Developmental Education is an approach to education in school that aims at promoting children’s cultural development and their abilities to participate autonomously and well-informed in the cultural practices of their community. From the point of view of Cultural-historical Activity theory (CHAT), a play-based curriculum has been developed over the past decades for primary school, which presents activity contexts for pupils in the classroom that create learning and teaching opportunities for helping pupils with appropriating cultural knowledge, skills, and moral understandings in meaningful ways. The approach is implemented in numerous Dutch primary schools classrooms with the explicit intention to support the learning of both pupils and teachers. The book focuses especially on education of young children (4 – 8 years old) in primary school and presents the underpinning concepts of this approach, and chapters on examples of good practices in a variety of subject matter areas, such as literacy (vocabulary acquisition, reading, writing), mathematics, and arts. Successful implementation of Developmental Education in the classroom strongly depends on dynamic assessment and continuous observations of young pupils’ development. Strategies for implementation of both the teaching practices and assessment strategies are discussed in detail in the book.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

The long-awaited new edition of NAEYC's book Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs is here, fully revised and updated! Since the first edition in 1987, it has been an essential resource for the early childhood education field. Early childhood educators have a professional responsibility to plan and implement intentional, developmentally appropriate learning experiences that promote the social and emotional development, physical development and health, cognitive development, and general learning competencies of each child served. But what is developmentally appropriate practice (DAP)? DAP is a framework designed to promote young children's optimal learning and development through a strengths-based approach to joyful, engaged learning. As educators make decisions to support each child's learning and development, they consider what they know about (1) commonality in children's development and learning, (2) each child as an individual (within the context of their family and community), and (3) everything discernible about the social and cultural contexts for each child, each educator, and the program as a whole. This latest edition of the book is fully revised to underscore the critical role social and cultural contexts play in child development and learning, including new research about implicit bias and teachers' own context and consideration of advances in neuroscience. Educators implement developmentally appropriate practice by recognizing the many assets all young children bring to the early learning program as individuals and as members of families and communities. They also develop an awareness of their own context. Building on each child's strengths, educators design and implement learning settings to help each child achieve their full potential across all domains of development and across all content areas.

Learn how current research and theory from educational psychology can be applied to create child-centered learning environments and developmentally appropriate practices in Grades PreK–3!

Contributors -- Preface and acknowledgements -- Introduction: The importance of early childhood development, education, and intervention -- I. Assessment -- II. Preparing for school : ensuring academic success -- III. High-quality learning environments -- IV. Special populations -- V. Advocacy for early education -- Index -- About the editors.

Written in a warm, engaging style, this text embraces the emergent approach to fostering cognitive skills in children from birth through age five. It provides a complete developmental approach to early childhood education, giving teachers the specific skills they need to teach the whole child-emotionally, socially, physically, creatively and cognitively. The author believes that physical and emotional health are fundamental to the well-being of children and provides practical methods and materials that address the entire individual, not just curriculum topics. A strength of the book is while it focuses on the five developmental selves of children, it places them in the context of contemporary family life and the multicultural world of today. - Thoroughly updated with current research and expanded topics - Over 100 new citations and references, updated statistics, and new or expanded topics. education with new discussions on advocacy, child abuse and neglect, outdoor play, multiple intelligences, asthma, and many more - Increased coverage of Diversity - Incorporates content on infant and toddler education and care throughout. - Material on the Reggio Emilia approach - Offered throughout the text wherever its strategies are appropriate and effective - Three types of review questions featured in each chapter - 1) Content - related, 2) Integrative, and 3) Diversity - Annotated updated references at the end of each chapter includes Pick of the Litter features to denote citations that are particularly interesting. - Hundreds of references classified by type in one of the most extensive bibliographies of any text in the field.

Understand the important milestones of development in children in five developmental domains: physical and motor, social and emotional, communication and language, cognitive, and approaches to learning. Learn strategies to observe and document children's progress and develop partnerships and establish communication with families. Updated for alignment with state standards.