how the environment us set up, it is essential that it is prepared and simplified for the students’ understanding.
The Early Childhood Education program at Carlow University focuses on educating children from birth to grade four in any context—school, family, or community. As a signature mark of the program, students learn how to honor diversity and form strong inclusive relationships between child and caregiver/teacher. They learn that a child’s environment needs to be rooted in trust; physically and psychologically safe. They learn that the caregiver/teacher relationship needs