chapter
stringlengths 1.97k
1.53M
| path
stringlengths 47
241
|
|---|---|
Introduction to Indoor Environment
The environment in which infants and toddlers spend their days is often overlooked and requires the same level of attention as all other aspects of care. Health and safety concerns need consideration, but planning must also prioritize how the environment fosters, supports, and encourages building and sustaining relationships.
27.02: The Impact of Our Environment
Environment Effect
Are there certain places you like to visit? A favorite restaurant, a sporting arena, or a good friend’s home? What qualities of those places make you feel welcome or secure? What makes you want to go back? Thinking about these places, you might remember the people around you, the room's color, the presence of sunlight, sounds and smells, furniture, accessories, or temperature.
Now consider places you don’t like to spend time. Maybe the dentist’s office, the airport or a noisy restaurant. What makes these environments less pleasant for you? In some settings, we feel relaxed and comfortable. In others, we feel tense, overwhelmed, and confused. The environment has a powerful effect on us. It influences how we feel, what we do, and the ways we respond. Some of us dislike places where we feel we cannot control or predict our experiences. In some spaces, we may feel we don’t belong or are not appreciated.
Just like adults, infants and toddlers are affected by their environments, even if they cannot tell us directly how they feel. It is our job as caregivers to ensure learning spaces make infants and toddlers feel welcome, secure, and ready to learn. (The Ohio State University for the US Department of Defense’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth, 2021)
A childcare environment is one of the child's most valuable teachers and impacts every facet of a program. Research conducted with the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) (Sylva et al. 2010) and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) (Howes et al. 2008; Mashburn et al. 2008) indicates physical environment, social-emotional climate, and social interactions all influence a program's overall quality: high-quality physical environments enhance young children's well-being and development. All environments communicate messages. In childcare programs, these messages may convey caregivers' beliefs and values about young children, how children learn, the role of families, and the importance of community. A program’s environment should convey to all children that they belong and are safe. [1]
[1] California Department of Education. (2019). Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission.
27.03: Key Environment Elements
What to Include
There is substantial agreement internationally about what is essential in providing for children’s developmental needs in center-based childcare (e.g., Lamb and Ahnert 2006). Universally recognized core elements required for children’s positive development are: safe and healthy care settings, developmentally appropriate stimulation and opportunities for learning, positive interactions with adults, and the promotion of individual emotional growth and positive relationships with other children (Cryer et al. 2002) (Verner et.al, 2016). Spaces for infants and toddlers can be organized to support a variety of exploration and routines. Most often, the arrangement of play spaces supports different types of learning and experiences, such as: (Lally, Stewart, and Greenwald 2009)
• Small-muscle activity
• Sensory perception
• Large-motor activity
• Creative expression
Additionally, caregivers need space for infant and toddler routines: greetings, departures, eating and feeding, sleeping, diapering, and toileting.
Other areas of exploration to consider when creating an environment include block play, fantasy play, multilevel areas, quiet areas to explore books, and cozy areas (WestEd, n.d.). Dividing the room into areas creates an organized and meaningful environment.
Image by Community Playthings is used with permission
Not only do the types of experiences an environment supports need consideration, but the infant and toddler environment should also:[1]
• Ensure safety
• Promote health
• Provide comfort for children and adults
• Be convenient for children and adults
• Be child-sized
• Maximize flexibility
• Encourage movement
• Allow for choice
• Ensure accessibility
These concepts help programs focus on the overall impact of the entire environment on infants, toddlers, and the adults who care for them.[2]
[1] California Department of Education (CDE Press). Development Foundations: Social-Emotional Development . Is used with permission
[2] California Department of Education (CDE Press). Development Foundations: Social-Emotional Development . Is used with permission | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/27%3A_Indoor_Environment/27.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Safety
Creating spaces for infants and toddlers that ensure safety is one of the most important considerations when designing an environment. Safe settings enable infants’ and toddlers’ freedom of exploration and support their developing sense of self. For health and safety reasons, it is essential that eating, food preparation, sleeping, and diapering areas are separate from play areas.
Safe environments allow a caregiver to spend less time monitoring infants’ and toddlers' safety and frees them up to spend more time on interactions and building relationships. When the environment constantly causes a caregiver to move the infant to a safer location, the child’s learning and engagement are interrupted. Instead, set the environment to allow freedom of movement and engagement without excessive restrictions.
As infants and toddlers move around and explore their environment, they will move toys from place to place. As a result, the floor is often strewn with toys. Be mindful that, when toys are scattered, infants' investigation might be interrupted, stopped, or create a potential hazard. Caregivers should periodically pass through the environment, remove items not being engaged with, and return them to designated storage areas. This practice maintains a safe and inviting play space and keeps toys accessible to the infants.[3] With older infants and toddlers, building in time for children to help with cleanup before transitioning to another activity supports responsible caretaking of their environment.
Keeping the environment safe and in adherence to specific licensing regulations and restrictions can be difficult, if not impossible, to keep in memory. Checklists allow regular safety assessments of indoor and outdoor environments. This documentation helps caregivers keep track of these details and maintain a safe environment.[4]
An easy way to create a safe environment and foster relationship building is to meet appropriate group size and child-to-adult ratio limits (Gonzalez-Mena, & Widmeyer Eyer, 2012). Smaller group sizes and lower child-to-adult ratios create and maintain a safe environment for all infants and toddlers.[5] As a baseline, California has licensing requirements to ensure the safety of children in early childhood programs. In California, community care licensing states that infant centers serving children from birth to age 2 need to have a minimum ratio of 1 fully qualified infant teacher to 4 infants. In a room with more than 4 infants, up to a maximum of 12 infants, there must be 1 fully qualified teacher responsible for the direct care and supervision of a maximum of 4 infants. If a fully qualified teacher supervises aides, each aide can be accountable for the direct care and supervision of a maximum of 4 infants. (Teacher-to-Child Ratios in Child Care Centers 2016) Many programs go beyond minimum state requirements to ensure children's safety and prevent accidents and injuries.[6]
The Program for Infant Toddler Care recommends ratios of 1 adult to 3 or 4 children and a total group size of 6 to 12 children, depending on their ages. The guiding principle is the younger the child, the smaller the group (Small Groups in Center-Based Programs n.d.). A helpful resource for research-based recommendations for group size and ratios is Caring for Our Children FOURTH EDITION National Health and Safety Performance Standards Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs by the National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education, and the Head Start Program Performance Standards.[5]
Safety Of Equipment, Materials, And Furnishings
Equipment, materials, furnishings, and play areas should be sturdy, safe, in good repair, and meet the recommendations of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). While not an exhaustive list, programs should attend to the following safety hazards:
• Openings that could entrap a child's head or limbs
• Elevated surfaces that are inadequately guarded
• Lack of specified surfacing and fall zones under and around climbable equipment
• Mismatched size and design of equipment for the intended users
• Insufficient spacing between equipment
• Tripping hazards
• Components that can pinch, sheer, or crush body tissues
• Equipment that is known to be hazardous
• Sharp points or corners
• Splinters
• Protruding nails, bolts, or other parts that could entangle clothing or snag skin
• Loose, rusty parts
• Hazardous, small parts that may become detached during normal use or from reasonably foreseeable abuse of the equipment and that present a choking, aspiration, or ingestion hazard to a child
• Strangulation hazards (e.g., straps, strings, etc.)
• Flaking paint
• Paint that contains lead or other hazardous materials
• Tip-over hazards, such as chests, bookshelves, and televisions
Plastic bags that are large enough to pose a suffocation risk, as well as matches, candles, and lighters, should not be accessible to children. [7]
[1] Image by Amanda Taintor is licesned CC BY-NC
[2] Infant Environment by Above & Beyon Child Care and Education Center,MI is used with permission
[3] California Department of Education (CDE Press). Development Foundations: Social-Emotional Development . Is used with permission
[4] Office of Head Start and Office of the Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Health and Safety Screener: is in the public domain
[5] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Nurturing Environments. is in the public domain.
[6] California Department of Education (CDE Press). Development Foundations: Social-Emotional Development . Is used with permission
[7] U.S Department of Health & Human Services: Administration for Children and Families. ECLKC Safety of equipment, materials, and furnishings is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/27%3A_Indoor_Environment/27.04%3A_Key_Environment_Elements.txt |
Health
A healthy environment decreases the possibility of contracting and spreading illness and enhances infants' and toddlers' overall well-being (Lally, Stewart, & Greenwald, 2009).[1]
Health concerns must be an integral part of routine care practices, such as washing hands, using gloves, and washing toys. Even well-designed environments that meet the highest standards still require an attentive caregiver to remain healthy. In some cases, staff may need training on the specialized procedures for the health care needs of a child or on making special physical accommodations.[2] Programs should follow a routine schedule of cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting. Cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting products should not be used near children, and adequate ventilation should be maintained during use.[3]
[1] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Nurturing Environments. is in the public domain.
[2] California Department of Education. (2019). Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission.
[3] U.S Department of Health and Human Services: Administration for Children & Families. Routine cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting. ECLKC. Is in the public domain
[4] Image by Amanda Taintor is licensed CC BY-NC
27.06: Key Environment Elements- Lighting and Comfort
Lighting and Comfort
An infant/toddler program should utilize a mixture of lighting. Incandescent lighting provides softer light and can be used to focus on areas of learning. Lamps, skylights and natural lighting from windows provide additional lighting options. If fire code allows drape fabric over bright lights to reduce their effect, especially in areas where infants are staring up at lights.
Comfort
A comfortable environment everyone can enjoy contributes significantly to a program's quality. Arrange furnishings and equipment so that adults can comfortably observe, supervise, and interact with infants.[2]
Although the focus of supportive learning environments for infants and toddlers is on the children, it is essential to create a physical space supportive of educators who spend much of their day on the floor interacting with infants. (The Ohio State University for the US Department of Defense’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth, 2021) When caregivers can sit comfortably on the floor, attention is spent engaging in responsive interactions with infants and toddlers rather than finding a comfortable position.[3]
A comfortable environment where adults and children can relax encourages teachers to sit with infants and creates an atmosphere conveying emotional and physical safety to all. Offer places for children and adults to snuggle, like a glider or rocking chair or couch, where adults can hold children in their laps for comforting and quiet interactions.[1]
Having 1 or 2 adult sized chairs in the room (e.g., a rocker or a sofa chair) can visually communicate to family members (who may be less comfortable in a kid-sized environment) that they are welcome. These adult chairs can serve as a space where family members can read a book to their child during pick-up or drop-off times, provide space for mothers to visit and nurse, and help build a home-like atmosphere in the room. Remember, children’s own homes are not all child sized. (The Ohio State University for the US Department of Defense’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth, 2021)
[1] Image by Amanda Taintor is licensed CC BY-NC
[2] California Department of Education (CDE Press). Development Foundations: Social-Emotional Development . Is used with permission
[3] Office of Head Start and Office of the Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Health and Safety Screener: is in the public domain
[4] Image by Amanda Taintor is licensed CC BY-NC
[5] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Nurturing Environments. is in the public domain.
[6] Image by Kids Work Chicago Day Care is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/27%3A_Indoor_Environment/27.05%3A_Key_Environment_Elements-_Health.txt |
Convenience
Organizing the environment so adults, infants, and toddlers can easily access play materials helps infants and toddlers realize they can do things on their own. It empowers children to try out ideas and use new materials. When organizing for easy use, think about storing similar materials together. Similar materials are things that go together or are necessary for certain activities. For example, baby dolls could be stored near blankets or other dramatic play items like play dishes and spoons. Soft blocks could be stored near objects like nesting cups or stacking rings so that infants and toddlers can combine these materials in their exploration.
For example:
• Storing books on a shelving unit that allows children to see the entire front covers may ignite greater interest in reading and make it easier for children to choose a book that sparks their interest.
• Storing simple wooden puzzles on a puzzle rack makes it easier for children to select a puzzle and return it to its place when they finish playing.
Storage types, including bins, baskets, and containers, affect how easily children can access materials and put them away.
Storage bins should be without lids for any materials children need to access themselves. They should be made of lightweight material (e.g., plastic vs. metal) and not too large or too heavy so that children can handle them independently. Clear plastic bins allow children to see the materials inside easily. Use containers that are large enough to accommodate materials without tipping over. Baskets should be free of anything that could poke or scratch children and woven tight enough so the contents cannot fall out through the holes.
Storage space for adult personal items (e.g., purse, coat) may help reduce safety concerns of both parents and caregivers. If possible, caregivers should have a quiet area (e.g., lounge) to spend breaks and recoup their physical and emotional energy. Such space can also be used for private conversations between caregivers and parents. (The Ohio State University for the US Department of Defense’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth, 2021) Some environments might be limited in space: program managers and caregivers will need to think creatively about storage space for personal belongings or areas to recuperate.
[1] Infant Environment by Jennie Powell is used with permission
[2] Infant Environment by Above & Beyond Child Care and Education Center, MI is used with permission
[3] Image by Amanda Taintor is licesned CC BY-NC
27.08: Key Environmental Elements- Meeting Individual Needs- Child Size and Flexibility
Individual Needs- Child Size and Flexibility
Caregivers must create a flexible environment that is easily arranged to meet infants' individual needs and preferences.[1] Infants and toddlers grow and develop quickly and at their own pace. Environments must meet their current developmental needs, as well as emerging skills, while keeping in mind the appropriateness and safety of the space and furniture. The space and furnishings should come together to create a learning environment tailored to meet the needs of developing infants and toddlers.
Caregivers can support the natural desire of infants and toddlers to actively explore their environment with their whole bodies by knowing the progression of developmental milestones. This knowledge helps caregivers better understand and predict what interactions, materials, and experiences will be safe, engaging, and most supportive to promote learning and development.
Evaluating the environment and making appropriate changes is an ongoing process that addresses infants' and toddlers' unique needs and values their developing skills and interests. An example of a flexible environment includes low chairs and tables where toddlers can eat or work on simple art projects or puzzles. These features allow easy movement and create flexible spaces.
The infant and toddler childcare environment is “… never determined once and for all. Planning, arranging, evaluating, and rearranging is an ongoing process as caregivers strive for quality and find what works best for them and for the children as they grow and change” (Gonzalez-Mena & Eyer, 2012, p. 285).
Family childcare can be an excellent example of creating flexible environments to meet the needs of various development abilities and chronological ages while accommodating the adults who utilize the space.
Commitment to ongoing reflection and adaptation enhances the quality of infant and toddler spaces and supports children's continual exploration and learning (Bergen, Reid, & Torelli, 2009)[1]
[1] Office of Head Start and Office of the Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Health and Safety Screener: is in the public domain
[2] Toddler Environment by Above & Beyond Child Care and Education Center,MI is used with permission
[3] Infant Environment by Jennie Powell is used with permission.
[4] Image by Amanda Taintor is licensed CC BY-NC | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/27%3A_Indoor_Environment/27.07%3A_Key_Environment_Elements-_Convenience.txt |
Movement And Choice
Like adults, infants and toddlers become frustrated when they cannot easily move through an environment or find what they need. Infants and toddlers learn about and experience life through sensory and motor explorations. They touch, taste, smell, observe, and move in the world around them to make meaning and build concepts. The floors, ceiling, lighting, walls, and furniture all contribute to the learning of infants and toddlers. To fully benefit from the environment, infants and toddlers require safe freedom of uninhibited movement as much as possible throughout the day. Freedom of movement supports children's growth by allowing space for practicing physical skills as they need and want. (Lally, Stewart, & Greenwald, 2009). [1]
An environment allowing infants and toddlers to move around freely helps them fully explore the space and do what comes naturally, including crawling, scooting, running, climbing, jumping, and walking. Caregivers should avoid placing infants in restrictive devices, such as swings, bouncy seats, or highchairs for extended periods (or at all if possible). Restrictive devices inhibit natural movement and prevent children from using their muscles to roll, scoot, and pull themselves up.
Clear pathways for infants and toddlers allow them to move easily through the room while also creating a defined space for protected exploration. The furnishings and equipment should allow a variety of movement choices so infants can crawl through, pull up on and, as they develop physical skills, climb on and jump off.[3]
Soft, thick floor coverings, such as vinyl mats, help mobile infants feel comfortable moving on the floor.
Adding unique and exciting features such as tunnels encourages further motor skills and exploration development.
For toddlers, slopes, stairs, or small ladders allow the opportunity for safe vertical movement. Offering infants and toddlers a variety of choices throughout the day helps them stay safely interested and engaged.[8]
A positive environment allows children to move freely without hearing "no" as they explore, make choices and interact with their surroundings.[10] Young children can follow their interests and develop their abilities within an environment that is respectful and encouraging of them.[1] When children feel supported and engaged in an “environment of yes”, they are less likely to exhibit behaviors that are challenging to adults.[11]
For infants and toddlers, every aspect of the world is exciting and engaging. Environments should support them in discovering that they can find and use materials independently. When infants and toddlers spend their days in a well-organized environment with clear choices, they find fascinating materials and can concentrate their efforts on exploring and learning. Storing materials on low, open shelves lets children see the materials available, make a choice, and return the item with less adult support. As soon as children can creep or crawl to materials, they should be encouraged to select and access the materials they are interested in playing with on their own. (The Ohio State University for the US Department of Defense’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth, 2021) A disorganized or overstimulating environment creates difficulty for infants and toddlers to focus on a particular environmental aspect. Too many options can be overwhelming.
Arrange the environment so that infants and toddlers can concentrate on the things that interest them. Creating a space that protects young infants from the movement of older children allows exploration with confidence. Well-defined areas protected from traffic patterns let toddlers play without interruption. It is also essential to consider ways to provide appropriate risk-taking opportunities as young children seek out challenges as they grow and learn.[1]
When children learn to use signs and symbols in their environment it promotes independence. Caregivers support independence by carefully labeling objects and the places where things belong. The best labels use written words plus pictures or parts of the object (like a puzzle piece on a shelf that contains wooden puzzles). Labeling not only helps children learn to access toys and eventually clean up independently, but it also creates a print-rich environment. Caregivers discover they give fewer directions and reminders when appropriate labels are used. When children can engage independently with materials, caregivers have more time for interacting and expanding learning opportunities.
[1] California Department of Education. (2019). Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission.
[2] Image by Paul Ma from Pixabay
[3] Office of Head Start and Office of the Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Health and Safety Screener: is in the public domain
[4] Image by Amanda Taintor is licensed CC BY-NC
[5] Young infant environment by Chantel Hunter with Turning Sun isi used with permission.
[6] Image by Gurpreet Bhogal is licensed CC: BY-NC
[7] Image by Molly Ram is licensed CC: BY-NC
[8] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Administration for Children and Families. ECLKC Nurturing Environments. is in the public domain.
[9] Image by Green Tree Community School, LLC is used with permission.
[10] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission (2012)
[11] U.S Department of Health and Human Services: Administration for Children and Families. Responsive Learning Environments. ECLKC. Is in the public domain. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/27%3A_Indoor_Environment/27.09%3A_Key_Environmental_Elements-__Movement_And_Choice.txt |
Engagement
Offering items of beauty or wonder in the classroom invites infants’ and toddlers’ exploration and engagement by using provocations. A provocation is a picture, experience, or item that provokes thought, interest, questions, or creativity (Edwards, 2002). Provocations can help “provoke” young children to use, think about or see materials in new ways. A good classroom design provides options to incorporate provocations easily. Inspiration for provocations will often come from children’s current interests or emerging developmental skills (e.g., crawling or grasping).
Provocations could be:
• Pictures: Including pictures of their interests can help extend the exploration of specific concepts and send the message that children’s ideas are valued. Use photos of authentic items as much as possible. In conjunction with personal storage and children’s artwork, photos also communicate that this space belongs to the children.
• An event or experience: For example, nature walks outdoors or a classroom "picnic.”
• Books: Strategically placing books relevant to children’s current interests throughout the room can change play and engagement. For example, a book on construction sites next to the blocks.
• Items from nature: This can include items collected from outside, such as leaves, pinecones or a vase of fresh flowers.
• Simple changes in the display: For example, a child-safe mirror on the floor for children to see themselves as they crawl over it, or doll babies in dramatic play with small bowls and spoons are an invitation to the older infants and toddlers to “feed” the dolls. Display changes can also include rearranging climbing equipment to offer new challenges or incorporating different textures and colors on the floor.
Provocations guide, help, and inspire infants and toddlers to engage with certain materials or spaces. However, they should never dictate what children do or how they engage with the materials. For example, perhaps some empty paper towel tubes and scarves are set up for children to explore by pushing the scarves through the tubes, but instead, the children enjoy throwing the scarves in the air and watching them fall (The Ohio State University for the US Department of Defense’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth, 2021).
[1] Image by anonymous is used with permission.
[2] Image by Stephanie Ashworth is used with permission.
27.11: Key Environmental Elements- Welcoming Families
Welcoming Families
An open-door policy that encourages families to come into the room and interact with their children and the caregivers sends the message that families are always welcome.
Ask family members about ways to help the program feel more like home for their children.[1] The environment and materials should reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of the children and families served. It is crucial for teachers and program leaders to consciously consider the cultural context of their environments and the cultural messages their program sends. Staff and families can work collaboratively to create familiar settings and experiences for the children.
Programs can create a climate of respect for each child's culture and language through authentic, meaningful connections to the young children's experiences in their homes and communities. Environment design is a critical piece of this objective. These genuine connections enhance learning and a sense of belonging, especially for culturally diverse children. All aspects of the program, including the environment, must reflect or represent the families' cultures, customs, and languages (including the teachers, other staff, and volunteers).
Some ways to create an inclusive environment include (but are not limited to):
• Displaying family artifacts and pictures of the family members' unique talents (for example, musical or artistic) prominently throughout the environment
• Incorporating environmental print that reflects the languages of the children into learning activities and routines
• Ensuring play materials, room decorations, and celebrations reflect the various backgrounds of the children in the program and other racial and ethnic groups in the community
• Choosing materials that reflect the cultures and languages of children and families enrolled in the program by displaying photographs of the children and families to reflect families' homes and everyday lives.[1]
Welcoming families should also include providing a comfortable space for nursing mothers to feed their babies. For some centers, a genuinely private space might be difficult to create. Communicating with nursing mothers about areas close by, even an administrator's office, lets mothers know they are welcome, and the program supports the choice to breastfeed.
[1] Office of Head Start and Office of the Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Health and Safety Screener: is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/27%3A_Indoor_Environment/27.10%3A_Key_Environmental_Elements-_Engagement.txt |
The environment needs to be safe, support health, be comfortable and convenient, and support development across domains.
Sensorimotor Development
Infants and toddlers learn about and experience life through sensory and motor explorations. They touch, taste, smell, observe, and move through the world around them to make sense of it. Children from birth to 3 years of age live directly through their senses. Therefore, the environment in which infants and toddlers are placed has a tremendous impact. —Lally, Stewart, & Greenwald, 2009, pp. 1.[1] An environment supportive of sensorimotor development includes areas of diverse physical exploration: vertical spaces, small spaces and multi-height obstacles to navigate. Caregivers must go beyond using sensory tables and allow children full body exploration of the environment using their senses. As infants and toddlers move around the environment, caregivers should talk with the child about the use of their senses in exploring and invite the infant or toddler to explore materials or substances using their senses.
Language And Communication Development Through Literacy-Rich Environments
Arrange the environment to make it easy for infants to communicate with adults, look at books, listen to stories from books, engage in fingerplays, sing, and participate in other activities. By using low shelves, dividers, and other furniture, children can view one another easily to foster communication between peers and teachers.
Efforts to foster communication and language development also promote emergent literacy in infants and toddlers. It is essential to provide a learning environment that offers easily accessible and age-appropriate books: creating an environment where books are readily available means infant and toddler caregivers can model engaging in books as part of the curriculum. When infants are interested in looking at books with their teachers, it is important for teachers to embrace such opportunities.[5]
Cognitive Development
When preparing an environment to support cognitive development, consider novel items, provocations, predictability, and familiarity. Infants enjoy searching for favorite and familiar toys. Finding everyday items gives them a sense of predictability and competence, the feeling of "I know this!" or "I know where to find that." Infants also enjoy new, inviting objects to pique their curiosity. Provide a primary selection of toys each day, and store the toys in consistent, predictable, and labeled locations in indoor and outdoor play environments; this will help the infants know where to find specific toys. Rotate new items into the play areas regularly to support curiosity. Base the rotation of play materials on careful observation and documentation of infants' play rather than a predetermined schedule. Use interesting arrangements to engage and extend the learning of a curious toddler.[5]
Social-Emotional and Relationship Development
Environments affect everyone to varying degrees. Spaces may influence infants and toddlers more than older children and adults since young children cannot change their environment or move to another area (Lally, Stewart, & Greenwald, 2009).
The spaces a child inhabits introduce the places where people feel welcome, meet, rest, and eat. When these places are familiar ones, similar to the child's home, the environment can help an infant feel safe and connected to the place.
A well-designed environment sets the tone for intimacy that will strengthen the quality of relationships and interactions.[6]
Making thoughtful and careful decisions about a child’s surroundings creates a nurturing, relationship-supporting environment in center-based and home-based childcare settings. Creating an environment that promotes respectful and responsive relationships is crucial to infants' and toddlers' growth and development.[7] Young children develop unique relationships with teachers and rely on these relationships for security and support in the learning environment.[8] Including pictures of the children and their families, providing personal storage space, and displaying children’s artwork communicates to infants and toddlers the space belongs to them. When hanging pictures or adding decorative touches, place them at the children’s eye level to reinforce that they are valued members of the classroom space. Consider taping photos to the floor so mobile infants can see them as they move through the room. (The Ohio State University for the US Department of Defense’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth, 2021)
Another aspect of a relationship-supporting environment is a home like atmosphere. Young children spend many hours in the program setting. Therefore, it should become a home away from home: a place of community and togetherness. Children are more likely to feel they can be themselves and have a sense of belonging when their classroom environment is like their homes. Family childcare homes already provide this atmosphere and do not look like miniature childcare centers. [7]
There are many ways to add personal touches to a classroom to create a home like feel.
• Use light and color to create a pleasing, calming and inviting effect. Create natural or soft lighting with windows or lamps. Spending extended periods of time in the presence of bright lights and bright colors can be overwhelming.
• Use fabric and other sound-absorbing materials to reduce unwanted noise.
• Utilize soft furniture, such as a couch or large armchair.
• Incorporate nontoxic plants.
• Decorate with throw pillows or cushions, area rugs and repurposed furniture.
• Display family photos of the children and staff.
• Use inexpensive frames to hang children’s artwork on the walls.
• Decorate in neutral paint colors
In addition to places for privacy and quiet areas
[1] Office of Head Start and Office of the Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Health and Safety Screener: is in the public domain
[2] Image by Amanda Taintor at Clovis College Child Development center is licensed CC: By-NC
[3] Image by Amanda Taintor at Reedley College Programs for Children Lab School is licensed CC: By-NC
[4] Image by Amanda Taintor is licensed CC: By-NC
[5] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[6] California Department of Education. (2019). Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission.
[7] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Administration for Children and Families. (n.d.). Nurturing Environments. is in the public domain.
[8] California Department of Education. (2019). Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission.
[9] Image by INSPIRE BILINGUAL EARLY LEARNING CENTER in Taos NM | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/27%3A_Indoor_Environment/27.12%3A_Supporting_Development.txt |
When designing an infant or toddler classroom or family childcare program, it is crucial to create defined, purposeful spaces.
Learning Areas
A learning area within an infant-toddler room creates nurturing learning experiences, with each area supporting different developmental domains. Examples might include an area for climbing or grasping to assist with gross or fine motor development or a section for exploration of specific ideas (e.g., a block area to explore cause-and-effect and balance). Although learning areas may primarily support specific development or interests, we know that infants learn holistically in all domains. Learning areas should include exciting possibilities, while also serving multiple functions. Sensory exploration by infants and toddlers will happen in all care and learning areas and need not be contained to a specific area with that label. In addition, a cozy book area provides young children with early literacy experiences and provides a quiet, calm space to relax alone or with a caregiver. The learning environment should be accessible and adaptable for children with disabilities and other special needs.
Some examples of learning areas:
• Reaching, grasping, and kicking areas (various hanging materials)
• Climbing area (stairs, platforms, risers, low cubes)
• Mirror area
• Blocks, building, and construction area
• Soft toy area
• Books and language areas
• Dramatic play area (play kitchen, dress-up materials)
• Messy area (art and expressive materials, sand and water table)
• Sound area (chimes, instruments, music, CDs and player)
• Sensory area (scented items, natural materials)
Carefully consider the arrangement of neighboring learning areas. It can be helpful to place quieter learning areas next to one another or near the napping space. Anticipating how infants and toddlers may want to use materials between areas offers them freedom to move materials from one learning area to another. This also gives infants and toddlers the opportunity to take charge of their learning and make their ideas come to life. For example, moving a dinosaur from the block area to the dramatic play area to be “washed” in the play sink offers toddlers a way to express their budding imaginations.
For rooms with only young infants, setting up specific learning areas may not be appropriate, as the entire room forms the learning area for infants. However, caregivers should offer various experiences and materials for infants and toddlers and rotate materials or rearrange spaces as children’s developmental needs change. Providing too many materials at one time may overstimulate children.
Even though caregivers create learning areas, infants and toddlers love to explore and should be allowed the freedom to carry toys and materials from one area of the room to another. Rather than limit movement between spaces, recognize the value in these behaviors and find ways to support this natural exploration of materials and space. Exploring and moving materials is an excellent topic for creating documentation for analysis and reflection when creating curriculum. What trends are observed in the movement of materials from one area to another? What do the infants and toddlers do with the moved materials? [6]
Display Areas
Children's art can be displayed in ways that communicate "This is a child's place" and "You belong and what you create is valued." Displays of children's art should be aesthetically pleasing and at their eye level, without making the environment overstimulating or visually cluttered. When documentation panels are displayed at infant and toddler eye level, they allow infants and toddlers the opportunity to revisit their learning in a format that is easy to visually observe and provides visual prompts for caregivers to have conversations revisiting the experience. Viewing documentation invites curiosity and confidence as infants and toddlers revisit their work and contemplate their accomplishments (Malaguzzi,1998).
Entrance and Family Communication Area
Design an environment that displays interest in and respect for all the families in the program. It is essential to talk with families every day at drop-off and pick-up times to exchange information about their children's experiences at home and in the program. Support open communication by having a space in the environment for each child, such as a cubby, bin, or clipboard. In the parent area (or a place that is easily accessible), provide daily notes for families that describe how their children's meals, naps, diapering/toileting, and play occurred throughout the day. Space for parents to leave notes (if there isn't an opportunity to share information in person) can also be included.
Create a space to post important information for families, such as a class calendar, parenting tips, or photos of children exploring in the program. In center-based care, a bulletin board somewhere in the room or in the hallway outside the room is a great place to post this information.
Family childcare providers might use a refrigerator door or hang a whiteboard near the front entrance.
Whether family childcare or center-based care, place communication areas away from the flow of traffic, where families can easily see them and talk with staff and other families without interrupting or interfering with the exploration of other infants and toddlers in the room.[8]
Sleeping and Napping
Napping spaces must feel safe, secure, and peaceful like the bedroom in a home. Separate napping places from areas where large-motor activities occur, preferably in spaces with limited traffic. Different sleeping areas, within line of sight of caregivers, for young infants help keep their schedules while still being monitored.
Inside areas should be well ventilated. Use a dimmer switch to turn the lights down low or off if possible. In rooms that do not allow for differentiation of lighting, explore safe ways to cover or dim the lights above sleeping areas.
To create a more home like and peaceful space, include some plants and soundless hanging mobiles in the area for children to view. In some cases, a radio or white-noise machine can mask traffic, construction, or other significant noises that interfere with sleep.
If utilizing an outdoor napping space, select a well-shaded area.
Have mats, cots, or cribs that feel cozy and comfortable, and are child sized. A firm, fitting mattress in a sturdy crib, in which all pillows, fluffy quilts, comforters, sheepskin, stuffed toys, and other soft products are removed, reduces risk factors for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in young infants under 8 months old. Each infant and toddler should have a spot to sleep. Label cribs or find a consistent area for a toddler to nap. Allowing toddlers to sleep in the exact location each day helps support routine and clear expectations of the routine. Toddlers will know where to go and when it's time for a nap. Port-a cribs save space but are not very sturdy. Cots made to stack and store, or mats work well for toddlers.
When covered with a blanket, cots are comfortable. If the sleeping area is part of a large room, set it off from activity areas with a divider at least 4 feet high. When permitted by fire codes, fabric banners hung from the ceiling can act as soft walls. A corner works best because there are 2 existing walls to work with. Use many fabrics – cushions, pillows, blankets, quilts – to absorb sound. Put up wall hangings but keep colors and patterns neutral and low-key. Storage for bedding must be accessible but out of children’s reach. The best storage has compartments, each labeled with the child’s name and big enough for the child’s blanket, favorite toy, and sheet. Lally, Steward, and Greenwald,
Diapering and Toileting Areas
The diapering and toileting area should contain changing tables, sinks, and storage for supplies. Toileting is something children learn to do for themselves when developmentally appropriate for their unique timeline. The diapering and toileting setup will make that learning easy or difficult. Store all the diapers and needed supplies nearby. Include a foot-operated, motion-sensitive wastebasket next to the diaper changing area lined with a plastic liner for easy disposal. Diapering surfacea should be about 36 inches high. Make the surfaces easy to wash to help keep it germ-free. Supplies for cleaning and disinfecting should be readily available but out of reach of children.
When using diaper table paper, keep the roll at the end of the changing surface so the old piece is easily thrown away. Clean and disinfect the surface, then roll out a new piece. The whole diapering setup needs to be close to a sink to promote handwashing and must also be separate from the food preparation area. Diaper tables should have a 3-inch lip to prevent an infant from rolling off the table.
If toddlers are using bathrooms with toilets, child sized toilets are preferable. Although flush toilets are preferred, “potty areas” also work if they are in a well-ventilated place near a bathroom with running water and away from the food area. Toileting sites must be easily accessible to supervise toddlers. Provide more than 1 potty as 2 or 3 toddlers can sit on potties simultaneously; the children can interact and learn from each other. Do not clean potties in the same sink where handwashing occurs. Instead, empty used potties into a toilet and wash in a utility sink. Keep toilet paper, paper towels, liquid soap, handwashing facilities, and sanitizing supplies near the potty.
When toddlers use a bathroom, they must have a teacher with them. The bathroom should be out of bounds or locked when not in use to keep toddlers from playing in there. Bathrooms with half walls provide a sense of privacy while allowing teachers to supervise visually both inside and outside of the bathroom area. Half walls also provide a visual connection for other children when their primary care teacher cares for another child. The toileting area is often neglected when setting up the environment. Small touches can make this area inviting and friendly. Create an attractive and cheerful toileting area for toddlers; this may be a space they spend a lot of time in if they are potty training. Put pictures on the wall and use color to brighten the area (Lally, Stewart, and Greenwald 2009).
Mealtime
Eating areas for toddlers who can feed themselves encourage the development of fine motor skills. When planning these areas, use preventative measures to ensure safe and healthy experiences for infants and toddlers.
Design an area for meals that includes appropriately sized furniture for infants and toddlers as well as comfortable seating for caregivers, and nursing mothers. When arranging this area, consider what feels comfortable holding a child, feeding her a bottle, and sitting next to her at a table while she feeds herself.[8]
Eating areas require accessible storage and easy-to-clean surfaces. Children need low, comfortable places to eat. Arrange a place for caregivers to sit with children while they eat. Low tables for up to 4 children work well and can be used for arts and crafts activities at other times. Consider tables that stack or fold out from the wall: they can be used for mealtimes, then stored away to enlarge the play space.
Young infants should be fed one at a time in the infant caregiver's arms in a comfortable adult sized chair with necessary items nearby on a table or shelf.
Several options are available for feeding older infants. Ideally, meals and snacks are served at a child sized table with small chairs and stools. When an infant begins to climb onto and sit on the stools, it is a sign that they are ready for low tables that they can get into and out of on their own. Leave a stool in the play area so infants can practice getting on and off.
For mobile infants, use child sized tables and chairs. A table for infants aged 12 to 18 months should be about 12 to 14 inches high. Toddlers need a table 16 to 18 inches tall to comfortably sit and eat, as well as to stand while engaging in messy play. When toddlers are seated, their feet should touch the floor. If their feet cannot touch the floor, the children will not feel stable while sitting and will have trouble using their hands and arms easily. Tables should be below chest height.
Toddlers will enjoy sitting in groups of 2 to 4 at small tables. Serve the food family style unless toddlers bring their lunches. When children and adults eat together, they engage in social time, helping to strengthen and support relationships.
Natural wood tables sealed with a high gloss coating are easy to clean. Sturdy chairs or backless stools are best to allow infants to move easily and independently during mealtime. Backless stools work well for mobile infants and toddlers who can approach the stool from the back and straddle it in a comfortable wide-legged position. Legless cube chairs take up a lot of space but can also be used for other purposes when turned over. Stackable chairs or stools also allow for a more flexible environment (Lally, Stewart, and Greenwald 2009).
Places for Privacy
Constantly being with other people for many hours each day can be emotionally draining for anyone, but it is especially so for infants and toddlers who are still developing the ability to regulate their emotions and calm themselves. Like adults and older children, infants and toddlers sometimes need time and space to break from the group. This need for privacy can be met by offering spaces limited to 1 or 2 children. A cozy corner with pillows, soft toys or books, or a quiet play area can help children calm themselves. Create these private spaces while still ensuring good visibility and children’s safety. (The Ohio State University for the US Department of Defense’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth, 2021)
Storage And Shelves
Infant and toddler learning spaces require a lot of materials. Toys, books, and other resources are regularly rotated in and out of active use. It is essential to plan for at least 4 kinds of storage in an infant and toddler learning space: open storage infants and toddlers can easily access, closed storage for caregiver materials, personal storage for belongings, and display storage for children’s art and work (Dodge et al., 2010).
• Open storage: For materials that are in active use, caregivers should carefully label and store them on open, easily accessible shelves. Open storage will help children build independence, and toddlers can avoid frustration when they easily find what they want and need.
• Closed storage: Tools such as adult office supplies, cooking utensils, or cleaning fluids need to be stored securely when not in use. Designate and carefully label secure locations for these items; doing so helps caregivers maintain inventory and ensure children’s safety.
• Personal storage: Infants and toddlers also need individual spaces for personal things, such as diaper bags, clothing, supplies, and creations. Space for favorite items (e.g., stuffed animal, favorite blanket) can help infants and toddlers feel secure. When spaces are easily accessible for toddlers, they can retrieve personal items when needed.Even if young infants cannot access a personal space independently, individual spaces personalize the learning environment and help parents feel confident their children are treated and cared for as individuals with unique qualities and needs.
• Child display: Storing and displaying artwork and portfolios sends powerful messages to children about the value of their work.
[1] Infant Environment by Above & Beyond Child Care and Education Center,MI is used with permission
[2] Image by Ms Linh Le Reggio is used with permission
[3] Image by Sarah Jensen is used with permission
[4] Image by Amanda Taintor at Clovis College Child Development Center is licensed CC: By-NC
[5] Infant Environment by Above & Beyond Child Care and Education Center,MI is used with permission
[6] U.S Department of Health and Human Services: Administration for Children and Families. Responsive Learning Environments. ECLKC. Is in the public domain.
[7] Image by Amanda Taintor at Reedley College Programs for Children Lab School is licensed CC: By-NC
[8] U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Administration for Children and Families. ECLKC Nurturing Environments. is in the public domain.
[9] Image by Rachel Klippenstein-Gutierrez is licensed CC BY-NC
[10] California Department of Education. 2011. California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 2. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission
[11] Image by Nina Kuchkovskiy is licensed CC: BY-NC
[12] California Department of Education. (2019). Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission.
27.14: Supporting Special Needs Children
Supporting Special Needs Children
Learning materials should be accessible to all children, including those with physical or sensory disabilities. When young children are supported in movement and sensory exploration, they learn about themselves and the environment. Program leaders should turn to family members and specialized service providers for guidance on appropriate ways to make environmental adaptations that support the full participation of all children. Caregivers may need to consider the physical space or pathways within learning areas to ensure that infants or toddlers with physical disabilities can easily move around and participate, and caregivers can comfortably move them throughout spaces and join with them. All children, but particularly children with social or behavioral needs or specific developmental disabilities, may benefit from a designated area where they can easily access materials that help them soothe themselves and where they can spend some minutes alone. (The Ohio State University for the US Department of Defense’s Office of Family Policy/Children and Youth, 2021)
All children within a program benefit from opportunities to play alongside peers with diverse abilities; they learn the essential values of inclusion, empathy, respect, and acceptance.[1]
Family members may have disabilities or other delays as well: adjust and accommodate adults as needed.
To support access to the environment for infants and toddlers:
• Plan developmentally appropriate environments, interactions, and experiences for all children.
• Arrange alternative opportunities to move for children with physical challenges.
• Communicate with family members and specialized service providers involved with the family about the proper use of adaptive equipment or alternative movement opportunities for a child with a disability or other delay.
• Avoid the use of restrictive equipment that limits children's free movement and isolates them from other children.
• Represent diversity of abilities whether children with identified delays are enrolled in the program or not.[1]
[1] California Department of Education. 2011. California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 2. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission
[2] Image by Nina Kuchkovskiy is licensed CC: BY-NC
[3] California Department of Education. (2019). Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission.
27.15: Conclusion
Conclusion to Indoor Environment
The teacher's intentional design of the learning environment increases opportunities for children to have engaging and meaningful interactions with adults and peers. Along with interactions, learning experiences, and routines, the learning environment is central to infant and toddler caregivers' planning and implementation of curriculum.[1]
[1] California Department of Education. (2019). Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition. Sacramento: California Department of Education. Is used with permission. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/27%3A_Indoor_Environment/27.13%3A_Division_and_Definition_of_Space.txt |
Introduction to Outdoor Environment
Research shows that today’s young children spend less time outdoors engaging in active play and exploring the natural world (Clements, "Status of Outdoor Play," 68; Ginsberg, "No Child Left Inside," 3–5; Hastie and Howard, "Prescription for Healthy Kids"; The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, "New Study"; Thigpen, "Outdoor Play: Combating Sedentary Lifestyles," 19–20). Researchers have identified several reasons for this decline, including:
• Adult fears about crime and safety
• Increased use of television, computer games, DVDs, and smartphones and tablets with digital media
• More time spent indoors in structured activities
• Childcare arrangements with limited free time
• Loss of natural habitats
An increasing number of educators, health/mental health professionals, and other child advocates agree that this trend adversely affects young children's health and development. Richard Louv, a child advocacy expert, worries that children are disconnecting from the natural world, a condition he calls "nature deficit disorder" (Louv, 2008) According to his research, nature deficit disorder contributes to a rise in obesity, depression, and attention disorders. As young children "spend less and less of their lives in natural surroundings, their senses narrow, physiologically and psychologically ...." (Louv, Introduction).
Whether children live in urban, suburban, or rural communities, the outdoor world provides new opportunities to observe, discover, and learn. In an outdoor environment, children's cognitive capacity to appreciate beauty, express creatively, and perceive sensory patterns and variety expand to all new heights. (Torquati & Barber,2005)[1]
[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Supporting outdoor play and exploration for infants and toddlers. ECLKC. is in the public domain.
28.02: Benefits of Outdoor Play and Exploration
Why Outside?
Early childhood education research has established the importance of learning through direct experiences (Torquati, J., & Barber, J., 2005). Theorists such as Montessori and Waldorf offer direct educational practices at their centers ( Hutchison, D. 1998). The philosophy of the schools of Reggio Italy and Howard Gardner also understood and expounded upon the complementary nature of science and the aesthetic experience of young children (Edwards, C., L. Gandini, & G. Forman. 1998., Gardner, H. 1999).
Outdoor play and exploration benefit children in many ways. Researchers have identified some general positive outcomes (Moore Marcus; 2008 White, 2004), including:
• Increased creativity and imagination
• Development of a sense of wonder, which is an essential motivator for lifelong learning
• Increased social interactions between children
• Enhanced opportunities to make decisions, solve problems and collaborate with peers, which also promote language and communication skills
• Improved awareness, reasoning, and observation skills
• Positive effects on children's ability to focus and pay attention [1]
Health Benefits of Spending Time Outdoors
There is strong evidence that young children experience significant health benefits from spending time outdoors. For example:
• Young children are more likely to engage in the kinds of vigorous, physical play that strengthens their hearts, lungs, and muscles because they tend to play harder and for more extended periods outside (Thigpen, 2007).
• Regularly spending time outdoors increases opportunities for infants and toddlers to crawl, toddle, walk, climb, and run freely. In addition to improving large motor skills, vigorous physical activity improves children's overall fitness level.
• Spending time outdoors strengthens young children's immune systems. They experience fewer illness-related absences from childcare when they have daily opportunities to play outside (Sennerstam,2007)
• Spending time outdoors provides access to vitamin D (Einstein College of Medicine, 2009). There is increasing concern that infants, toddlers, and older children are deficient in vitamin D. This vitamin is necessary for calcium absorption and strengthening teeth and bones.
• Spending time outdoors positively affects young children's sleeping patterns. Natural sunlight helps regulate and balance sleep-wake cycles ( Dewar, 2008).
• Children who play outdoors are less likely to be nearsighted. Direct exposure to the bright, natural light of the outdoors may stimulate developing eyes in important ways, such as "maintaining the correct distance between the lens and the retina—which keeps vision in focus" (Aamodt and Chang, 2011).
• Time spent outdoors provides children with protection against life stressors and helps them develop a general sense of peace and well-being (White,2004).
• There is some evidence that playing in the dirt exposes children to a specific type of bacteria that may reduce anxiety and improve the ability to learn new tasks (American Society of Microbiology, 2009). The Outdoor Curriculum
Spending time outdoors every day is a rich and vital part of the curriculum for infants and toddlers. From the very beginning, young children satisfy their curiosity by exploring with their senses. Being outside "presents a new world of sights, sounds, smells, and tactile experiences"(Thigpen,2007).[1]
Social and Emotional Benefits of the Outdoor Environment
Infants and toddlers learn to play together when they take turns using pails and shovels, share a ride in a wagon, and chase each other. Through direct, hands-on experiences, young children learn to be gentle with living things and each other. "Deep bonds can form between children or child and adult when they share experiences with nature. When children have daily opportunities to care for plants, trees, animals, and insects, they practice nurturing behaviors that help them interact in kind and gentle ways with people as well." 2(Rosenow,2011;4.)
Gross Motor and Fine Motor Benefits of the Outdoor Environment
Because outdoor play spaces are often more varied and less structured than indoor spaces (Burdett and Whitaker, 2005), infants and toddlers have more freedom of movement to develop their gross motor skills in novel ways. These may include crawling or rolling on grassy hills, standing and balancing on bumpy or unlevel surfaces, and jumping over puddles and sidewalk cracks. Small-motor muscles develop as children use a pincer grasp to pick up and fill containers with natural objects and materials or hold paintbrushes as they paint walls with water (Trister et al., 2015; Post et al., 2011). Children develop perceptual skills as they move their bodies through space in different ways and at different speeds and as they observe the world from different perspectives (e.g., lying on their backs on a blanket, standing on top of a hill, or swinging back and forth in a swing) (Post et al., Tender Care and Early Learning, 253).[1]
Cognitive Benefits of the Outdoor Environment
Contact with the outdoors helps infants and toddlers learn concepts such as cause and effect and problem-solving. As they practice dressing and undressing, infants and toddlers learn which clothes to wear for different types of weather. (Trister Dodge et al., The Creative Curriculum, 180.) They understand that the sun dries puddles and melts snow and that wind makes things move. Infants and toddlers learn important science concepts as they explore and discover the properties of natural objects and materials. STEM topics such as science, technology, and math are reinforced as children notice how things are the same and different, experiment with using tools (e.g., shovels and sticks), and predict whether and where they will see worms after it rains.
Language and Literacy Benefits of the Outdoor Environment
As adults talk or sign with infants and toddlers about the outdoor environment, infants and toddlers learn new words; as they begin to talk, they use those words to identify interesting things they see and ask questions. Noticing and discriminating sounds is a foundational skill for later literacy development. In the outdoor environment, infants notice different sounds and learn to identify and tell them apart. Books take on an extended role when adults help children connect ideas in books with real-life experiences, such as comparing fictional animals with live animals outdoors. (Trister Dodge et al., The Creative Curriculum, 180). Adding books and other resources to the indoor environment helps create curiosity and connect indoor and outdoor environments (Torquati, J., & Barber, J. 2005).
[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Supporting outdoor play and exploration for infants and toddlers. ECLKC. is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/28%3A_Outdoor_Environment/28.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Safe but Stimulating
It is important to know what makes a good outdoor play space for infants and toddlers. Outdoor play spaces should be treated as an extension of the indoor environment. Suitable outdoor play spaces:
• Provide safe and stimulating places to play and explore
• Accommodate the differing needs, skills, and interests of young infants, mobile infants, and toddlers, including those with suspected delays and identified disabilities
• Support nurturing adult-child interactions
• Accommodate adult needs for comfort
• Reflect staff and family beliefs, values, and culture
• Incorporate natural elements and native plant life
Easy access to the outdoors is desirable to accommodate the daily rhythms of toddlers. Access to a playground allows caregivers to respond to a child's changing needs, but in many centers, time on the playground is rigidly scheduled and may not accommodate the toddlers’ needs. Programs can individualize their outdoor play spaces: caregivers, other staff, and even families consider what they want infants and toddlers to experience in the outdoor space. They decide on the materials, equipment, and other design elements that support these experiences. Whether programs modify an existing space or create a new one, designing outdoor play spaces provides an excellent opportunity to involve families and collaborate with local resources and partners. Programs may find partnership opportunities with agricultural extension agencies, plant nurseries, landscape professionals, playground architects, artists, civic organizations, and businesses.
Center-based outdoor play spaces should be designed according to the guidelines in the most recent edition of the Public Playground Safety Handbook from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Home-based programs that provide socialization spaces with outdoor areas or public playgrounds during socializations may also look at the Public Playground Safety Handbook for relevant information. Family childcare providers who have backyards can review Outdoor Home Playground Safety Handbook.
All programs can review relevant sections of the Caring for Our Children (CFOC) special collection, Caring for Infants and Toddlers in Early Care and Education (I/T).
A Closer Look at Safety Considerations
Safety is perhaps the most common concern that interferes with active participation in outdoor play. Infants and toddlers are budding scientists. They actively investigate the world using their senses and appear to possess no fear when exploring with their hands, mouths, or bodies. Infants and toddlers are just beginning to understand what is and is not safe and how to protect themselves. They need responsible adults to minimize outdoor health and safety risks and eliminate the most dangerous hazards so they can explore and play safely.
Risk and Challenge
As caregivers consider safety, it is important to realize that no one can eliminate every possible risk. Minor bumps, cuts, scrapes, and bruises are commonplace. Some risk-taking is important and necessary for young children's growth and development. (Almeras, Creating a Nature-Based Culture, slides 34–36.) Risk-taking teaches young children what is and is not possible. It also sets the stage for managing challenging situations later in life. What is considered safe or unsafe depends partly on children's ages and developmental levels (e.g., sand is deemed safe for toddlers but not for young infants, even with close supervision).
Reducing risk does not mean limiting play equipment or enforcing rules that restrict young children's movement or ability to explore the environment. An ideal outdoor play space encourages children to challenge themselves while also presenting little risk for injury: ideally, an area with high challenge but low risk. Studies show high challenge, low risk playgrounds are the best at promoting the goals of outdoor learning. Children get more physical activity; develop better physical, cognitive, and social skills, including respect for others; and are happier and more resilient. (Farmer, et al., "Change of School Playground Environment on Bullying: A Randomized Controlled Trial.")
Outdoor Policies
Balancing outdoor play and exploration with safety means first implementing active supervision for all children, then reaching a common understanding with all adults of what it means to keep infants and toddlers healthy and safe while providing appropriate challenges. This includes identifying the benefits of risk-taking and defining reasonable risks.
Here are examples of what to include in outdoor policies:
• Requirements related to Active Supervision (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start, Active Supervision.) are essential in keeping children safe outdoors. For example, caregivers need to:
• Maintain a 1:4 staff-child ratio at all times.
• Use mobile phones or walkie-talkies to communicate between adults outdoors and indoors quickly and easily and, if necessary, emergency services.
• Position themselves to see and hear children and use the time to observe children and engage with them rather than visiting with each other. During socialization, parents should interact one on one with their child.
• Continually scan the outdoor play space to know where everyone is and what they are doing, and count children frequently, especially during transitions to and from the outdoor space.
• Use what they know about each child's interests and skills to predict what they will do.
• Create challenges children are ready for and support them in succeeding.
• Offer different levels of assistance or redirection depending on each child's needs.
Weather-related policies define when it is acceptable to take children outside. Outdoor experiences can occur in all kinds of weather conditions, including rain, snow, heat, cold, and wind, if common-sense precautions and safety procedures are taken. For example:
• Monitor air quality. Some air quality levels pose significant health and safety risks for young children and adults.
• Do not take children outside when there are blizzards, lightning, thunderstorms, or extremely hot or cold temperatures.
• Know the appropriate types of child and adult clothing for different weather conditions. Whenever possible, provide extra outdoor clothing for children and adults. The lack of proper clothing often reduces the time spent outside rather than the weather condition itself. (Williams, "Exploring the Natural World," 21).
• Use shade, sunscreen, and protective clothing for infants younger than 6 months, bug repellent, and other protective substances.
• Ensure safe, sanitary water play and sandboxes.
• Arrange appropriate storage of medications when children are outdoors (e.g., EpiPens® and inhalers for children with allergies and asthma). Medications should always be readily accessible.
• Identify steps for handling insect bites and stings.
• Research what to include in outdoor first aid kits.
In addition to outdoor policies, there are other important safety practices and procedures to consider. [1]
Weather
To stay up to date on current conditions:
• Check the Air Quality Index at http://airnow.gov and subscribe to EnviroFlash. This service from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state or local environmental agencies provides daily emails about local air quality. Poor air quality can negatively affect children with asthma and other special health care needs.
• Check the forecast for the UV Index to limit exposure to the sun on days when the Index is high.
• Sign up to receive hourly weather forecasts from the National Weather Service on a computer or mobile phone.
Sunscreen
Children need protection from the sun's harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays whenever they're outdoors. Shade and sunscreen protect children from sun exposure and can help to reduce the risk of some skin cancers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), even a few significant sunburns can increase the risk of skin cancer later in life. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016). Make Summer Safe for Kids. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/family/kids/summer/index.htm) The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends the following guidelines (American Academy of Pediatrics (2015). Sun Safety: Information for Parents About Sunburn & Sunscreen. Retrieved from https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-play/Pages/Sun-Safety.aspx) regarding sun safety and the selection and application of sunscreen:
• If possible, use play areas that provide shade to help children stay cool.
• Protect infants under 6 months from direct sunlight by keeping them in a shady spot under a tree, umbrella, or stroller canopy.
• Limit children's sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. when UV rays are the strongest.
• Encourage families to dress children in cool clothing such as lightweight cotton pants and long-sleeved shirts. A hat will protect their faces, ears, and the back of their necks.
• Obtain written permission from children's parents/guardians to use sunscreen with an SPF (sun protection factor) of at least 15. Choose a broad-spectrum sunscreen to screen out UVB and UVA rays
• Apply sunscreen at least 30 minutes before going outdoors to allow ample time for absorption into the skin. Children will need sunscreen reapplication every 2 hours if they are outside for more than an hour and more frequently if playing in the water.
• For children older than 6 months, apply sunscreen to all exposed areas, including children's ears (if they are wearing a cap instead of a hat).
• For children younger than 6 months, use sunscreen on small body areas, such as the face and the backs of the hands, if protective clothing and shade are not available.
Hydration
Toddlers and preschool children cannot regulate their body temperatures well and need additional water when hot. Provide regularly scheduled water breaks to encourage all children to drink during active play, even if they don't feel thirsty. Caregivers may offer additional breast milk or formula to infants as water is not recommended, especially for infants younger than 6 months of age, see CFOC Standard 4.2.0.6.
Water Safety
Water play is a favorite activity for many young children throughout the year. Families may ask about opportunities for children to engage in outdoor water play during the summer months. CFOC does not recommend using portable wading pools as they do not permit adequate sanitation control and promote the transmission of infectious diseases. Sprinklers, hoses, or small individual water basins are safer alternatives than wading pools. Always use active supervision when children play in or around water.
If using water tables, ensure staff clean and sanitize the water tables and use toys safely. All children should wash their hands before and after play. It is best to provide an individual basin for children with cuts, scratches, or open sores on their hands.
Insects and Insect Repellent
Protect children and adults from insect bites by checking for and removing insect nests under slides, in bushes, and in the ground. Ensure there is no standing water near play areas for mosquitoes to lay their eggs. Check for ticks after outdoor play. The CDC provides instructions about Tick Removal. To prevent insect bites on children, programs may consult with their local health department, Health Services Advisory Committee, or a childcare health consultant about using insect repellant when local insects are likely to carry diseases. Obtain written permission from children's parents/guardians before applying insect repellant and follow the instructions on the label. These products often use different levels of a chemical called DEET. "The AAP recommends that repellents should contain no more than 30% DEET when used on children. Insect repellents also are not recommended for children younger than 2 months." (American Academy of Pediatrics (2012). Choosing an Insect Repellent for Your Child. Retrieved from https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-play/Pages/Insect-Repellents.aspx).
[1] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ECLKC. Active Supervision. is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/28%3A_Outdoor_Environment/28.03%3A_Considerations_for_Creating_Safe_and_Stimulating_Outdoor_Play_Spaces.txt |
Finding Space
Outdoor play and exploration experiences may take place in different spaces and areas. However, some programs face challenges with limited or lack of outdoor play space or few safe places to go. In these situations, it is especially important to provide infants and toddlers with experiences connecting them with nature and opportunities for active outdoor play and exploration.
Although there may be no easy answers, it is still important to determine what outdoor accommodations might be reasonable and appropriate for programs and families with less-than-ideal circumstances. Here are some possible options: Greenman and Lindstrom, Caring Spaces, Learning Places, 299; Greenman et al., Prime Times, 298, 322
• Use sidewalks as paths for wheeled toys and equipment.
• Use sides of buildings as art walls.
• Provide "loose parts" to transform the space.
• Add logs, tree stumps, and smooth boulders to create new spaces and encourage large motor experiences.
• Use neighborhood resources such as recreation centers, parks, open fields, and school or public playgrounds. Create a "playground-in-a-box" (e.g., a wheeled utility cart filled with blankets, a parachute, milk crates, balls, and other toys and equipment to take to more open space).
• Take children on short outings using wagons, buggies, and strollers. Allow children who can walk to do so for at least part of the time, so they get the benefit of physical exercise.
• Locate and use community gardens.
• Plant nonpoisonous flowers in boxes or create small gardens in washtubs that are safely accessible to children and adults (American Academy of Pediatrics; American Public Health Association; National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education; and Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Department of Health and Human Services, Caring for Our Children (CFOC), "Even Plants Can Be Poisonous.").
• Hang bird feeders, wind chimes, and banners where children can see them.
• Bring nature inside. Consider putting buckets or other containers outside when it rains or snows, and then bring them in to see how much was collected. When possible, open windows (no more than 4 inches and use safety guards) to allow fresh air to come in. Provide safe, age and developmentally appropriate natural objects and materials for infants and toddlers to explore. These can include pinecones, small tree cookies (i.e., cross-sections of branches that show growth rings), twigs, leaves, snow, dirt, acorns, rocks, and shells. Closely supervise these explorations: it is developmentally appropriate for very young children to put objects in their mouths. Things considered safe for older toddlers to explore are not safe for younger children.
• Draw children's attention to natural events they can see through the window, such as rain, snow, lightning, or wind blowing trees or leaves. Invite children to touch windowpanes to see if they are warm or cold. Point out and describe changes in outdoor conditions (e.g., how the amount of shady or sunny places changes depending on the time of day or how the light changes when clouds cover the sun).
28.05: Strategies for Maximizing Outdoor Learning Opportunities for Infants and Toddlers
Using Outdoor Time Wisely
The outdoors offers rich learning opportunities for infants and toddlers. Whether in outdoor play spaces, backyards, parks, or on front stoops, these opportunities take shape and place through relationships and interactions between caring, supportive adults and children. Infants and toddlers take their cues from the significant adults in their lives. They are more likely to respond positively and explore the outdoor environment when adults plan for, model, and support those explorations. Because staff and families play an essential role in connecting infants and toddlers to nature and the outdoors, program leaders must consider ways to facilitate and strengthen adult engagement with outdoor play and exploration.
Loose Parts
Caregivers can use "loose parts" Dempsey and Strickland, "Why to Include Loose Parts"; Greenman et al., Prime Times, 297 to enhance outdoor play opportunities for infants and toddlers. The term refers to "easily moved materials that children may use while playing." Dempsey and Strickland, "Why to Include Loose Parts." For infants and toddlers, loose parts are toys and materials that are safe, not fixed in place, and can be used in many ways. They are materials that children collect, put together, mix, separate, stack, fill and dump, and line up. Indoor toys, equipment, and materials brought outside are considered loose parts, as are natural materials such as tree cookies, stones, twigs, seedpods, leaves, water, and sand. Other ideas for loose parts include:
• Fabric
• Containers
• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes
• Sponges
• Wagons
• Small sleds
• Plastic milk crates
• Backpacks
• Wide, sanded boards that are short enough for toddlers to pick up, carry, or drag
Loose parts are important for several reasons. Dempsey and Strickland, "Why to Include Loose Parts." They:
• Encourage children to manipulate the environment and provide opportunities for creativity and problem-solving.
• Provide children with age-appropriate materials. Because these materials can be used in a variety of ways, each age group uses the materials in different and appropriate ways.
• Add novelty into the outdoor play environment. This is important for cognitively higher levels of play, such as symbolic play.
• Foster a wide variety of play behaviors, such as dumping and filling; lifting, moving, and carrying; and pretend, parallel, and cooperative play.
28.06: Create a Program Culture that Supports Outdoor Play and Exploration
Culture and the Outdoors
One way to build support and understanding of the importance of outdoor experiences is to develop a philosophy statement describing the program's beliefs. 1Almeras, Creating a Nature-Based Culture, slides 24, 32. A defined philosophy statement and policies supported by program leadership can guide program practices by providing a framework for planning and teaching. Consider the following process for developing a philosophy statement.
• Ask for input from staff and families. Provide information and resources as needed to facilitate the conversation.
• Involve staff and families in writing and reviewing the statement to increase consensus and support.
• Once a statement is finalized, translate the statement into families' home languages. Post the information where families and staff can see it. Consider including it in newsletters and other documents that describe the program.
• Share and discuss the statement during new staff and family orientations, staff and parent meetings, home visits, and group socialization.[1]
[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Supporting outdoor play and exploration for infants and toddlers. ECLKC. is in the public domain
28.07: Conclusion
Conclusion to Outdoor Environment
Outdoor play and exploration matter to infants and toddlers. Time spent outdoors helps them connect with and develop an appreciation for the natural environment. It offers crucial health and developmental benefits and valuable experiences that are simply not available indoors. With thoughtful planning and supportive practices and policies, programs can provide infants and toddlers with opportunities for active outdoor play, nature exploration, and connections with trusted adults in many ways, even in circumstances that are less than ideal. Working together, EHS and MSHS leaders, staff, and families can offer rich learning opportunities that support children's development and build a foundation for engaging with and learning from nature.[1]
[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Supporting outdoor play and exploration for infants and toddlers. ECLKC. is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/28%3A_Outdoor_Environment/28.04%3A_When_Availability_of_Outdoor_Play_Space_Is_an_Issue.txt |
Introduction to Observation
What is observation? One online dictionary (Dictionary.com,2019) gives the following definitions for observation (noun):
• An act or instance of noticing or perceiving
• An act or instance of regarding attentively or watching
• The faculty or habit of observing or noticing
• The information or record secured by such an act
Observation informs responsive care and teaching practices, learning experiences, environments, routines, and schedules.[1]
There is more to observing than watching what infants do, though. Observing involves focus and purpose. Stetson, Jablon, and Dombro (2009) defined observation as "watching and listening to learn about individual children" (Stetson et al., 2009). Caregivers watch and listen to children and families to learn about each child's development and figure out how each child is learning. Many describe observation as paying close attention to a child's behaviors, interactions, activities, and interests and noticing all aspects of the child's development (National Infant & Toddler Child Care Initiative, 2010). Both definitions stress the importance of observing to learn.
Whether we realize it or not, we constantly observe when working with infants, toddlers, and families. For many caregivers, observation becomes second nature, part of what we do. We regularly take in information, and consciously or not, these observations inform our work and interactions.[2]
[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Child observation: The heart of individualizing responsive care for infants and toddlers is in the public domain
[2] U.S Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Look at Me! Using Focused Child Observation with Infants and Toddlers is in the public domain.
29.02: Why we Observe
Why?
There are important reasons why caregivers observe infants and toddlers.
The most common purposes behind caregiver observation include to:
• Learn about children to individualize care and the curriculum, including interactions, teaching practices, learning experiences, routines, and schedules
• To measure and track children's progress in acquiring skills and concepts over time as part of the ongoing assessment cycle.
When caregivers are intentional about observing children, they can better understand how young children think, feel, and learn about the world around them. In turn, these understandings aid caregivers in making decisions about providing responsive and informed care.
Respectful observation reflects a belief that young children's behaviors have purpose and meaning and are worth attending to. The crucial part of observation involves a great deal of thinking beforehand (Cagliari, 2004). Caregivers who believe young children have goals and intentions ask themselves essential questions:
• Why does this child do what he does?
• What is he trying to communicate or accomplish?
• How should I respond to support this child?
• What could I do to support them?"[1]
Observation becomes one tool in seeking answers to these questions. It provides opportunities to engage in a "pedagogy of listening" (Cagliari, 2004). We often silo contexts for observation by separating our observation time into two distinct categories: observation of what the child is doing now and observation to reflect on later. But a caregiver is a "participating observer" (Cagliari, 2004). As the children actively build knowledge, caregivers watch and listen, and while observing, the caregiver can find "strategies that will consequently guide the activities onward" (Cagliari, 2004). Observing from a respectful point of view helps us make essential discoveries about children, such as what they are like as individuals, how they react to other children and adults, what tasks are easy or hard for them, and how they convey their wants and needs (Dichtelmiller and Ensler, 2004). These discoveries allow caregivers to be responsive to each child's interests and needs.[2]
Observations are conducted every day in early childhood classroom environments. Caregivers are constantly surveying the environment. Forms of intentional observations are: completing safety checks to ensure the equipment and materials are safe for the children to use and daily health screenings to ensure children are healthy enough to participate in activities. Intentional caregivers use their observations to plan and implement curriculum, set up engaging learning environments, monitor the children's social interactions, track behaviors, communicate with families, and assess each child's progress and development. Through purposeful and planned observations, intentional caregivers can:
• Evaluate program and caregiver effectiveness
• Make improvements to ensure quality practices
• Plan and implement developmentally appropriate curriculum
• Measure and assess a child's development
• Develop respectful family partnerships
• Understand cultural practices
• Choose learning strategies to support and accommodate the diverse needs of children
• Ensure ethical conduct and professional standards of practice.[3]
[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Look at Me! Using Focused Child Observation with Infants and Toddlers is in the public domain.
[2] U.S Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Child observation: The heart of individualizing responsive care for infants and toddlers is in the public domain
[3] Peterson, G., & Elam, E. (2021). Observation and Documentation - The Key to Intentional Teaching. In Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education is licensed under CC BY. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/29%3A_Introduction_to_Observation/29.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Things to Keep in Mind
Caregivers observe, record, and capture moments in a child's development every day. The artifacts gathered are used to plan curriculum, assess growth, and change the environment. In the article "Who is Watching? Thinking Ethically about Observing Children," the authors highlight some of the ethical tensions that can arise within early childhood settings when trying to balance the rights of children, the responsibilities of caregivers, and the role of students training as future caregivers.[1]
When observing and documenting young children:
• Take every precaution to maintain confidentiality and ensure privacy.
• Be respectful and keep a reasonable amount of space between you and the child to minimize interference in playing and learning.
• Be attuned to children's body language, temperament, and communication styles.
• See each child as a unique individual with individual perspective, set of feelings, interests, and way of socializing, along with their cultural context, belief system, and values.
• Share information with the child about what you have observed, when appropriate.
• Collect photos and other observation methods in a non-intrusive manner.
• Ensure observation evidence and pictures are used only for the purposes intended.
• Handle photographs and data with care and sensitivity and store information securely.
• Realize that a child's reactions, behaviors, and conversations may not be what you expect, and therefore you should refrain from being judgmental or tainted by your cultural biases.[1]
[1] Peterson, G., & Elam, E. (2021). Observation and Documentation - The Key to Intentional Teaching. In Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education is licensed under CC BY.
29.4.01: Objective vs. Subjective
The importance of Accuracy
Observation is like a photograph—it captures a moment in time. As an observer, you are like the photographer, focusing on some things, ignoring others. Like the photographer, you bring your ideas, preferences, and perceptions to the act of observing. (Jablon et al.,2007)
It takes practice to become a good observer. For caregivers, an essential aspect of being a respectful observer involves knowing that what they notice and how they interpret their observations about infants and toddlers may be influenced by many things. Culture, temperament, the presence of a delay or disability, personal experiences and relationships, professional knowledge, and even community values and messages in the media affect how caregivers and families see and experience children. Our gut reactions and carefully considered opinions influence our observation behaviors (Cagliari, 2004).
These lenses through which caregivers observe and interpret cause influence, even though they may not always be conscious of them. For example, two adults may see an infant fuss but interpret what the fussy behavior means and respond differently based on their own experiences, education, and culture (Cagliari, 2004). Observing young children involves self-awareness, and this awareness evolves.
Every person comes from a culture, and every family's culture is unique. Culture—attitudes, beliefs, expectations about people and events—shape caregivers as humans and early childhood professionals. For example, some cultures consider it respectful to look someone in the eye when speaking or being spoken to, while others consider it respectful to look down when someone is speaking. A caregiver whose culture values looking someone in the eye when speaking may think that a child or family member whose culture values eyes down when someone speaks is ignoring them or disrespectful. This interpretation can then influence the words used in observation.
Traits such as temperament (e.g., being cautious, outgoing, or sensitive; requiring order), personal interests and preferences, and feelings (e.g., what makes us feel excited, apprehensive, uncomfortable) also affect how adults relate to children. These traits may help them feel closer to children with similar characteristics. They may pay more attention to children with similar characteristics and observe them more frequently than other children. These traits may also drive adults away from children whose attributes are different. Caregivers may pay them less attention or interpret their behaviors more negatively. For example, a caregiver who has a high tolerance for bright lights, environmental noise, and excess materials on shelves and walls may have difficulty figuring out that those same things may overstimulate an infant who cries frequently.[1]
[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Child observation: The heart of individualizing responsive care for infants and toddlers is in the public domain
29.04: Accurate Observations for Accurate Documentation
Two Important Terms to Know
Intentional caregivers must understand the importance of objective and not subjective observation. The dictionary defines objective as: not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts, contrasted with the definition of subjective: based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions (Dictionary.com, retrieved 2022). Scientists use objective evidence over subjective evidence to reach sound and logical conclusions, just as infants are born scientists (Babies are Born Scientists, 2012), observing caregivers are scientists as well.
Objective observation is without personal bias and the same by all individuals. Humans are biased by nature, so they cannot be completely objective; the goal is to be as unbiased as possible. A subjective observation is based on a person's feelings and beliefs and is unique to that individual.[1]
Observing objectively means writing down all you see and hear and recording only those behaviors directly observed. For most, this is much more difficult than the simple definition implies. It takes practice for caregivers to become skilled in separating the facts they observe from their opinions, biases, or reflections during the observation.
Objective vs Subjective
Objective Observations
Subjective Observations
Objective observations are based on what we observed using our senses; we record what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.
Subjective observations are often influenced by our past events, personal experiences, and opinions and can be biased based on our cultural backgrounds
Objective information is based on the facts we gather. If we don't see it, we don't report it. We write only details and provide vivid descriptions
Subjective information is based on our opinions, assumptions, personal beliefs, prejudiced feelings or can be based on suspicions, rumors, and guesses
Results are more likely to be valid and reliable from child to child
Results are often inconsistent and vary from child to child
Objective Terms to use:
Seems to be; Appears to
Subjective Words to Avoid:
Just; because; but; always, never; can't; I think; happy, intelligent, helpful, pretty, angry, shy, likes, loves, hates, sad
Additional Resources:
Clearing Your View: Staying Objective in Observation | ECLKC (hhs.gov)
[1] Johnson, Chris, & Affolter, M. (2017). Understanding Science is licensed CC BY-NC-SA | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/29%3A_Introduction_to_Observation/29.03%3A_Guidelines_when_Observing_Children.txt |
Bias Observations
Search the word bias on an internet search engine. You will get a definition similar to: "prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair."
It is important to realize we might not be fully aware of all our biases, even if we are aware of some. Our biases are at play in our interpretations of behaviors we often observe without recognizing their influence. For example, when a child says, "give me some milk!" Our first response might be, "how do you ask?" We might not realize that manners (or lack of them) influence our reactions in a specific way. Caregivers must recognize how they feel towards the child's behavior influences how we see them and thus what we choose to observe and document.[1]
Common Subjective Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Observation Evidence
• Making Conclusions: "Billie can't do anything by himself because he is the youngest in a large family, and they do everything for him"; "Sharon's parents are getting a divorce, so she is sad"
• Making Assumptions: "Annie never shares"; "Denise always hits Thomas"
• Labeling: "Rosie is mean"; "Jeff is such a good boy"
• Comparing: "Tommy can't ride the bike as well as Sam"; "Zoey was the best listener at circle time."
• Focusing on Feelings or Emotions/Mood: "Max looks so sad today"; "Jax looks so happy as he slides down the slide."
• Adding Opinions/Subjective: "Martha likes playing dress-up; she is in the dramatic play area every day."; "Suki is shy and never says anything during circle time." (put in your parking lot). [2]
To the extent possible, caregivers need to acknowledge biases and the influences of our cultural lens and then remove those from observations and be intentional in removing them from the documentation. The necessity to remove subjective and sometimes biased observations does not automatically imply "wrong-ness." The subjective thought could align with the caregiver's cultural, personal, or religious values. What a person believes is often what makes us unique (remember the definition of objective?), but those unique views and reflections do not belong in our objective observation or documentation. Biases get in the way of what behavior is happening. When you first begin to document your observations, a helpful exercise is to physically write down the subjective thoughts into a separate area; some choose to label this the "parking lot" or select another label identifying it as a place to move subjective observations. As you complete more observations, the act of moving subjective thoughts out of the way of our objective observations will become easier. [3]
[1] Recognizing Your Biases is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Gina Peterson and Emily Elam.
[2] Peterson, G., & Elam, E. (2021). Observation and Documentation - The Key to Intentional Teaching. In Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education is licensed under CC BY.
[3] U.S Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Child observation: The heart of individualizing responsive care for infants and toddlers is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/29%3A_Introduction_to_Observation/29.04%3A_Accurate_Observations_for_Accurate_Documentation/29.4.02%3A_Recognizing_and_Removing_Bi.txt |
The Words we Use
The practice of labeling behaviors versus describing what is observed is another practice that can create subjective observations. Understanding the difference between these two terms can be difficult. We often provide personality or even temperament traits when we fall into quickly labeling instead of describing observed behavior. An objective observation does not give one-word labels such as strong-willed, aggressive, temperamental, sweet, friendly, or bad. Instead, we describe the directly observed behaviors that led to the (often biased) label—describing the behaviors yields richer and more helpful information for later assessment or curriculum development.
29.4.04: Interpreting Mood
Observing Emotions
It can take a lot of practice to "un-train" ourselves from recording the mood we interpret versus the actual behavior we see. A great way to start is to think about a list of emotions you might try to use in your documentation. Examples most typically used are: Happy, Sad, Angry, Mad. When we use the words happy, sad, and angry in our documentation, we interpret the mood from observed behaviors. Let's take a look at the mood happy. If a caregiver documents the child is "happy," they observe a specific behavior that makes them make the statement. The child might be smiling, laughing, giggling, or jumping excitedly. When we only document the word "happy," we don't know the demonstrated behavior. How about sad? If I document "the child was sad." Does another person reading my documentation know exactly what behavior the child is exhibiting? No, they wouldn't. You could guess, but you can't say if you were right, and a guess then violates another critical consideration of observation: Accuracy. If we describe the mood of sad, we might document it as, "the child began to softly cry into their hands, turning the face away from their peers." Does that description allow you to picture what is going on much more accurately?
29.05: Observation and Documentation Dos and Dont's
Whether performing a planned or spontaneous observation, caregivers can use the tips below to observe objectively.
Observation and Documentation DOs:
• Note the date, time, setting,
• Note the child (or children) involved
• Record only the facts – in a concise (to the point) manner
• Record the facts in the order as they occur and precisely as you see it
• Collect vivid details and quotes
• Use a variety of Observation Methods
• Observe with an open heart, an open mind, and a clear lens, free of bias
• Be attentive and alert, and use all your senses
• Note what the child CAN DO rather than what he cannot do
Observation and Documentation DON'Ts
• Do not interfere or pressure the children to perform
• Do not assume or state your opinion while recording evidence
• Do not record anything you do not see
• Do not label behaviors, actions, or feelings
• Avoid using subjective, biased, or judgmental terms
• Avoid using exaggerations and conditional words
• Do not summarize information
• Avoid using generalizations or vague terms
• Keep a low profile and respect the children's space while they are playing [1]
[1] Observation and Documentation Dos and Don’ts is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Gina Peterson and Emily Elam. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/29%3A_Introduction_to_Observation/29.04%3A_Accurate_Observations_for_Accurate_Documentation/29.4.03%3A_Labeling_vs._Describing_Beh.txt |
Intentional Observation
Infants and toddlers typically do not demonstrate what they know and can do "on-demand" (i.e., when the observer wants them to). However, caregivers can still intentionally capture and record what children do and say by setting up a system for carrying out observations.
There is no one right way to do this. An observation system in a center-based classroom with two caregivers may look different from the system that a family childcare provider who works alone uses. Observation systems are not static; they should be revisited as caregivers become more proficient in observing children and growing and developing.[1]
Here are some general strategies to consider when developing a system:
Plan times to observe a child
To capture the depth and breadth of children's skills, abilities, and interests, observe at different times of the day and in other settings. For example, observe children:
• Across environments (e.g., indoor and outdoor) and different times of the day (e.g., morning and afternoon)
• During routines (e.g., mealtimes, diapering and toileting, naptime, dressing, arrival, and departure)
• As they engage in play experiences and move from one play experience to another
• As they interact with other children and adults
Develop a plan to make sure each child is observed regularly (e.g., once a day or week). When using an observation method that requires stepping back for a period to observe, such as a running record, coordinate that observation time with another adult to ensure children are supervised, and teacher-child ratios are maintained.
Repeat observations over time. A single observation does not provide enough information to determine what a child knows and can do entirely. Children's behaviors are not always consistent. Many factors (e.g., illness, lack of sleep, hunger, changes at home, changes in the daily schedule, staff changes, the developmental process) can influence what children do and say from day to day, and even from hour to hour. So, multiple observations are needed.
Plan for spontaneous observation opportunities
Although this may sound like a contradiction, it is not. Often, infants and toddlers do and say new and unexpected things. These behaviors may occur during unplanned observation times. To prepare for unplanned observation:
• Put note-taking materials (e.g., writing tools, index cards, sticky notes, mailing labels, note pads, clipboards, and paper) in strategic places around the room, in the pocket of a smock or apron.
• Make sure cameras and audio and video recording devices are in working order, are fully charged, and are easily accessible.[1]
When you've completed your observation, find time to file them as quickly as possible. This time could be at naptime, planning time, beginning or end of the day, or the end of each week. Do not wait too long; observations can quickly pile up or get lost during a busy day or week.[2]
[1] Head Start | ECLKC under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Child Screening & Assessment. Retrieved from Setting Up Systems for Ongoing Observations:
[2] US Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Child observation: The heart of individualizing responsive care for infants and toddlers is in the public domain
29.07: Family and Observation
Partnering with Families
Talk with families about why and how observations are completed in the program. Provide relevant information—both verbally and written in the families' home languages—about child development so families can better understand what they observe. Invite them to share what they observe about their children verbally, through pictures and photographs, or in writing (e.g., notes in journals that go back and forth between home and the program, email, or text exchanges as allowed by program communication policies).[1]
[1] Head Start | ECLKC under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Child Screening & Assessment. Retrieved from Setting Up Systems for Ongoing Observations:
29.08: Conclusion
Conclusion to Introduction to Observation
As an intentional caregiver, you will want to plan systematic observations to document each child's unique qualities, interests, developmental strengths, needs, learning approaches, and play preferences. As you gather the evidence, you will want to be as objective as possible, recognizing your biases and removing them from your observations. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/29%3A_Introduction_to_Observation/29.06%3A_Setting_Up_Systems_for_Ongoing_Observations.txt |
Introduction to Documentation
A foundation for high-quality care includes using information collected through observation and documentation to assess infant and toddler development and support developmentally appropriate curriculum creation. According to NAEYC (2009), there needs to be an organized information collection system to guide classroom decisions. Caregivers’ observation and the documentation created from those observations make infant and toddler learning visible (Rinaldi 2001), a concept first brought to light by the schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy. Through detailed descriptive notes, photos, recordings, and drawings, caregivers reflect on an infant or toddler's ideas, intentions, or feelings during play. When we document infant and toddler learning and collect key artifacts, we create tangible evidence to share with the infant and toddler, their families, administrators, and other stakeholders. Observing infants and toddlers at play reveals much about their process of information gathering and making sense of their world. Rinaldi (1994, 59) explains that young infants and toddlers “ask us to listen, to observe, and support them and to render them visible.” Caregivers “render them visible” by recording what they see infants and toddlers do or say, then reflecting on and interpreting those observations. When infants and toddlers take action to explore different possibilities, they are testing their own hypotheses (Gopnik, Meltzoff, and Kuhl 2000; Gopnik 2009). Observing, reflecting, and creating documentation on infants’ and toddlers' actions or a verbal toddler's explanations serves as a window into their curious and creative minds.[1]
[1] Early Education and Support. Best Practices for Planning Curriculum for Young Children: The integrated nature of learning is in the public domain
30.02: Getting Started
Where to begin?
There are different ways to begin documenting observations: there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Trying a few different strategies may be helpful, especially if you are new to the process. The structure of a program and individual preferences of caregivers can influence which documentation strategy fits best.
Whether you are doing a planned or spontaneous observation, keeping essential tools nearby supports successful implementation.
When possible, keep the following items close at hand:
• Something to write on– paper, sticky notes, color-coded index cards, clipboard, notebook
• Something to write with – colored ink pens, sharpie markers
• Something to record with – photo camera, video camera, tape recorder
A caregiver must be poised to document as events occur. By carrying these items around in an apron pocket or placing them strategically around the room for quick access, a caregiver will always be within reach of useful tools for creating documentation.[1]
[1] Office of Child Care: Child Care Technical Assistance Network, Infant/Toddler Resource Guide: Planning for Infants and Toddlers. Observation, Documentation, and Reflection
30.03: Observation and Documentation While Participating
Being Present
One of the critical challenges for infant and toddler caregivers is observing and recording their observations while providing care. Learning how to address this challenge takes time and a sound support system. Caregivers can develop plans together for observing and recording behavior within the context of daily routines and events. Some caregivers take turns; others have systems such as cameras and note cards placed around the indoor and outdoor areas so they can take quick notes or photos in the moment. There are many ways to participate and observe at the same time. Infants and toddlers become accustomed to caregivers who take notes and photos; the process of observing and recording behavior becomes a regular part of daily routines. Documentation from caregivers who are involved daily with infants and toddlers is the most useful because the caregiver understands the infant’s and toddler’s context: everything from how the infant or toddler slept the night before to his current interests. Infant and toddler caregivers who observe regularly are better able to provide care and education that connects with each infant and toddler.[1]
[1] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/30%3A_Documentation/30.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
“We, as adults, feel the need to describe things to give words and categories to types of behaviors and dimensions of knowledge. We must be able to do this without separating the strands the infants have woven together” – Paola Cagliari
Exploring Documentation Options
There are many ways to record and document infant and toddler learning. Caregivers should utilize several methods as part of their regular documentation routines. The tools and strategies caregivers use to document force choices to be made: caregivers must take time to intentionally choose the best documentation tool for the intended communication. Infant and toddlers have the right to explain their creativity and their way of seeing the world. Caregivers must respect the different processes infants and toddlers use to build their knowledge and choose documentation with this in mind: it is crucial to find strategies to understand the processes of knowledge exploration and sustain, not suffocate, these processes (Cagliari, 2004).
The following methods are the most common for collecting and recording data:
Narrative or Open Methods
• Anecdotal notes
• Running records
• Daily log
• Home-School Journal
Closed Methods
• Checklists
• Frequency counts
• Time or event samples
Authentic Documentation
• Work samples
• Taking photos, videotaping, or audio recordings
Anecdotal Records
Anecdotal records (sometimes referred to as specimen records) describe what infants and toddlers do and say. They are brief, focused notes about one event or incident from an infant or toddler's day. The key to creating an anecdotal record is to concentrate on one specific event or activity. When creating an anecdotal record, capturing the beginning, middle, and end of a particular event is often referred to as the ABCs.
A= Antecedent: what happened before the event
B= Behavior: the specific behavior being captured
C= Consequence: what happened after the behavior
Anecdotal records offer a window of opportunity into an infant or toddler’s actions, interactions, and reactions to people and events. When caregivers later analyze this collection of narratives, the anecdotal records can showcase an infant or toddler’s progress over time. (University of Washington, EarlyEdU Alliance, 2020).
Running Records
The primary goal for running records is to “obtain a detailed, objective account of behavior without inference, interpretations, or evaluations” (Bentzen, 2009, p.112). Running records contain many elements of an anecdotal record but go further than one specific narrative. The details recorded in a running record contain elements resembling an ethnography. An ethnography is the in-depth study of everyday practices of people's lives: it produces a detailed description of the studied group at a particular time and location. These descriptions document the behavior or cultural event in question and the context in which it occurs (Scheib et al., 2021). These elements can also be present in a running record. The attitudes, perspectives, and motivations describe the entire situation. Documenting the whole situation in a running record requires much more information than an anecdotal record (Swim & Douville-Watson, 2011). Good documentation includes the ability to close your eyes and “see” the images in your mind as they are described in the running record (Bentzen, 2009). This level of detail also applies to anecdotal records. To complete a running record, caregivers often schedule a day, time, and setting to observe a specific infant or toddler or group of infants and toddlers. Although not necessary, caregivers decide on the observation's purpose, reason, or focus (e.g., cognitive skills, social interactions, play patterns).[1]
In both an anecdotal record and a running record, a caregiver may create 2 separate categories in their documentation. One category contains the objective factual observation, while a separate section records the caregiver's inferences. Inferences are conclusions that an observer draws from the interpretation of objective observations. (Wittmer & Petersen, 2010)
Daily Logs
Most infant and toddler programs create daily logs for each infant and toddler. These logs usually contain information like feeding amounts and times, naps, and diaper changes. They can also include quick notes about milestone behaviors noticed, an activity the infant or toddler engaged in, or an overall synopsis of the infant or toddler’s day. Daily logs are not the place to comment on concerns or problem behaviors. Behaviors of concern are recorded on other forms of documentation, and if needed, a conversation occurs with the family at a scheduled time.
Individual Journals and Home-School Journals
The use of individual journals is great practice for creating consistent and consecutive records of events and development for an individual infant or toddler. Personal journals can be made from any materials: inexpensive composition notebooks are frequently implemented.
Caregivers should spend a few minutes at the end of every day jotting notes about the infant or toddler. These notes can replicate the daily log records or include more in-depth description. Caregivers do not need to record in every individual journal every day. A practice of spending a few minutes at the end of the day documenting in a few individual journals will make it possible for even the busiest of caregivers to create valuable documentation for assessment and curriculum development. Journals (and other forms of documentation) can also be used during family-caregiver conferences or move with the infant or toddler to the next classroom. Home-school journals contain the same elements as an individual journal, but also function as a communication tool to send information back and forth between school and home. Families are encouraged to write and respond to the caregiver's observations or notes (Swim & Douville-Watson, 2011). Home-school journals create involvement and connection for family members who might not otherwise have the opportunity to engage with the childcare center.
Checklists and Other Tools
Tools such as checklists and frequency counts quickly record information about the occurrence of specific behaviors or skills. A significant feature of these tools is that the behaviors or skills are already identified and defined. Caregivers record the observed behavior or skill by using check or tally marks or noting the date on which the skill or behavior was seen. (McAfee et al., 2016) These documentation tools are classified as closed types because they do not provide any details of the observation and should never be used exclusively for curriculum development or assessment purposes.
Documentation Panels
Documentation panels contain photos, transcripts of conversations, caregivers’ notes, and artifacts from one infant or toddler or a group of infants and toddlers (Klien, 2008). Documentation panels move beyond bulletin boards or art displays because they function as intentional communication (Tarini, 1997). They attempt to communicate the complexity of an infant or toddler's experience, as well as the learning taking place during those experiences (Helm & Beneke, 2003).
When documentation panels are displayed at infant and toddler eye level, they allow infants and toddlers the opportunity to revisit their learning in a format that is easy to visually observe and provides visual prompts for caregivers to have conversations revisiting the experience. Viewing documentation invites curiosity and confidence as infants and toddlers revisit their work and contemplate their accomplishments (Malaguzzi,1998). A documentation panel can display a variety of interactions visually: child/child, child/adult, and child/material (Klien, 2008). Artfully displaying the contents of a documentation panel serves as a visual archive of an infant or toddler’s learning for directors, parents, and community members to view easily (Helm, Beneke, & Steinheimer, 1998). Documentation panels draw parents into the classrooms and serve as a springboard for conversations (Saltz, 1997). For centers and family childcare organizations utilizing project-based curriculum, documentation panels provide the space to convey the infant and toddler’s experiences and learning throughout the project (Kline, 2008). Caregivers may put a set of photographs side by side to show a sequence of actions or learning experiences. This technique sheds light on a wide range of learning (for example, an infant and toddler’s understanding of routines or an infant and toddler’s fine motor development). [2]
What to include on documentation panels:
• Photos of infants and toddlers demonstrating the skill you are explaining
• Narratives about the photos
• Sample of materials used
• Diagrams
• Procedures and processes for curriculum or project exploration
• Connections to assessment measures (i.e., DRDP measures)
• Children’s quotes
When creating a board, think about the audience: the intended audience dictates the type of words and images used.
[1] Peterson, G., & Elam, E. (2021). Observation and Documentation - The Key to Intentional Teaching. In Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education is licensed under CC BY.
[2] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/30%3A_Documentation/30.04%3A_Types_of_Documentation.txt |
Tools of the Trade
Utilizing technology in established routines can make collecting evidence for observation much more efficient for busy caregivers. Photographs, video, and audio recordings can authentically capture infant and toddler explorations, investigations, play, and learning experiences in the actual moment.
With this type of documentation, caregivers can replay critical moments in an infant or toddler's day to look for specific interactions, play patterns, developmental milestones, struggles, accomplishments, and how infants and toddlers solve problems. Caregivers can also listen for language development by recording infant and toddler conversations with their peers. Technology provides opportunities for caregivers to share documentation with infants and toddlers in their classrooms.
There are numerous ways to incorporate technology into a classroom. Each center should develop its own protocol, policies, and procedures concerning the use of technology. What is permissible and not allowed should be clearly stated and known by all adults. Technology allows for easily sharing images and videos with the infant or toddler’s family, but some infants and toddlers require special protection from public transmission or display of their images. Infant and toddlers in foster care, protected custody, or part of more private families might be prohibited from how and where images are shown and shared.
Here are a few suggestions for integrating technology into observation and documentation practices:
• Use a camera, laptop, tablet, or smartphone to record observations and take pictures.
• Ask a toddler to tell a story, then type it up on a computer or use an audio recorder.
• Scan or make copies of an infant or toddler's work, such as drawings or writing, to create a visual timeline showing an infant or toddler's skill development over time.
• Use email or a communication app to post work samples.
• Take pictures of 3-dimensional work: for example, woodworking projects, block towers, sandcastles, and culinary creations.
Use a video camera to document how infants and toddlers progress with their developmental milestones in each domain. For example, look at playful interactions to track social-emotional development.
Cameras and media recorders, including smartphones and tablets, offer quick, efficient ways to document what infants and toddlers say and do. Before jumping into a technology purchase, make sure to consider the following:
• Family access to technology
• The length of audio and video clips: the longer the clip, the larger the file (large files take up precious storage space). Long audio and video clips also take more time to review and analyze later.
• Costs for:
• Buying cameras and recorders
• Equipment
• Software to download, store, play, and print files
• Film development (if not using a digital camera)
• Upkeep (e.g., batteries, repair)
• Time for other caregivers in the program to learn and train on new technology [1]
Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology for Documentation
Advantages
• Provides tangible/visible evidence that caregivers can use to track an infant or toddler's learning, growth, and development over time
• Provides enjoyment for parents seeing the work on display
• Captures authentic documentation, which is ideal for assessment
• Shows families how infants and toddlers learn through play
• Allows infants and toddlers to share insight into how they created the work sample and offer their perspectives as to what they were thinking (authentic evidence)
• Provides enjoyment to infants and toddlers seeing their work on display
• Offers empowerment to infants and toddlers by confirming their work is valued
• Allows easier observation of infants and toddlers in their natural settings
Disadvantages
• Requires large amounts of time
• Requires ample storage space
• Requires a financial investment in technology (camera, video, or audio recorder)
• Brings up concerns over confidentiality and privacy when using photos, audio, or videos
Organizing data with technology
Observation data can be conveniently stored on a computer, and each infant and toddler can have their own digital portfolio or file folder. Some caregivers use an app to organize observation evidence formally, and some schools may purchase a program that links families to daily observations. Electronic observation evidence can also be managed and stored by:
• Scanning, printing, and posting photos in the classroom
• Creating photo slideshows for family nights or as screensavers[2]
When saving recordings, include information relevant for identification (e.g., date and time, setting, names of infants, toddlers and adults, the routine or play experience during which the recording was made). This information will be important when reflecting on observations about each infant and toddler and individualizing care and curriculum. Photographs, video clips, and audio clips are excellent concrete tools for conveying to families what infants and toddlers know and do. [1]
[1] Head Start | ECLKC under the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2020. Audio and Visual Recordings. Retrieved from Child Screening & Assessment: is in the public domain.
[] Head Start | ECLKC under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2019, December 3). Setting Up Systems for Ongoing Observations. Retrieved from Child Observation: The Heart of Individualizing Responsive Care for Infants and Toddlers: is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/30%3A_Documentation/30.05%3A_Technology_for_Documentation.txt |
Accuracy and Completeness
How important is accurate observation and documentation? If you were asked to write down one thing you did yesterday, how well would you remember the details of that moment? What if you were asked to write down a moment from one week ago today? Which of those memories would have more accurate details? Most would answer that recording a memory from yesterday would be more accurate and detailed than the record of an event from a week ago. Yet many caregivers try to document observations days or weeks after an event. Upcoming deadlines, such as a family conference or assignment due date, often prompt caregivers to sit down and create documentation from past observations. Unfortunately, waiting to record information diminishes accuracy and clarity.
Let's take this exercise further. What if you needed to write down a conversation from yesterday? From last week? From last month? Can you recall the details of what you said? Which memory would be most accurate: the one from yesterday, last week, or last month? How confident could you be of the accuracy of what was said?
Observation notes need to be accurate, objective and factual. Accurate observation notes include facts and details about the order in which they occur. Consider the following story about Gabriel (33 months), which occurs during a home visit. Here is the entire exchange:
"Gabriel and his mom are next to each other. Each one is building a tower using large plastic blocks. Gabriel builds his tower as tall as he is. He bumps into the tower with his arm. The tower falls over and knocks down the block tower that his mother built. Gabriel laughs and jumps up and down while clapping his hands. His mom laughs, claps her hands, and hugs Gabriel."
Here is what the caregiver documented:
"Gabriel builds a tower as tall as he is using large plastic blocks. He starts to laugh, jump up and down, clap his hands, and bumps into his tower, knocking it down and his mom's tower down, too."
This observation note created by the caregiver is not accurate. It contains facts out of order (laugh, jump up and down, clap his hands, and bump into his tower). It is also missing information (Gabriel and his mother are next to each other, each one is building a tower, Gabriel's mom laughs, claps her hands, and hugs Gabriel). Accuracy matters. Over time, inaccurate observation notes may lead to erroneous interpretations or misunderstandings of what an infant or toddler can do.
Here are additional tips to write accurate observation notes:
• Note the infant or toddler's name and the person making the observation.
• Note the date/time of the observation, setting (e.g., indoor/outdoor, routine, play experience), and other infants, toddlers, or adults involved.
• Use abbreviations, short phrases, symbols, drawn pictures, and other shorthand inventions to capture information quickly.
• Use phonetic spellings to capture vocalizations (e.g., buh-buh-buh-mmmm) and word attempts (e.g., "peez" for "please").
• Observe with a partner and then compare observations.[1]
Caregivers often document a behavior, but miss what happened before (antecedent) and what happened after (consequence). To capture an entire event, caregivers need to include the ABCs.
• Antecedents – Environmental events or stimuli that trigger a behavior
• Behavior – What people do, say, think or feel
• Consequence – Outcome of a behavior [2]
A Word About the Word Play
Educators love the word play, and it needs to be a more significant part of the vocabulary when teaching and planning the days with young infants and toddlers. However, play should rarely be part of documentation. What comes to mind if asked to describe an infant or toddler at play? It could include a few toddlers in the sociodramatic area pretending to cook dinner, an infant or toddler digging a hole in the sandbox, or a single infant stacking blocks or investigating a piece of fabric. If the word play were used to document each scene, information would be limited by saying “the infant played” because the details are missing. The word “play” might fit as a generalization, but it doesn't provide curriculum development or assessment details. If a caregiver writes, "Javier was playing house," many details for later analysis are missing. However, if the caregiver writes, “Javier grasped the pot with his left hand. He clutched a wooden spoon firmly with his right hand and slowly mixed the pretend soup in a clockwise circle. Sarina walked over and handed Javier the spices and stated, ‘make the soup better,’” more visual details and information for assessment or curriculum development purposes are included. The second statement proves most effective because it describes the specific behaviors observed.
[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Child observation: The heart of individualizing responsive care for infants and toddlers is in the public domain
[2] Daffin, L. W. (2022). Module 5: Determining the ABCs of Behavior via a Functional Assessment . In Principles of Behavior Analysis and Modification (4th ed.) licensed under a CC BY NC SA | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/30%3A_Documentation/30.06%3A_Key_Concepts_in_Creating_Documentation.txt |
To safely and securely store collected data, caregivers need an organized system in place: a system might be a filing cabinet, accordion file folder, or portfolio. There won’t be a universal solution for containing documentation; each individual program requires its own unique system.
Portfolios
Caregivers often use individual portfolios to hold evidence of an infant or toddler’s learning. A portfolio provides notes, photos, and work samples that demonstrate the infant or toddler’s understanding of critical concepts and skills.[1] Portfolios can be created with a binder or notebook, a file or accordion-style folder, or a cardboard box. Unused pizza boxes with the infant or toddler’s name printed on the end are an easy way to collect documentation for later organization. Including clear dates on documentation pieces allows for chronological organization at a later time.
A clear organization system helps track each infant and toddler’s progress throughout the school year. Having dates on each piece removes concern over putting items in perfect order when pressed for time. Caregivers can go in later and organize chronologically. Portfolios allow caregivers to construct a well-rounded and authentic picture of each infant and toddler in their class. Knowing the whole infant and toddler better equips caregivers to build on each infant and toddler’s interests and plan developmentally appropriate activities.
If utilizing portfolios, provide an individual file for each infant and toddler. A well-organized portfolio contains observations and artifacts of infant and toddlers’ work collected at different periods throughout the year. Include documentation that highlights each developmental domain. For example:
• Gross Motor: Include photographs of the infant or toddler engaged in outside activities like running, jumping, climbing, riding a bike, or playing in the sandbox.
• Fine Motor: Use a checklist or other documentation of when the infant or toddler learns to button, zip, and tie his shoes. Include work samples of cutting, coloring, and painting.
• Social-Emotional: Utilize anecdotal or running records of infants and toddlers engaging in open-ended, infant and toddler-directed play.
• Note sharing, taking turns, and cooperation with others.
• Employ frequency count/event sampling to see in which centers infant and toddlers choose to spend their time, and tally play patterns to see if they prefer to play alone or with others.
• Cognitive: Chart a science experiment and take photos.
• Use a video camera to record an infant or toddler as she stacks blocks. Record any explained process in the build.
• Literacy and Oral language: Save writing examples to track writing.
• Write down quotes in an anecdotal and running record.
• Make audiotapes of conversations during circle time.
• Creative expression: Videotape engagement in the dramatic play area.
• Videotape dancing to music (this can also be excellent documentation for motor development).
• Photograph a clay creation, painting, or block tower.
Portfolios tell the story of the whole infant or toddler. Each work sample, anecdotal note, checklist, frequency count, and photograph showcase how an infant or toddler processes information, develops relationships, and learns while playing.
[1] Early Education and Support. Best Practices for Planning Curriculum for Young Children: The integrated nature of learning is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/30%3A_Documentation/30.07%3A_Storing_Documentation.txt |
Partnerships
Documentation not only guides curriculum planning and provides evidence of an infant or toddler’s learning, but it also offers an easy, effective way to engage families in participating in their child’s learning plan. A note, photo, or work sample invites families to interpret the caregivers' observations and reflective planning.[1] Caregivers may combine photos with notes to create a book of an infant or toddler’s learning experiences to share with the infant or toddler’s family.
Families appreciate seeing their infant or toddler’s progression, how they interact with others, and the types of activities their infant or toddler engages in. Families have the right to be part of the process taking place in the school (Cagliari, 2004). They are also an essential source of information during the reflection process. Families can answer questions and help interpret an infant or toddler's behaviors and interactions. They can continue to share what they have observed at home and the strategies that work for them. By including families in documentation reflection, the infant or toddler’s family members will often add insights and a perspective that the caregivers may not have considered.[2] Regularly sharing observations and actively pursuing a family's input and perspectives on their infant or toddler gives caregivers fuller views of an infant or toddler as an individual. Discussing observations through documentation provides families the opportunity to work in partnership or take the lead in their infant or toddler's care and education. Sharing reflections on infant and toddler observations helps create a mutually respectful environment that promotes the infant’s, toddler's and family’s needs.[3]
The following example from volume 3 of the California Preschool Curriculum Framework (CDE 2013, 35) illustrates how caregivers use documentation to invite families to join them in work:
During the small-group face-drawing activity, Clayton was picking out pencils for his skin color when his mother arrived to pick him up. She knelt near the table as Connie read the name printed on the colored pencil that Clayton had selected. “This one says, sienna brown.’ What do you think, Clayton?” Connie asked as she moved the tip of the pencil near his arm. “Is that your color?” Clayton smiled at his mother: “I’m sienna brown, mommy. Which one do you want to be?” A few minutes later, when Clayton was retrieving his things from his cubby, his mother confided in Connie how much she had enjoyed picking out her skin color with Clayton. She had been uncertain about how to talk with Clayton about skin color because she was of European-American background and Clayton’s father was African American. Most of the family members living nearby were Caucasian. They discussed the possibility of doing an activity at the next parent meeting. All parents could explore the variety of flesh-toned colored pencils and even blend different tints of homemade play dough that they could take home to enjoy with their infant and toddlers.
[1] Early Education and Support. Best Practices for Planning Curriculum for Young Children: The integrated nature of learning is in the public domain
[2] Early Education and Support. Best Practices for Planning Curriculum for Young Children: The integrated nature of learning is in the public domain
[3] U.S Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Look at Me! Using Focused Child Observation with Infants and Toddlers is in the public domain. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/30%3A_Documentation/30.08%3A_Documentation_and_Families.txt |
Looking Back
“Reflection is a time to slow down, to see what can be learned if we take the time to carefully look at and listen to ourselves, and those with whom we work.” (Parlakian, 2001, p. 16)
Once caregivers have observed and documented facts about each infant and toddler, they must do something with those facts. As part of ongoing infant and toddler assessment, caregivers review the facts and reflect on what they mean. When caregivers review anecdotal notes, photos, videos, or other samples, they piece together stories that portray the development of the infants and toddlers in their care. Caregivers may review multiple pieces of documentation (video recordings, notes, photographs, and so forth) to deepen their understanding of an individual infant or toddler. Observation notes might clarify why an infant or toddler is making rapid progress in one developmental domain while continuing to practice at about the same level of competency in another domain.[1] Caregivers consider what the information says about an infant or toddler's development, interests, and needs. The answers to these questions lead to individualized care and a supportive curriculum. [2]
Questions caregivers ask while reflecting on documentation might include:
• What developmental skill or activity does the infant or toddler appear to be working on?
• What strategies does the infant or toddler use to play with different toys?
• Does the infant or toddler engage with objects or people differently than he did a month ago? What has changed? What has not changed?
• Do my actions and the actions of other adults who interact with the infant or toddler affect the outcomes of the infant or toddler's experience? If so, how so?
• How does the information relate to goals for the infant or toddler? How does it relate to the family's goals?
• What other information do I need?
• What questions do I have for the infant or toddler's family? [3]
Caregivers who take time to reflect on the documentation created by their observations uncover infant or toddler’s likes and dislikes, discover what makes the infant or toddler comfortable or uncomfortable, and notice how the infant or toddler approaches familiar and unfamiliar tasks and situations. This information enables caregivers to see and track trends in an infant or toddler's growth and development.
During the reflective process, interpreting the meaning of infant and toddler behaviors and interactions becomes essential. Ongoing observation and reflection on documentation offer insights into each infant and toddler, which deepen caregivers’ understanding of each infant and toddler’s development.
Reflecting Together
Caregivers share documentation with others to deepen understanding of infant/toddler thinking and learning. Interpreting an infant or toddler’s thoughts, feelings, or ideas is vital for reflection and often most effective in partnership with co-teachers.[2] When caregivers interpret documentation, learning becomes explicit. Since documentation makes learning visible, caregivers need to work together to interpret that learning (Cagliari, 2004).
[1] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[2] Early Education and Support. Best Practices for Planning Curriculum for Young Children: The integrated nature of learning is in the public domain
[3] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission
30.10: Documentation as a Tool for Planning
Looking Forward
When caregivers observe, document, and interpret what they document, they generate ideas for supporting infants and toddlers to dive more deeply into an investigation. In doing so, the infant or toddler builds more complex, coherent concepts and master more difficult skills. Thoughtful planning begins with observing; documentation guides curriculum and provides evidence of the critical concepts and skills the young infant or toddler is building.[1]
[1] Early Education and Support. Best Practices for Planning Curriculum for Young Children: The integrated nature of learning is in the public domain
30.11: Documentation for Assessment
Assessment
Documentation provides evidence to support caregivers’ observational assessments of infants and toddlers. Caregivers use their ongoing documentation of an infant or toddler’s learning to complete assessment tools such as the DRDP. An observation, photo, or work sample, accompanied by the caregiver’s interpretation, has the potential to reveal an infant or toddler’s progress. By considering the integrated nature of an infant or toddler’s learning, caregivers can interpret a single piece of documentation through several lenses when completing an assessment such as the DRDP.[1]
[1] Early Education and Support. Best Practices for Planning Curriculum for Young Children: The integrated nature of learning is in the public domai
30.12: Conclusion
Conclusion to Documentation
As caregivers gather and organize their observational data, they begin to see each infant and toddler for who they are as individuals and as members of the classroom community. With that information, intentional caregivers can set realistic expectations of what an infant or toddler can do.[1]
[1] Peterson, G., & Elam, E. (2021). Observation and Documentation - The Key to Intentional Teaching. In Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education is licensed under CC BY. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/30%3A_Documentation/30.09%3A_Reviewing_and_Reflecting_on_Documentation.txt |
Introduction to Assessment
Intentional caregivers engage in an ongoing process of observation, documentation, assessment, reflection, planning, and implementation of strategies to provide individualized, developmentally appropriate learning experiences. Increasing numbers of children with diverse backgrounds, including children with disabilities, participate in infant and toddler programs. Collaboration, time for reflection, planning, and communication are essential to extending the benefits of high-quality infant and toddler care to all children.[1]
[1] California Department of Education, 2015 Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with Permission
31.02: Purpose of Assessment
Why?
In early childhood settings, assessment is the process of obtaining information about various areas of children's development, learning, and progress. Ongoing assessment helps families and caregivers know how a child is progressing and helps teachers set goals and plan experiences for the program. As part of engaging in continuous quality improvement, programs assess infants' and toddlers' developmental progress and learning. [1]Caregivers must understand diverse assessment approaches, purposes, uses, benefits, and limitations.[2]
Caregivers use assessments for various purposes (Snow and Van Hemel 2008). In the Principles and Recommendations for Early Childhood Assessments (National Education Goals Panel 1998), 4 broad goals for early childhood assessment were established: [1]
· To promote learning and development of individual children
· To identify children who may have delays, disabilities, or health conditions
· To monitor trends in programs and evaluate program effectiveness
· To obtain benchmark data for accountability purposes at local, state, and national levels
Although a one-time, easily administered assessment may offer some information about children's development, it is better to use a variety of instruments and methods over time to gain a more comprehensive picture of development.[1]
Developmental Monitoring
Caregivers usually have primary responsibility for collecting information on children's learning and development. Continuous assessment provides feedback about children's progress and guides learning experiences.[1]
Caregivers should regularly add anecdotes, photos, and samples to a child's portfolio or file: this provides a basis for assessing each infant or toddler's developmental progress. These items provide evidence and information to complete formal assessments later, which produce profiles of each child's developmental progress. Assessments for developmental monitoring should occur on a regular schedule, such as every 4 or 6 months. Designing a schedule for each child or facility helps ensure this type of assessment occurs regularly. [3]
Assessment profiles give caregivers a general orientation for supporting each infant or toddler over weeks and months; they help the caregiver be sensitive to the next steps in each child's development and plan accordingly.[3]
Screening
Assessing children's development helps caregivers and family members identify children who need a referral for further assessment. The importance of gathering information from multiple sources applies to all children, but it is essential when assessing children with disabilities or other delays. Periodic assessment of children's development provides a firm basis for referral if a delay or disability is suspected.[1]
For children receiving services from other sources (such as therapy through insurance or special education through an Individual Family Services Plan or IFSP), work with family members to gather input from specialized service professionals. The specialized service professional may send reports to or talk directly with caregivers with the families' permission. Comprehensive development tests, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development and the Mullen Scales of Early Learning, are often considered the gold standard in the developmental assessment of infants and young children [Walder, 2009]. These tests offer comprehensive information on a child's current developmental status, are administered directly with the child, and offer scores for the assessed areas (Albers,2006).
Briefer approaches to developmental assessments often function as screening instruments designed to identify children with developmental delays who require further assessment (Rydez,2005). Screening instruments will differ in whether they are based on direct assessment with the child or secondary reports [Fernald,et. al,2009; Macy,2012; Kvestad et al, 2013)
Curriculum
Curriculum planning requires caregivers to reflect on children's learning and plan strategies that foster children's progress in building knowledge and mastering skills.[3] Assessments offer insights for teachers planning appropriate learning environments and when or how to offer engaging materials to children. Assessment for curriculum planning, environment planning, and other early learning experiences is essential to ensuring high quality early learning and care programs. [1]
[1] California Department of Education, 2019 Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[2] Head Start| Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (Ed.)Child observation: The heart of individualizing responsive care for infants and toddlers. is in the public domain
[3] California Department of Education, 2015 Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with Permission | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/31%3A_Assessment/31.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Where we get our Information
To fully understand a child's development, caregivers need information from many sources: teacher observations, parent reports, samples of work (or pictures of samples), and direct assessment (Snow and Van Hemel 2008). Gathering information from multiple sources informs a balanced view, reduces the chances of underestimating children's abilities, and provides the caregiver a basis for building upon a child's strengths.
Programs should clearly articulate how assessment methods are used to inform decision-making, planning, and program evaluation. Assessment policies and practices should ensure confidentiality and protect the privacy of children and families. Well-understood policies and procedures should also be in place for collaborating with specialized service providers, such as early interventionists. When considering information sources for assessment purposes, employing various methods and tools allows caregivers to regularly and consistently understand and document what children do, both individually and in groups.
Assessment Based on Observation and Documentation
Screening, observations, and frequent documentation are essential methods teachers use for understanding individual children and groups of children. Observations teachers make while interacting with infants inform the assessment process.[1] Documentation provides evidence to support caregivers' assessments of infants and toddlers, and tools such as the DRDP allow caregivers to use ongoing documentation of an infant or toddler's learning on assessments. An observation, photo, or work sample, accompanied by the caregiver's interpretation, can reveal evidence of an infant or toddler's progress. Considering the integrated nature of infant/toddler learning, caregivers can interpret a single piece of documentation through several lenses when completing an assessment instrument such as the DRDP (CDE 2016). For instance, a teacher may note that when she brings out a clean diaper during a diaper change, a child stops moving and points at the diaper until the teacher says the word "diaper," and then the child smiles and makes the sound "di." This observation could be used as the teacher determines whether the child is at the "Acting with Purpose" developmental level of the DRDP's "Communication and Language" measures.[1]
Authentic Assessment
Engaging in authentic assessment means choosing assessment tools that that reflect the everyday, real-life experiences of the young children involved (McAfee, Leong, and Bedrova 2004). Authentic assessment reveals the knowledge and skills of young children as they engage naturally with learning in the program and home settings. For dual language learners who typically use their home language to communicate, authentic assessment must include assessment in their home language and English (State Advisory Council on Early Learning and Care 2013, Paper 5 [Assessment]). When assessment is an ongoing practice, teachers and program administrators can make effective instructional adaptations that build on children's prior knowledge and support new learning for each child.[2]
When using observation as an assessment method, teachers should:
• Observe the behavior of the infants and toddlers throughout the entire day.
• Observe children when they are alone, with peers, family members, and teachers.
• Incorporate observation and assessment processes into daily routines and activities.
• Review assessments tool regularly and keep developmental themes in mind while observing the behavior.
• Hold conversations with toddlers about their experiences and their work. Listen to their thoughts and ideas and ask questions that encourage older toddlers to describe their thinking and problem-solving.
• Study the older toddler's work (projects, drawings, building, etc.) as part of gathering information about their development.
• Find a quiet place and set aside time to reflect on documentation and assessment information.
• Complete periodic assessments of each child using an identified assessment tool/process, and continue the process of observing, documenting, and reflecting.
• Track each child's developmental progress over time.
• Summarize assessment information on individual children in a form that can be easily used for curriculum planning.
• Include family members in the ongoing assessment process.
Collaborating with Families on the Assessment Process
Family members should participate in documenting their children's learning and development; they can review the assessment records with teachers and program leaders and plan learning experiences based on the assessment information. Family members need to be fully informed and aware of the different assessments done in the infant and toddler care setting. Seek information from family members about the child's behavior at home and other places outside the infant and toddler program. Collaborate with family members to clarify differences in observation or interpretation. If caregivers do not speak the child's home language, enlist the support of interpreters or translators who speak the family's language. When meeting with the family, provide concrete examples of the behavior or activity assessed to support understanding and clarity.[1]
[1] California Department of Education, 2015 Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with Permission
[2] Head Start| Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (Ed.)Child observation: The heart of individualizing responsive care for infants and toddlers. is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/31%3A_Assessment/31.03%3A_Sources_of_Information.txt |
Caregivers should evaluate and select reliable, valid, and universally designed child observational assessments. Assessments must be developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically sensitive, and fully cover the diverse learning needs of children with disabilities or other delays. At the infant/toddler level, assessments should be broad in scope, including children's knowledge, skills, behaviors, temperaments, and health.[1]
Ages and Stages
The Ages and Stages Questionnaire 3 ed. (ASQ-3) is a widely used screening tool for infants and young children's development that assesses development in 5 domains: Communication, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Problem Solving, and Personal Social [Squire et al., 2009]. Developmental areas covered by this screening tool include self-regulation, compliance, communication, adaptive functioning, autonomy, affect, and interaction with people.[2] The ASQ system is initially a parent-completed questionnaire, but it may also be completed by a professional interacting with the child (Kvestad et al, 2013). The ASQ-3 provides an opportunity to address parental concerns, educate parents on child development, and empower parents to advocate for their children. It identifies children at risk of having possible developmental delays, detects a child's strengths and needs, and can be used to predict future school-related challenges.[2]
Parental reports provide a risk of inaccuracy or overstatements regarding the child's development (Fernald et al., 2009). However, the ASQ system is developed and based on the conviction that families can provide information for proper assessments of their children. For instance, a study comparing the ASQ completion of low and middle-income parents in the US, followed by subsequent assessment by the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, shows no differences in the accuracy of scoring in the 2 groups of parents. These results support the idea that parental completion of child development questionnaires gives reliable data in high-risk groups. [Squires et al., 1998; Kvestad et al, 2013)].
Developmental Profile (DRDP)
The DRDP for infants and toddlers consists of 29 items divided into 5 domains, covering approaches to learning/self-regulation, socio-emotional development, language and literacy, cognition, and physical development. The DRDP helps early educators observe, document, and reflect on the developmental progress of individual children. The Desired Results assessment system documents the progress made by children and families in reaching desired results and provides information to help practitioners improve childcare and development services.[1] As teachers gain familiarity with the DRDP, they find that they can use their daily observations to complete it without taking time out of their day for special attention to the forms.[3]
Environment Rating Scale (ERS)
The ERS assesses the quality of the learning environment. Teachers use the ERS to assess the quality of the interactions, space, schedule, and materials they provide to their group of children. The ERS is completed, summarized, analyzed, and considered in program improvement plans once a year. Teachers combine information gained from the ERS with other sources for long-term planning and continuous program improvement.[3]The ERS has a long history of use worldwide: the first use of the original ERS in the USA dates back more than 30 years ago (Harms and Clifford 1983). The Environment Rating Scales (ERS) were developed to evaluate process quality in early childcare settings. Process quality refers to children's experiences within the childcare environment, including their interactions with others, materials, and activities (Phillipsen et al., 1997). It is assessed primarily through observation and is more predictive of child outcomes than structural indicators of quality (such as staff-to-child ratio, group size, cost of care, and type of care) (Whitebook et al. 1989).[4]
[1] California Department of Education, 2019 Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[2] Ministry of Children and Family Development: British Columbia. Ages & stages questionnaire. Early Years Professional Development licensed CC BY
[3] California Department of Education, 2015 Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with Permission
[4] Vermeer, H.J., van IJzendoorn, M.H., Cárcamo, R.A. et al. Quality of Child Care Using the Environment Rating Scales: A Meta-Analysis of International Studies is licensed CC BY
31.05: Assessment of Dual Language Learners
Language and Assessment
Because dual language learners develop their knowledge about the world in 2 languages, their skills and abilities are distributed across both languages. As such, assessments conducted in only 1 language will yield incomplete information and prohibit caregivers from addressing areas where growth should be supported or built upon. The recent NASEM report confirms this in its conclusion: "During the first 5 years of life, infants, toddlers, and preschoolers require developmental screening, observation, and ongoing assessment in both languages to support planning for individualized interactions and activities that will support their optimal development." (NASEM 2017, 423). Identifying the child's language status is crucial because it forms the basis for developing appropriate early learning and care.[1]
[1] California Department of Education, 2019 Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition by the California Department of Education is used with permission
31.06: Supporting Assessment
Assessment in the Classroom
Infant and toddler programs that support intentional teaching and care allocate time in teachers' schedules for individual and team reflection and planning.[1] Programs supporting assessment provide adequate time and space for family members and caregivers to reflect individually, as well as consult with co-teachers regarding observation and assessment information. This time and space to reflect needs to be separated physically and emotionally from caring for the children.[2]
[1] California Department of Education, 2015 Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with Permission
[2] California Department of Education, 2019 Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition by the California Department of Education is used with permission
31.07: Concerns with Assessment
Look out for....
Informed assessment systems contribute to the overall quality of an infant and toddler program by providing teachers and families with valuable information about what children know and can do. However, when assessment systems do not consider developmental appropriateness or are not sensitive to the diverse learning needs of individuals or groups of children, there is a risk of making children uncomfortable or generating insufficient, inaccurate information. One of the most critical assumptions underlying the effective assessment of young children is that their development is continuing and complex.[1]
[1] California Department of Education, 2019 Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition by the California Department of Education is used with permission
31.08: Conclusion
Conclusion to Assessment
Screening, observation, and documentation are all assessment processes for gathering, interpreting, applying, and sharing information built upon children's previous experiences. They are essential tools for understanding children individually and in groups and for planning environments, curriculum, and other learning experiences. [1]With appropriate support, teachers can grow professionally through a continuous learning process and explore ways to respond to young children's learning interests and needs.[2]
[1] California Department of Education, 2019 Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[2] California Department of Education, 2015 Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with Permission | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/31%3A_Assessment/31.04%3A_Types_of_Commonly_Used_Assessments.txt |
Introduction to Curriculum
At the heart of early childhood curriculum is the child who depends on adults to support and nurture exploration and learning. An appropriate curriculum for infants and toddlers provides guidance and strategies for supporting development and learning, engaging in responsive interactions to build relationships, and partnering with families. It is essential to consider what learning looks like in the minds of infants and toddlers. Children from birth to 5 do not build or acquire their knowledge and skills in domain-specific categories one domain at a time. They relate to each learning experience as a whole experience. They naturally cross the boundaries of domains and simultaneously build concepts related to social-emotional development, science, mathematics, language, social sciences, the arts, physical development, and health.[1]
A good curriculum leaves decisions about what this looks like to the caregiver implementing the curriculum. When it comes to curriculum, caregivers must:
• Have room to discover an infant or toddler's "individual curriculum" (e.g., the child's interests, motivations, and needs).
• Choose and offer experiences that match a child's (or small group of children's) interests and developmental level
• Use everything that happens as a learning opportunity, both planned/intentional and spontaneous.
• Create environments that reflect children and families served in the program.
A responsive, relationship-based curriculum supports child-initiated, child-pursued opportunities to individualize within the chosen or created curriculum
[1] Early Education and Support Division, California Department of Education. (2016 ). BEST PRACTICES FOR PLANNING CURRICULUM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. The Integrated Nature of Learning
32.2.01: Relationships and Curr
What's most important?
Before exploring curriculum development, it is essential to understand the thinking around infants and toddlers. Most caregivers don't argue the fundamental rights of children, and the United Nations Convention on the rights of children created 54 articles around these rights. 3 articles below from the children's version of the document should be taken especially to heart by caregivers who work with children (UNICEF, 2009).
Article 3. Best interests of the child
When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions will affect children. All adults should do what is best for children. Governments should make sure children are protected and looked after by their parents or other people when this is needed. Governments should make sure that people and places responsible for looking after children are doing a good job.
Article 29. Aims of education
Children's education should help them fully develop their personalities, talents and abilities. It should teach them to understand their own rights, and to respect other people's rights, cultures and differences. It should help them to live peacefully and protect the environment.
Article 31. Rest, play, culture, arts
Every child has the right to rest, relax, play and to take part in cultural and creative activities.
As caregivers of young children, our beliefs about children affect we treat them, the care we provide, and the curriculum we chose or create. Does your belief about the capacity of infants and toddlers agree with Jerome Bruner when he says, "the child is not merely ignorant or an empty vessel, but somebody able to reason, to make sense, both on her own and through discourse with others" (Bruner, 1996)? Or do you have another structural belief which will guide you as you create curriculum?
32.02: Foundational Concepts of Infant and Toddler Curriculum
Start with Relationships
The everyday interactions with infants and toddlers form the foundation for quality care. It is only within the context of secure, nurturing relationships with parents, family members, and other caring adults that healthy infant and toddler development and learning happen. Infants are biologically programmed to expect those in their world to care for them, protect them, and do so in a loving way. (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000) Individualizing care and curriculum involves tailoring to each child's needs. No 2 infants or toddlers are the same; each child is unique, making a "one size" curriculum, experience, or interaction a poor fit for all infants and toddlers. Creating a custom fit curriculum requires observation, engagement with families, and knowledge of child development. This knowledge guides how caregivers interact and respond. Caregivers read each child's cues and react in nurturing ways. They also consider individual characteristics, such as the child's age, abilities, needs, and interests, as well as temperament, home language, and family culture. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/32%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum/32.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Individual Differences
Understanding the unique differences of each infant and toddler helps caregivers build relationships with infants and toddlers and interact in ways that meet each child's needs. One of these individual differences is temperament. Temperament refers to behavioral "styles" that children are born with and describes how they approach and react to the world.[1] Temperament is crucial because it affects how infants and toddlers interpret and respond to the world around them. When planning and implementing curriculum for individual or groups of children, caregivers must consider the temperament of the infants and toddlers. When planning something messy or loud where a slow-to-warm child is present, how will the caregiver provide caring and respectful support structures that allow him to engage in the curriculum without feeling overwhelmed?
In Figure \(1\) above, the relationship between the child and primary caregiver provides comfort so the infant with a more reluctant temperament can still engage with the experience.
[1] Culture and Psychology by L D Worthy; T Lavigne; and F Romero is licensed CC BY-NC-SA
[2] Image by Amanda Taintor is licesned CC BY-NC
32.2.03: Play and Curriculum
The Importance of Play
Scientists who study how infants think and feel often describe them as small scientists: like their adult counterparts, infants constantly experiment and investigate to figure things out. ((Gopnik, Kuhl, & Meltzoff, The scientist in the crib: Minds, brains, and how children learn, 1999)) Infants spend their days actively gathering and organizing information about what objects and people are like, and they do much of this discovery through play. According to Gopnik, Meltzoff, and Kuhl (2000), infants actively build knowledge as they interact with the world around them. They try a variety of ways to act on objects and materials and, in doing so, experiment with and build concepts and ideas.
In the early twentieth century, scientists and theorists—such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky—developed widely studied theories to explain how infants acquire knowledge. Their theories are commonly encountered in many other early childhood areas of study. [1]
In most of these theories, infants actively construct concepts and build skills by interacting with objects and people, often occurring in the context of play. The body of research on the young infant's developing mind adds to our understanding of teaching and planning an infant's curriculum. Studies show infants are highly motivated to explore new materials and take on new challenges (Bowman, Donovan, and Burns 2000.) Moments often discounted as "just play" or as "fiddling around" are moments in which infants are actively learning (Hirsh-Pasek et al. 2009; Jones and Reynolds 2011; Zigler, Singer, and Bishop-Josef 2004; Elkind 2007.) While engaged in play, infants explore the physical properties of materials and the possibilities for action, transformation, or representation.[2] Capturing these moments of play through documentation and linking them to areas of development help other stakeholders understand the importance of play in development and as an integral part of curriculum.[3]
[1] How Young Children Learn - What Science Reveals is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, & Clint Springer.
[2] Early Education and Support Division, California Department of Education. (2016 ). BEST PRACTICES FOR PLANNING CURRICULUM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. The Integrated Nature of Learning is used with permission.
[3] How Young Children Learn - What Science Reveals is shared under a CC BY license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, & Clint Springer.
32.2.04: Routines and Curriculu
The Importance of Routines
Caregiving routines (arrival and departure, feeding, meals and snacks, diapering and toileting, dressing, and napping) provide a framework for the infant and toddler day. A significant amount of individualization for curriculum occurs during routine care. Routines offer caregivers many opportunities to observe and understand each child's ways and preferences and support development. During routine care, infants and toddlers enjoy adults' undivided attention as the focus is on meeting children's needs and getting to know them. By taking advantage of these opportunities to build relationships with each infant and toddler, caregivers promote attachment and trust with the infants or toddlers in their care. These developmental milestones for trust and relationships are critical for children's sense of security and willingness to explore people and objects in their environment: a high level of trust is necessary for infants and toddlers to fully engage in the offered curriculum.[1]
[1] Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families , ECLKC Early Head TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PAPER NO. 16 INDIVIDUALIZING CARE FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS – PART 1. Is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/32%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum/32.02%3A_Foundational_Concepts_of_Infant_and_Toddler_Curriculum/32.2.02%3A_Temperament_and_Curric.txt |
Environmental Impact
The environment holds high priority when it comes to curriculum for infants and toddlers. In fact, the environment is such an important part of curriculum that Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the municipal preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, defined the environment as the third teacher. (BIERMEIER, 2015) Think about how materials are arranged within each area of a space: displaying materials at infants' and toddlers' levels makes them easily accessible, supports independent exploration, and allows the caregiver to follow the children’s lead as they create their own curriculum. It is helpful to provide a few types of the same materials so that several children can play without taking turns, minimizing conflict. However, it is essential to avoid offering too many materials since a cluttered room can overwhelm children and create classroom management concerns as well. Regularly rotating materials creates a balance of familiar and new materials, which helps infants and toddlers maintain interest and enjoy age appropriate challenges. (Infant/Toddler Care Providers | Early Childhood Training and Technical Assistance System (hhs.gov))
32.2.06: Curriculum as Experien
Experiences or Activities?
Research shows that "much of how infants and toddlers learn best comes not from specific adult-directed lessons but from [adults] knowing how to maximize opportunities for each child to use natural learning inclinations." (Lally, 2000) These opportunities or experiences can be set up in a planned, purposeful way or occur in the moment as adults follow a child’s lead and take advantage of teachable moments. These teachable moments will often happen during routine care, which is why routines form the core of many curricula in infant and toddler programs.
Experiences for infants and toddlers share some common elements regardless of the type of care:
• They focus on the way children relate to materials, adults, and each other.
• They are based on each child's developmental level and interests.
• They support children's development and learning in all domains.
Caregivers will typically organize experiences around:
• Stories and books
• Toys and gross motor equipment
• Creative arts such as music, movement, and art materials
• Imitation and pretending
• Sensory exploration (e.g., sand, water, tasting and preparing food)
• Outdoor play and exploration
Caregivers may offer one-on-one experiences for individual children; they may also provide experiences for a small group of children, offering individualized attention and support during the group experience.
The key to successful experiences, whether planned or spontaneous, one-on-one or with a small group, is having a deep understanding and knowledge of each child and family. This knowledge makes experiences meaningful and relevant to the child's development and learning, and results from ongoing observations, assessment, and engaging with families.[1]
Planning and carrying out appropriate experiences for infants and toddlers can sometimes be challenging. Even when experiences are based on a child's interests, abilities, and needs, the child may not respond as expected. Caregivers may be unsure of what to do when this happens. Planning experiences means "planning for possibilities." This idea is central to balancing planning with the flexibility necessary for successful infant and toddler care. Plans are helpful because they enable caregivers to stay organized and focused. However, infants and toddlers are unpredictable; caregivers often must modify an experience or abandon it and try it at a different time or on another day. It is more important to follow a child's lead than to stick to the planned experience. Additionally, a child's family may not be comfortable with an offered experience because of their beliefs, values, or life situations. Messy experiences, such as painting and playing with water or sand, and going outside (especially if it is windy or cold) are examples of experiences to which families may object.[1] Including families in the planning process and making them aware of the center’s philosophy can be helpful in avoiding potential conflict.
[1] U.S Department of Health and Human Services ECLKC Individualizing Care for Infants and Toddlers – Part 2 is in the public domain
32.03: Curriculum for One- Individualizing the Curriculum
Individualizing the Curriculum
Planned interactions, routines, daily schedules, experiences, and environments that take into consideration families' culture, language, and goals for their children "appropriately support the unfolding development of each child at their unique pace."[1]
This unfolding development is a necessary part of a child’s journey toward school readiness. Caregivers observe, document, reflect, interpret, plan, implement, and evaluate to individualize care that is responsive to each infant, toddler, and family. The process is illustrated as a cycle in the figure below.
[1] Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families , ECLKC Early Head TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PAPER NO. 16 INDIVIDUALIZING CARE FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS – PART 1. Is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/32%3A_Introduction_to_Curriculum/32.02%3A_Foundational_Concepts_of_Infant_and_Toddler_Curriculum/32.2.05%3A_Curriculum_and_the_Env.txt |
How to Begin
Creating a responsive, individualized curriculum starts with observing each child: watching and listening to discover how infants actively make sense of their everyday encounters with people and objects, documenting observations, and connecting with each child's family to share information.[1] When caregivers intentionally observe and listen, infants and toddlers reveal clues about their thinking, feelings, or intentions. Infants’ actions, gestures, and words illuminate what they are trying to figure out or how they make sense of people and objects' attributes, actions, and responses.[2] Through documentation, caregivers make visible the ways infants and toddlers learn. Planning infant/toddler curriculum begins with caregivers discovering, through careful listening and daily observation, each infant's interests, abilities, and needs.[3] Written observations of infant and toddler play and interactions reveal emerging skills and ideas. As caregivers observe, they discover ways to extend learning experiences to support the infant in building more complex, coherent ideas. Caregivers' reflections of an individual infant lead to further review on the emerging interests, concepts, and skills of another infant in the small group.[3]
Anecdotal notes or photos make it possible to reflect on infant and toddlers’ learning experiences. Documentation supports caregivers in planning how to extend, expand, and add complexity to infants' learning through the curriculum offered.
By taking time to review and reflect on each infant's behavior, temperament, learning interests, developmental profile, and needs, caregivers deepen their understanding and appreciation of each infant. This reflection also gives caregivers ideas on supporting learning and development, responding to infants' interests, expanding on their ideas, and engaging them in planning learning experiences. (California Department of Education)
Gathering artifacts for documentation, including samples of an infant's work and other materials involving the infant, informs curriculum plans. For example, a caregiver notes an infant beginning to stand up with support and documents the behavior with a photo.
The caregiver, drawing on her knowledge of infant development, knows the next step in infant motor development will be cruising—moving from place to place while standing and holding on to something for support. As a result of the caregiver’s documentation, she knows to modify the environment to include supports on which the infant might pull up to a standing position to cruise around. When reflecting on documentation, the caregiver will note other children who could benefit from environmental modifications. The curriculum for the infant becomes intentionally designed time and space for the infant to engage with the environmental changes as their physical development unfolds. As caregivers observe, reflect, and document, they become more attentive and responsive to each infant's ongoing development. Caregivers must plan experiences that support infant/toddler learning and development in all domains and content areas.[3]
[1] Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families , ECLKC Early Head TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PAPER NO. 16 INDIVIDUALIZING CARE FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS – PART 1. Is in the public domain
[2] Early Education and Support Division, California Department of Education. BEST PRACTICES FOR PLANNING CURRICULUM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. The Integrated Nature of Learning . is used with permission.
[3] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/33%3A_Creating_Curriculum/33.01%3A_Observe_and_Document.txt |
The Process
Effective infant and toddler teaching require caregivers to recognize how infants actively search for meaning. When caregivers view teaching in this light, infants become active participants in negotiating the course of their curriculum.[1] Once caregivers gather objective documentation, they can reflect on information individually, with coworkers, and with the child's family. Through taking time to reflect on and interpret what the data means, caregivers develop a deeper understanding of individual developmental processes, behavior, temperament, interests, and challenges. This process of reflection and interpretation leads caregivers to conclusions that help them individualize planning.[2]
Reflect and Interpret: A Closer Look
Reflecting involves reviewing documentation and asking questions about what the data says about the infant.
Petersen and Wittmer have suggested some questions that caregivers can use to reflect on what children's behaviors might mean:
• What is the child experiencing?
• What is the child thinking?
• What is the behavior, and when, where, and with whom does it occur?
• What wants or needs is the child communicating?
• What is the purpose of the child's behavior?
• What is the meaning of the child's behavior?
• What do the child’s family and I want the child to do/learn/feel?
Interpreting observed behavior involves making educated guesses about what the collected information reveals about the child. When caregivers reflect and interpret, they review the documentation they have gathered, include their knowledge about development, and make informed decisions about next steps that support development and learning.
[1][1] Early Education and Support Division, California Department of Education. BEST PRACTICES FOR PLANNING CURRICULUM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. The Integrated Nature of Learning . is used with permission.
[2] Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families , ECLKC Early Head TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PAPER NO. 16 INDIVIDUALIZING CARE FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS – PART 1. Is in the public domain
33.03: Responsive Curriculum
In the Moment Curriculum
Caregivers unknowingly give responsive interpretation through the care they provide. Responding to infant and toddlers’ behavior in the moment helps support development and learning. These immediate, informal interpretations are based on each child's knowledge as well as the professional knowledge and expertise of the caregiver. This type of curriculum does not require planning but relies on the knowledge base of the caregiver. When a caregiver has spent time reflecting on documentation and studying child development, responsive interpretation to support development is the developmentally appropriate curriculum.
33.04: Involve Infants and Toddlers in Planning
It's a group effort
An additional part of curriculum planning and implementation occurs when caregivers share their documentation with toddlers, creating opportunities for the toddler to participate in thinking about ideas and problems they are exploring or have previously explored. Reflection on documentation by caregivers, families, and children serves as a springboard to explore more deeply topics that engage the infant's interest. Although it might sound odd, documenting reflection on documentation provides information for further curriculum offerings. When discussing documentation with the toddlers, note when they become interested and record any questions or comments they make. As toddlers discuss photo documentation, they also reveal information about their cognitive, social-emotional and language development. Documentation provides essential information for later assessment, but it also gives insight into a child’s interests and guides caregivers toward subsequent curriculum offerings.[1]
[1] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/33%3A_Creating_Curriculum/33.02%3A_Reflect_Interpret_and_Plan.txt |
Remembering the Whole Child
Infants continually use all their senses and competencies to relate new experiences to prior experiences and to understand and create meaning. Infants learn all the time in different and integrated ways. For example, during book reading, infants use their knowledge and cognitive abilities, understanding of language, physical skills, and experiences at home and in the community to make new connections and expand their knowledge of themselves and the world. Infants and toddlers are constantly moving, thinking, communicating, and feeling: their learning is integrated across domains and occurs almost every moment of the day.[1]
Involving Families in Curriculum
Families who entrust their infants to the care and guidance of caregivers also become active participants in the curriculum process. Everyone's shared participation in creating learning experiences allows a dynamic exchange of information and ideas—from infant to adult, from adult to infant, from adult to adult, and from infant to infant. The perspective of each (infant, family, caregiver) informs the other, and each learns from the other. Each relationship (infant with family, infant with caregiver, infant with infant, and family with the caregiver) is reciprocal. Each participant gives, receives and adds to the other's learning and understanding.[2]
Caregivers must explain to families their principles of curriculum planning based on observation, documentation, interpretation, reflection, planning, and implementation; they must also clarify the goals and features of the curriculum used in the learning environment. This step should not be overlooked or skipped in the curriculum process. Enlist the support of interpreters or translators as needed. Additional ways to include families in the curriculum process:
• Engage families in discussions about the role of observation, documentation, interpretation, and reflection in planning.
• Synthesize information gathered through the observation process (including input from families) in planning for individual infants and the group, considering diverse cultural and linguistic experiences.
• Solicit ideas from families to meet infant learning and developmental goals. These ideas should inform the planning of activities, experiences, interactions and selection of materials for indoor and outdoor spaces.
• Share learning materials with families and explain how their infants learn as they engage with those materials and experiences. Include families in curriculum planning and implementation.
• Share observations with families about their infants in an objective, timely, private, and confidential manner in the most comfortable language for them. Enlist the assistance of an interpreter or translator as needed. [3]
Plans also present opportunities to strengthen relationships between programs and families and foster families. Through the planning phase, caregivers can communicate and collaborate with parents. Plans are shared to provide information about changes and to strengthen relationships with families. Communication about planned curriculum experiences enhances parents' feelings of inclusion in the program and provides them with opportunities to communicate about their child. Parents may also be interested in watching for changes in their infant's behavior due to the program's adaptations. Sharing plans can be a way for caregivers and families to come together, enhancing their sense of partnership in the experience of watching an infant grow and develop.[3]
Using Technology in Curriculum Planning
Programs enhance curriculum when they support caregivers in selecting, using, and integrating appropriate technology into everyday experiences. Technology in the infant/toddler environment can support learning in different ways. A program’s use of technology should be consistent with the overarching principles of the curriculum set by the program. Technology functions as an important tool for introducing or designing adaptations that address the infant’s individual needs, interests, and abilities, especially infants with disabilities or other delays. Additionally, it can be used by caregivers for documenting infants' and toddlers' learning and development. Use technology to document learning and support curriculum goals. Collaborate with early intervention specialists to become familiar with any assistive technology device used by an infant due to a disability or other delay. Utilize technology with older toddlers for joint engagement and interaction around photos and other documentation of their learning.[3]
Special Needs and curriculum planning
For infants with disabilities or other delays that need additional support, various accommodations can be made.
Caregivers, in collaboration with family members and specialized service providers, can
• Provide social supports (for example, peer-mediated intervention strategies or cooperative learning)
• Use visual, auditory, and kinesthetic methods (for example, use pictures and models when explaining)
• Employ a range of acknowledgments (for example, smiles, hugs, verbal acknowledgment, provision of desired toy/object, or continuing play)
• Adapt toys/materials to allow an infant to use a variety of movements in different positions
• Alter the physical, social, or temporal environment
• Change the schedule of activities and routine, adjust the amount and type of support provided, and divide an activity into smaller steps (DEC 2007).
[1] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[2] Early Education and Support Division, California Department of Education. BEST PRACTICES FOR PLANNING CURRICULUM FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. The Integrated Nature of Learning . is used with permission.
[3] The California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework by the California Department of Education is used with permission | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/33%3A_Creating_Curriculum/33.05%3A_Holistic_Planning.txt |
Interpreting
Curriculum interpretation for planning is different from responding in the moment. To plan curriculum, caregivers regularly set aside time and space to review data on each infant.[1] Based on insights from reflection, the caregiver develops ideas for steps to support each infant's learning and development, including possible adaptations to interactions, environments, activities, and routines.
This critical part of the process can stimulate caregivers to discover new ideas and consider how they might adapt to the environment or routines, or introduce a new routine or material based on observations, notes, DRDP (2015) information, reflection, and discussion.
Reflecting on and interpreting data for planning also helps caregivers consider:
• Ways to engage families in their child's care
• Whether caregivers need more information about a child and when/where/from whom to gather it
• Whether to provide the same, similar, or different strategies and experiences related to specific goals
Evaluative Interpretation
Interpreting data for planning can provide information about children's development over time. However, caregivers also look at the data they have collected on each child after a more extended period (e.g., several weeks or months, depending on the child's age) to evaluate the child's progress toward reaching individual goals.
Interpretation is not always easy to do but it gives meaning to documented information. Without enough information, first impressions about what infants or toddlers can or cannot do sometimes lead to inaccurate assumptions and expectations. These may affect interactions with children and the quality of their relationships, impacting children's development and learning. Keep an open mind while observing children, talking with families, and gathering the information that challenges first impressions.[1]
A Plan to Plan
Observation, documentation, reflection, and interpretation lead to individualized curriculum planning, which supports each infant and toddler's unique abilities, interests, preferences, and needs.
Good planning
• Provides opportunities to strengthen the relationship between caregivers and families and the home/program connection, as well as foster family engagement in their child's care
• Deepens understanding of each child and family and includes family input and observations about their child
• Ensures that interactions and relationship-building, routines, daily schedule, experiences, and the physical environment address the child's current and emerging interests, abilities, needs, and understandings about people and objects in their environment
• Facilitates the child's development and learning across the 5 essential domains and supports children's progress toward individual child development goals
Multiple ideas are necessary when considering how to promote each child's development and learning. There are different ways to support an infant who is beginning to figure out that objects and people exist even when she can't see them (object permanence) or a toddler who has discovered the joys of dumping and filling. Caregivers likely think about the indoor/outdoor environment and what changes they might make. They also identify potential changes to interactions, the child's schedule, and strategies for engaging families. Families may have suggestions and preferences that reflect their daily home practices. Caregivers do not have to implement every idea at once!
Infants and toddlers benefit from repetition, practice, and familiarity. "Repeated exposure to familiar opportunities gives [infants and toddlers] the chance to make sense of their experiences and build [a] foundation that will support later learning." (Early Head Start National Resource Center and revised by the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning in collaboration with the Office of Head Start., 2018).
Flexibility is a priority while planning curriculum: caregivers must respond to children's moment-to-moment interests and needs. Planning for infants and toddlers equates to planning for possibilities. As Linda Lloyd Jones says in her article "Relationship as Curriculum," we should watch and observe our babies much more closely. What are they doing? How are they playing? What are they trying to achieve? Ask them who they are, what they need, and how we can support them. Then listen and watch for the answer.
J. Ronald Lally suggested planning should:
• Include experiences that place the adult in the role of facilitating children's learning rather than directing learning.
• Assist the adult in reading each infant and toddler's cues.
• Prepare the caregiver, home visitor, and family childcare provider to communicate effectively with other adults in the child's life (Lally, 2000).
Writing it Down
What form should be used when writing down curriculum possibilities? A quality planning form supports caregivers in connecting the dots between reflections/interpretations of information and observations and promoting development and learning strategies.
Whether a caregiver creates plans for an individual child or a group, the process is similar. Caregivers review the information gathered for each child, note any common interests, abilities, and needs, then decide what changes to make, exceptional experiences to offer, and ways to engage families. Even within group plans, caregivers should consider how to individualize the plan for each child. For example, a fingerplay song can be planned to meet receptive language interests for one child, a fine motor exploration for another child, and an adult-child interaction (social/emotional) interest for a third child.
Reviewing individual child or group planning forms from the previous weeks and the documentation created during those activities is also helpful for planning purposes. Depending on how each child or group of children respond, caregivers may or may not change the current week's plans. If children enjoy exploring pom-poms and containers on a water table, caregivers may decide not to change the experience. If, upon reflection of the documentation, infants and toddlers appear interested in picking up the pom poms, caregivers may choose to add spoons and tongs to extend the experience.
Planning based on observations, input from families, ongoing assessment, and knowledge of infant/toddler development is key to creating developmentally age-appropriate experiences. It is easy to choose experiences that, while possibly appropriate for older children, are not suitable for younger ones. Experiences that require a child to be in a group without leaving if she loses interest or requires sitting still for long periods are also inappropriate. A high-quality, developmentally sensitive curriculum should provide suggestions for selecting appropriate experiences, materials, and equipment, facilitating the experiences, and creating safe and interesting environments for infants and toddlers to explore.[1]
[1] Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families , ECLKC Early Head TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PAPER NO. 16 INDIVIDUALIZING CARE FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS – PART 1. Is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/33%3A_Creating_Curriculum/33.06%3A_Interpretation_for_Planning.txt |
Ready, Set, ....Go!
Once observation takes place and experiences are documented, caregivers implement plans by making changes in the environment and introducing materials (California Department of Education). Each infant's unique thoughts, feelings, needs, interests, and reactions influence curriculum implementation. "When experiences are planned and tailored to the developmental needs of infants and toddlers, they become engaged, active learners." Plans can be brief and flexible as responsiveness to the infant's moment-to-moment interests and needs applies to every part of the curriculum planning process. Caregivers should consistently demonstrate cultural sensitivity in formal and informal interactions when implementing curriculum. Including families in the curriculum planning process and engaging in open dialogue through the implementation process helps ensure greater cultural sensitivity.
Implementing curriculum plans may involve a new way to interact with a child (or family member to support the child), a change in the schedule or physical environment, a different approach to routine care, a new material, or a new experience. It may also involve doing the same things as before. Either way, allow the infant to make choices and interact freely with materials and equipment, the setup of the indoor and outdoor environment, the experience or routine, and with the caregivers (or family members) themselves.[1] The child's response (or lack of response) influences how implementation occurs; the implementation process is not an endpoint in the curriculum planning process. Once a possibility or experience is introduced, the caregiver observes and responds to the individual infant's ongoing engagement in the experience. Just as a caregiver must do when planning and creating a curriculum, implementation includes observation, reflection, documentation, and interpretation. A key piece of implementation is observing what the child does and following the child's lead. In this way, caregivers "create with the child a learning experience that is personally meaningful and responsive, moment by moment."[1] In group care settings with infants and toddlers, expecting all children to do the same things simultaneously is not the best practice for individualized care. Allow infants and toddlers to engage with the experience independently and freely come and go as needed. Infants or toddlers should never be prohibited from leaving the experience or from choosing not to engage in an experience. Once an experience with an infant or small group begins, caregivers adapt their plans and actions to the changing needs and interests of the infants.
Implementing curriculum plans may produce surprising or unexpected results, which offers caregivers new insights and opportunities to refine their understanding of each child and family. Implement plans "in the spirit of experimentation: Each time a plan works or does not work, [caregivers] can learn and grow from the experience."[1] Adaptation and change are critical parts of the learning processes for both infant and caregiver.
Creating and implementing infant experiences or curriculum allows a caregiver to experiment and learn more about the infant and oneself as a caregiver.
Let's look at a scenario of observation and implementation of curriculum.
Over several days, a caregiver might observe a small group of older toddlers fascinated with pretend play. Through reflection on observations and documentation of the toddlers’ emerging interests, the caregiver may place additional puppets in the environment. The caregiver may wonder whether the puppets would motivate the toddlers to build interest in pretend play. Rather than drawing attention to the puppets, the caregiver may simply decide to place the puppets in the dramatic play area in the room. The caregiver can add some gardening-related props to the outside play area. Curious about what the toddlers will do with the new play materials, the caregiver waits to see what happens next. Anything could happen: the toddlers may not be interested in the latest materials, or they may begin to engage in lively pretend play that suggests new possibilities to the caregiver.
The above example of supporting older toddlers' pretend play is one of countless possible ideas caregivers may try as part of a reflective, responsive approach to curriculum. In addition to modifying the environment and introducing equipment and play materials, caregivers adapt their interactions with toddlers based on what they discover through observation, documentation, and reflection.
In another instance, a caregiver may realize that the infants are exploring the environment differently. With insights about the infant's ongoing development, the caregiver may step back when the infant moves out into the environment. When relating to the infants from a distance, the caregiver may discover that one infant enjoys making contact, while another infant may need to stay close and often seeks physical contact. The same caregiver may observe that some infants have an emerging interest in joint attention or looking at things together with the caregiver. As a result, the caregiver may look at books more frequently, with the infant looking at an adult. When sharing books with the infant, the caregiver may notice that 2 of the infants spend a long time looking at each picture, while another infant prefers to turn the pages quickly. Although implementing an interaction strategy to support infants' learning may start the same way, each infant's path with the new possibility will require the caregiver to adapt. For a strategy or plan based on prior observation, documentation, and reflection to be effective, the caregiver must follow each infant's lead and create a learning experience that is personally meaningful and responsive moment by moment.[1]
To sum up planning and implementing as they relate to individualizing, consider the following (adapted from the California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework). Planning for individualized care practices should reflect:
• The abilities that infants and toddlers bring to each interaction
• Each child's need for relationship-based experiences
• Family input and preferences
• An understanding of and appreciation for each child within the context of the child's family and culture
Implementing individualized care practices should focus on facilitating learning and enable caregivers to:
• Enhance their connections and engagement with each child's family.
• Maximize each child's sense of security and attachment.
• Learn to read the cues of each infant and toddler and respond appropriately.
• Encourage and support each child's interests and explorations.
• Address the child's whole learning experience, including creating a safe and exciting place for learning.
• Support children's progress toward individual child goals and allow for unique variations in temperament, approach, and pace.
[1] Early Learning and Care Division, California Department of Education. (2019). Infant/Toddler Learning and Development Program Guidelines, Second Edition. Sacramento: California Department of Education is used with permission.
34.02: Reflect and Evaluate
Looking Back
As caregivers implement their plans with children and families, they continue to observe and document the experiences. They ask questions such as "How did it go?" "What worked well and why?" "What didn't work and why?" and "What changes could be made?" They may ask themselves these questions in the middle of trying a new experience or later as they reflect on and evaluate the day or week. The answers to questions like these must be fed back into the cycle of individualization as caregivers continue to observe, document, reflect, interpret, plan, and implement.
Becoming skilled in these activities means caregivers:
• Become better prepared to understand each infant and toddler's developmental stage.
• Show thoughtfulness about how to offer support to further each child's development and learning.
• Demonstrate through actions that they understand the critical role positive adult-child relationships play in how infants and toddlers develop.
• Support the family's role as their child's first and most important caregiver.
• Know the value of families' input and actively seek it out.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of what they implement by continually observing, reflecting, communicating with families, and refining their plan.
As caregivers become more purposeful in their individualization practices, they see more and more opportunities to plan for possibilities and learning opportunities that nurture each infant, toddler, and family. This intentional, individualized care is the path to positive learning and life outcomes for very young children and their families.[1]
[1] Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families , ECLKC Early Head TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PAPER NO. 16 INDIVIDUALIZING CARE FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS – PART 1. Is in the public domain | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Care_and_Development_(Taintor_and_LaMarr)/34%3A_Implementing_Curriculum/34.01%3A_Putting_Plans_into_Action.txt |
Infant and Toddler Education and Care. ECPK 324 is an introduction to the field of infant and toddler childcare. Through reading the materials in the book and by participating in activities you can expect to explore research-based child learning and development; developmentally appropriate activities using a strength based approach; quality caregiving routines; and environmental influences on growth and development. Topics discussed in the text include:
• Research on brain development
• Children with special needs and their families
• Interrelated nature of development across domains (social, emotional, language, cognitive, physical)
• Dual language learners
• Family partnerships
• Culturally sensitive care
Infant and Toddler Education and Care are: Introduction to Early Childhood Education; Child Development; and Early Childhood Learner with Special Needs. BSU students also need to be admitted to the Early Education and Care professional education program.
Language Development & Early Literacy; Infant and Toddler Education & Care; The Creative Arts & Curriculum Design in Early Childhood; Childcare Programming, Administration, & Supervision; and Mentored Teaching Fieldwork and Student Teaching. Recent presentations include: An Early Childhood Bachelor’s Degree Program that Authentically Prepares the Birth to Grade-3 Workforce; Creating a Video Explanation to Improve Teaching & Learning; and Preparing Faculty to Effectively Mentor Field Experiences.
1.02: Toddler Development
Learning Outcome
explain and recognize stages and milestones in physical, social, emotional, sensory, linguistic, and cognitive development for younger toddlers from 12 to 24 months and for older toddlers from 22 to 36 months. The outcome supports the NAEYC Professional Standards and Competencies for Early Childhood Educators:
Introduction
7 Toddler Development Facts you Probably Didn’t know by Jeff Hayward (2016).
• How to use developmentally appropriate practices in a Toddler Room
Offer choices to encourage independence and autonomy.
Initiate conversations to build vocabulary and communication skills. In conversations with toddlers, always attempt to convey meaning clearly (with short, direct sentences), and include appropriately challenging words to support the explosion of a toddler’s vocabulary.
Use positive guidance techniques such as careful supervision, anticipating likely behaviors, positive encouragement and feedback, and redirecting a toddler’s attention to acceptable activities.
Prepare the environment by providing duplicate equipment, checking to ensure safety, and providing props that encourage toddlers to explore primary emotions. Create indoor and outdoor spaces for flexibility, safe sensory exploration, and physical development.
Work with families. Establish open and honest communication with toddlers’ families. Cooperation and coordination with families will provide toddlers with an added level of security and consistency as they dance between autonomy and independence.
Texas Child Care Quarterly, 37, (3). Available at: http://www.childcarequarterly.com/pdf/winter13_dap.pdf
How can I learn more about developmental milestones?
Massachusetts Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers you will notice that the learning guidelines are presented in table format. For each Guideline the indicators are divided into two sections: a) young toddler and b) older toddler. The indicators describe expected observable behaviors or skills of children which are developmental milestones.
https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/series/your-child-s-development-age-based-tips-from-birth-to-36-months
• What are the developmental considerations for toddler care?
• Mobile younger toddlers (12 to 18 months) are eager to explore.
• Toddlers (16 to 36 months) are working on their identity; they want to know who they are and who’s in charge.
• Lally, Torres, and Phelps (2010) list six key components of early group experience essential to toddler development: group size; quality of the physical environment; primary caregiving assignments; continuity of care; cultural and familial continuity; and meeting the needs of the individual within the group context.
Group Size
Age Range for Toddlers Group size = 6 Group size= 8 Group size = 10 Group size = 12
12 to 28 months 1:3 1:4 1:4 1:4
21 to 36 months 1:4 1:5 1:6
MA licensing regulations have requirements for programs for group size and ratio. The regulations state:
1. All group assignments must be developmentally appropriate for the individual child.
2. The group size must be appropriate for the activities planned and for the characteristics of children assigned to the group.
3. Each child must be assigned to a consistent group with consistent staffing.
4. Children may be assigned to fixed age groups outside their chronologically defined age group based on a review of the child’s most recent progress report or a narrative from the child’s parent addressing the child’s abilities in the areas of mobility, fine and gross motor control, communication, social interactions, and cognition.
Fixed Age Groups.
Regulation Number Age Group / Full or Half Day Program Maximum Group Size Educator / Child Ratio Educator Qualifications
7.10(9)(b)1 Infants (up to 15 months old)
(Full or Half Day)
7 1: 3, 1 additional educator for 4 – 7 infants At least 1 Infant/Toddler Teacher, per 7.09(18)(c)2
7.10(9)(b)2 Toddlers (15 to 33 months) (Full or Half Day) 9 1:4, 1 additional educator for 5 – 9 toddlers At least 1 Infant/Toddler Teacher, per 7.09(18)(c)2
Regulation Number Age Group Maximum Group Size Educator / Child Ratio Educator Qualifications
7.10(9)(c)1 Infant / Toddler Group 9; no more than 3 infants 1:3; 1 additional educator for 4 – 9 children At least 1 Infant/Toddler Teacher, per 7.09(18)(c)2
7.10(9)(c)2 Toddler / Preschool Group 9 1:5; 1 additional educator for 6 – 9 children At least 1 Infant/Toddler and Preschool Teacher, per 7.09(18)(c)2
The Environment
Safety — Are all the electrical outlets covered? Is there adequate padding under climbing equipment in case of a child falling? Are the walkways clear and unobstructed? Is the play area fenced in? Are there first aid supplies available?
Health — Is the diapering area kept separate from the food preparation and feeding areas? Are the food preparation, feeding, and toileting areas cleaned and sanitized daily and after each use. Do the children get fresh air every day?
Comfort — Is there soft furniture accessible to the children? Are there safe, comfortable, adequate sleeping arrangements? Is there furniture that is both child-sized and adult-sized in the rooms? Can toddlers sit and stand as they choose?
Convenience — Is there easy access to sinks for adults and children? Are the materials and supplies stored near routines and activities?
Encourages Movement — Do toddlers have enough space to crawl, roll, pull up, walk, climb, run, jump and explore when both indoors and outdoors?
Allows for Choice — Are the toddlers offered choices at mealtimes and during activities?
Ensures accessibility — Are the toys out at the children’s level? Can toddlers reach toys and materials independently? Are there spaces for both quiet and active play? Are there toys to represent imaginative play, constructive play, sensory play and literacy? Are toddlers allowed to play with sand, water, dress up clothes, etc.?
Educator Scheduling
Each child must be assigned to a consistent group with consistent staffing. The assignment of a primary educator means the child’s family, the administrator, and educator know who is principally responsible for that child. Primary caregiving does not mean that one person cares for an infant or toddler exclusively, all of the time as there will be team teaching. Primary caregiving ensures that the toddler can build an intimate relationship with at least one educator.
The way it should be
Two weeks later: After his mother kissed him, Tim waved good-bye and then he said, “Hi” again to Mindy, who ruffled his hair. Tim made a beeline for the block area, but when he got there Wong Chen had corralled all of the red blocks Tim wanted. Tim squatted down and watched Wong Chen. In a minute, Mindy came over and squatted down too, and they both watched him. Then Mindy said, “Tim likes those blocks too, Wong Chen; would you let him play?” Wong Chen looked at the floor, and then he looked up and frowned at Mindy and then at Tim. Mindy said, “OK, Wong Chen, then Tim can use them later.” And then to Tim, while pointing to some bristle blocks, “Maybe you’d like these? I don’t think anyone has those.” As Tim started to walk away, Wong Chen handed him one red block and Mindy said, “Thank you, Wong Chen, we’ll use that.”
Continuity of Care
Looping and Attachment in Early Childhood Education: How the Applications of Epigenetics Demand a Change. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 17, (2), 85-100. doi: 10.14434/josotl.v17i2.20840
What do you think about the practice of looping? How might it work in a childcare program you observed or worked in?
5. Cultural and Familial Continuity
What are your experiences with culturally representative educators in the programs you observed in or worked in?
Development in the Domains
Social-Emotional Development
Massachusetts early learning guidelines for infants and toddlers (2010), define social development as the child’s ability to relate to and interact with people. Toddlers are scientists, experimenting with interactions that occur between themselves and the people around them. Be mindful that you are a role model of behavior and culture for the toddler.
• relate to, trust, and develop an attachment to caregivers.
• interact with peers.
• experience and express a range of emotions.
• self-regulation
• the positive sense of self
• initiative
REMEMBER
• Social and emotional development impacts all other areas of development and is the foundation for all future development.
• Toddlers will carry inside the impact of the relationships with caregivers at this stage of life; setting the foundation for school readiness and lifelong success. When caregivers are loving, responsive and consistent, toddlers learn they are valued and the world is primarily satisfying and predictable.
• Research shows that children who have healthy social and emotional skills tend to learn better, are more likely to stay in school, and will be better able to make and keep lifelong friends.
REFLECT
• How will you promote secure relationships with toddlers?
• How will you encourage toddlers to experience, regulate, and express emotions?
For further information
Your Child’s Cues from Birth to Age 2 available at http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/documents/reading_cues.pdf
Language and Communication Development
REMEMBER
• An understanding of spoken (or signed) language (receptive language)
• Use of expressive language
• Participation in social communication
• Asking questions and telling stories (narratives)
• Increased ability to produce sounds accurately and put words together to make meaning (phonology and syntax)
• An interest in books and listening to stories
• Beginning to use writing tools.
For further information
Read Fuligni, A. S., Hoff, E., Zepeda, M., & Mangione, P. (March 2014). Development of infants and toddlers who are dual language learners. Working paper #2. Center for Early Care and Education Research-Dual Language Learners (CECER-DLL). Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.
• Key Takeaway – Toddler’s Cognitive Development
• toddlers think in fundamentally different ways from older children and adults. Toddlers’ brains are partially developed. As a result, toddlers think in fundamentally different ways from adults. Interpreting toddler behavior according to adult logic is pointless – and it sometimes leads us to draw conclusions that aren’t always helpful. Toddlers make much more sense if you step inside their heads and try and see the world from their level of development.
Anita Cleare, a Parenting specialist, provides an insight into how toddlers’ brains work so that we can interpret toddler behavior accurately. Here are some scenarios to further explain toddler thinking.
• Educator: “The purpose of this walk is to get to the park.”
• Educator thinks: Why can’t she walk from A to B without being distracted by a leaf?
• Toddler: “Wow, look at that shiny wrapper blowing along the ground!”
• Educator: “Stop being so obsessive, the blue cup is in the dishwasher.”
• Educator thinks: Why isn’t the green cup as good as the blue cup?
• Toddler: “No green!.”
• Educator: “No thank you, you can’t take toys from the other children.”
• Educator thinks: Why can’t toddlers share?
• Toddler: “It’s mine.”
• Educator: “You got hurt, there is no blood so no Band-Aid, I’ll kiss your boo-boo.”
• Educator thinks: What a drama queen!
• Toddler: “Need a Band-Aid!!”
• The toddler thinks: Help! I’m broken! Fix me!
• Educator: “It’s time to get your jacket on so we can go outdoors.”
• Educator thinks: We only have 20 minutes left of outdoor time, by the time she finishes outdoor time is over
• Toddler: “Me do it!
• The toddler thinks: I know I can do it!
To learn more:
Texas Child Care Quarterly, 37, ( 4) available at: http://www.childcarequarterly.com/pdf/spring14_infants.pdf
ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 3, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071017174331.htm
Physical Health and Well Being
• Motor development (large and small muscles or gross and fine motor)
• Use of the senses to guide and integrate interactions
• Skills for healthy life practices
• Eating
• Sleeping
• Toileting
• Hygiene practices
http://ncchildcare.dhhs.state.nc.us/pdf_forms/dcd_infant_toddler_health_physical_development.pdf
Nutrition
Young toddlers may begin to:
• Want to feed themselves.
• Eagerly participate in snacks and mealtimes.
• Bite, chew and swallow soft food smoothly.
• Show interest in many types of food and no interest in other foods.
• Eat inconsistently (eat a lot at one meal and little at the next, be too busy playing to eat).
• Ask for food when hungry or accept food when offered.
• Be willing to try new foods.
Older toddlers may begin to:
• Enjoy helping with meal and snack routines (set table, wash hands, throw away trash).
• Bite and chew solid food more easily.
• Accept or refuse food depending on their appetite and interest.
• Notice and talk about food textures, temperatures, and tastes (crunchy crackers, warm soup, sweet apples).
• Understand that some foods are good for them (fresh fruits, vegetables, milk) and some are not very healthy (potato chips, soda).
Sleep
Young toddlers may begin to:
• Show they know when it is time to sleep (points at the bed, get blanket).
• Cooperate with sleep routines (choose a book, get preferred sleep toy).
• Use simple sounds, gestures, or words to show they are tired.
Older toddlers may begin to:
• Use words for being tired.
• Initiate and participate in sleep routines (wash hands after lunch, get blanket, lie down on bed or mat).
• Fall asleep on their own.
Physical Activity
Young toddlers may begin to:
• Anticipate and ask for outdoor play (points at door and say “Out!”; resist coming indoors).
• Engage in regular and sustained movement (rides toy all around the play yard, go up and down the slide over and over).
• Develop strength and stamina as they use large muscles and participate in physical activity for longer periods of time.
• Enjoy active play and seek to be physically active (choose to play often on the climber, laugh and squeal while running).
Older toddlers may begin to:
• Engage in lively movements by choice for long periods of time indoors and outdoors.
• Enjoy more complex movement activities (running, jumping, and skipping).
• Match body movements to rhythm (move slowly to slow music, dance in time with the music).
• Show pride in new skills and strengths (ask others to watch them, say “I’m big and strong!”).
Self Care
• Use simple sign language, facial expressions, sounds or words to tell you what they need.
• Cooperate and help with care routines (mouth-care, hand-washing, diapering, dressing, bathing).
• Drink from a cup and feed themselves with their fingers or a spoon.
• Protect personal objects and space from others.
• Help with clean-up routines.
• Show excitement at completing self- care tasks (show teeth after brushing, hold up hands after washing).
• Cooperate with medical care, positioning, and use of adaptive equipment.
• Identify and use objects and follow routines that are comforting (get their blanket and lie down where they usually sleep, pick out a favorite books to be read before lunch).
Older toddlers may begin to:
• Use words or sign language to ask for the things they need (food when hungry, drink when thirsty, go outdoors when they need to be physically active).
• Soothe themselves when needed (find a quiet area for alone time, look at a book before nap).
• Increase independence with basic self-help skills (pull up pants, put on socks, shoes, and hat).
• Remember and imitate details of self- care routines (talk through steps while washing hands; tell doll how to brush teeth during pretend play).
• Start self-care routines and complete some steps independently (undressing, hand washing, brushing teeth).
• Understand the role of people who help children stay healthy (doctors, nurses, dentists).
• Show appreciation for possessions (put toys away, handle materials carefully).
• Use adaptive equipment, ask for help with positioning and movement, or participate in medical care routines as needed.
Safety Awareness
Young toddlers may begin to:
• Experience cause and effect (going downhill fast cause falls; turning the TV up too loud hurts ears).
• Show some caution on uneven ground and heights.
• Notice and imitate adult reactions to dangerous people and situations.
• Respond to warnings and directions from others.
• Understand the difference between what should be eaten and what should not.
Older toddlers may begin to:
• Remember cause and effect experiences and apply their experiences to future situations (avoid touching cold railing, walk slowly downhill where fall happened).
• Increase self-control over their impulses.
• Recognize and avoid situations that might be unsafe.
• Understand what their bodies can do and understand their limits.
• Watch for adult reactions to unfamiliar things or situations that might be dangerous.
• Understand and follow basic health and safety rules. They still require close supervision from caregivers to follow these health and safety rules consistently.
• Feel proud when they follow safety rules and ashamed when they do not (say, “Look, I waited!” at a corner; hang head after trying to reach forbidden item).
Health
poisoning, not smoking around children, using sunscreen, and gun safety.
Sleep problems and behavioral challenges are very common at this age and can be frustrating for caregivers. I invite you to look at the MedlinePlus web site to explore resources related to the health of toddlers.
Key Takeaway
It took me many years to see caring as the core of curriculum excellence. The deep assumption about caring is that it is something anyone can do, but we do not take care of human beings the same way we take care of a house or a lawn. In childhood, the sensations of the body are the pathways to the child’s intellect and emotions. Caring routines involve engagement around bodily functions (elimination, cleaning, eating, sleeping) and therefore they hold the most intimate importance. The way we touch children increases or diminishes their self-worth. Our care of children’s bodies is directly connected to the care of their minds.
Exchange magazine
Infographic to illustrate early childhood development
Remember
• A 28-month-old can reliably remember events, even up to 3 months after they happen (Fivush & Hamond, 1989). The components of memory require different abilities: the ability to hold objects and people in mind even when they cannot be seen (object permanence), to keep recent information in mind in order to perform a task (working memory), and to remember events from the past (long-term memory).
• Persistence is the ability to work toward a specific goal despite challenges or feelings of frustration.
• Problem-solving is how we figure things out. Remember that toddlers usually create their own “problems” to solve with the goals they have in mind.
Reflect
• Remember a time when you learned something new. How did memory, persistence, and problem-solving help you learn?
• Persistence and problem-solving skills can vary widely from child to child depending on temperament. How do you support children who have different natural abilities in these areas? How might temperament affect “persistence through frustration?”
References
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 47(2), 259-273
Read and Participate
1. Read Massachusetts Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers Section III: Toddlers (12 months to 33 months) pages 85-159.
2. Complete the reading reflection using information from this chapter and the Early Learning Guidelines. Use your responses from the reading reflection to participate in the Blackboard or face-to-face class discussion.
Assignment
Supporting Infant and Toddler Development; Screening, and Assessment. To get an overview of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, watch a 9-minute YouTube Video by Eagle Media produced in 2015. The video is titled You & Your Young Child: Ages and Stages Questionnaire
To complete the assignment:
Toddler ASQ Requirements
1. Locate a toddler from 15 to 33 months.
2. Complete the appropriate age group for ASQ 3 and ASQ 2SE available on Blackboard.
3. Use the correct questionnaire and scoring sheets for a toddler at 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27, 30 OR 33 months.
4. After completing the questionnaire, write a paper where you will answer the following questions:
1. Describe a typical child of the age you observed and how the child you assessed is typical, developing above age level, or if there are concerns about development.
2. What are the factors that affect this toddler’s development?
3. What is the child’s learning and interaction style?
4. What learning experiences might support this child’s unique strengths and characteristics?
5. Insert photos of the ASQ forms.
ASQ Grading Rubric and Sample Paper available on Blackboard. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.01%3A_Welcome_to_Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care.txt |
Learning Objective
Explain how culture influences growth and development This meets the NAEYC Standard 1b, 6b and the MA Core Competency 1.A.2 @ Initial & 8.D. 12@Initial level.
CULTURE
Cultural Humility: People, Principles, and Practices. to get you started thinking about the next assignment and to frame your thinking as you read this chapter. The 2012 video is by San Francisco State professor Vivian Chávez. She mixes poetry with music, interviews, archival footage, and images of community, nature and dance to explain what Cultural Humility is and why we need it. Cultural Humility is now used in public health, social work, education, and non-profit management. It is a daily practice for people who deal with hierarchical relationships, changing organizational policy and building relationships based on trust.[1]
The Youngest Americans: A Statistical Portrait of Infants and Toddlers in the United States explore America’s 12 million infants and toddlers and their demographic transformation in the U.S. What did you learn about the ways you might differ in terms of race/ethnicity, country of origin, language, and family type. What did you learn about unfairness? What practices might be harmful to infants and toddlers? How do national policies support or harm infants and toddlers?
INFANT AND TODDLER TEACHERS AS TRANSMITTERS OF CULTURE
Test, J.E. Infant and toddler teachers as transmitters of culture. IJEC 38, 47–63 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03165977
• CONCLUSIONS
REFERENCES
• Bakeman, R. & Brownlee, J. R. (1982). Social rules governing object conflicts in toddlers and preschoolers. In K. H. Rubin & H. S. Ross (Eds.), Peer relationships and social skills in childhood (pp. 99-111). New York: Springer-Verlag.
• [email protected]
Department of Curriculum and Instruction Southern Illinois University
625 Wham Drive, Mail Code 4610 Carbondale, Illinois 62901, USA
1.04: Developmental Influences- Nutrition
Learning Objectives
• The objective in this section is for you to explain how nutrition influences growth and development This meets the NAEYC Standard 1b, 6b and the MA Core Competency 1.A.2 @ Initial & 8.D. 12@Initial level.
Interesting Facts
• Models for healthy behavior are early educators as 75 % of children spend time in child care.
• Children who are overweight or obese are at increased risk for health and socio-emotional problems.
• Being overweight in the preschool years is highly predictive of being overweight later in childhood.
• Overweight children are more likely than their peers to develop cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, liver disease, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, and asthma.
• Food insecurity is associated with children’s greater risk for being overweight.
• Shared mealtimes are associated with a number of benefits such as increased vocabulary and exposure to a wider variety of foods that may result in healthier eating habits.
• Research suggests that having a television on during mealtimes may promote unhealthy eating.
Developmental Considerations Infants
Infant Nutrition and Feeding: A Guide for Use in the WIC and CSF Programs (2009) The guide provides nutrition education to help you inform families of infants.
Stanford Children’s Health website . The Infant Feeding Guide offers guidance for appropriate and healthy feeding of an infant during the first year of life. Here are tips from their website:
• Breast milk or formula provides your baby all the nutrients that are needed to grow.
• Your baby isn’t physically developed enough to eat solid food from a spoon.
• Feeding your baby solid food too early may lead to overfeeding and being overweight.
• As a general rule, solid foods don’t help babies sleep through the night.
Guide for formula feeding (0 to 5 months)
Age Amount of formula per feeding Number of feedings per 24 Hours
1 month 2 to 4 ounces 6 to 8 times
2 months 5 to 6 ounces 5 to 6 times
3 to 5 months 6 to 7 ounces 5 to 6 times
Feeding tips for infants after 4-6 months
• When starting solid foods, offer one new food at a time—not mixtures like cereal and fruit or meat dinners. Give the new food for two to three days before adding another new food. This way you can tell what foods an infant may be allergic to or can’t tolerate.
• Begin with small amounts of new solid foods—a teaspoon at first and slowly increase to a tablespoon.
• There are no strict rules about the order in which you should give different foods in. Many people start with an infant cereal and gradually add fruits, vegetables, and proteins.
• Don’t use salt or sugar when making homemade baby foods. Also, avoid feeding homemade spinach, beets, green beans, squash, and carrots for infants younger than age 6 months because of the risk for methemoglobinemia, a blood disorder that can interfere with oxygen delivery in the blood, due to high concentration of nitrates. Canned foods may contain large amounts of salt and sugar and shouldn’t be used for baby food. Always wash and peel fruits and vegetables and remove seeds or pits. Take special care with fruits and vegetables that come into contact with the ground. They may contain botulism spores that cause food poisoning.
• Cow’s milk shouldn’t be added to the diet until the baby is age 12 months. Cow’s milk doesn’t provide the right nutrients for an infant.
• Limit fruit juice without sugar o a maximum of 4 to 6 ounces daily when the infant is able to drink from a cup (around age 6 months or older). Whole fruits and vegetables are a much healthier option.
• Feed all foods with a spoon. Your baby needs to learn to eat from a spoon. Only formula and water should go into the bottle.
• Expect a smaller and pickier appetite as the baby’s growth rate slows around age 1.
• Once an infant is taking solids, offer sips of water.
• Offer a wide variety of foods early to develop good eating habits later.
Toddlers
North Carolina Division of Child Development: Infant Toddler Foundations (2008). The list is useful in understand what to expect from toddlers
Young toddlers may begin to:
• Want to feed themselves.
• Eagerly participate in snacks and mealtimes.
• Bite, chew, and swallow soft food smoothly.
• Show interest in many types of food and no interest in other foods.
• Eat inconsistently (eat a lot at one meal and little at the next, be too busy playing to eat).
• Ask for food when hungry or accept food when offered.
• Be willing to try new foods.
Older toddlers may begin to:
• Enjoy helping with meal and snack routines (set table, wash hands, throw away trash).
• Bite and chew solid food more easily.
• Accept or refuse food depending on their appetite and interest.
• Notice and talk about food textures, temperatures, and tastes (crunchy crackers, warm soup, sweet apples).
• Understand that some foods are good for them (fresh fruits, vegetables, milk) and some are not very healthy (potato chips, soda).
A resource to review
Bright Futures: Nutrition, 3rd Edition. Washington, DC: Author. The introduction provides information on promoting good nutrition and physical activity as essential components of a healthy lifestyle; establishing a framework for understanding how culture affects food choices and nutrition; and building partnerships among health professionals, families, and communities to improve the nutrition status of infants and toddlers.
What do families need to do to promote the nutrition status of infants and toddlers?
✦How can you become more effective in promoting the nutrition status of infants and toddlers?
Legal Responsibilities
Standards for the Licensure or Approval of Family Child Care; Small Group and School Age and Large Group and School Age Child Care Programs state in section 7.12 the following requirements apply to all delivery models of childcare. I included the most relevant for you to read that is why the numbers and letters skip.
(a) in USDA recognized nutrition requirements for the healthy growth and development of children; and
(b) in food choking hazards.
(a) the nutrition program must serve a variety of nutritious foods;
(b) the program must ensure that snacks and meals are prepared and served in a safe and sanitary manner;
• In programs serving infants and toddlers:
• A current feeding schedule must be maintained, documenting use of either breast milk or formula, if applicable, new foods introduced, food intolerances and preferences, voiding patterns, and observations related to developmental changes in feeding and nutrition.
• Infants and toddlers must be fed according to their individual feeding schedules or needs.
3. Infants must be held while fed a bottle.
• The program must offer a nutritious substitute to a child who misses a meal or snack due to deviations from his regular schedule (such as arriving late or leaving early).
(a) be present interacting with and assisting children;
(b) allow children to eat at a reasonable, leisurely rate;
(c) encourage children to serve themselves, when appropriate;
(d) ensure that each child receives an adequate amount and variety of food;
(e) help children with disabilities to participate in meal and snack times with their peers;
(f) encourage children to eat a well-balanced diet;
(g) offer alternative activities for children who have finished their snack or meal.
Training Options
1. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has compiled food safety and general nutrition information targeted at Child Care Educators
2. Menu Planning for Child Care
3. Choking Prevention
What did you discover about your responsibilities as an educator for nutrition by reviewing the regulations and exploring the resources?
Let’s Move
Let’s Move! Child Care a part of the initiative launched by Michelle Obama dedicated to solving the obesity problem. Let’s Move! is about putting children on the path to a healthy future during their earliest months and years. What idea might you use from Let’s Move Childcare?
Read and Participate
CRITERIA NOTES EXAMPLES FROM WEEKLY CONTENT
Connections
Implementation
Curiosities
Why?
Additional Online Resource(s) to Share | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.03%3A_Developmental_Influences-_Culture.txt |
HEALTH
Learning Objective
The objective in this section is for you to explain how health influences growth and development This meets the NAEYC Standard 1b, 6b and the MA Core Competency 1.A. 2 @ Initial & 8.D.12@Initial level.
NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment (2005) the primary responsibility of an educator is to provide care and education in settings that are safe, healthy, nurturing, and responsive for each child. The first principle to guide our conduct and ethical responsibility to children is
P-1.1—Above all, we shall not harm children. We shall not participate in practices that are emotionally damaging, physically harmful, disrespectful, degrading, dangerous, exploitative, or intimidating to children. This principle has precedence over all others in this Code.
• Separate the diapering and toileting areas from food preparation and feeding areas.
• Keep all areas clean.
• Wash hands frequently
• Provide easy to clean and suitable surfaces and covering for the activities in the area
• Heat, light, ventilation, and acoustics impact health. Natural lighting, soft elements to reduce noise, and screened, openable windows are ways to improve health.
1. Abuse and Neglect
2. Lead poisoning
3. Asthma
4. Unintentional Injuries
5. Oral Health
Abuse and Neglect
Chapter 2 Toddler Development Review The Youngest Americans: A Statistical Portrait of Infants and Toddlers in the United States to read the statistics for the number of infants and toddlers that suffer abuse and neglect. How does the the abuse and neglect of infant and toddlers compare to other age groups? What are the risk factors for child abuse and neglect? What are your responsibilities for reporting?
Lead poisoning
Preventing lead poisoning in young children Atlanta: CDC; 2005.
Protecting Children from Lead Poisoning (2014)
Asthma
Resource to Review
aring for Kids with Asthma: A Guide for Massachusetts Child Care Programs (2013) What are your experiences with asthma? How will you use the Asthma Action Plan (AAP) and individual health care plan (IHCP) described in the document
Unintentional Injuries
[1] (2006) identified the injuries most common for each age group of children. For infants, suffocation and falls are the most common. For toddlers, falls and poisonings are the leading causes of nonfatal injuries, followed by scald burns and motor vehicle–related injuries. There are many regulations designed to prevent injury such as regular building inspections, use of guardrails and protective barriers, safety covers for electrical outlets, requirement for an integrated pest management policy, use and storage of toxic substances, fire and carbon monoxide detectors, CPR and first aid training, and the use of injury reports. How many of these practices have you seen in use?
What about toddlers make them accident prone?
Infant Toddler Foundations (2008).
Young toddlers may begin to:
• Experience cause and effect (going downhill fast cause falls; turning the TV up too loud hurts ears).
• Show some caution on uneven ground and heights.
• Notice and imitate adult reactions to dangerous people and situations.
• Respond to warnings and directions from others.
• Understand the difference between what should be eaten and what should not.
Older toddlers may begin to:
• Remember cause and effect experiences and apply their experiences to future situations (avoid touching cold railing, walk slowly down hill where fall happened).
• Increase self-control over their impulses.
• Recognize and avoid situations that might be unsafe.
• Understand what their bodies can do and understand their limits.
• Watch for adult reactions to unfamiliar things or situations that might be dangerous.
• Understand and follow basic health and safety rules. They still require close supervision from caregivers to follow these health and safety rules consistently.
• Feel proud when they follow safety rules and ashamed when they do not (say, “Look, I waited!” at corner; hang head after trying to reach forbidden item).
Oral Health
A Healthy Mouth for Your Baby . This 4 minute video is for families of infants or toddlers. It explains why baby teeth are important, gives tips on how to prevent early childhood tooth decay, and promotes a dental visit around 12 months. (2013)
The regulations require
The children are in care for more than 4 hours, or they have a meal while in care.
1. Use a small smear of fluoride toothpaste
2. Spit it all out in the sink
3. NOT rinse with water after brushing.
How will you support healthy oral health habits?
Growing Healthy Smiles In The Child Care Setting: Implementing a Tooth Brushing Program to Promote Oral Health and Prevent Tooth Decay. Boston: Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Is the environment healthy for infant and toddlers?
Let’s Move! Child Care Checklist Quiz. The Let’s Move! Child Care best practices are listed on the left. Please check the box under the statement that best describes the current situation of the program.
Eco-Healthy Child Care® Checklist developed by the Children’s Environmental Health Network. The checklist reflects best practices for health as described in the Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards, 3rd Edition. By completing the checklist you will discover 30 ways to benefit the health and well-being of the children in childcare program. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.05%3A_Developmental_Influences-_Health.txt |
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS
Learning Objective
The Youngest Americans: A Statistical Portrait of Infants and Toddlers in the United States by Child Trends. Publication #2013-48, many infants and toddlers are beginning life with limited financial resources. The report presents a profile of children from birth through age eight years and includes information about their health status, access to educational and social service programs, and their families. Some of the statistics in the report include:
• 48% of America’s infants and toddlers live in low-income families; 25% live in families below the official poverty line; 13% are in deep poverty
• Economic disadvantage is concentrated in the families of black and Latino infants and toddlers; 66% of these young children are in low-income families.
• 24% of black and Latino infants and toddlers live in households that are “food-insecure” (p.1)
• 24% are raised by a single parent
• 16% are in the care of grandparents
SHORT TERM RISK FACTORS
• Experience decreased general health with an increase in death rate from an infectious disease
• Are vaccinated at lower rates
• Have increased rates of asthma and anemia.
• Live with increased rates of parental depression which could lead to risk for abuse and neglect
• Have an increased exposure to alcohol and substance abuse.
• Need safe play spaces
• Have a greater exposure to lead
• Live in communities with an increased exposure to community and interpersonal violence.
LONG TERM RISK FACTORS
• More than 1/3 of children from low- income communities enter kindergarten classes already behind their peers and by fourth grade, more than 50% of these children will not meet the standard for reading proficiency. (Connecticut Commission on Children, 2004)
• Children living below the poverty threshold are 1.3 times more likely than non-poor children to experience learning disabilities and developmental delays. (Brooks-Dunn & Duncan, 1997)
• Low-income children are nearly 50% more likely to become obese adults than children with more financial resources. (Duncan, Ziol-Guest, & Kahl, 2010)
• Early experience affects brain development and lays the foundation for children’s development. (Harvard’s Center for the Developing Child)
Resiliency
Coping with Early Adversity and Mitigating its Effects—Core Story: Resilience produced by the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare. The video is described as:
Children are incredibly resilient – the same rapid brain development that occurs in the first few years of life that make young children particularly vulnerable to maltreatment also make those same children particularly receptive to intervention. The concept of resiliency is especially important to keep in mind when working with young children in foster care. This video features experts discussing the process that results in resiliency in young children and the factors that can be put in place to bolster resiliency.
http://cascw.umn.edu
Institute of Child Development: http://www.cehd.umn.edu/icd/
Center for Early Education and Development: http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ceed/
Explore
Jiang, Y., Granja, M.R., & Koball, H. (2017). Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Children under 3 Years, 2015. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Murphey, D., Cooper, M. and Forry, N. (2013). The Youngest Americans: A Statistical Portrait of Infants and Toddlers in the United States. Bethesda, MD: Child Trends. Publication #2013-48.
Zero to Three. (2012) National baby facts . Washington, DC: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.06%3A_Developmental_Influences-_Socio-Economic_Status.txt |
Learning Objectives
• Explain how family styles influence growth and development. (NAEYC Standard 1b, 6b; MA Core Competency 1.A.2 @ Initial, 3. A. 2 Advanced. & 8.D.12@Initial )
• Compare how development is impacted by the family and community socioeconomics, values, and traditions. (NAEYC Standard 2a; MA Core Competency 3.A.1 @ Initial & 8.E.17 @ Initial )
Introduction
Do you remember learning about parenting styles in your Child Development course? The chart below may assist you in recalling the information. The first part of the chapter will look at how parenting styles impact an infant and toddler’s development.
Parenting Styles
[1]). For example, a families working conditions will impact child development. Professional families typically have more complex work schedules and tasks while families employed in factories or stores have more fixed schedules and tasks. Talib, Mohamad, and Mamat (2011) suggest that the type of parental work can result in values that get passed down and enforced to their children. Professional workers often value self-direction: freedom, individuality, creativity, where members of the working class may value conformity: orderliness, neatness, and obedience.
Effects of Parenting Styles on Children https://mrslocomb.wikispaces.com/Parenting+Styles
What is a typical family?
Time magazine article. “The big question is: What is replacing it? Now a new study suggests that nothing is — or rather, that a whole grab bag of family arrangements are. More Americans are in families in which both parents work outside the home than in any other sort, but even so, that’s still only about a third.”
The Family: Diversity, Inequality, and Social Change. Cohen identifies the three biggest changes in family life in the past 50 years are the:
1. Decline of marriage (in 2010, 45% of households were headed by a married couple, whereas in 1960 it was close to 66%) increasing people living alone and in unrelated people living together
2. Rise of the number of women in the paid workforce
3. Multitude of family structures such as: blended, remarried and co-habiting families. Families headed by single moms‚ whether divorced, widowed or never married, are now almost as numerous as families that have a stay-at-home mom and a breadwinner dad — about 22% and 23%, respectively.
Source:There is No Longer Any Such Thing as a Typical Family,” by Belinda Luscombe, Time, September 3, 2014.
Family Engagement
[2]; Weiss[3], Caspe, & Lopez, 2006). As a means to supporting family engagement and children’s learning, it is crucial that programs implement strategies for developing partnerships with families (Henderson & Mapp, 2002[4]). The first reading Family Involvement Makes a Difference: Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education. from the Harvard Family Research Project reports on the research and provides many research based strategies for you to consider in your work with children and families.
Division for Early Childhood. The position statement defines responsive behavior. The National Association for the Education of Young Children NAEYC created a comprehensive definition of family engagement that features six factors:
1. Families should act as advocates for their children and early childhood education program by actively taking part in decision making opportunities.
2. Consistent, two-way communication is facilitated through multiple forms and is responsive to the linguistic preference of the family.
3. Families and early childhood education programs collaborate and exchange knowledge.
4. Early childhood education programs and families place an emphasis on sustaining learning activities at home and in the community.
5. Programs and families collaborate in establishing goals for children both at home and at school.
6. Early childhood education programs create an ongoing and comprehensive system for promoting family engagement.
Gonzalez-Mena[5] illustrates responsive family engagement with several examples. How will you suspend judgment long enough to try to understand a different perspective that families may have? How will you respond if the differences are harmful to children? How far can childrearing practices be respected while at the same time ensuring children’s rights are protected?
Gillespie[6] describes specific techniques to foster positive family engagement. Why should you develop positive relationships? What techniques of family engagement would you like to develop?
Read and Participate
Reading Reflection Form
CRITERIA NOTES EXAMPLES FROM WEEKLY CONTENT
Connections
Implementation
Curiosities
Why?
Additional Online Resource(s) to Share | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.07%3A_Developmental_Influences-_Engaging_Families.txt |
Introduction
What is the problem at hand? In the context of this course, the “problem” is to determine “evidence-based professional practice for infant and toddler education and care. More specifically you will create a list of resources to answer one of the course essential questions:
1. How do relationships influence infant and toddler development and learning? Why are interactions essential?
2. What is the “curriculum” for infants and toddlers?
3. How should families be engaged as collaborative partners”? Why is it essential to engage families in developing and implementing individualized curriculum for infants and toddlers? How is this achieved?
What is and why should I use research?
NAEYC provides guidelines or using Early Childhood Research to support your teaching practice. Research provides information to make decisions on behalf of young children and families. So, consumers of research must be well-informed. NAEYC suggests using peer reviewed research to:
• Answer an important question that can be investigated through experiences.
• Build on relevant theory and previous research, as seen in detailed references to others’ work.
• Present an independent, balanced, and objective approach.
• Evaluate alternative explanations for the findings.
Online Guidelines and Resources are available to help early childhood professionals become well-informed consumers of research. Explore how to assess research quality and use research for decision making.
Ethical Standards for Research are critically important when conducting research with young children and other vulnerable populations. Resource links provide information about:
• Research procedures must never harm children, physically or psychologically.
• Children and their families have the right to full information about the research in which they may participate, including possible risks and benefits. Their decision to participate must be based on what is called “informed consent.”
• All those who receive federal funds for research must use specific informed consent procedures with research participants.
• Children’s questions about the research should be answered in ways children can understand.
• Children and their families have the right to refuse to participate in research or to withdraw from participating at any time.
• Information obtained through research with children should remain confidential. Researchers should not disclose personal information or the identity of participants in written or oral reports and discussions.
primary source is a report of an original research study. A primary source usually provides enough details to replicate the research study. Primary sources are written by the researcher(s) or evaluator(s) who conducted the study. The main formats of primary sources are journal articles, technical reports from research institutions or education organizations, and reports on presentations at conferences.
secondary source is a description and summary of one or more prior research studies. Secondary sources usually do not include enough details to replicate the original studies being described. Examples of secondary sources are literature reviews and books. Although newspaper articles also can be secondary sources, they often do not have enough information to help readers form a solid judgment about the research. Essays by education experts can be secondary sources of education research, but essays can be overly biased toward the views of the writer.
Finding Education Research
NAEYC’s Office of Applied Research bridges the gap between early childhood research and practice. You can access to high-quality research in order to ensure the practices you use in the classroom are best for the children and families you serve. At this website you can access early childhood research.
Below is a list of additional websites to use when searching for information.
THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
www.eric.ed.gov. The following terms will produce search results:
• Infant Behavior
• Infant Care
• Infant Mortality
• Infants
• Premature Infants
• Young Children
• Toddlers
• Developmentally Appropriate Practices
• Early Childhood Education
• Early Experience
BRIDGEWATER STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
ERIC, Education Research Complete, Academic Search Premier, PsychInfo, and many others.
RETAINING, ORGANIZING, STORING, AND REUSING RESOURCES
[1] explains social bookmarking as the recording and saving of content for later use and quick access. It is a “collaborative and collective saving and sharing of web content”. (¶1)
• ANYONE can publish on the Internet! Can you distinguish between a 7th grader and Johns Hopkins University?
• For any source, The University of California Berkeley Library site suggests considering:
1. Authority – Who is the author? What is their point of view?
2. Purpose – Why was the source created? Who is the intended audience?
3. Publication & format – Where was it published? In what medium?
4. Relevance – How is it relevant to your research? What is its scope?
5. Date of publication – When was it written? Has it been updated?
6. Documentation – Did they cite their sources? Who did they cite?
Student Additions to the Chapter
Local resources to support children and families of infants and toddlers
Healthy Families. (2017). Retrieved October 24, 2017, from https://www.kdc.org/services/healthy-families/
30 Ansel Hallet Rd, West Yarmouth, MA 02673 (508) 385-6019
The Kennedy Donovan Center (KDC) has a family support center in West Yarmouth on Cape Cod which offers an array of services for families. The Family Support Center is an important resource for families of people with disabilities. The center offers six specific service options:
1. Information and referral
2. Service navigation
3. Family trainings
4. Parent networking
5. Community connection and resources
6. Administration of flexible funding
Submitted by Megan McManus, October, 2017.
Family Resource Center Cape Cod[Pamphlet]. (2017). MA: Cape cod neighborhood Support Coalilition. 29 Bassett Lane • Hyannis, MA 02601 • 508-815-5100 Retrieved from capecodfamilyresourcecenter.org
This is a free monthly newsletter for families. The newsletter gives them list of activities that are going on in the month that they might find fun and provide support for the families who may be able to meet other families and connect with them. For families with infants and toddlers the music and movement activity is most relevant.
Some of the activities are free and some have a fee attached to them. The whole family is invited to every event some are geared towards mom’s or dads or both but the child is always allowed to come. This is a great way to meet people in your community with common interests. Submitted by Megan McManus, October, 2017.
McLeod, C. (n.d.). Health Insurance . Retrieved October 23, 2017, from http://www.falmouthservicecenter.org/health-insurance.html
Falmouth Service Center is a wonderful place. They help in all kinds of ways. They have free meals twice a month. The food pantry services the people of Falmouth. However, every town has a food pantry that people can go to for food help. The center also helps people with financial assistance by helping to pay bills such as heating or rent.
Falmouth Service Center helps with health insurance too. They will help you choose the right plan for your family. “Children can get MassHealth even if their parents do not have social security numbers or a green card. Your premium costs are based on your income and the health plan you choose”. Their mission is “to ease stress, reduce hunger and improve the quality of life for our neighbors in need”. The address for the Falmouth Service Center is 611 Gifford Street, Falmouth, MA 02540. The telephone number is 508-548-2794. Submitted by Samantha Para, October, 2017.
Justice Resource Institute. (2017). JRI Leaders in social justice. Retrieved October 21, 2017, from https://jri.org/
For services on Cape Cod Contact:
Amy Sypher, MA Program Development Specialist
35 Summer Street
Taunton, MA 02780
Justice Resource Institute (JRI) is an organization meeting the needs of underserved individuals, and families since 1973. Cape Cod Child Development (CCCD) has had JRI come out and look at children who seem to need their support. They have locations in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. They meet the needs of; developmentally delayed individuals living with mental illness and behavioral challenges, court-involved children and adolescents; LBGT, and children and adults who have experienced trauma. JRI also provides home-based counseling and trauma-informed care. JRI provides many services for children and their families such as, foster care services, adoption supports, and healthy after-school supports. They provide families with environments of safety and care.
JRI came to a training at our program to talk briefly about what they do. They provide and support families with all diverse types of situations. They help everyone as much as they can. Their main site is in Needham Massachusetts. They will provide services for as long as you need it, and the services that they do provide could be long-term or short-term. JRI does not just work with certain people and families, they work with everyone and anyone who needs their help. Submitted by Danielle Faria, October, 2017
Erikson Institute. (n.d.). Fussy Baby Network. Retrieved October 24, 2017, from https://www.erikson.edu/fussybaby/services/
Phone number for anytime advice: 1-888-431-BABY
Boston Medical Center: (617) 414-4767
Address: One Boston Medical Center Pl, Boston, MA 02118
The Fussy Baby Network and Erikson Institute are in Chicago and were started in 2003. It’s a program that helps families who are struggling with the first year of the baby’s’ life. This can include support for feeding, sleeping, and crying. The approach is called FAN which is Facilitating Attuned Interactions which focuses on families concerns about their child. A family wants someone to listen and to find support. You can call Monday through Friday 9 am to 5 pm. There is no charge for calling.
Fussy Baby Network services are integrated into the Healthy Steps program at Boston Medical Center. Services include phone consultation, clinic consultation, and home visitation through the primary care clinic for families. See the contact information above.
Fussy Baby Network FAN is infused into several key programs within the Jewish Family & Children’s Service Center for Early Relationship Support (CERS). For more information call (781) 693-5652 or visit the Jewish Family & Children’s Service website. Submitted by Morgan Evans, October, 2017
Post your hypothesis comments here
Information about developmental milestones
Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. (2010, November). Massachusetts early learning guidelines for infants and toddlers. Boston, MA: Author
This is a tool that teachers as well as families can access. The learning standards offer a breakdown of what the early milestones are for children birth to 33 months of age. They have a break down into areas of development and what the child should be doing by certain ages.
This is nice for teachers to use to gage where a child should be and what they can do to help this child. There are suggestions in each area for activities to try with the child. Submitted by Megan McManus, October, 2017.
Teaching Strategies, Inc. (2016). GOLD®. Bethesda, MD: Teaching Strategies.GOLD®. Retrieved October 24, 2017, from https://teachingstrategies.com/solutions/assess/gold/
“The authentic, ongoing, observation-based assessment system that helps teachers and administrators like you focus on what matters most for children’s success. Grounded in our 38 research-based objectives for development and learning, GOLD® supports effective teaching and assessment, while providing you with more time to spend with the children in your program. Accessed through MyTeachingStrategies™, GOLD® automatically links teaching and assessment, making it easier to connect the dots across the most important aspects of high-quality early childhood education.”
This is a company that provides teachers with assessment tools that may be used in a toddler or preschool classroom to assess if a child is meeting their milestones. This comes as a packet that may download or receive in the mail. Teachers can use this to create a profile for each child and answer the questions that are in the assessment. These can then be shared with the family as well. These can be used in parent teacher meeting to show where the child stands in the milestones. Submitted by Megan McManus, October, 2017.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016). Developmental Milestones. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html
Developmental milestones happen as a child grows and include walking, talking and even smiling. The Centers for Disease Control has tools to help families know what to look for at each stage of life. The website also has categories for example, social and emotional, and language/communication and examples to know what to look for.
If you are concerned about your child, the Center for Disease Control has a page of tips you can do to help your child, whether it’s asking for a referral or getting an evaluation. The website also has a way to help the caregiver know what to say when they are asking for help. For example, when you call your child’s doctor’s office, say, “I would like to make an appointment to see the doctor because I am concerned about my child’s development”. Also, “be ready to share your specific concerns about your child when you call. If you wrote down notes about your concerns, keep them. Your notes will be helpful during your visit with the doctor”. Submitted by Samantha Para, October, 2017.
The Center for Neurological and Neurodevelopmental Health. (2015, January 18). Track your child’s Developmental Milestones.
This brochure is a visual of the developmental milestones infant-toddlers should reach at certain ages. This tracks infant-toddlers from the ages of 6 months to 4 years. This brochure has just the right amount of information to keep it clear and concise. Different components on the brochure gives you more information on what to expected with each developmental milestone, and the possible delays that come with it. It also gives a few websites, and telephone numbers in case you see any delays in your child’s milestones, and want to contact someone. Also, the websites will allow you to get a little more information regarding exactly what you need.
The infant and toddler teachers and the families can learn about morediverse ways to work with any delays in meeting developmental milestones. They will mostly get services such as early invention. Having these services will help the families get activities and plans set in place for those children. Submitted by Danielle Faria, October, 2017
Prath, S. (2016). Red flags for speech-language impairment in bilingual children: Differentiate disability from disorder by understanding common developmental milestones. ASHA Leader, 21(11), 32-33. doi:10.1044/leader.SCM.21112016.32
Speech development in bilingual children is sometimes over looked. The article starts off with a hypothetical situation where you get an email stating that there is a bilingual student struggling to communicate. Does this child have a speech deficit or is learning a second language causing the difficulties? Well, we shouldn’t be looking at the differences of the languages, but rather what they have in common. A child should be able to reach milestones with at least one language even if it’s their first language isn’t English. If the child is able to reach the milestones in at least one of the languages that they speak they are achieving milestones.
Milestones include single words, two-word phrases, and vocabulary development. “If we evaluate vocabulary development using the same language between monolingual and bilingual children- Bilingual children might seem like they understand fewer words”. If the child can’t comprehend in one or both of the languages, then a bilingual evaluation should be in place.
The article has many charts for speech development milestones, speech intelligibility milestones (for family understanding), a chart for school-age children who don’t reach the milestones for language, when to contact Speech and Language Professional’s for evaluation, and typical vocabulary development.
Speech development in bilingual children is a milestone that is sometimes over looked. The article starts off with a hypothetical situation where you get an email stating that there is a bilingual student struggling to communicate. Does this child have a speech deficit or is learning a second language causing the difficulties? Well, we shouldn’t be looking at the differences of the languages, but rather what they have in common. A child should be able to reach milestones with at least one language even if it’s their first language isn’t English. If the child is able to reach the milestones in at least one of the languages that they speak or even both the child is demonstrating milestones.
These milestones include single words, two-word phrases, and vocabulary development. “If we evaluate vocabulary development using the same language between monolingual and bilingual children- England to English, bilingual children might seem like they understand fewer words”. If the child can’t in one or both of the languages, then a bilingual evaluation should be in place. Side note, the article depicts many charts one for speech development milestones, speech intelligibility milestones (for parents understanding), and a chart if school-age children don’t reach the following milestones for language, SLP’s should consider evaluation, and typical vocabulary development. Submitted by Morgan Evans, October, 2017
Post your hypothesis comments here
Information that promotes physical health and well-being
Women, Infants, & Children (WIC) Nutrition Program . (2017). Retrieved October 24, 2017, from https://www.mass.gov/women-infants-c...rition-program
Main site 1019 Iyanough Road, Hyannis, MA 02601 (508) 771-7896
Women, Infants, & Children (WIC) is a free nutrition program that aims to keep Massachusetts families healthy. WIC offers food services for families who may need assistance with buying food for their families. They offer service for pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under the age of five.
If you are pregnant or have a child under 5 years old in your household, the WIC program may be able to provide you with:
• Free, healthy food
• Nutrition, breast feeding support and education
• Referrals for medical and dental care, health insurance,
child care, housing, and fuel assistance
You must apply and qualify before using their services. You can participate in WIC if you:
• Live in Massachusetts
• Have a nutritional need (WIC staff can help you determine this)
• Are a child under 5, a new mom, or a pregnant or breastfeeding woman
• Have a family income less than WIC guidelines. You are automatically income eligible for WIC if you currently receive:
• o MassHealth/Medicaid insurance plans
• o Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
• o Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) or cash assistance
This is a great way for families to buy healthy food options for their children. Submitted by Megan McManus, October, 2017.
Early Intervention Parent Leadership Project (2013). Basic Information on EI. Retrieved November 1, 2017, from https://eiplp.org/basic-information/
If you think your child has a development issue, and the child is three or younger then Early Childhood Intervention can help. If your family is eligible for services, the family will be assigned a provider who will work with the family and early intervention team to develop and carry out an individualized service plan that addresses the child’s developmental needs and the family’s priorities. There are many certified community-based programs serving all cities and towns in Massachusetts. “Each Early Intervention program is certified to provide services for a specified group of cities and towns, called a catchment area”. The service is free to families!
Early Intervention helps the child in the socially and emotionally too. The adults that work with the child create a bond with them. The children know they are safe and a positive relationship can. There are different activities the Early Intervention staff does with the children to help them. For example, simply talking to the child and asking them how they are feeling. Even being silly and making the child laugh is fostering a positive and rewarding relationship. Submitted by Samantha Para, October, 2017.
Post your hypothesis comments here
Information that promotes social and emotional health including Promoting positive relationships and reducing child abuse or neglect
Zero to Three. (2010, February 21). Tips on Helping Your Child Build Relationships. Retrieved October 31, 2017, from https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/227-tips-on-helping-your-child-build-relationships
Positive relationships to be are extremely important in a child’s life. Having a role model or someone you can look up to is a way to stay safe. Just as stated earlier in this book if the child has an interested and caring person by their side, that child will be resilient.
There is a list of strategies to help a child build positive relationships. First, allow for unstructured, uninterrupted time with you’re the child each day. Play with your child and be engaging with them. Next is, say things like, “You are using so many beautiful colors to make that drawing” Respect your child’s feelings. Provide opportunities for your child to develop relationships with peers, so they have a lot of practice to understand to take turns, share, problem solve, and feel the joy of friendship. Next limit “Screen Time as it limits the bonding time with the caregiver and experiencing the world. If the child does have screen time, make it beneficial by asking questions about the show. For example, how it made them feel or what was your favorite part. Submitted by Samantha Para, October, 2017.
Wang, K. (2013, November 08). 8 Important Tips for Working with A Special Needs Child – Friendship Circle – Special Needs Blog. Retrieved November 01, 2017, from http:// www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2012/10/15/8-important-tips-for-working-with-a-special-needs-child/ The population of children with special needs is growing and more adults, teachers, and coaches, might be finding themselves working with children with special needs for the first time. It’s important to build relationships with children. Some people who are working with children with special needs are either professionals or volunteers. Wang offers 8 tips in order to work with children with special needs interact, observe, use common sense, be flexible, be consistent, use visual, auditory or tactile cues, have a plan and backup plan, and be positive.
To interact, introduce yourself to the child and explain why you are connecting with this child. By observing you are looking out for differences in behavior and how the child communicates. If you are unsure of something, always ask their families. Using common sense, always make sure that the environment that the child is learning in is physically and emotionally safe and comfortable for them. Flexibility means to accommodate for the child; some adults are not willing to accommodate for the child; the key is to have a variety of methods to help the child. Consistency is as seen in a set of rules, make sure that if there is a set of rules, they are consistent to everyone. Visual, auditory or and tactile cues that are helpful to promote a child’s participation. Sometimes you need a plan B if your first plan isn’t working, there’s nothing wrong with that, but make sure there is a space for the child to calm down if they react in a way that they don’t like. Most importantly be positive, a positive attitude can really contribute to a child’s confidence.
The population of children with special needs is growing and with that, more and more adults, teachers, and coaches, might be finding themselves working with these children for their very first time. It’s important to build relationships with these children. Some people who are working with these children are either professionals or they are volunteers. Wang talks about 8 tips in order to work with children with special needs. These 8 tips are to interact, observe, use common sense, be flexible, be consistent, use visual, auditory or tactile cues, have a plan and backup plan, and be positive.
To interact, means you introduce yourself to the child and explain why you are connecting with this child. By observing you are looking out for differences in behavior and how the child communicates with you. If you are unsure of something, always ask their parents. When using common sense, always use safety first, make sure that the environment that the child is learning in is physically and emotionally comfortable for them. Flexibility means to accommodate for the child. Wang stats that some adults are not willing to accommodate for the child, the key is to have a variety of methods to help the child. Consistency is important for set of rules, make sure that if there is a set of rules, they are consistent to everyone. Visual, auditory or tactile cues are helpful when used in an environment, it can even be the difference between a child’s participation and non-participation (Wang, 2012). Sometimes you need a plan B if your first plan isn’t working, there’s nothing wrong with that, but make sure there is a space for the child to calm down if they react in a way that they don’t like. Most importantly be positive, a positive attitude can really contribute to a child’s confidence. Submitted by Morgan Evans, October, 2017
Post your hypothesis comments here
Information that promotes stimulating language and communication
Mendelsohn, A. L., Brockmeyer, C. A., Dreyer, B. P., Fierman, A. H., Berkule-Silberman, S. B., & Tomopoulos, S. (2010). Do Verbal Interactions with Infants During Electronic Media Exposure Mitigate Adverse Impacts on their Language Development as Toddlers? Infant and Child Development, 19(6), 577-593. doi:10.1002/icd.711
This article is about how language is effected by media including how much the young child’s language can be affected; as well as later effects on the child. They studied 253 families to see how media impacts language development in their young child. They started at 6 months old and then checked back in around 14 months to see the impacts media had on the child. The findings were that media exposure was associated with reduced language development. However, this was effect was less when families talked to the infant or toddler while the child was viewing. This suggests a potential strategy for reducing negative impacts of media on young children by talking with the child about the media as they watched. Submitted by Megan McManus, October, 2017.
Zero to Three.(2017, February 25). In How to Support Your Child’s Communication Skill.
On the website Zero to Three, examples of how to support the language and communication are addressed, through both verbal and nonverbal language. It Support begins with a newborn and a 9-month-old using non-verbal communication such as nuzzling at the mother’s breast or using their hands to get what they need meet, then to a 28-month-olds communicate what she sees by verbal and non-verbal ways (pointing and saying the word “Derl” for squirrel). Finally, to a 3-year-old with complete verbal language telling a story about his preschool.
The website explains many ways to stimulate infant-toddler language and communication. One way is by responding to their looks, sounds, and gestures. As stated in the website, “when he puts his arms out to you, pick him up, kiss him and use simple words. “You want up”. When he coos, coo back. When he gazes at you, make eye contact and talk with him”. This is saying that all communication is crucial to infant-toddlers, whether it is verbal or non-verbal.
These quick responses by you tells the child that their language and communication is are essential to you, and this will encourage allow the language and communication of infant-toddlers to be endless and so they will develop their skills quicker. Secondly, is you should always talk and listen to your child. With infant and toddlers giving them the understanding that you are there to listen and talk is important for their development, because they feel like they are being heard, and will talk more. Lastly, is by narrating the daily routines. Infant and toddlers need the words as well as a visual of the word to really connect them together.
At my center in the infant-toddler room the teachers they go over what they are going to do through the day. They write on a white board and hang it outside the classroom, so when families come and pick up their child they can read the note and know exactly what their child did and learned that day. When the children arrive, the teachers have smiles on their faces and are welcoming. They say hello to the families, and get the children ready for the day. Having some not talking yet they will bang objects on the table, or do a scream or a sound to get attention. Supporting both verbal and non-verbal communication is very important for infant-toddlers. Submitted by Danielle Faria, October, 2017.
Post your hypothesis comments here
Information that promotes enhancing cognitive development
Guyton, G. (2011, September). In Using Toys to Support Infant-Toddler Learning and Development.
In the journal article, “Using Toys to Support Infant-Toddler Learning and Development” the author describes many different toys and activities that families can use with infant-toddlers to enhance their cognitive development. Cognitive development is how infant-toddlers develop their thinking skills.
Under the heading, “Homemade toys and readily available materials”, she mentions how many advertisements have lead people to believe that toys are better if they are store-bought or expensive, when really, materials that you have at home are superior. Guyton goes into detail how using homemade materials such as; “fabrics, bottles, cardboard boxes, yard, cooking pans, pine cones”, can be very engaging to infant-toddlers, and is an excellent way to start building relationships between the child and caregiver.
Hiding a toy under a scarf and playing the peek-a-boo game are ways teachers can enhance the cognitive skill of object permanence. Drumming on pots and pans in front of a child, will allow the child to practice imitation, and think about how to make the same sound you just made. Under the next heading, “Choosing and using toys to support cognitive development” The first object is fabric, and the many ways you can use this material, such as in dramatic play, and pulling it out of a hat. Across from the heading is an example of how a scarf is used to enhance cognitive development. An 8-month-old and a teacher put a scarf over a doll, and asks where the doll is. They lift the scarf and the doll is revealed. This is an example of object permanence. Read the rest of the article to learn about using blocks, puzzles, and rattles.
Caregivers enhance cognitive development in many ways, the first way is giving the infant-toddlers activities and games that will support and spike the curiosity of the children, such as a mystery bag or creating bubbles. Second, is to ask open-ended questions, and allowing time to the answer those questions. For example, “What do you think will happen if?” or “Can you think of another way to do this?”. Giving children time, and space and a variety of different toys and activities will allow their cognitive development to grow. Submitted by Danielle Faria, October, 2017
Post your hypothesis comments here
Information that tells you how to create positive approaches to learning
Zakrzewski, V. (2013, August 21). How to Create a Positive School Climate.
This article posted in Greater Good Magazine describes three easy things a teacher can do to make a positive change in the classroom. Zakrzewski describes a positive school environment, assessing the current climate, and working with others to create a shared vision for the school. When children and teachers feel valued and appreciated their classrooms will be more positive.
This article discusses and gives examples of the three R’s for infant and toddler learning. The first is respect which is “shown when adults treat the young child in ways similar to how they would like to be treated by others” The second is response this is done by observing the children and becoming sensitive to their needs. Reading body language and learning their temperaments is key to their success in school. The third is relationship creating a positive connection with each child; helps encourage a positive school and classroom environment.
The examples called “Ideas into Practice!” include what the environment looks like, establishing a primary caregiving system, and taking care of yourself. They are ideas they give for how to stay positive as a teacher. They also have some activities for the children. This article is very helpful in setting up a happy positive classroom. Submitted by Megan McManus, October, 2017.
Gronlund, G. (2013). How to Support Children’s Approaches to Learning? Play with Them!
Positive approaches to learning is part of successful learning experience. How can we as educators do this, is by play! Young children gain so much by playing. The children explore, learn and play with new things everyday when educators use positive approaches to learning. Simple things such as a toddler stacking rings on the post is problem solving.
If educators have a positive approach to learning it will help the children in later years in school and life. Families can have a positive approach to learning at home too. They can play with their child, interact with your child, have a conversation, or reading books to their child helps in so many ways. Even cooking together is a positive approach to learning because it helps the child bond with an adult. The child needs to have that bond with a special adult to them. Why? Submitted by Samantha Para, October, 2017.
The most positive approach to learning is to play with the child. To encourage a toddler to play sit on the floor with the child, bring a basket of toys with you and allow the child to be curious as to what to use. For example, using rattles the child can hear different sounds and with blocks they can stack them and then take their creation down. Problem solving is stimulated with the rings on stacking toys. Ask the child questions as they are playing.
For example, Gronlund describes a father and son playing. As the son is playing, the Dad says, “I see you are trying to get the last ring on the post, but it just won’t fit” or he asks “Where did the ball go, is it hiding behind the chair”. This type of questioning will encourage perseverance and grab the child’s attention and problem solving. Submitted by Morgan Evans, October, 2017
Leonard, J. (2017, September 21). Babies Can Learn the Value of Persistence by Watching Grownups Stick with a Challenge. The Conversation.
In the newspaper; The Conversation, Julia Leonard explains ways to create positive approaches to learning. She illustrates how self-control and persistence increase academic outcomes. She describes an experiment that her and her colleagues did with the infants and toddlers trying to activate a musical toy by hitting the button. The children observed either someone working hard to achieve two different goals, or someone who effortlessly reached each goal. Infants and toddlers who saw the adult persist and succeed, pushed the button about twice as many times as those who saw the adult effortlessly
Leonard concludes that persistence and positive learning comes from an adult model. Seeing this quality in the adults will allow the child to have a positive approach to learning. One way you can create a positive approach to learning is showing the infants and toddlers a box that will not open on the first try. Modeling persistence is a fantastic way to teach them a positive approach to learning. Submitted by Danielle Faria, October, 2017
Post your hypothesis comments here
Reviewing Resources
Research matters: Moving to evidence based professional practice. Educational Leadership, 63 (6), 87-90. You may find the table below useful when creating your annotations for the resources you will add to this chapter.
3 Things I discovered from the article and will use in teaching infants and toddlers.
2 Things I found interesting …
1 Question I Still Have …
Research review to add to the ECPK 324 Text
Research review to add to ECPK 324 Text. This is an opportunity to be a scholar and revise and improve the course text by creating 5 comments using hypothesis.
Have you signed up for hypothesis? If not go to: https://web.hypothes.is/start/. Create a free account. Now you add Hypothesis to your browser (Chrome, Safari, or Google). You are ready to start annotating or commenting in Chapter 8 of our textbook.
• Local resources to support children and families of infants and toddlers
• Information about developmental milestones
• Information that promotes physical health and well-being
• Information that promotes social and emotional health (promoting positive relationships and reducing child abuse or neglect)
• Information that promotes stimulating language and communication
• Information that promotes enhancing cognitive development
• Information that tells you how to create positive approaches to learning
text. Here are examples of APA for a variety of reference types.
Print
Book Example: Otto, B. (2010). Language development in early childhood education. (3rd Ed.) Upper Saddler River, NJ: Merrill..
Journal Article Example: Steiner, Amanda Mossman. 2011. A Strength-Based Approach to Parent Education for Children with Autism. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions13(3):178–90.
Electronic General formula :
Title of Page/Document. Retrieved from URL
Note: The title of the page/document is italicized.
Note: n.d. indicates that no publication date is available.
Example: Public Broadcasting Service. (n.d.). Positive ways to talk and listen. Retrieved from www.pbs.org/parents/talkingwi...trategies.html.
Journal Article – online database: Nilsson, M., Ferholt,B., & Lecusay, R. (2017) The playing-exploring child’: Reconceptualizing the relationship between play and learning in early childhood education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. Available at: doi-org.libservprd.bridgew.edu/10.1177/1463949117710800
Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 443-449. Retrieved from EBSCOHost database
Web page authored by an organization
Families and Work Institute (n.d.). Main Points from Mind in the Making. Retrieved from: http://mindinthemaking.org/PDF/mainpoints_mitm_120426.pdf
Technical Report
A child becomes a reader. Jessup, MD: National Institute for Literacy.
Infant Toddler Guidelines
Massachusetts early learning guidelines for infants and toddlers. Boston, MA: Author.
Newspaper articles (online):
Pamphlet-Brochure
Guidelines for reporting and writing about people with disabilities (4th ed.) [Brochure]. Lawrence, KS: Author..
Sample Comments in 2 sections
Note that they are 1 and NOT the required 2 paragraphs
• Local resources to support children and families of infants and toddlers
Kindergarten Registration and Screening
Kindergarten Registration Forms. Retrieved from:
http://www.barnstable.k12.ma.us/Page/622
• Promoting physical health and well-being
Dental Check-up
Dental Care. Retrieved from:
chcofcapecod.org/services_dental_care.html
Grading Rubric
Criterion Emerging Understanding Acceptable Target Points
Variety of resources identified
MA Core Competency 1.A.2 @ Initial & 8.D.12@Initial
NAEYC Standard 1b
Identified less than 3 resources. Some were outdated or no date was indicated. Identified 3-4 resources. Some were outdated or no date was indicated. The student used primarily 2 types of sources (books, journals, or websites). Identifies 5 or more professional resources and organizations to enhance professional development and skills. The information is current (within last 10 years) and a variety of books, journals, and information from appropriate websites were explained. 50
Annotations
NAEYC 6d: Integrating knowledgeable, reflective, and critical perspectives on early education
APA style was not used. Some of the resources are fully cited using APA style. At least 4 of the annotations are 2 paragraphs that summarize the information in the resource. The 5 resources are fully cited using APA style and are complete so that others can find them. All of the annotations are 2 paragraphs that clearly summarize the information in the resource. It is clear how the reader would use the resource to as a research base for developmentally appropriate practice & community resources. 75
Mechanics Writer makes 3-4 errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content. Writer makes 1-2 errors in grammar or spelling that distract the reader from the content. Writer makes no errors in grammar or spelling that distracts the reader from the content. 25
Total 150
References
10 Excellent Social Bookmarking Tools for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/02/10-excellent-social-bookmarking-tools.html.
1. Kharbach, M. (2014, February). 10 Excellent Social Bookmarking Tools for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/02/10-excellent-social-bookmarking-tools.html. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.08%3A_Professional_Resources_and_Organizations.txt |
Learning Objective
After completing the readings and activites, you should be able to design an infant or toddler program with schedule and physical environment design using relationship-based practice. NAEYC Standard 1c, 5a; MA Core Competency 5.A.2 @ Initial & 4.D.11 @ Initial )
Introduction
• Support responsive caregiving
• Foster independence and feelings of competence
• Encourage educator productivity and efficicency
• Promote children’s engagement with learning
• Decrease challenging behavior
• Facilitate appropriate social interactions among children
• Provide structure and predictability
Resources to Explore
Early Childhood Environments: Designing Effective Classrooms The module describes how to set up effective inclusive early childhood classroom environments for young children and provides details about the interrelated physical, social, and temporal components of those environments.
Creating a Child Care Environment for Success with specific suggestions for an effective physical environment.
Beginning Workshop (2004) from Child Care Information Exchange. The document includes 15 pages and the articles:
Infant and Toddler Spaces, the 24 page document has beautiful photographs to see the possibilities for infant and toddler spaces.
Scheduling
daily schedule and in your weekly activity plan include activities that promote language and communication development. This section will examine how to schedule and plan so you can use interactions to enhance each child’s development. Infant and toddler learning is dependent on relationships because the support and interactions of caregivers are critical to the growth and learning. Relationship-based practice is essential in infant and toddler education and care.
Video: Classroom Schedule Training for Infants, Toddlers and Twos
7.42 minute video produced by Early Childhood Connection published on Nov 26, 2014. This training focuses on the unique needs of this age group for daily scheduling. The pictorial schedule is featured as the recommend tool for creating a flexible schedule for young children.
Keys to Quality Infant Care. and Relationship-Based Infant Care. How will your schedule will minimize stress and create rituals and routines? How will you stimulate language and literacy in everyday routines?
Group Times for Older Infants and Toddlers, look for ways to Ways to Make Group Times More Flexible and Responsive to Children. What type of group time have you observed or held? Were the group times effective? Why or why not? How will you include the information in your daily schedule?
Toddler Schedule Example created by a student
7:30-8:30 Arrival/ Transition into school/Manipulatives/Cleanup
8:30-8:40 Circle Time-Hello Song, finger plays, puppets, simple yoga moves and exercises. Children learn how to interact in a group-builds relationships with peers and adults. Yoga and exercise helps children learn how their body moves within the environment. A simple transition such as a rhyme or finger play will be used to transition to free play.
8:40-9:40 Free Play- Sensory, Art, cooking, music, dramatic play, literacy and building Centers
9:40-10:00 Toileting/Diaper Changing
10:00-10:15 Snack: Tuition covers the cost of two healthy snacks per day, allows teachers to set up snack quickly. As the children eat the teachers encourage conversation about where they played today. Here are some of the snacks we might serve:
• Apple slices with string cheese or nut butter
• Crinkle-cut carrot “chips” with hummus
• Whole-wheat tortilla chips with bean dip
• Cucumbers or red peppers with low-fat dressing for dipping
• Yogurt smoothie made with low-fat yogurt, milk, ice and any fruit (toddler favorites include bananas, strawberries, blueberries and cantaloupe)
• Berries topped with a smidge of low-fat frozen yogurt
• Low-fat yogurt topped with granola and fresh fruit
• Mini-pizza (tomato sauce and cheese melted on crackers)
• Cottage cheese with cut-up peaches, nectarines, pineapple or bananas
• Graham crackers with applesauce for dipping
10:15-10:30 Dress for outside/Transition outside. Children encouraged to put on own jackets which builds independence and motor skills. The children will sing a song such as, “The Ants Go Marching One by one,” as they walk outside, this fosters a sense of teamwork.
10:30-11:30 Outside play-may include time on playground and/or a walk. Children build muscle strength running, climbing, sliding and digging in sandbox outside. If weather does not permit outside play teachers will set up gross motor activities inside. This may include an obstacle course, exercising to music, tossing beanbags and/or moving bodies on small scooters.
11:30-11:45 Transition inside/hang up jackets. Toileting/Diaper Changing. Handwashing-Encourages independence and self-help skills.
11:45-12:15 Lunch- Children bring lunch from home. Teachers will assist children in placing lunch on table. As they eat children will converse with other children and teachers. Children are encouraged to feed themselves and cleanup after eating.
12:15-12:30 Tooth brushing at tables/Cots and story time. As the children sit quietly on their cots a teacher will read a short story. Listening to books builds vocabulary, awareness of the sounds of letters, and print awareness.
12:30-2:30 Rest time-Teachers will play restful music and offer back rubs to children who request them. For children who wake early or don’t sleep a quiet activity such as puzzles, coloring, or books will be offered.
2:30-2:45 Toileting/Diaper Changing. Handwashing-Builds self- help skills and prevents the spread of germs
2:45-3:00 Afternoon Snack-Tuition covers two healthy snacks a day.
3:00-3:45 Free Play –Sensory, music, dramatic play and building. Children are free to choose from classroom centers.
3:45-4:30 Outside Play or indoor gross motor activities. Gross motor activities build muscle strength and may include yoga and dancing.
4:30-5:00 Books, puzzles and dismissal. Children learn self-regulation skills as they wait for their parents to pick up. As the children wait they will engage in conversation with teachers and peers, building both expressive and receptive language skills.
How will you create a sensitive and responsive schedule?
Overall Design Considerations
Mom Loves Best
standards listed below?
• equipment and furnishings for diaper changing and changing soiled underwear or other clothing that are located away from food preparation areas;
• hand-washing sinks within arm’s length of diaper changing tables;
• a chair with a back and a seating height that allows the child to sit with his or her feet on the floor or ground (for each child over the age of one year);
• tables at a height that allows a child to sit comfortably with the table between underarm and waist;
• at least one cot, crib, mat, sleeping bag, or pad for each child who spends more than four hours a day in the program (no child is allowed to sleep on the floor without using rest equipment);
9.A.04
A variety of age- and developmentally appropriate materials and equipment are available indoors and outdoors for children throughout the day. This environment includes
• dramatic play equipment;
• sensory materials such as sand, water, play dough, paint, and blocks;
• materials that support curriculum goals and objectives in literacy, math, science, social studies, and other content areas; and
• gross-motor equipment for activities such as pulling up; walking; climbing in, on, and over; moving through, around, and under; pushing; pulling; and riding.
9.A.05
The indoor environment is designed so staff can supervise children by sight and sound at all times without relying on artificial monitoring devices. In semiprivate areas, it is always possible for both children and adults to be observed by an adult from outside the area.
9.A.06
When climbers, climbing gyms, slides, and other play units are part of the indoor environment, the program provides safety surfacing that is rated and installed in the fall zone as recommended by the manufacturer for the fall height of the play equipment. Furnishings such as lofts are constructed to prevent falls (e.g., with appropriate barriers), or safety surfacing is installed in the fall zone.
9.A.07
Staff organize and group materials on low, open shelves to encourage children to use them independently. Staff rotate and adapt materials to promote learning and extend children’s play opportunities.
• at least one cot or mat with a blanket for an ill child;
• adaptations that allow children with disabilities and otherspecial needs to fully participate in the program’s activities
• A solid barrier or at least three-foot spacing that separates sleeping children from one another (This indicator is considered an Emerging Practice)
9.A.02
Individual space is provided for each child’s belongings.
9.A.03
Non-disposable materials are durable and in good repair. Equipment, materials, and furnishings are available that provide access for children with disabilities to the program’s curriculum and activities.
• Materials and equipment that facilitate focused individual play or play with peers are available in sufficient quantities to occupy each child in activities that meet his or her interests.
9.A.09
Program staff arrange the environment to be welcoming and accessible. A welcoming and accessible environment contains elements such as
• multicultural materials that promote appreciation for diversity while being respectful of the cultural traditions, values, and beliefs of families being served;
• clearly defined places where families can gather information regarding the daily schedule and upcoming events;
• clearly defined places where families sign in, sign out, and gather information about their child’s day;
• places for displaying children’s work; and
• features that moderate visual and auditory stimulation.
9.A.10
The indoor environment includes washable, soft elements that allow groups of children or adults and children to sit in close proximity for conversations or comforting.
To learn more watch
• Preparation for Life: Montessori Infant- Toddler Communities | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.09%3A_Creating_Environments-_Scheduling_and_Overall_Design_Considerations.txt |
Learning Objectives
After completing the reading and participating in the activities in this chapter you should be able to design an infant or toddler program with a) learning activities; b) schedule; and c) physical environment design using relationship-based practice to support social and emotional learning. NAEYC Standard 1c, 5a; MA Core Competency 5.A.2 @ Initial & 4.D.11 @ Initial )
Exercises
Infants & Toddlers and Their Emotions published on Feb 10, 2014 by Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia.
This video is an example of supporting infants and toddlers learning about their emotions. You will see the teacher use a book and physical movement strategies to help children recognize, label and manage emotions.
Self-regulation is an essential skill for success in life. Various components or skills of self-regulation correlate with academic achievement. The self regulations skills of paying attention, controlling impulsive behavior, and staying on task are most important. One particular aspect of self-regulation, inhibitory control, is used in planning, problem solving, and goal directed activity. The skills listed are essential for executive functioning. Inhibitory control is predictive of all academic outcomes but was particularly associated with early ability in math.
Executive Functioning
The executive functions are a set of processes that all have to do with managing oneself and one’s resources in order to achieve a goal. It is an umbrella term for the neurologically-based skills involving mental control and self-regulation.
Late, Lost, and Unprepared: A parent’s guide to helping children with executive functioning. Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House. Available at: LD OnLine website From: that supports the work of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD)
developmental trends in self-regulation. One is that “other” regulation develops BEFORE self-regulation. Other-regulation is being regulated by someone else. This is distinguished from self-regulation in which one regulates oneself.” (Bodrova and Leong 2007, 81) Other-regulation is the first step in self-regulation when the adult structures the task and then gradually lets the child take it over. We call this technique scaffolding.
Supporting self-regulation in a developmentally appropriate manner
1. Decide what to do, how to play, and with whom
2. Organize and set it up.
3. Play in a way that supports or fits with the theme or game.
4. Sustain the play in accord with the intent or end the play early due to it not coming together as intended
ow do you model problem solving? In what types of situations do the infants and toddlers see you exhibit self-control? Planning? Setting goals? How do you model dealing with frustration? What tips or techniques could you teach toddlers?
Teaching ideas
Massachusetts Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers in the area of social-emotional development for the infants and toddlers are:
• Relates to, trusts and becomes attached to consistent educators.
• Notices and interacts with children of a similar age.
• Acts as a social being by engaging with others and the world around them.
• Experiences and expresses a range of emotions.
• Begins and progresses in regulating own feelings and behavior
• Develops a positive sense of self.
American Academy of Pediatrics (2016) recommendations for infant and toddlers are:
• For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting. Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they’re seeing.
• Designate media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, as well as media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms.
• Have ongoing communication about online citizenship and safety, including treating others with respect online and offline.
• AAP provides a Family Media Use Plan tool on their website.
• Appropriate spaces for specific activities. For example: an area that allows for easy cleanup for art, sand or water play, a quiet area for manipulative play, reading and literacy experiences. Active play such as gross motor should not be near the quiet area.
• Open and usable space for toddlers to move freely about during play.
• Spaces both indoors and outdoors that provides for both active play such as climbing and quiet play. Use of the outside for activities (art, science, math); physical activities, walks, connecting toddlers to the neighborhood.
• Spaces including group play areas, as well as semi-private spaces where toddlers can safely play away from the large group.
• Pictures and items from the child’s home and family to maintain a connection to family and reinforce a sense of belonging.
• Organize recyclables, paper and toddler-safe art media (waterproof, non-toxic tempera, washable markers, chunky crayons, playdough) that children can safely take out, use and put back.
• Encourage toddlers’ growing gender identity by allowing them to take on a variety of roles during imaginative play. Avoid gender-specific toys such as baby dolls only for girls or trucks only for boys, or primary colored toys for boys, pastels for girls, etc. These differences begin to socialize children into stereotypical gender roles and preferences, which could limit their understanding of social diversity.
• Show diverse cultures in displays or pictures. Toddlers need to see themselves and their families reflected in the environment.
• Develop a partnership with families so that care routines and family child rearing practices across home, school and cultural environments reinforce each other.
How will you create an environment, schedule, and plan to teach these skills and behaviors?
References and Resources to explore
• Bodrova, E. and Leong, D, J. (2007). Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education. 2nd Ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education.
• Bronson, M. B. (2000). Self-Regulation in Early Childhood: Nature and Nurture. New York: The Guilford Press.
• Elliot, E., & Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2011). Babies’ Self-Regulation Taking a Broad Perspective. YC: Young Children, 66(1), 28-32. [Available on Blackboard or at the BSU library]
• Gallagher, K.C. & Mayer, K. (2008). Enhancing development and learning through teacher-child relationships. Young Children, 63(6), 80-87. [Available on Blackboard or at the BSU library]
Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2012). On the Way to Friendship: Growing Peer Relationships among Infants and Toddlers. Exchange, (205), 48-50. [Available on Blackboard or at the BSU library]
Lally, J.R. (2009). The Science and Psychology of Infant-Toddler Care. Zero to Three, 47-53 Available on Blackboard
Wittmer, D. S. (2008) Turning the lens to Infant and Toddler Peer Relationships. Zero to Three, 5-21 [Available on Blackboard or at the BSU library] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.10%3A_Creating_Environments_to_Enhance_Social_and_Emotional_Development.txt |
Introduction
How does physical activity and movement promote learning in other developmental domains: Social, Emotional, Cognitive, Language, and Approaches to Learning?
Sensory Activities
What new ideas would you like to try?
www.geneseeisd.org/DocumentCenter/View/4144
Movement
Watch for examples in a Toddler room
Motion Moments video Published on June 14, 2012 by NRCKids. The health problems associated with obesity not only impact adults but children as well. As an educator you can and may be uniquely qualified to help children develop healthy eating, age-appropriate physical activity and limited screen time viewing habits to help them avoid childhood obesity. The Motion Moments videos will show you simple ways to weave physical activity into your an early care and education program.
Babies on the Move, Young Children, 48-50; you will explore how movement promotes brain development and specific activities to provide for infants.
Sensori-Motor Development
• Babbling is connected to language development
• Grasping objects, dumping and picking up is connected to cognitive development
• Smiling and eye contact is connected to social development
• Turning of the head toward familiar adult voices is connected to emotional development
• Comprehensive health care (immunizations, well-baby checkups and screenings)
• Safe and healthy environments (pesticide-free, safe homes and neighborhoods,lead-free spaces, safe and adequate water and air quality)
• Healthy nutrition and food choices
• Healthy movement (to prevent childhood obesity)
What community resources address these needs? How will you inform families of the community resources available?
Teaching Tips
infants are to:
• Develop ability to move the large muscles (gross motor).
• Develop ability to control and refine small muscles (fine motor).
• Develop sensorimotor skills where children use their senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch – to guide and integrate their interactions.
• Develop skills that will develop into healthy practices for life.
• Gain control over their movements as they reach out, grasp and release objects.
toddlers are to:
• Develop ability to move the large muscles (gross motor).
• Develop ability to control and refine small muscles (fine motor).
• Develop sensorimotor skills
• Develop skills that will develop into healthy practices for life.
• Pretend play tools (digging tools, small brooms)
• Child-sized musical instruments
• Pedal and non-pedaled riding and push toys
• Large, soft balls and toys
• Large blocks
• Objects to safely climb up, jump down, and crawl through
• Have two or more of each item because toddlers take what they want!
• Crawl over large cushions.
• Crawl through tunnels made of sheets or large cardboard boxes.
• Step into and out of a hula hoop laid flat on the ground.
• Walk over squares of different surfaces such as grass, carpet squares, sand, and pea gravel.
Using Toys to Support Infant-Toddler Learning and Development. Young Children, 50-56.
How will your schedule, floor plan, and weekly plan enhance physical health and wellbeing? How did you consider oral health? Remember that in 2010, Massachusetts childcare regulation began to require teeth brushing as was discussed in Chapter 5.
Read and Participate
Connections Extensions Curiosities
Relate ideas from the reading to learning in other courses or life experience. How did ideas from the activity extend your thinking? What might you try in your classroom or future classroom? What are you curious about? What do you want to explore further? Why? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.11%3A_Creating_Environments_to_Enhance_Physical_Health_and_Well-Being.txt |
Introduction
Massachusetts Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers (2010) define communication and literacy or the use of language as:
Communication is the exchange of information between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, and gestures of behavior. A child’s ability to communicate is dependent upon an awareness of appropriate social practices in language usage, (pragmatics) the ability to listen, to make meaning of and to follow verbal conversation (receptive language).
Language for Learning Video
Language for Learning: Infants and Toddlers published on Feb 4, 2011. The purpose of this video is to illustrate the role of the teacher in using language to support children’s development. The interactions you will see include positive language, expansion, questioning, and redirection. Teachers use these techniques to expand children’s knowledge, encourage complex thinking and problem solving skills, and help children develop appropriate behavior and positive social skills.
Self talk is when the caregiver narrates or describes what is going on in the child’s world by putting word labels on things. For example, if a child looks toward the door as a parent enters the room, you might say, “That’s Jenny’s mother. She is here to pick up Jenny.” Self-talk is respectful because it involves telling children what will happen to them before it happens and waiting for the child to indicate that they are ready. You might say, “It’s time for a diaper change,” to describe what will happen to the child. Then wait for the child to pause their activity and indicate readiness before continuing. You then describe each step of the diaper change as it occurs, “Off come your pants. Here’s the clean diaper. All done!”
Parallel talk focuses on the child’s action and usually begins with “you.” For example, “You’re turning over from your back to your front.” “You’re putting the blocks in the bucket,” “You’ve got the toy,” or “You pulled off your shoe.” Focusing on the action helps the child put word labels on behavior.
expansions and extensions. These techniques take what the child says and expand on it (expansion) or add to what the child says (extension) For example, when a child says “muk,” the teacher might say, “You want more milk,” to expand what the child says into a complete sentence. For an extension you will add a little more to the sentence a child uses. For example, the child says, “Go bye bye.” You respond with “It’s time to get your things and go bye bye.”
add information to the child’s language skills and foster future language development.
More than Baby Talk 10 ways to Promote the Language and Communication Skills of Infants and Toddlers. Which of the 10 skills are you comfortable providing? Which skills would you like to develop and why? Which ideas will you add to your weekly activity plan?
Sharing Spoken Language: Sounds, Conversations, and Told Stories. you will learn more about phonological awareness and pre-reading activities. Which ideas will you add to your weekly activity plan?
One language, two languages, three languages . . . more?” Why is it important for children to maintain their home language(s) and learn English? How will you include dual language learners as you develop your weekly activity plan?
Massachusetts Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers (2010) include indicators that describe expected observable behaviors or skills of infants and toddlers in the developmental domain of language and communication.
• Demonstrates the meaning of language by listening.
• Develops expressive language.
• Engages in social communication.
• Demonstrates phonological awareness.
• Develops grammar and syntax or watching if hearing impaired.
• Engages in pre-reading activities.
• Demonstrates interest and engagement in print literacy materials.
• Develops emergent writing skills.
• Develops in multiple language acquisitions when considered a dual language learner.
Evaluate the Environment
As a way to summarize the chapters about learning environments, watch the 50 minute video produced by the Early Childhood Knowledge and Learning Center. The video Infant/Toddler Teacher Time Episode 2: Creating a Responsive Environment for Young Children is available at: https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/playlist/infanttoddler-teacher-time-coffee-break-episode-2-creating-responsive-environment-young
1. Effective teaching practices that are nurturing and responsive. How do the interactions and environments support effective teaching?
2. The developmentally appropriate learning experiences in language, literacy, social and emotional development, math, science, social studies, creative arts, and physical development. What activities or materials promotes learning experiences?
3. How did the classroom support dual language learners?
4. How was the environment designed for individualized and small group activities?
5. How were children with disabilities included so that they could fully participate in all program activities?
Teaching Tips
Phonological Awareness
Select a book that makes obvious use of sound play. Read it before reading it to children to ensure smooth reading and to prepare you to comment on, highlight, explain, and extend the book’s language play. Here are some suggested books[1]
• ltoona Baboona, by J. Bynum. 1999. San Diego: Harcourt.
• Altoona Up North, by J. Bynum. 2001. San Diego: Harcourt.
• Bearsie Bear and the Surprise Sleep- over Party, by B. Waber. 1997. New York: Houghton Mif in.
• Chugga Chugga Choo Choo, by K. Lewis. 1999. New York: Hyperion.
• Cock-a-doodle-Moo! by B. Most. 1996. San Diego, CA: Harcourt.
• The Happy Hippopotami. by B. Martin Jr. 1970. San Diego: Voyager.
• Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry, by J. Yolen. 2007. Cam- bridge, MA: Candlewick.
• The Hungry Thing, by J.A. Slepian & A. Seidler. 1967. New York: Scholastic. Jamberry, by B. Degen. 2000. 25th ann. ed. New York: HarperCollins.
• Llama llama mad at Mama, by A. Dewdney. 2007. New York: Viking.
• Llama Llama Red Pajama, by A. Dewdney. 2005. New York: Viking.
• The Piggy in the Puddle, by C. Pomerantz. 1974. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Runny Babbit, by S. Silverstein. 2005. New York: HarperCollins.
• Tanka Tanka Skunk, by S. Webb. 2004. New York: Orchard.
• There’s a Wocket in My Pocket, by Dr. Seuss. 1974. New York: Random House
• What Will You Wear, Jenny Jenkins? by J. Garcia & D. Grisman. 2000. New York: HarperCollins.
sing songs such as “Willoughby Wallaby Woo”, “Down by the Bay,” and Raffi’s “Oo-pples and Boo-noo-noos,”. By clapping syllables in children’s names. For instance, clap three times as you slowly chant “Erica.” Clap two times as you say “Kareem.” Clap one time as you say “Dan” you are teaching the concept of phonological awareness. And finally, play a game during a transition such as guess which object. You would hold up two objects that begin with different sounds, such as a leaf and a marker. Identify each object with the children to ensure that you all are using the same label. Guess which object begins with the /l/ sound.
Pre-Reading
Infants love to listen to the human voice. Start out by singing lullabies and folk. At about six months, choose books with brightly colored, simple pictures and lots of rhythm in the text. As you read, point out objects in the pictures. Allow the infant to touch and hold cloth and sturdy cardboard books. Allowing babies to handle books deepens their attachment even more.
Talking enables children to expand their vocabulary and understanding of the world. The ability to carry on a conversation is important for reading development. To encourage expressive language skills, ask questions that require more than a “yes” or “no” answer. “Which leaves are the same?” “Which leaves are different?” “What else grows on trees? “Ask “what if” questions. “What would happen if we didn’t shovel the snow?” “What if that butterfly lands on your nose?” Answer “why” questions. When you say, “I don’t know, let’s look it up,” you show how important books are as resources for answering questions. After a toddler tells you a story, ask questions so you can understand better. Expose toddlers to varied experiences such as field trips or walks in the park. Surround these events with lots of comments, questions, and answers.
Talking about what you read is another way to help toddlers develop language and thinking skills. You don’t need to plan the talk, discuss every story, or expect an answer. Read slowly and pause occasionally and say: “I wonder what’s going to happen next!” Or ask a question: “Do you know what a palace is?” Or point out: “Look where the little mouse is now.”Here are a few ideas:
rhyming basket with several small objects that rhyme such as: pan/fan, jug/mug, cat/hat, fish/dish, and clock/block.
Writing
String large beads Make sure you use large size beads that they can fit their hand around. Begin to encourage them to use their pincher grip (thumb, index and middle finger) to pick up items.
Snip paper with scissorsChoose a theme, like winter and help them make a picture collage. If paper is too hard to cut, try cutting playdough.
Roll clay/play dough into “snake”Begin making basic shapes with the play dough; lines, circle, cross, square shapes.
Draw and copy a horizontal line –Use the terms “Straight line down.” and “Across” (make sure they start left to right).
Q-tip painting —Practice the pincer grip by painting with a q-tip.
Lacing—Use lacing cards or create your own from foam sheets or card stock.
Beads & Pipe Cleaners—Use the pincer grip to slide beads onto pipe cleaners.
Write in shaving cream —Pour shaving cream onto a tray. Encourage the child to write with their finger to make letters or designs. After using fingers to write, try using a writing utensil. Encourage using the tripod grip on the utensil.
Tweezers—Use tweezers or tongs to transfer objects.
Clothespins— Opening a clothespin takes a lot of strength.
Scrunching PaperUse newspaper, tissue paper, wrapping paper, or regular paper to scrunch paper into balls to toss.
Droppers—Have the children practice using a water dropper by transfer the water from one cup to the other. The squeezing motion will help build strength in the child’s hand.
Oral Storytelling
Example:
Sharon’s Fish Tank
• What Massachusetts Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers did Sharon consider as she planned the activity?
Try it!
How do you feel about oral storytelling with infants and toddlers?
Your Classroom Library
Classroom Library Photo from Pixabay
• How might you make changes to enhance the book area?
• What books would you like to add to the book area?
• Where can you find the books you want to add, and how can you get them?
• How will you incorporate reading and storytelling into your daily routine?
Read and Participate
Connections Extensions Curiosities
Relate ideas from the reading to learning in other courses or life experience. How did ideas from the activity extend your thinking? What might you try in your classroom or future classroom? What are you curious about? What do you want to explore further? Why?
1. From: Yopp, H.K & Yopp, R. H. (2009, January). Phonological Awareness Is Child’s Play! Beyond the Journal. Young Children on the Web. Available at www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200901/BTJPhonologicalAwareness.pdf | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.12%3A_Creating_Environments_to_Enhance_Language_and_Communication.txt |
Introduction
What is Cognitive Development? The Massachusetts Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers (2010)[1] define cognitive development as
“… the process of learning to think and reason. Young children are learning not only knowledge, skills, and concepts, but also acquiring “learning to learn” skills” (p. 46).
Early Learning Guidelines are for Infants and Toddlers as, the infant or toddler will:
• Refine reflexes into purposeful actions (Infants)
• Develop memory skills.
• Demonstrate an awareness that predictable things happen as a result of actions..
• Develop problem solving skills.
• Explore materials and discover mathematical concepts.
• Develop early scientific skills through exploration and discovery.
• Discover creative expression through music, drama, dance and art experiences.
• Become aware of family and others in the community the foundations for social science.
Brain Building in Progress is a Massachusetts statewide campaign to raise public awareness and involvement in young children’s healthy development and early learning. See: http://brainbuildinginprogress.org/other-resources
How will you foster cognitive development?
How will you individualize the support you provide to promote cognitive development? For example, a 6-week-old child’s cognitive development is dependent on sensory-motor input and a 15-month-old’s learning is linked to the child’s level of trust and through relationships. How would you facilitate ball play with a 6 month old? With a 15-month old? For infants and toddlers, all developmental domains—— physical, cognitive, language, social and emotional—- are connected. Watch the video below for examples.
Video: Toddler Approaches to Learning
7 minute video published on May 15, 2014 by All About Young Children to see examples of how children are learning to pay attention to people and things for ages 8 months to 18 months. Did you observe the toddlers using making choices and decisions; solving problems; interacting with others; pursuing their interest; building language and literacy skills; discovering mathematical concepts; and experiencing themselves as capable, competent, successful learners? How were the teachers intentional?
• What can it do?
• How does it move?
• How does it feel?
• What does it look like?
Photo from available from Pixabay: pixabay.com/en/the-ball-stad...-pitch-488717/
Creativity, shared meaning, and relationships. Look for the answers to these questions:
1. How can we assist infants and toddlers in their search for the meaning of things and the meaning of life?
2. How can we respond to their constant questions, their ‘whys’ and ‘hows,’ with eyes that don’t see them as helpless or unknowing, but rather with eyes that acknowledge the quest to learn and to know?
School Readiness for Infants and Toddlers? Really? Yes, Really!”. explains the foundations of learning or habits of mind which include:
• Curiosity
• Attention
• Memory
• Problem Solving
• Persistence
• Information Gathering
• What is the most intelligent thing I can do right now?
• How can I learn from ______________?
• How can I draw on my past successes with problems like ______________?
• What resources do I have available or need to generate?
• How might I look at the situation in another way?
• What do I know or not know?
• What questions should I ask?
• What strategies are in my thoughts?
• What feelings or emotions might be blocking or enhancing my progress?
• What can I learn from others that would help me become a better problem solver?
Which habits of mind are easy for you? Which do you struggle with? How will you encourage children to develop effective habits of mind?
Teaching Tips
weekly activity plan and floor plan parts of the classroom design project.
Math
Beyond Twinkle, Twinkle: Using Music with Infants and Toddlers, think about the ways you might use music to support cognitive development.
Infants and Toddlers Exploring Mathematics, focus on how intentionally using learnable moments to foster mathematical thinking. What language and questions might you use?
ECLKC and in this chapter I included information about 2 specific articles. The first ECLKC article is Supporting Early Math Learning for Infants and Toddlers. Much of mathematical learning during infancy and toddlerhood involves vocabulary and language skills. Can you think of examples from observations of infants and toddlers where the educator or caregiver effectively used math concepts or math talk? I challenge you to make a list of math talk words and phrases.
Science
News You Can Use: Early Science Learning For Infants And Toddlers. After reading the article, think about promoting the skills of inquiry with infants and toddlers? How did you answer the questions at the end of the article, in particular:
• Reflect on your experiences with science learning. Were they positive or negative? Can you say why?
• How might your personal feelings about science affect how you support early science learning for infants and toddlers?
• How might early science learning look the same or differently for young infants, older infants, and toddlers?
• How do you or will you support early science learning for infants and toddlers?
The Arts
Children’s Developmental Benchmarks and Stages: A Summary Guide to Appropriate Art Activities. is a helpful chart to help you plan music, movement, theater or dramatic play, and visual arts to your weekly plan. Can you think of activities and materials that will support learning about movement and dance, music, theater (dramatic play), AND the visual arts?
Let’s Get Messy: Exploring Sensory and Art Activities with Infants and Toddlers available on Blackboard and at the BSU library. What arts and sensory ideas might you try? The articles are available on Blackboard and at the BSU library.
Social Studies
Social Studies in Today’s Early Childhood Curricula which offers an overview of social studies for children from infancy through school-age so you will know how the skills you foster with infants and toddlers will be helpful to later learning. When reading, focus on answering:
• How will you build on what children already know and capitalize on their interests?
• How will you develop concepts and processes of social studies?How will you provide hands-on activities?
• What will you add to your weekly planner?
Social Studies: From a Sense of Self to a Sense of the World. First read, It Takes Two. In the article, Gillespie discusses the importance of self-regulation to learning to be an effective group member. Next read, Museum Babies: Linking Families, Culture, and Community where you can learn about using community resources and specific activities to include in your weekly plan. The last article to read is Using Children’s Books as a Social Studies Curriculum Strategy. What books might you add to your classroom library to promote learning social studies concepts? The articles are available on Blackboard and at the BSU library.
[2]
References and Resources
Early Science Learning for Infants and Toddlers. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start.
News You Can Use. Supporting Early Math Learning for Infants and Toddlers (October, 2012) Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start.
Young Children, 39-42. Available on Blackboard
YC: Young Children, 70(3), 94-96.
YC: Young Children, 70(3), 40-47.
YC: Young Children, 67(4), 26-34.
YC: Young Children, 70(3), 48-53.
Beyond the Journal, NAEYC.
Beyond the Journal: Young Children
Young Children, 65(2), 14-19.
Young Children, 10-13
Concepts for Care (pp. 21-23). San Francisco, CA: WestEd.
1. Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care. (2010, November). Massachusetts early learning guidelines for infants and toddlers. Boston, MA: Author
2. Lally, J. R. (2000). Infants have their own curriculum: A responsive approach to curriculum planning for infants and toddlers. Head Start Bulletin, 67, 6–7. Retrieved January 4, 2008, from http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/ ecdh/eecd/Curriculum/Definition%20and %20Requirements/edudev_art_00101_072305.html
1.14: Summary and Reflection
1. How do relationships influence infant and toddler development and learning? Why are interactions essential?
2. What is the “curriculum” for infants and toddlers? How do the Massachusetts early learning guidelines for infants and toddlers support developmentally appropriate curricula for infants and toddlers?
3. How should families be engaged as collaborative partners”? Why is it essential to engage families in developing and implementing individualized curriculum for infants and toddlers? How is this achieved?
4. How does the educarer’s cultural competence impact children’s development and learning? How do language and culture influence development and learning?
Brain research and early childhood development – A primer for developmentally appropriate practice. Gallagher (2005) explains many facts about brain development . As you read, reflect on this course. Also prepare for teaching infants and toddlers using developmentally appropriate strategies that will:
• Support neural development
• Reduce stress
• Regulate emotions
• Build Relationships
What is one new fact you learned? How does the article support ethical conduct?
Emergent curriculum for infants and toddlers highlights 6 stories of responsive emergent curriculum in infant and toddler classrooms. Friedman and Soltero (2006) highlight the unique nature and differences between planning and implementation of curriculum than what you may be familiar with in the preschool classroom. As you read think about how the infant or toddler teacher adjusts the curriculum to follow a child’s particular interest or need.
How do program policies and procedures support appropriate staff-child ratios and group sizes so that responsive caregiving happens?
How might you engage families in the process of curriculum development and implementation?
How will you establish bi-directional communication with families, and regardless of the family’s home language?
How will you ensure that diverse populations see themselves and their cultures reflected in your curriculum and learning environment? | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/01%3A_Chapters/1.13%3A_Creating_Environments_to_Enhance_Cognitive_Development.txt |
Answers to Comprehension Check from Chapter 1
• Which characteristic is associated with an infant whose temperament is classified as a slow-to-warm-up infant?
• Behavioral irritability
• Decreased sensory threshold
• Delayed adaptation to change
• Prolonged sleeping patterns
• What is the ultimate reason for understanding the significance of infant states?
• Care can be individualized
• States can be predicted
• Stimuli can be adjusted
• Temperament can be modulated
• Which state of consciousness is identified when assessment determines that the infant’s eyes are open, with a dull, glazed appearance?
• Active alert
• Active sleep
• Drowsy
• Crying
• Which state of consciousness is identified when assessment determines that the infant makes brief crying sounds, has some rapid eye movements, and exhibits irregular respirations?
• Active sleep
• Active alert
• Drowsy
• Crying
• Which assessment would indicate that an infant is in the drowsy state?
• Body activity is nearly still.
• Breathing is smooth and regular.
• Eyes are open, with a dull, glazed appearance.
• Level of alertness increases with stimuli.
• Most caregivers associate cuddliness behaviors with:
• Affection
• Alertness
• Fatigue
• Resignation
• What newborn reflex can facilitate dressing?
• Babkin
• Grasp
• Placing
• Stepping
• Predictability is defined as:
• Ability of caregivers to console their infants when they are in the crying state
• Capacity of infants to adapt to their surroundings in a healthy, expected way
• Clarity of behavioral clues through which infants make known their needs at a given time
• Extent to which caregivers can reliably anticipate their infants’ behaviors from immediately preceding behaviors
• The intervention by a caregiver would be least supportive to console a fussing infant would be:
• Holding the infant’s arms close to the body
• Picking up the infant
• Talking softly to the infant
• Unwrapping the infant
• Which is NOT a reason for understanding developmental milestones is to:
• Support individualized and intentional curriculum planning
• Know when referrals should be made to Early Intervention or to other professionals
• Diagnose autism spectrum disorder
• Ensure developmentally appropriate practices in your childcare care setting
• According to the AAP the safest place for a baby to sleep is in:
• A bouncy seat
• A safety approved crib
• An infant car seat
• A play pen
• To prevent SIDS always place the infant up to 12 months in the crib:
• next to a baby monitor
• on her stomach near a door
• on her back
• swaddled in a blanket
• It is extremely important to make sure the infant’s crib is free of any suffocation risk. It is safe to use which item in an infant crib:
• bumper pads
• sleep positioning devices
• blankets hung on the sides of the crib
• a tight fitting sheet on a firm mattress
• Goodness of fit is important because
• It is a component in the emotional adjustment of an individual
• A factor for culturally appropriate care
• Helps to understand individual differences
• All of the above | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/02%3A_Appendix/2.01%3A_Appendix_A-_Answers_for_Infant_Development_Comprehension_Check.txt |
Weekly Plan Template
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Learning Centers List the name of the learning experiences you would offer and the indicators addressed from the MA Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers
Blocks
Dramatic Play
Discovery
Visual Art
Movement
Literacy
Learning Centers Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Music
Toys
Sensory
Outdoor Experiences
Special Activities
Family Involvement
SAMPLE (Target)
Student Name Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Learning Centers List the name of the learning experiences you would offer and the indicators addressed from the Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers
Blocks Have small textured blocks for infant to grasp and begin stacking Provide infants with blocks to explore Mirrored blocks that allow the infant to look at themselves. Build towers and allow the infant to knock them over to see cause and effect Build “homes” for the little people
Dramatic Play Provide child sized housekeeping materials such as cups,chairs and dress up clothes Provide child sized everyday items and allow exploration Use different pitches of voice to indicate different characters you are playing Provide child sized different uniforms of professionals that the infant might see in the world. Provide safe objects from the adult world (pots, pans and wooden spoons)
Discovery Provide similar toys and experience several times a day such as pop up toys and peek-a-boo Provide cause and effect toys (buttons to push and turn) Hide toys in boxes with different kinds of lids and encourage exploration Provide infant with familiar and unfamiliar toys and allow to explore in anyway (mouth) Mirror Area, various mirrors attached to the back of shelves/changing tables.
Visual Art Get Messy! Allow the infant to fully explore art matrials (paint, play dough and markers) Provide paintbrushes, markers and crayons in different sizes Provide bright and eye catching pictures and objects at eye level (family pictures or pictures of the infants at home) Also provide black and white pictures and objects at eye level (pictures in black and white of objects the infant see often) Lay out big pieces of paper with paint on it an allow the infant to crawl and play in paint.
Movement Move and Dance with the infant Tummy time when appropriate Place toys just out of infant reach to them when on belly to encourage stretching Avoid prolonged periods or time in bouncy seat. Allow more floor time Place toys just out of reach to encourage movement
Literacy Using Sign Language in Everyday Classroom Activties Naming Sounds the infant hears (phone ringing, friend crying) Respond to infants sounds and actions consistenly Read books with rhymes, songs and repetitive language (About Me, Baby Bath Time, Wheels on the Bus) Provide board books for the infants to explore independently. (Books that have different parts to touch)
Learning Centers Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Music Play repetitive games and songs (Pat-A-Cake and Itsy Bitsy Spider) Provide instruments and allow infants to explore ( shakers, drums, cymbals) Move and Dance with the infant Provide a variety of music from toys and cds (Classic Children’s Songs, Exploring Me) Read and sing familiar songs while adding new books and words (Head Shoulders Knees and Toes)
Toys Cover favorite toys and have the infant look for them Provide floor space and toys the infants can grasp and explore Provide opportunities with toys that promote use of pincher grasp Store favorite toys in consistent place and where infants can make a choice Provide scooping and pouring toys when appropriate (water/sand)
Sensory Play tracking games, and provide musical toys Provide a variety of materials for the infant to explore (sensory box) Place the infant of a soft blanket with different textures Provide children with calming and stimulating experiences (Cuddling, Light Up toys) Offer different textured foods (Lumpy, smooth, crunchy, when appropriate)
Outdoor Experiences Provide outdoor sensory experiences (smells, sights, touch) Expose infant to a variety of sounds. Take infant on walks and comment on wind and smells. Put infant on a blanket outside and allow unrestricted free movement Provide toys and can be pushed and pulled by the infant
Special Activities Provide choices whenever possible for the infant and let them make the decision Have different family members come in and help out in the classroom. Porta-Crib Ball Pit. Allow infants to explore and discover what happens when they move their body Have tummy time with the infants. Allow them to feel comforted while having tummy time. Build an obstacle course of pillows for the infants to crawl around and over.
Family Involvement Communicate to the family “words” that the infant consistently uses to describe items Ask families to share any interest their child might have. Keep parents informed about schedule and ask what the routine is like at home for eating and sleeping Include family in establishing a daily schedule for their infant Ask families to help out in the classroom
2.03: Appendix C- Daily Schedule
Toddler Room Schedule for Nine toddlers
Time Activity
7:30-8:30 Arrival and transition into school
8:30-8:40 Circle Time: Hello Song, finger plays, puppets, simple yoga moves and exercises. Children learn how to interact in a group-builds relationships with peers and adults. Yoga and exercise helps children learn how their body moves within the environment. A simple transition such as a rhyme or finger play will be used to transition to free play.
8:40-9:40 Free Play- Sensory, Art, cooking, music, dramatic play, literacy and building centers
9:40-10:00 Toileting/Diaper Changing. Handwashing builds self-help and fine motor skills.
10:00-10:15 Snack-the program provides 2 healthy snacks per day that allow educators to set up snack quickly. As the children eat the teachers encourage conversation. Snack could be:
10:15-10:30 Dress for outside/Transition outside. Children are encouraged to put on jackets which builds independence and motor skills. The children sing a song such as, “The Ants Go Marching One by one,” as they walk outside, this fosters a sense of teamwork.
10:30-11:30 Outside play-may include time on playground and/or a walk. Children build muscle strength running, climbing, sliding and digging in sandbox outside. If weather does not permit outside play teachers will set up gross motor activities inside. This may include an obstacle course, exercising to music, tossing beanbags and/or moving bodies on small scooters.
11:30-11:45 Transition inside/hang up jackets. Toileting/Diaper Changing. Handwashing encourages independence and self-help skills.
11:45-12:15 Lunch- Children bring lunch from home. Educators assist children in placing lunch on table. Educators encourage children to converse with other children and adults. Children feed themselves and cleanup after eating.
12:15-12:30 Tooth brushing at tables/Cots and story time. Tooth brushing is an EEC regulation required when children are in care for more than 4 hours and are served a meal. As the children brush one teacher will put out cots. As the children sit quietly on their cots a teacher will read a short story. Listening to books builds vocabulary, awareness of the sounds of letters, and print awareness.
12:30-2:30 Rest time: Educators play restful music and offer back rubs to children who request them. For children who wake early or don’t sleep a quiet activity such as puzzles, coloring, or books are offered.
2:30-2:45 Toileting/Diaper Changing. Handwashing-Builds self- help skills and is a form of infection prevention.
2:45-3:00 Afternoon Snack
3:00-3:45 Free Play –Sensory, music, dramatic play and building. Children choose from classroom centers.
3:45-4:30 Outside Play or indoor gross motor activities. Gross motor activities build muscle strength and may include yoga and dancing.
4:30-5:00 Books, puzzles and dismissal. Children learn self-regulation skills as they wait for their families to arrive. As the children wait they will engage in conversation with adults and peers, building expressive and receptive language skills. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Infant_and_Toddler_Education_and_Care_(Eliason)/02%3A_Appendix/2.02%3A_Appendix_B-_Weekly_Activity_Plan.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Table Contents
These key pedagogical practices apply to all subjects and levels and offer teachers further practical guidance in instruction and student learning. They include ways of organizing students, learning activities, teacher– student, and student–student interactions. Some of these practices will be examined in further depth later in the book. Think about how these practices can help to engage struggling learners.
1. Planning lessons
2. Involving all
3. Talk for learning
4. Using pair work
5. Using questioning to promote thinking
6. Monitoring and giving feedback
7. Using group work
8. Assessing progress and performance
9. Using local resources
10. Storytelling, songs, role play and drama
01: Key Practices in Instruction and Student Learning
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Planning lessons
Why planning and preparing are important
Good lessons must be planned. Planning helps to make your lessons clear and well-timed, meaning that students can be active and interested. Effective planning also includes some built-in flexibility so that teachers can respond to what they find out about their students’ learning as they teach. Working on a plan for a series of lessons involves knowing the students and their prior learning, what it means to progress through the curriculum, and finding the best resources and activities to help students learn.
Planning is a continual process to help you prepare both individual lessons as well as a unit of lessons, each one building on the last. The stages of lesson planning are:
• being clear about what your students need in order to make progress
• deciding how you are going to teach in a way that students will understand and how to maintain flexibility to respond to what you find
• looking back on how well the lesson went and what your students have learned in order to plan for the future
Planning a unit of lessons
When you are following a curriculum, the first part of planning is working out how best to break up subjects and topics in the curriculum into sections or chunks. You need to consider the time available as well as ways for students to make progress and build up skills and knowledge gradually. Your experience or discussions with colleagues may tell you that one topic will take up four lessons, but another topic will only take two. You may be aware that you will want to return to that learning in different ways and at different times in future lessons when other topics are covered or the subject is extended.
In all lesson plans you will need to be clear about:
• what you want the students to learn
• how you will introduce that learning
• what students will have to do and why
You will want to make learning active and interesting so that students feel comfortable and curious. Consider what the students will be asked to do across the series of lessons so that you build in variety and interest, but also flexibility. Plan how you can check your students’ understanding as they progress through the series of lessons. Be prepared to be flexible if some areas take longer or are grasped more quickly.
Preparing individual lessons
After you have planned the series of lessons, each individual lesson will have to be planned based on the progress that students have made up to that point. You know what the students should have learned or should be able to do at the end of the series of lessons, but you may have needed to recap something unexpected or move on more quickly. Therefore, each individual lesson must be planned so that all your students make progress and feel successful and included.
Within the lesson plan you should make sure that there is enough time for each of the activities and that any resources are ready, such as those for practical work or active group work. As part of planning materials for large classes you may need to plan different questions and activities for different groups.
When you are teaching new topics, you may need to make time to practice and talk through the ideas with other teachers so that you are confident.
Think about preparing your lessons in three parts. These parts are discussed below.
1. The introduction
At the start of a lesson, explain to the students what they will learn and do, so that everyone knows what is expected of them. Get the students interested in what they are about to learn by allowing them to share what they know already.
2. The main part of the lesson
Outline the content based on what students already know. You may decide to use local resources, new information or active methods, including group work or problem solving. Identify the resources to use and the way that you will make use of your classroom space. Using a variety of activities, resources, and timings is an important part of lesson planning. If you use various methods and activities, you will reach more students, because they will learn in different ways.
3. The end of the lesson to check on learning
Always allow time (either during or at the end of the lesson) to find out how much progress has been made. Checking does not always mean a test. Usually it will be quick and on the spot – such as planned questions or observing students presenting what they have learned – but you must plan to be flexible and to make changes according to what you find out from the students’ responses.
A good way to end the lesson can be to return to the goals at the start and allowing time for the students to tell each other and you about their progress with that learning. Listening to the students will make sure you know what to plan for the next lesson.
Reviewing lessons
Look back over each lesson and keep a record of what you did, what your students learned, what resources were used and how well it went so that you can make improvements or adjustments to your plans for subsequent lessons. For example, you may decide to:
• change or vary the activities
• prepare a range of open and closed questions
• have a follow-up session with students who need extra support
Think about what you could have planned or done even better to help students learn.
Your lesson plans will inevitably change as you go through each lesson, because you cannot predict everything that will happen. Good planning will mean that you know what learning you want to happen and therefore you will be ready to respond flexibly to what you find out about your students’ actual learning. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.01%3A_Planning_Lessons.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Involving all
What does it mean to ‘involve all’?
The diversity in culture and in society is reflected in the classroom. Students have different languages, interests and abilities. Students come from different social and economic backgrounds. We cannot ignore these differences; indeed, we should celebrate them, as they can become a vehicle for learning more about each other and the world beyond our own experience. All students have the right to an education and the opportunity to learn.
We all have prejudices and views about others that we may not have recognized or addressed. As a teacher, you carry the power to influence every student’s experience of education in a positive or negative way.
Whether knowingly or not, your underlying prejudices and views will affect how equally your students learn. You can take steps to guard against unequal treatment of your students.
Three key principles to ensure you involve all in learning
• Noticing: Effective teachers are observant, perceptive and sensitive; they notice changes in their students. If you are observant, you will notice when a student does something well, when they need help and how they relate to others. You may also perceive changes in your students, which might reflect changes in their home circumstances or other issues. Involving all requires that you notice your students on a daily basis, paying particular attention to students who may feel marginalized or unable to participate.
• Focus on self-esteem: Good citizens are the ones who are comfortable with who they are. They have self-esteem, know their own strengths and weaknesses, and have the ability to form positive relationships with other people, regardless of background. They respect themselves and they respect others. As a teacher, you can have a significant impact on a young person’s self-esteem; be aware of that power and use it to build the self-esteem of every student.
• Flexibility: If something is not working in your classroom for specific students, groups or individuals, be prepared to change your plans or stop an activity. Being flexible will enable you to make adjustments so that you involve all students more effectively.
Approaches you can use all the time
• Modeling good behavior:Be an example to your students by treating them all well, regardless of ethnic group, religion or gender. Treat all students with respect and make it clear through your teaching that you value all students equally. Talk to them all respectfully, take account of their opinions when appropriate and encourage them to take responsibility for the classroom by taking on tasks that will benefit everyone.
• High expectations:Ability is not fixed; all students can learn and progress if supported appropriately. If a student finds it difficult to understand the work you are doing in class, then do not assume that they cannot ever understand. Your role as the teacher is to work out how best to help each student learn. If you have high expectations of everyone in your class, your students are more likely to assume that they will learn if they persevere. High expectations should also apply to behavior. Make sure the expectations are clear and that students treat each other with respect.
• Build variety into your teaching: Students learn in different ways. Some students like to write; others prefer to draw mind maps or pictures to represent their ideas. Some students are good listeners; some learn best when they get the opportunity to talk about their ideas. You cannot suit all the students all the time, but you can build variety into your teaching and offer students a choice about some of the learning activities that they undertake.
• Relate the learning to everyday life: For some students, what you are asking them to learn appears to be irrelevant to their everyday lives. You can address this by making sure that whenever possible, you relate the learning to a context that is relevant to them and that you draw on examples from their own experience.
• Use of language:Think carefully about the language you use. Use positive language and praise, and do not ridicule students. Always comment on their behavior and not on them. ‘You are annoying me today’ is very personal and can be better expressed as ‘I am finding your behavior annoying today’ or ‘Is there any reason you are finding it difficult to concentrate?’, which is much more helpful.
• Challenge stereotypes: Find and use resources that show girls in non-stereotypical roles or invite female role models to visit the school, such as scientists. Try to be aware of your own gender stereotyping; you may know that girls play sports and that boys are caring, but often we express this differently, mainly because that is the way we are used to talking in society.
• Create a safe, welcoming learning environment: All students need to feel safe and welcome at school. You are in a position to make your students feel welcome by encouraging mutually respectful and friendly behavior from everyone. Think about how the school and classroom might appear and feel like to different students. Think about where they should be asked to sit and make sure that any students with visual or hearing impairments, or physical disabilities, sit where they can access the lesson. Check that those who are shy or easily distracted are where you can easily include them.
Specific teaching approaches
There are several specific approaches that will help you to involve all students. These are described in more detail in other chapters, but a brief introduction is given here:
• Questioning: If you invite students to put their hands up, the same people tend to answer. There are other ways to involve more students in thinking about the answers and responding to questions. You can direct questions to specific people. Tell the class you will decide who answers, then ask people at the back and sides of the room, rather than those sitting at the front. Give students ‘thinking time’ and invite contributions from specific people. Use pair or group work to build confidence so that you can involve everyone in whole-class discussions.
• Assessment: Develop a range of techniques for formative assessment that will help you to know each student well. You need to be creative to uncover hidden talents and shortfalls. Formative assessment will give you accurate information rather than assumptions that can easily be drawn from generalized views about certain students and their abilities. You will then be in a good position to respond to their individual needs.
• Group work and pair work: Think carefully about how to divide your class into groups or how to make up pairs, taking account of the goal to include all and encourage students to value each other. Ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn from each other and build their confidence in what they know. Some students will have the confidence to express their ideas and ask questions in a small group, but not in front of the whole class.
• Differentiation: Setting different tasks for different groups will help students start from where they are and move forward. Setting open-ended tasks will give all students the opportunity to succeed. Offering students, a choice of task helps them to feel ownership of their work and to take responsibility for their own learning. Taking account of individual learning needs is difficult, especially in a large class, but by using a variety of tasks and activities it can be done. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.02%3A_Involving_all.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Talk for learning
Why talk for learning is important
Talk is a part of human development that helps us to think, learn and make sense of the world. People use language as a tool for developing reasoning, knowledge and understanding. Therefore, encouraging students to talk as part of their learning experiences will mean that their educational progress is enhanced. Talking about the ideas being learnt means that:
• those ideas are explored
• reasoning is developed and organized as such, so students learn more
In a classroom, there are different ways to use student talk, ranging from rote repetition to higher-order discussions.
Traditionally, teacher talk was dominant and was more valued than students’ talk or knowledge. However, using talk for learning involves planning lessons so that students can talk more and learn more in a way that makes connections with their prior experience. It is much more than a question and answer session between the teacher and their students, in that the students’ own language, ideas, reasoning and interests are given more time. Most of us want to talk to someone about a difficult issue or in order to find out something, and teachers can build on this instinct with well-planned activities.
Planning talk for learning activities in the classroom
Planning talking activities is not just for literacy and vocabulary lessons; it is also part of planning mathematics and science work and other topics. It can be planned into whole class, pair or groupwork, outdoor activities, role play-based activities, writing, reading, practical investigations, and creative work.
Even young students with limited literacy and numeracy skills can demonstrate higher-order thinking skills if the task is designed to build on their prior experience and is enjoyable. For example, students can make predictions about a story, an animal or a shape from photos, drawings or real objects. Students can list suggestions and possible solutions about problems to a puppet or a character in a role play.
Plan the lesson around what you want the students to learn and think about, as well as what type of talk you want students to develop. Some types of talk are exploratory. For example, you could say: ‘What could happen next?’, ‘Have we seen this before?’, ‘What could this be?’ or ‘Why do you think that is?’. Other types of talk are more analytical such as weighing up ideas, evidence or suggestions.
Try to make it interesting, enjoyable and possible for all students to participate in dialogue. Students need to be comfortable and feel safe in expressing views and exploring ideas without fear of ridicule or being made to feel they are getting it wrong.
Building on students’ talk
Talk for learning gives teachers opportunities to:
• listen to what students say
• appreciate and build on students’ ideas
• encourage the students to take it further
Not all responses have to be written or formally assessed, because developing ideas through talk is a valuable part of learning. You should use their experiences and ideas as much as possible to make their learning feel relevant. The best student talk is exploratory, which means that the students explore and challenge one another’s ideas so that they can become confident about their responses. Groups talking together should be encouraged not to just accept an answer, whoever gives it. You can model challenging thinking in a whole class setting through your use of probing questions like ‘Why?’, ‘How did you decide that?’ or ‘Can you see any problems with that solution?’ You can walk around the classroom listening to groups of students and extending their thinking by asking such questions.
Your students will be encouraged if their talk, ideas and experiences are valued and appreciated. Praise your students for their behavior when talking, listening carefully, questioning one another, and learning not to interrupt. Be aware of members of the class who are marginalized and think about how you can ensure that they are included. It may take some time to establish ways of working that allow all students to participate fully.
Encourage students to ask questions themselves
Develop a climate in your classroom where good challenging questions are asked and where students’ ideas are respected and praised. Students will not ask questions if they are afraid of how they will be received or if they think their ideas are not valued. Inviting students to ask the questions encourages them to show curiosity, asks them to think in a different way about their learning and helps you to understand their point of view.
You could plan some regular group or pair work, or perhaps a ‘student question time’ so that students can raise queries or ask for clarification. You could:
• entitle a section of your lesson ‘Hands up if you have a question’
• put a student in the hot-seat and encourage the other students to question that student as if they were a character, e.g. Pythagoras or Mirabai
• play a ‘Tell Me More’ game in pairs or small groups
• give students a question grid with who/what/where/when/why questions to practice basic inquiry
• give the students some data (such as the data available from the World Data Bank, e.g. the percentage of children in full-time education or exclusive breastfeeding rates for different countries), and ask them to think of questions you could ask about this data design a question wall listing the students’ questions of the week.
You may be pleasantly surprised at the level of interest and thinking that you see when students are freer to ask and answer questions that come from them. As students learn how to communicate more clearly and accurately, they not only increase their oral and written vocabulary, but they also develop new knowledge and skills. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.03%3A_Talk_for_learning.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Using pair work
In everyday situations, people work alongside, speak and listen to others, and see what they do and how they do it. This is how people learn. As we talk to others, we discover new ideas and information. In classrooms, if everything is centered on the teacher, then most students do not get enough time to try out or demonstrate their learning or to ask questions. Some students may only give short answers and some may say nothing at all. In large classes, the situation is even worse, with only a small proportion of students saying anything at all.
Why use pair work?
Pair work is a natural way for students to talk and learn more. It gives them the chance to think and try out ideas and new language. It can provide a comfortable way for students to work through new skills and concepts, and works well in large classes.
Pair work is suitable for all ages and subjects. It is especially useful in multilingual, multi-grade classes, because pairs can be arranged to help each other. It works best when you plan specific tasks and establish routines to manage pairs to make sure that all of your students are included, learning and progressing. Once these routines are established, you will find that students quickly get used to working in pairs and enjoy learning this way.
Tasks for pair work
You can use a variety of pair work tasks depending on the intended outcome of the learning. The pair work task must be clear and appropriate so that working together helps learning more than working alone. By talking about their ideas, your students will automatically be thinking about and developing them further.
Pair work tasks could include:
• Think–pair–share’: Students think about a problem or issue themselves and then work in pairs to work out possible answers before sharing their answers with other students. This could be used for spelling, working through calculations, putting things in categories or in order, giving different viewpoints, pretending to be characters from a story, and so on.
• Sharing information: Half the class is given information on one aspect of a topic; the other half is given information on a different aspect of the topic. They then work in pairs to share their information in order to solve a problem or come to a decision.
• Practicing skills such as listening: One student could read a story and the other, ask questions; one student could read a passage in English, while the other tries to write it down; one student could describe a picture or diagram while the other student tries to draw it based on the description.
• Following instructions: One student could read instructions for the other student to complete a task.
• Storytelling or role play: Students could work in pairs to create a story or a piece of dialogue in a language that they are learning.
Managing pairs to include all
Pair work is about involving all. Since students are different, pairs must be managed so that everyone knows what they have to do, what they are learning and what your expectations are. To establish pair work routines in your classroom, you should do the following:
• Manage the pairs that the students work in. Sometimes students will work in friendship pairs; sometimes they will not. Make sure they understand that you will decide the pairs to help them maximize their learning.
• To create more of a challenge, sometimes you could pair students of mixed ability and different languages together so that they can help each other; at other times, you could pair students working at the same level.
• Keep records so that you know your students’ abilities and can pair them together accordingly.
• At the start, explain the benefits of pair work to the students, using examples from family and community contexts where people collaborate.
• Keep initial tasks, brief and clear.
• Monitor the student pairs to make sure that they are working as you want.
• Give students roles or responsibilities in their pair, such as two characters from a story, or simple labels such as ‘1’ and ‘2’, or ‘As’ and ‘ Bs’). Do this before they move to face each other so that they listen.
• Make sure that students can turn or move easily to sit facing each other.
During pair work, tell students how much time they have for each task and give regular time checks. Praise pairs who help each other and stay on task. Give pairs time to settle and find their own solutions – it can be tempting to get involved too quickly before students have had time to think and show what they can do. Most students enjoy the atmosphere of everyone talking and working. As you move around the class observing and listening, make notes of who is comfortable together, be alert to anyone who is not included, and note any common errors, good ideas or summary points.
At the end of the task you have a role in making connections between what the students have developed. You may select some pairs to show their work, or you may summarize this for them. Students like to feel a sense of achievement when working together. You don’t need to get every pair to report back – that would take too much time – but select students who you know from your observations will be able to make a positive contribution that will help others to learn. This might be an opportunity for students who are usually timid about contributing to build their confidence.
If you have given students a problem to solve, you could give a model answer and then ask them to discuss in pairs how to improve their answer. This will help them to think about their own learning and to learn from their mistakes.
If you are new to pair work, it is important to make notes on any changes you want to make to the task, timing or combinations of pairs. This is important because this is how you will learn and how you will improve your teaching. Organizing successful pair work is linked to clear instructions and good time management, as well as succinct summarizing – this all takes practice. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.04%3A_Using_pair_work.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Using questioning to promote thinking
Teachers question their students all the time; questions mean that teachers can help their students to learn, and learn more. On average, a teacher spends one-third of their time questioning students in one study (Hastings, 2003). Of the questions posed, 60 percent recalled facts and 20 per cent were procedural (Hattie, 2012), with most answers being either right or wrong. But does simply asking questions that are either right or wrong promote learning?
There are many different types of questions that students can be asked. The responses and outcomes that the teacher wants to dictate the type of question that the teacher should utilize. Teachers generally ask students questions to:
• Guide students toward understanding when a new topic or material is introduced
• Push students to do a greater share of their thinking
• Remediate an error
• Stretch students
• Check for understanding.
Questioning is generally used to find out what students know, so it is important in assessing their progress. Questions can also be used to inspire, extend students’ thinking skills and develop inquiring minds. They can be divided into two broad categories:
• Lower-order questions, which involve the recall of facts and knowledge previously taught, often involving closed questions (a yes or no answer).
• Higher-order questions, which require more thinking. They may ask the students to put together information previously learnt to form an answer or to support an argument in a logical manner. Higher-order questions are often more open-ended.
Open-ended questions encourage students to think beyond textbook-based, literal answers, thus eliciting a range of responses. They also help the teacher to assess the students’ understanding of content.
Encouraging students to respond
Many teachers allow less than one second before requiring a response to a question and therefore often answer the question themselves or rephrase the question (Hastings, 2003). The students only have time to react – they do not have time to think! If you wait for a few seconds before expecting answers, the students will have time to think. This has a positive effect on students’ achievement. By waiting after posing a question, there is an increase in:
• the length of students’ responses
• the number of students offering responses
• the frequency of students’ questions
• the number of responses from less capable students
• positive interactions between students.
Your response matters
The more positively you receive all answers that are given, the more students will continue to think and try. There are many ways to ensure that wrong answers and misconceptions are corrected, and if one student has the wrong idea, you can be sure that many more have as well. You could try the following:
• Pick out the parts of the answers that are correct and ask the student in a supportive way to think a bit more about their answer. This encourages more active participation and helps your students to learn from their mistakes. The following comment shows how you might respond to an incorrect answer in a supportive way: ‘You were right about evaporation forming clouds, but I think we need to explore a bit more about what you said about rain. Can anyone else offer some ideas?’
• Write on the blackboard all the answers that the students give, and then ask the students to think about them all. What answers do they think are right? What might have led to another answer being given? This gives you an opportunity to understand the way that your students are thinking and also gives your students an unthreatening way to correct any misconceptions that they may have.
Value all responses by listening carefully and asking the student to explain further. If you ask for further explanation for all answers, right or wrong, students will often correct any mistakes for themselves, you will develop a thinking classroom and you will really know what learning your students have done and how to proceed. If the wrong answers result in humiliation or punishment, then your students will stop trying for fear of further embarrassment or ridicule.
Improving the quality of responses
It is important that you try to adopt a sequence of questioning that doesn’t end with the right answer. Right answers should be rewarded with follow-up questions that extend the knowledge and provide students with an opportunity to engage with the teacher. You can do this by asking for:
• a how or a why
• another way to answer
• a better word
• evidence to substantiate an answer
• integration of a related skill
• application of the same skill or logic in a new setting.
Helping students to think more deeply about (and therefore improve the quality of) their answer is a crucial part of your role. The following skills will help students achieve more:
• Prompting requires appropriate hints to be given – ones that help students develop and improve their answers. You might first choose to say what is right in the answer and then offer information, further questions and other clues. (‘So what would happen if you added a weight to the end of your paper airplane?’)
• Probing is about trying to find out more, helping students to clarify what they are trying to say to improve a disorganized answer or one that is partly right. (‘So what more can you tell me about how this fits together?’)
• Refocusing is about building on correct answers to link students’ knowledge to the knowledge that they have previously learned. This broadens their understanding. (‘What you have said is correct, but how does it link with what we were looking at last week in our local environment topic?’)
• Sequencing questions means asking questions in an order designed to extend thinking. Questions should lead students to summarize, compare, explain or analyze. Prepare questions that stretch students, but do not challenge them so far that they lose the meaning of the questions. (‘Explain how you overcame your earlier problem. What difference did that make? What do you think you need to tackle next?’)
• Listening enables you to not just look for the answer you are expecting, but to alert you to unusual or innovative answers that you may not have expected. It also shows that you value the students’ thinking and therefore they are more likely to give thoughtful responses. Such answers could highlight misconceptions that need correcting, or they may show a new approach that you had not considered. (‘I hadn’t thought of that. Tell me more about why you think that way.’)
As a teacher, you need to ask questions that inspire and challenge if you are to generate interesting and inventive answers from your students. You need to give them time to think and you will be amazed how much your students know and how well you can help them progress their learning.
Remember, questioning is not about what the teacher knows, but about what the students know. It is important to remember that you should never answer your own questions! After all, if the students know you will give them the answers after a few seconds of silence, what is their incentive to answer?
Hastings, S. (2003) ‘Questioning’, TES Newspaper, 4 July. Available from: https://www.tes.com/news/questioning (accessed 22 September 2014).
Hattie, J. (2012) Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing the Impact on Learning. Abingdon: Routledge. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.05%3A_Using_questioning_to_promote_thinking.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Monitoring
Improving students’ performance involves constantly monitoring and responding to them, so that they know what is expected of them and they get feedback after completing tasks. They can improve their performance through your constructive feedback.
• be more aware of their performance and more responsible for their learning
• improve their learning
• predict achievement on state and local standardized tests
• achieve higher grades
It will also help you as a teacher to decide:
• when to ask a question, or give a prompt
• when to praise
• whether to challenge
• how to include different groups of students in a task what to do about mistakes
Students improve most when they are given clear and prompt feedback on their progress. Using monitoring will enable you to give regular feedback, letting your students know how they are doing and what else they need to do to advance their learning.
One of the challenges you will face is helping students to set their own learning targets, also known as self monitoring. Students, especially struggling ones, are not used to having ownership of their own learning. But you can help any student to set their own targets or goals for a project, plan out their work and set deadlines, and self- monitor their progress. Practicing the process and mastering the skill of self monitoring will serve them well in school and throughout their lives.
Listening to and observing students
Most of the time, listening to and observing students is done naturally by teachers; it is a simple monitoring tool. For example, you may:
• listen to your students reading aloud
• Listen to discussions in pair or group work
• observe students using resources outdoors or in the classroom observe the body language of groups as they work
Make sure that the observations you collect are true evidence of student learning or progress. Only document what you can see, hear, justify or count.
As students work, move around the classroom to make brief observation notes. You can use a class list to record which students need more help, and to note any emerging misunderstandings. You can use these observations and notes to give feedback to the whole class or prompt and encourage groups or individuals.
Giving feedback
Feedback is information that you give to a student about how they have performed in relation to a stated goal or expected outcome. Effective feedback provides the student with:
• information about what happened
• an evaluation of how well the action or task was performed guidance as to how their performance can be improved
When you give feedback to each student, it should help them to know:
• what they can actually do
• what they cannot do yet
• how their work compares with that of others how they can improve
It is important to remember that effective feedback helps students. You do not want to inhibit learning because your feedback is unclear or unfair. Effective feedback is:
• focused on the task being undertaken and the learning that the student needs to do
• clear and honest, telling the student what is good about their learning as well as what requires improvement
• actionable, telling the student to do something that they are able to do
• given in appropriate language that the student can understand
• given at the right time – if it’s given too soon, the student will think ‘I was just going to do that!’; too late, and the student’s focus will have moved elsewhere and they will not want to go back and do what is asked.
Whether feedback is spoken or written in the students’ workbooks, it becomes more effective if it follows the guidelines given below.
Using praise and positive language
When we are praised and encouraged, we generally feel a great deal better than when we are criticized or corrected. Reinforcement and positive language is motivating for the whole class and for individuals of all ages. Remember that praise must be specific and targeted on the work done rather than about the student themselves, otherwise it will not help the student progress. ‘Well done’ is non-specific, so it is better to say one of the following:
Using prompting as well as correction
The dialogue that you have with your students helps their learning. If you tell them that an answer is incorrect and finish the dialogue there, you miss the opportunity to help them to keep thinking and trying for themselves. If you give students a hint or ask them a further question, prompt them to think more deeply and encourage them to find answers and take responsibility for their own learning. For example, you can encourage a better answer or prompt a different angle on a problem by saying such things as:
It may be appropriate to encourage other students to help each other. You can do this by opening your questions to the rest of the class with such comments as:
Correcting students with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ might be appropriate to tasks such as spelling or number practice, but even here you can prompt students to look for emerging patterns in their answers, make connections with similar answers or open a discussion about why a certain answer is incorrect.
Self-correction and peer correction is effective and you can encourage this by asking students to check their own and each other’s work while doing tasks or assignments in pairs. It is best to focus on one aspect to correct at a time, so that there is not too much confusing information. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.06%3A_Monitoring_and_giving_feedback.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Using group work (aka Cooperative Learning)
Group work is a systematic, active, pedagogical strategy that encourages small groups of students to work together for the achievement of a common goal. These small groups promote more active and more effective learning through structured activities.
The benefits of group work
Group work can be a very effective way of motivating your students to learn by encouraging them to think, communicate, exchange ideas and thoughts, and make decisions. Your students can both teach and learn from others: a powerful and active form of learning.
Group work is more than students sitting in groups; it involves working on and contributing to a shared learning task with a clear objective. You need to be clear about why you are using group work for learning and know why this is preferable to lecturing, pair work or to students working on their own. Thus, group work has to be well-planned and purposeful.
Planning group work
When and how you use group work will depend on what learning you want to achieve by the end of the lesson. You can include group work at the start, the end or midway through the lesson, but you will need to allow enough time. You will need to think about the task that you want your students to complete and the best way to organize the groups.
As a teacher, you can ensure that group work is successful if you plan in advance:
• the goals and expected outcomes of the group activity
• the time allocated to the activity, including any feedback or summary task
• how to split the groups (how many groups, how many students in each group, criteria for groups)
• how to organize the groups (role of different group members, time required, materials, recording and reporting)
• how any assessment will be undertaken and recorded (take care to distinguish individual assessments from group assessments)
• how you will monitor the groups’ activities
Groupwork tasks
The task that you ask your students to complete depends on what you what them to learn. By taking part in group work, they will learn skills such as listening to each other, explaining their ideas and working cooperatively. However, the main aim is for them to learn something about the subject that you are teaching. Some examples of tasks could include the following:
• Presentations: Students work in groups to prepare a presentation for the rest of the class. This works best if each group has a different aspect of the topic, so they are motivated to listen to each other rather than listening to the same topic several times. Be very strict about the time that each group has to present and decide on a set of criteria for a good presentation. Write these on the board before the lesson. Students can the use the criteria to plan their presentation and assess each other’s work. The criteria could include:
• Was the presentation clear?
• Was the presentation well-structured?
• Did I learn something from the presentation?
• Did the presentation make me think?
• Problem solving: Students work in groups to solve a problem or a series of problems. This could include conducting an experiment in science, solving problems in mathematics, analyzing a story or poem in English, or analyzing evidence in history.
• Creating an artifact or product: Students work in groups to develop a story, a piece of drama, a piece of music, a model to explain a concept, a news report on an issue or a poster to summarize information or explain a concept. Giving groups five minutes at the start of a new topic to create a brainstorm or mind map will tell you a great deal about what they already know, and will help you pitch the lesson at an appropriate level.
• Differentiated tasks: Group work is an opportunity to allow students of different ages or attainment levels to work together on an appropriate task. Higher attainers can benefit from the opportunity to explain the work, whereas lower attainers may find it easier to ask questions in a group than in a class, and will learn from their classmates.
• Discussion: Students consider an issue and come to a conclusion. This may require quite a bit of preparation on your part in order to make sure that the students have enough knowledge to consider different options, but organizing a discussion or debate can be very rewarding for both you and them.
Organizing groups
Groups of four to eight are ideal, but this will depend on the size of your class, the physical environment and furniture, and the attainment and age range of your class. Ideally, everyone in a group needs to see each other, talk without shouting and contribute to the group’s outcome.
• Decide how and why you will divide students into groups; for example, you may divide groups by friendship, interest or by similar or mixed attainment. Experiment with different ways and review what works best with each class.
• Plan any roles you will give to group members (for example, note taker, spokesperson, timekeeper or collector of equipment), and how you will make this clear.
Managing group work
You can set up routines and rules to manage good group work. When you use group work regularly, students will know what you expect and find it enjoyable. Initially, it is a good idea to work with your class to identify the benefits of working together in teams and groups. You should discuss what makes good group work behavior and possibly generate a list of ‘rules’ that might be displayed; for example, ‘Respect for each other’, ‘Listening’, ‘Helping each other’, ‘Trying more than one idea’, etc.
It is important to give clear verbal instructions about the group work that can also be written on the blackboard for reference. You need to:
• Direct your students to the groups they will work on according to your plan, perhaps designating areas in the classroom where they will work or giving instructions about moving any furniture or school bags
• Be very clear about the task and write it on the board in short instructions or pictures. Allow your students to ask questions before you start.
During the lesson, move around to observe and check how the groups are doing. Offer advice where needed if they are deviating from the task or getting stuck.
You might want to change the groups during the task. Here are two techniques to try when you are feeling confident about group work – they are particularly helpful when managing a large class:
• Expert groups’: Give each group a different task, such as researching one way of generating electricity or developing a character for a drama. After a suitable time, re-organize the groups so that each new group is made up of one ‘expert’ from all the original groups. Then give them a task that involves collating knowledge from all the experts, such as deciding on what sort of power station to build or preparing a piece of drama.
• Envoys’: If the task involves creating something or solving a problem, after a while, ask each group to send an envoy to another group. They could compare ideas or solutions to the problem and then report back to their own group. In this way, groups can learn from each other.
At the end of the task, summarize what has been learned and correct any misunderstandings that you have seen. You may want to hear feedback from each group, or ask just one or two groups who you think have some good ideas. Keep students’ reporting brief and encourage them to offer feedback on work from other groups by identifying what has been done well, what was interesting and what might be developed further.
Even if you want to adopt group work in your classroom, you may at times find it difficult to organize because some students:
• are resistant to active learning and do not engage
• are dominant
• do not participate due to poor interpersonal skills or lack of confidence
To become effective at managing group work it is important to reflect on all the above points, in addition to considering how far the learning outcomes were met and how well your students responded (did they all benefit?). Consider and carefully plan any adjustments you might make to the group task, resources, timings or composition of the groups.
Research suggests that learning in groups need not be used all the time to have positive effects on student achievement, so you should not feel obliged to use it in every lesson. You might want to consider using group work as a supplemental technique, for example, as a break between a topic change or a jump-start for class discussion. It can also be used as an ice-breaker or to introduce experiential learning activities and problem-solving exercises into the classroom, or to review topics. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.07%3A_Involving_all.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Assessing students’ learning has two purposes:
• Summative assessment looks back and makes a judgement on what has already been learnt. It is often conducted in the form of tests that are graded, telling students their attainment on the questions in that test. This also helps in reporting outcomes.
• Formative assessment (or assessment for learning) is quite different, being more informal and diagnostic in nature. Teachers use it as part of the learning process, for example questioning to check whether students have understood something. The outcomes of this assessment are then used to change the next learning experience. Monitoring and feedback are part of formative assessment.
Formative assessment enhances learning because in order to learn, most students must:
• Understand what they are expected to learn
• Know where they are now with that learning
• Understand how they can make progress (that is, what to study and how to study) and know when they have reached the goals and expected outcomes.
As a teacher, you will get the best out of your students if you attend to the four points above in every lesson. Thus, assessment can be undertaken before, during and after instruction:
• Before: Assessing before the teaching begins can help you identify what the students know and can do prior to instruction. It determines the baseline and gives you a starting point for planning your teaching. Enhancing your understanding of what your students know reduces the chance of reteaching the students something they have already mastered or omitting something they possibly should (but do not yet) know or understand.
• During: Assessing during classroom teaching involves checking if students are learning and improving. This will help you make adjustments in your teaching methodology, resources and activities. It will help you understand how the student is progressing towards the desired objective and how successful your teaching is.
• After: Assessment that occurs after teaching confirms what students have learnt and shows you who has learnt and who still needs support. This will allow you to assess the effectiveness of your teaching goal.
Before: being clear about what your students will learn
When you decide what the students must learn in a lesson or series of lessons, you need to share this with them. Carefully distinguish what the students are expected to learn from what you are asking them to do. Ask an open question that gives you the chance to assess whether they have really understood. For example:
Give the students a few seconds to think before they answer, or perhaps ask the students to first discuss their answers in pairs or small groups. When they tell you their answer, you will know whether they understand what it is they have to learn.
Before: knowing where students are in their learning
In order to help your students, improve, both you and they need to know the current state of their knowledge and understanding. Once you have shared the intended learning outcomes or goals, you could do the following:
• Ask the students to work in pairs to make a mind map or list of what they already know about that topic, giving them enough time to complete it but not too long for those with few ideas. You should then review the mind maps or lists.
• Write the important vocabulary on the board and ask for volunteers to say what they know about each word. Then ask the rest of the class to put their thumbs up if they understand the word, thumbs down if they know very little or nothing, and thumbs horizontal if they know something.
Knowing where to start will mean that you can plan lessons that are relevant and constructive for your students. It is also important that your students are able to assess how well they are learning so that both you and they know what they need to learn next. Providing opportunities for your students to take charge of their own learning will help to make them lifelong learners
During: ensuring students’ progress in learning
When you talk to students about their current progress, make sure that they find your feedback both useful and constructive. Do this by:
• helping students know their strengths and how they might further improve
• being clear about what needs further development
• being positive about how they might develop their learning, checking that they understand and feel able to use the advice.
You will also need to provide opportunities for students to improve their learning. This means that you may have to modify your lesson plans to close the gap between where your students are now in their learning and where you wish them to be. In order to do this, you might have to:
• go back over some work that you thought they knew already
• group students according to needs, giving them differentiated tasks
• encourage students to decide for themselves which of several resources they need to study so that they can ‘fill their own gap’
• use ‘low entry, high ceiling’ tasks so that all students can make progress – these are designed so that all students can start the task but the more able ones are not restricted and can progress to extend their learning.
By slowing the pace of lessons down, very often you can actually speed up learning because you give students the time and confidence to think and understand what they need to do to improve. By letting students talk about their work among themselves, and reflect on where the gaps are and how they might close them, you are providing them with ways to assess themselves.
After: collecting and interpreting evidence, and planning ahead
While teaching–learning is taking place and after setting a classwork or homework task, it is important to:
• find out how well your students are doing
• use this to inform your planning for the next lesson
• feed it back to students
The four key states of assessment are discussed below.
Collecting information or evidence
Every student learns differently, at their own pace and style, both inside and outside the school. Therefore, you need to do two things while assessing students:
• Collect information from a variety of sources – from your own experience, the student, other students, other teachers, parents and community members.
• Assess students individually, in pairs and in groups, and promote self-assessment. Using different methods is important, as no single method can provide all the information you need. Different ways of collecting information about the students’ learning and progress include observing, listening, discussing topics and themes, and reviewing written class and homework.
Recording
In all schools across India the most common form of recording is through the use of report card, but this may not allow you to record all aspects of a student’s learning or behaviors. There are some simple ways of doing this that you may like to consider, such as:
• noting down what you observe while teaching–learning is going on in a diary/notebook/register
• keeping samples of students’ work (written, art, craft, projects, poems, etc.) in a portfolio
• preparing every student’s profile
• noting down any unusual incidents, changes, problems, strengths and learning evidences of students
Interpreting the evidence
Once information and evidence have been collected and recorded, it is important to interpret it in order to form an understanding of how each student is learning and progressing. This requires careful reflection and analysis. You then need to act on your findings to improve learning, maybe through feedback to students or finding new resources, rearranging the groups, or repeating a learning point.
Planning for improvement
Assessment can help you to provide meaningful learning opportunities to every student by establishing specific and differentiated learning activities, giving attention to the students who need more help and challenging the students who are more advanced. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.08%3A_Assessing_progress_and_performance.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Many learning resources can be used in teaching – not just textbooks. If you offer ways to learn that use different senses (visual, auditory, touch, smell, taste), you will appeal to the different ways that students learn. There are resources all around you that you might use in your classroom, and that could support your students’ learning. Any school can generate its own learning resources at little or no cost. By sourcing these materials locally, connections are made between the curriculum and your students’ lives.
You will find people in your immediate environment who have expertise in a wide range of topics; you will also find a range of natural resources. This can help you to create links with the local community, demonstrate its value, stimulate students to see the richness and diversity of their environment, and perhaps most importantly, work towards a holistic approach to student learning – that is, learning inside and outside the school.
Making the most of your classroom
People work hard at making their homes as attractive as possible. It is worth thinking about the environment that you expect your students to learn in. Anything you can do to make your classroom and school an attractive place to learn will have a positive impact on your students. There is plenty that you can do to make your classroom interesting and attractive for students – for example, you can:
• make posters from old magazines and brochures
• bring in objects and artifacts related to the current topic
• display your students’ work
• change the classroom displays to keep students curious and prompt new learning
Using local experts in your classroom
If you are doing work on money or quantities in mathematics, you could invite market traders or dressmakers into the classroom to come to explain how they use math in their work. Alternatively, if you are exploring patterns and shapes in art, you could invite a graphic designer to the school to explain the different shapes, designs, traditions and techniques. Inviting guests works best when the link with educational aims is clear to everyone and there are shared expectations of timing.
You may also have experts within the school community (such as the cook or the caretaker) who can be shadowed or interviewed by students related to their learning; for example, to find out about quantities used in cooking, or how weather conditions impact on the school grounds and buildings.
Using the outside environment
Outside your classroom, there is a whole range of resources that you can use in your lessons. You could collect (or ask your class to collect) objects such as leaves, spiders, plants, insects, rocks or wood. Bringing these resources in can lead to interesting classroom displays that can be referred to in lessons. They can provide objects for discussion or experimentation such as an activity in classification, or living or not-living objects. There are also resources such as bus timetables or advertisements that might be readily available and relevant to your local community – these can be turned into learning resources by setting tasks to identify words, compare qualities or calculate journey times.
Objects from outside can be brought into the classroom – but the outside can also be an extension of your classroom. There is usually more room to move outside and for all students to see more easily. When you take your class outside to learn, they can do activities such as:
• estimating and measuring distances
• demonstrating that every point on a circle is the same distance from the central point
• recording the length of shadows at different times of the day
• reading signs and instructions
• conducting interviews and surveys
• locating solar panels
• monitoring crop growth and rainfall
Outside, their learning is based on realities and their own experiences, and may be more transferable to other contexts.
If your work outside involves leaving the school premises, before you go you need to obtain the school administration’s permission, plan timings, check for safety and make rules clear to the students. You and your students should be clear about what is to be learned before you depart.
Adapting resources
You may want to adapt existing resources to make them more appropriate to your students. These changes may be small but could make a big difference, especially if you are trying to make the learning relevant to all the students in the class. You might, for example, change places and people names if they relate to another state, or change the gender of a person in a song, or introduce a child with a disability into a story. In this way, you can make the resources more inclusive and appropriate to your class and their learning.
Work with your colleagues to be resourceful: you will have a range of skills between you to generate and adapt resources. One colleague might have skills in music, another in puppet making or organizing outdoor science. You can share the resources you use in your classroom with your colleagues to help you all generate a rich learning environment in all areas of your school. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.09%3A_Using_local_resources.txt |
Authors: Teacher Education through School based Support (TESS)-India
The content in this chapter is an excerpt from:
OECx: TESS101x Enhancing teacher education through OER: Tess-India. (2015). Week 2, TESS India Key Resources. (CC BY SA)
Students learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning experience. Your students can deepen their understanding of a topic by interacting with others and sharing their ideas. Storytelling, songs, role play and drama are some of the methods that can be used across a range of curriculum areas, including math and science.
Storytelling
Stories help us make sense of our lives. Many traditional stories have been passed down from generation to generation. They were told to us when we were young and explain some of the rules and values of the society that we were born into.
Stories are a very powerful medium in the classroom: they can:
• be entertaining, exciting and stimulating
• take us from everyday life into fantasy worlds
• be challenging
• stimulate thinking about new ideas
• help explore feelings
• help to think through problems in a context that is detached from reality and therefore less threatening
When you tell stories, be sure to make eye contact with students. They will enjoy it if you use different voices for different characters and vary the volume and tone of your voice by whispering or shouting at appropriate times, for example. Practice the key events of the story so that you can tell it orally, without a book, in your own words. You can bring in props such as objects or clothes to bring the story to life in the classroom. When you introduce a story, be sure to explain its purpose and alert students to what they might learn. You may need to introduce key vocabulary or alert them to the concepts that underpin the story. You may also consider bringing a traditional storyteller into school, but remember to ensure that what is to be learnt is clear to both the storyteller and the students.
Storytelling can prompt a number of student activities beyond listening. Students can be asked to note down all the colors mentioned in the story, draw pictures, recall key events, generate dialogue or change the ending. They can be divided into groups and given pictures or props to retell the story from another perspective. By analyzing a story, students can be asked to identify fact from fiction, debate scientific explanations for phenomena or solve mathematical problems.
Asking the students to devise their own stories is a very powerful tool. If you give them structure, content and language to work within, the students can tell their own stories, even about quite difficult ideas in maths and science. In effect, they are playing with ideas, exploring meaning and making the abstract understandable through the metaphor of their stories.
Songs
The use of songs and music in the classroom may allow different students to contribute, succeed and excel. Singing together has a bonding effect and can help to make all students feel included because individual performance is not in focus. The rhyme and rhythm in songs make them easy to remember and helps language and speech development.
You may not be a confident singer yourself, but you are sure to have good singers in the class that you can call on to help you. You can use movement and gestures to enliven the song and help to convey meaning. You can use songs you know and change the words to fit your purpose. Songs are also a useful way to memorize and retain information – even formulas and lists can be put into a song or poem format. Your students might be quite inventive at generating songs or chants for revision purposes.
Role play
Role play is when students have a role to play and, during a small scenario, they speak and act in that role, adopting the behaviors and motives of the character they are playing. No script is provided, but it is important that students are given enough information by the teacher to be able to assume the role. The students enacting the roles should also be encouraged to express their thoughts and feelings spontaneously.
Role play has a number of advantages, because it:
• explores real-life situations to develop understandings of other people’s feelings
• promotes development of decision making skills
• actively engages students in learning and enables all students to make a contribution
• promotes a higher level of thinking.
Role play can help younger students develop confidence to speak in different social situations, for example, pretending to shop in a store, provide tourists with directions to a local monument or purchase a ticket. You can set up simple scenes with a few props and signs, such as ‘Café’, ‘Doctor’s Surgery’ or ‘Garage’. Ask your students, ‘Who works here?’, ‘What do they say?’ and ‘What do we ask them?’, and encourage them to interact in role these areas, observing their language use.
Role play can develop older students’ life skills. For example, in class, you may be exploring how to resolve conflict. Rather than use an actual incident from your school or your community, you can describe a similar but detached scenario that exposes the same issues. Assign students to roles or ask them to choose one for themselves. You may give them planning time or just ask them to role play immediately. The role play can be performed to the class, or students could work in small groups so that no group is being watched. Note that the purpose of this activity is the experience of role playing and what it exposes; you are not looking for polished performances or Bollywood actor awards.
It is also possible to use role play in science and math. Students can model the behaviors of atoms, taking on characteristics of particles in their interactions with each other or changing their behaviors to show the impact of heat or light. In math, students can role play angles and shapes to discover their qualities and combinations.
Drama
Using drama in the classroom is a good strategy to motivate most students. Drama develops skills and confidence, and can also be used to assess what your students understand about a topic. A drama about students’ understanding of how the brain works could use pretend telephones to show how messages go from the brain to the ears, eyes, nose, hands and mouth, and back again. Or a short, fun drama on the consequences of forgetting how to subtract numbers could fix the correct methods in young students’ minds.
Drama often builds towards a performance to the rest of the class, the school or to the parents and the local community. This goal will give students something to work towards and motivate them. The whole class should be involved in the creative process of producing a drama. It is important that differences in confidence levels are considered. Not everyone has to be an actor; students can contribute in other ways (organizing, costumes, props, stage hands) that may relate more closely to their talents and personality.
It is important to consider why you are using drama to help your students learn. Is it to develop language (e.g. asking and answering questions), subject knowledge (e.g. environmental impact of mining), or to build specific skills (e.g. team work)? Be careful not to let the learning purpose of drama, be lost in the goal of the performance. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/01%3A_Key_Practices_in_Instruction_and_Student_Learning/1.10%3A_Storytelling_songs_role_play_and_drama.txt |
Auithors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
Note
Surface learning is the more factual information or surface knowledge that is often a prerequisite for deep learning. Deep learning involves things like extending ideas, detecting patterns, applying knowledge and skills in new contexts or in creative ways, and being critical of arguments and evidence.” (Merrilyn Goos). Later in the term you will see how Bloom’s Taxonomy outlines this progress from surface to deep learning along a continuum of higher order thinking skills.
As you read about surface and deep learning, consider the implications of how teachers plan lessons for diverse learners. Do these students have opportunities to engage in deep learning or are they stuck at the memorization and facts level of the curriculum? If a student cannot memorize multiplication facts, does that mean he/she cannot advance in mathematics?
Deep learning first requires recall and use of surface knowledge and skills (Webb, 2005). ‘Traditional’ approaches like memorization and rehearsal can equip students with these foundations (Hattie, 2012), but the problem is that teaching and learning often stops at the surface.
Robyn Gillies from University of Queensland: Research shows that student-centered approaches to teaching that change and develop students’ thinking gets better student learning outcomes than the more traditional, teacher-directed, information-transmission approaches. For teachers to make this shift, it’s important to have the capacity to reflect on one’s own practice and to be familiar with evidence-based research into effective teaching.
To be effective, learning must be active. Effective and active learning are interdependent and one cannot occur without the other. They are two sides of the same coin. When learning is effective, students are actively engaged and they are motivated. They accept responsibility for their learning, work together to achieve shared goals, listen to others’ ideas, and support one another through challenges. The effectiveness of active learning is not limited to the academic or cognitive, but extends to social and personal development.
What is surface and deep learning? Expert perspectives
Click here to watch video lecture (Video 4:27 minutes)
A range of experts in different fields describe their understanding of surface and deep learning. {video transcript]
PANKAJ SAH: From a neuroscience perspective, the learning that takes place in the classroom is essentially about memory formation – it’s storage and its retrieval. An understanding of brain functions will help us understand how that memory formation retrieval system operates.
Now in terms of an understanding of surface and deep learning, neuroscience tells us that the brain is a plastic organ which changes during learning, and there are changes to both the structure and function of the brain. These changes are different depending on whether the learning is surface or deep. There are many different views in neuroscience about what is surface learning and what is deep learning.
One way of distinguishing them is to think of surface learning as immediate or short-term learning, and deep learning as a consolidation process that leads to long term changes. In terms of the biology of taking learning from surface to deep, we think what is happening in the brain during consolidation is protein synthesis and development of new connections.
In surface learning, while proteins are modified, they change and decay over a short period of time. It is in the consolidation process that this surface or immediate learning becomes long-term or deep learning through changes in gene transcription and new protein synthesis. In animal models, we’ve found that if you block the protein synthesis the long term or deep learning is blocked, but not the short term or surface learning.
Professor DAVID REUTENS, Director of the Center for Advanced Imaging: The world we live in contains a lot of information, a lot of facts, and we encounter new information all the time. My understanding of deep learning is that it’s a process of integrating new facts about the world into our existing semantic framework.
It’s not like storing and retrieving information from a computer. Deep learning is not about memorizing things, but integrating the facts that we have into aggregates of information and models about how the world works. I know that my memory isn’t great, but I can know plenty of things by integrating and connecting information.
MERRILYN GOOS: From an educator’s perspective, surface learning involves recalling and reproducing content and skills. Deep learning involves things like extending ideas, detecting patterns, applying knowledge and skills in new contexts or in creative ways, and being critical of arguments and evidence. One way we can understand how students are making meaning from what they are learning is to see how they engage in problem solving – either by themselves or with others.
PIETER ROSSOUW (From Mediros Clinical Solutions): Is there a difference between so-called deep learning and surface learning? Are there benefits in each of these? The research shows that there are big benefits in surface learning. However, surface learning is a linear process, which is also quite often a very small neural process.
Deep learning means we add neural connections so that we can see the consequences, the benefits, applied in different environments, et cetera. That’s more of an extensive neural network, rather than a simple neural network.
Surface learning’s quite often the first line of learning, but from there we need to extend this into more extensive neural networks. That’s what we refer to as deep learning in comparison to surface learning.
Features and differences between surface and deep learning
Click here to watch video lecture (7:28 minutes)
Slightly Abbreviated Transcript.
John Hattie: It’s a very important distinction between surface and deep learning.
• Surface learning is very much about the idea, the content, the knowledge and the information.
• The deep learning is when you relate or extend or transfer that knowledge.
Certainly, in many schools in many systems there is both those two parts – the content and how we relate and extend that content is critical. But the differences between surface and deep learning are important. On the one hand, I don’t want to imply that it’s a straight, very sharp distinction between the two of them.
On the other hand, you can see them as a graduation from having an idea, from having many ideas, and that’s the surface part and then relating those ideas, and then extending the ideas. Certainly, to have relationships between ideas, you have to have ideas and this is partly why we can see them as a bit of a continuum. Now the issue is that, as you start relating and extending ideas, they start to form a new idea. And then you’re back to the surface part of the cycle again. It’s a continuing cycle. But, certainly the argument is that in any form of learning, any form of teaching, it’s really important to know where the student is at. The aim is to have plus one, go to the next level as much as you can.
Q. When are Surface and Deep learning strategies appropriate or inappropriate?
As you’re starting to learn something for the first time, the appropriateness of surface learning comes to the fore. Like if you’ve never played golf, you’ve never driven a car, you’ve never played canasta, then I would expect in the first few lessons that 90% plus of the lesson would probably be about surface learning. In fact, driving a car’s a good example, whereas as a parent, we teach our kid about defensive driving and getting a sense of where they are in the car and making sure that they have anticipation. And at that moment, all they care about is where the brake is. They want to know the surface level.
Great teaching knows what to focus on. But after a while, surely, it’s important to move.
The proportion of surface from 90% say, and start to relate ideas to make it to the deep side of the things– side of the equation. Here’s the problem– when we do observations of classrooms, when we do analysis of student work and we ask the question, what skills typically does a student need to do work in our schools? 90% plus, all they need a surface level knowledge. Surely, that’s not right.
And that’s what I didn’t say. I didn’t say what the teachers think because teachers always think it’s deep learning. In fact, one of the big mistakes we make is we go to deep learning sometimes far too quickly. So it’s a really important distinction to make as to find out where the student is in that cycle of surface to deep. Then there is part of the deep learning you want them to transfer to similar and to different tasks.
Q. When should learning shift from Surface to Deep?
When should learning shift from surface to deep? I’m struggling to find any article ever written that addresses that problem. And I think that’s a major issue for us. Now I don’t want to imply that there was actually a moment when suddenly you should go from surface to deep. It’s a continuum. In fact, learning is very much a staccato. But certainly, we should be aware as instructors about where the students are on that complexity of learning cycle from surface to deep. And certainly, at some point we should be saying to the students, stop learning more and start relating them.
See, my answer to this particular question is to look at the work you ask the student to do, look at the assessment, look at the particular task, and say, which part of it is surface, and which is deep? In fact, in all my own work I usually have at least two questions for every concept. A surface question and a deep question. So, it’s very clear to the student what I’m asking for, and it’s very clear to me.
Students are very smart. They don’t do what you ask them to do. They don’t do what you tell them to do. They do what they think, you think, is valuable. And what is valuable is using your assessments.
So, if you work backwards and construct your assignments, construct your tasks, and have a surface part and a deep part. Make it plain to the student that’s what it is. We need to know that you know the content. We need to know how you’re going to relate the content. Then marking and scoring is a lot easier because you can have a surface and a deep compartment. And that’s certainly what we see as the big distinction.
Q. How can learners be supported to ‘transfer’ their understanding to new contexts?
Despite 150 years of study, it’s very hard to find evidence of how you teach transfer. But we would certainly argue from the work we’ve been doing in the Science of Learning Center, it is possible. And here’s a very simple example. Let’s say I teach you something, and then I want you to apply it to a new situation. Like you learn something in history about Australian history, and I want you to apply it now to American history. Or I give you a math problem and I want you to try another math problem. Before you do the next problem, if you stop and ask the question, what are the similarities and differences between these two contexts, then transfer can happen. The problem is, many students learn something, then go to the next problem, start solving it using the same strategy and it doesn’t work.
I do think there’s a lot we can learn about near and far transfer that that’s very important.
Q.What learning strategies work best when students are engaged in Surface Learning as opposed to Deep Learning?
In this learning cycle of moving from surface to deep, there is another kind of moderator, and that is, when you first are exposed to something, I’m going to introduce you to distillation, or I could introduce you to a new period of Queensland history. Then when you’re first expose the strategies that work, are quite different from the strategies at the next part when I ask you to consolidate. Remember, we humans have little brains. Most of us can only remember five, plus or minus two things at any one time. In many senses we have to over learn a lot of the surface knowledge. This is why, in mathematics, for example, once you get the notion that 9 lots of 6 are 54, memorize it, and over learn it so you’re not sitting there saying, when, someone asks you to do a problem, well what’s 9 times 6. Those students who learn how to over learn can then move to the next phase.
When we did the work with Nola Purdie many years ago, looking at Asian students in Australia, particularly at university level, they spent a lot of time over learning the surface level knowledge so they could then spend their time doing the relating and extending. There was a lot to be asked about the strategies that matter at the different stages of surface and deep. And I think it’s really important that we include transfer in the equation.
Reflection
Professor Hattie suggests that around 90% of classroom teaching and learning focuses on surface knowledge and learning. Do you think this is true of your own classroom? How could you find out?
What strategies could teachers use to determine which phase of the surface-to-deep learning cycle a student is in? (clue, Bloom’s taxonomy, coming up soon)
Reference:
UQx: LEARNx Deep Learning through Transformative Pedagogy (2017). University of Queensland, Australia. (an Open edX MOOC). Module 1:Surface and Deep Learning | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/02%3A_Surface_and_Deep_Learning.txt |
Authors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
Motivating Students for Deep Learning
Topics
1. Linking learner motivation to deeper engagement
2. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
3. Self-regulation
4. Attention Regulation
5. The student-teacher relationship
6. Alternative learning environments- The Walking NeighborhoodLearning Objectives
03: Motivation
Authors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
A crucial element for deep engagement in learning is learner motivation. With this in mind we might ask these four questions
1. How do we know if a learner is motivated?
2. What kinds of factors motivate learners?
3. How can we increase and sustain learner motivation?
4. How is learning effected by a lack of motivation?
Linking learner motivation to deeper engagement
The emotional state of the learner.
• Emotional competence
• Interest and curiosity
• Fun and challenge
• Affective and physical safety
Professor Annemaree Carrol from the School of Education at the University of Queensland explores some of the factors of the emotional engagement component of the model and talk about adaptive and maladaptive factors which impact upon student motivation
• Motivation for deep learning is social.
• Motivation for deep learning is emotional, and it encompasses the self in the context of peers, classrooms, schools, homes and communities.
There seems to be a real connection to teachers and peers, a sense of belonging that creates interest and curiosity in their learning. But there is another essential ingredient – Emotions! Learning is both cognitive and emotional.
ANNEMAREE CARROLL: We know that the essential ingredient that enables motivation to facilitate deep student learning is engagement. And as educators, we are very aware of how important it is for our learners to be engaged.
Engagement has been defined as the extent to which students are connected to what they are learning, how they are learning it, and who they are learning from.
Engagement can be behavioral – concerned with attention, effort, persistence and participation. It can be cognitive — concerned with values and goals, or emotional — concerned with belonging to a group or interpersonal relationships.
Engagement can be perceived as the “hook” that captures students’ attention so that the students feel that the experience has value and relevance to their learning and their personal goals and needs.
It’s important to note that as engagement draws on behavioral, social, emotional and cognitive dimensions, engagement in one dimension relates to the level of engagement in another. It’s also important to note that one can be motivated, but not necessarily engaged in a learning episode. Andrew Martin’s Motivation and Engagement Wheel graphically represents the distinction between 11 cognitive and behavioral factors represented as adaptive motivation; adaptive engagement; maladaptive motivation; and maladaptive engagement.
Emotions drive our interests, motivation, and engagement. Immordino-Yang and Damasio define emotions as the perception of emotionally relevant triggers – either real or imagined – that trigger a physiological response leading to a behavioral and psychological outcome. Importantly, they tell us that
“the aspects of cognition that are recruited most heavily in education, including learning, attention, memory, decision making, motivation, and social functioning, are both profoundly affected by emotions and in fact subsumed within the process of emotion.”
• Emotions impact a range of cognitive capacities, including attention, memory, problem-solving, decision making, information processing, thinking, and engagement. They affect interest, motivation, and social interactions.
• Emotions and deep engagement in learning are highly intertwined.
For example, when the emotional experience associated with the level of engagement to learning is positive, the outcome is positive. But when the emotional experience associated with the level of engagement is negative, the outcome is negative. As such, when a learner is not emotionally engaged with the learning experience, learning is negatively impacted.
Emotional disengagement or disaffection with the learning context often presents as withdrawal from the learning experience based on anxiety, boredom, frustration or apathy.
If the learner finds the content boring, irrelevant, distressing, too difficult or too easy, they may become cognitively disengaged, as is evidenced through inattention, daydreaming, disruptive behavior and absenteeism. If they are cognitively disengaged, they are most likely to be behaviorally disengaged manifesting in the physical withdrawal of effort and participation.
• A key emotional driver for deciding to engage is ‘Interest’.
Where there is increased value and relevance for the learner, there is increased interest, which moves the learning experience into the optimal performance zone for the individual, leading to deep engagement. When enjoyment and interest are combined, the overall effect is one of fun or pleasure, and this is an essential component of creative problem-solving and deep engagement.
The experience of positive emotions and an increased sense of fun has been shown to improve the capacity for creative and flexible thinking, increases persistence, supports the development of higher goals and aspirations, and opens our minds to a wider range of ideas, thoughts and actions.
Interest is essential to initiate and direct attention and exploration, and is fundamental to motivation. Interest is what predicts a learner’s decision to remain engaged in the task or activity. The experience of the positive affect associated with fun and pleasure enhances an individual’s capacity to broaden their perspective, explore possibilities and take creative risks. All are essential for deep learning! | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/03%3A_Motivation/3.01%3A_Linking_learner_motivation_to_deeper_engagement.txt |
Authors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
How can it be that three students of the same age display such very different levels of motivation?
We know now that motivation is a very important factor in engaging students for deep learning, and that motivation can manifest itself in varied ways. But where does motivation originate? Are there different types of motivation? How does a learner’s mindset effect engagement in a task?
Dr. Julie Bower from the School of Education at The University of Queensland explores some of these questions. Taking from the theories (Ryan & Deci, 2000) of human motivation, human development and wellness, Julie explores self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2008) in relation to autonomous motivation and controlled motivation.
JULIE BOWER: What makes one student curious and open to challenge, while another certain that no improvement or growth can be made. It all comes down to the type of motivation.
In broad terms, motivation can be classified into two camps:
• intrinsic, coming from within, and
• extrinsic, originating from something external.
We can all identify examples of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in our everyday lives, and we know that these types of motivation feel very different.
Perhaps you’ve been reading a spy novel and you’re intrinsically motivated to finish the book, and find what happens to the main character. In this case, you have a genuine intrinsic interest in engaging with this task. But also, perhaps you are required to read documents for a work meeting the following day about a topic which holds little interest for you. Here, the motivation is to appear knowledgeable about the documents in front of your team, and perhaps for fear of penalty, feels very different.
• True motivation involves intrinsically driven thoughts and emotions.
This contrasts sharply to motivation for external rewards, as outlined by Schunk and Usher (2012). What recent research tells us is that where there is true intrinsic motivation, providing extrinsic rewards actually reduces this intrinsic motivation.
The majority of classrooms operate on a system of extrinsic rewards and yet we know that children are curious about exploring their world and thus are already intrinsically motivated. A baby strives with all his might to take his first steps as he truly wants to walk. And not because there’s an external reward for reaching this milestone. That’s not to say that some forms of external motivation are not wholly appropriate.
• The key factor here is whether extrinsic motivation is used as a method of control, or if the individual gains satisfaction from the extrinsic reward. That is, is the motivation autonomous or imposed? The baby may be internally motivated to walk in order to say reach a toy, but walking is not imposed on him as a means of control.
Self-Determination
Deci and Ryan in 2011 note that for autonomous motivation to be present, three needs must be in place. We must have a level of competence, connect with others, and have a sense of autonomy in our goals.
Teachers who provide opportunities for students to become self-determined and to enjoy a level of competence, have more motivated students. This is further explored in Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory (2008). Based on theories (Ryan & Deci, 2000) of human motivation, human development and wellness, self-determination theory addresses the distinction between autonomous motivation and controlled motivation, as predictors of performance and outcomes. It’s important to note that both types of motivation direct and empower thought, but in very different ways and leading to very different outcomes.
Autonomous motivation involves both intrinsic motivation and some forms of extrinsic motivation that are integrated into ‘one’s sense of self’. Deci and Ryan described autonomously motivated learners as those who value and experience self-endorsement of their actions.
Control motivation on the other hand, consists of the external regulation of one’s behavior, resulting in the need for approval, avoidance of shame or punishment, or self-esteem contingent on the controlling factor.
Self-determination theory proposes three fundamental needs which must be met for motivation to occur.
1. The need for autonomy,
2. The need for competence, and
3. The need for relatedness.
Jang, Reeve and Deci (2010) suggest that autonomy supportive teachers, empower their student’s personal autonomy by empathizing with students’ perspectives. They identify and nurture ‘students’ needs’ their interests and their preferences, and they provide achievable challenges. They highlight meaningful learning goals, they present interesting, relevant and enriching activities.
Dresel and Hall in 2013, suggest that in facilitating students need for autonomy, students might be encouraged to set their own learning and behavioral goals, and choose the content or the process of some learning tasks. To assist with fostering ‘students’ needs for competence, teachers should provide clear, purposeful, specific and individualized feedback. As well as clear instructions and explanatory rationales for learning activities, a level of structure and guidance to model leadership and a range of learning activities that account for learning preferences and skills.
To facilitate the need for relatedness, teachers can ensure the inclusion of collaborative activities. They can build a positive rapport between students and the teacher, and they can make known that the progress of each learner is really valued by the teacher.
Fixed and Growth Mindset
• A fixed mindset suggests that intelligence and ability is static and nothing can change what is biologically predetermined.
• A growth mindset supports intelligence and ability as dynamic and ever-changing.
Growth mindset
Timothy Sifert’s (2004) research highlights that students who attribute success and failure to internal controllable causes, are more likely to feel pride, satisfaction, confidence, and have a higher sense of self-esteem. They’ll then choose to work on more difficult tasks, display greater self-determination and higher levels of cognitive engagement. They have a strong sense of control, they learn from their mistakes and they produce work that is of a higher quality. Such learners are intrinsically motivated. They exhibit a positive affect, they’re flexible and they engage deeply with the task.
Fixed mindset
Students that believe that their failure is attributed to uncontrollable factors are more likely to feel shame and will demonstrate reduced effort or cognitive engagement. They are performance, self, other and failure focused, and they view their self-worth as being tied to their performance, and as compared to the performance of others. They may engage in task avoidance, which comes from the wish to protect self-worth. But it’s not as simple as high ability students do well, and lower ability students do not.
We know that intelligence, achievement and motivation are malleable and subject to change. Learning oriented students understand this and they work to be task focused, in an optimistic manner. Students who perceive themselves as capable, are more likely to be self-regulating, strategic and metacognitive than students who do not.
Teacher talk in the classroom usually reveals an allegiance to either a fixed or a growth mindset, but Carol Dweck emphasizes the importance of teachers supporting a not yet mindset. Supporting a growth mindset for students can really increase motivation and self-belief, and ultimately deeper cognitive engagement.
This work is by Reid Wilson for elementary students is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Resources on Growth Mindset
To learn more about Growth Mindset go to the Mindset Kit website https://www.mindsetkit.org/– and find a wealth of information and resources, including, lesson plans, videos, downloadable resources, and an actual “course” of information to teach you about growth mindset so you can use what you have learned with your students.
Also go to Mindsetworks.com to learn more, including the research supporting growth mindset , teacher practices, case studies and more. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/03%3A_Motivation/3.02%3A_Intrinsic_and_Extrinsic_Motivation.txt |
Authors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
Self-regulation
Professor Annemaree Carroll, from The University of Queensland, explores what self-regulation is and how this changes as a learner matures.
Click here watch this video lecture. (10:07 minutes)
Video summary:
ANNEMAREE CARROLL: "How does a teacher know when a student is ready to move from a surface learning approach to enacting deep learning strategies? The ability to self-regulate is key."
Self-regulated learning refers to an independent and self-motivated process of acquiring knowledge and skills.
Research suggests that students learn best when they have the ability to self-regulate. In fact, the degree to which students become self-regulators of their own learning influences academic success at school. These maturational changes are most prominent in the brain’s frontal lobes which have long been associated with executive function. The executive functioning system is the control system of the brain that is responsible for regulating behavior and directing and controlling thinking activity to enable effective problem solving in both learning and social contexts.
These skills enable us to stay focused, remember instructions, make plans, control impulses, and take on multiple tasks successfully. These skills depend on three types of brain function which are highly interrelated and which draws on elements of the other:
1. Working memory
2. Mental flexibility
3. Self-control
Working memory – we can think of this as the engine of the attention control system. It controls our ability to retain and work with pieces of information over a short amount of time. If a learner has poor working memory function the learner will have difficulty sustaining attention, will be susceptible to distraction; and will have difficulty performing other executive functions. These skills are crucial for learning and development and successfully negotiating social and educational contexts. They provide the link between early school achievement and social, emotional, and moral development. When remaining focused is not important to the task at hand, the executive functioning system goes into standby mode.
Mental flexibility is another brain function which determines our ability to sustain or shift our attention to different demands, and Self-control is the ability to set priorities, resist impulsive responses and monitor and correct performance.
We aren’t born with these skills, but we can develop them with the right amount of nurturing and exposure. For young children, being in environments that provide the “scaffolding” of these skills is essential to healthy development.
Both parents and teachers can:
• Establish routines
• Model appropriate social behavior
• Demonstrate supportive and reliable relationships
It is also important for children to have opportunities to exercise these developing skills through activities that foster creative play and social connection. Young children who do not have opportunities to use and strengthen these skills naturally fail to become proficient. Those who have problems staying focused and resisting distractions, not only display difficulties in school, but also have trouble following directions generally, and this extends into their adolescent and adult years. Studying, maintaining friendships, sustaining employment, or managing difficult situations will provide challenges.
Although we are not born with these skills, we can first see signs of them around age two. By age three, most children can complete tasks that involve following two rules or actions and make deliberate choices. Five-year old’s have the ability to shift their attention from one rule to another and the capacity to block inappropriate responses.
It is especially interesting to note that by age seven some of the capabilities underlying executive functions show distinct similarities to those in adulthood. As learners’ progress through the teenage and adolescent periods, they further develop self-control by switching between a central focus and peripheral stimuli, and successfully adapt to changing rules in different contexts. But self-motivation tends to decrease with age.
Since motivation is an important factor in self-regulation, this may be why early-to-mid adolescence is a period of vulnerability to problems with self-regulation.
Gender differences in the skills for self-regulation are also apparent in school aged children. Girls have been found to be more conscientious, self-disciplined, have higher levels of academic self-efficacy and more able to self-regulate than boys. Typically, girls are typically less impulsive and more capable of regulating their emotional expression. This influences the classroom dynamic as girls are consistently perceived by teachers as being more self-controlled and self-disciplined than boys.
We know that self-regulated learners display several features in their work.
• They develop their own goals and choose learning strategies to meet these goals.
• They employ techniques to monitor and evaluate their progress, and modify their learning when necessary.
• They have the ability to self-regulate their behavior, thoughts and emotions, which leads to sustained focus and attention. This includes being able to slow or impede behavior, thoughts, and emotions which do not contribute to learning.
We know that motivation is a key sustainer of self-regulated learning. And with maturity comes a greater ability to self-regulate.
The learning may be occurring in relation to pre-determined goals set by the teacher, external examination of work and progress, and established learning strategies.
Italy’s first female doctor Maria Montessori developed an educational approach based on a constructivist model in the late 1800s. She recognized that self-regulation is an important indicator of healthy child development and that it could be enhanced over time.
Her philosophy and methodology has strong foundations in children’s self-regulation and independence. Students exercise a large degree of choice in Montessori classrooms balanced with a degree of task structure. Developmentally appropriate materials are placed around the classroom for a variety of hands-on tasks which encourage planning and organization skills, flow and concentration, and task persistence. In noting children’s capacity for being absorbed in a task, or in a flow state, large periods of time are provided for children to develop sustained concentration and attention which are important components of self-regulation.
External rewards are not a feature of the Montessori approach. Instead, children in Montessori classrooms are intrinsically motivated to learn through the completion of the activities, feeling a sense of pride, ownership, and accomplishment.
In working with older students and adults, Monique Boekaert’s three layered model of self-regulated learning examines three levels of self-regulation.
The three-layered model of self-regulated learning (BOEKAERTS, 1999)
Goetz, Nett and Hall describe the regulation of processing modes as the level that focuses on the learner’s ability to self-regulate according to desired learning outcomes and choosing the most appropriate learning strategies.
The regulation of the learning process level relates to overall metacognitive processes and the coordination of cognitive strategies, including planning and monitoring. The outer level relates to regulation of the self, including the ability to choose current and future activities and to remain motivated when competing influences intervene. Boekaert suggests that successful self-regulation is dependent on competency in these three levels.
The ability to be a self-regulated, independent, and flexible learner in today’s fast-paced, globalized, and knowledge-based world is essential.
Teachers can assist students to set realistic yet challenging goals .
• Encourage students to be cognizant of their own behavior by observing and recording themselves for reflection.
• Provide a range of instructions that students can give to themselves during the learning process.
• Model how to evaluate achievement and modify strategies and goals if necessary.
• Teachers should also provide frequent opportunities for students to practice self-regulating strategies and solve interpersonal problems.
• It’s also important for teachers to improve their students’ attentional readiness through techniques such as breathing and mindfulness.
All of these strategies will lead to self-regulated deep learners in our classrooms. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/03%3A_Motivation/3.03%3A_Self-regulation.txt |
Authors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
Attention Regulation
Click here to watch video lecture (10:48 minutes)
Video summary: Practical strategies teachers can use to develop attention leading to motivation for deep learning in the classroom:
Practical strategies teachers can use to develop attention leading to motivation for deep learning in the classroom:
How can teachers assist students when they display, low motivation for effortful work?
These students require considerable scaffolding of the use of helpful thinking, by raising awareness of their own thoughts and helping them to understand that their thoughts have a critical impact on their performance, feelings, learning and social behaviors.
The next step is to reframe these unhelpful motivational states by helping students to develop productive ways of thinking through positive self-beliefs, and looking for the importance, value and possible interest in the learning task.
Set children up for success by providing tasks of ‘medium effort’. ‘Big effort’ tasks are overwhelming and invite unhelpful thinking, off-task behavior, or work avoidance.
It is more helpful to provide two tasks of ‘medium effort’ than to give one ‘big effort’ task in supporting best efforts, persistence, and helpful thinking.
Teachers can prompt for attention and focused listening prior to giving an instruction and be aware of background noise and distractions.
A settling of physical activity is considered a defining feature of attention and reflective learning. Prompting children to check their physical activity and brain energy prepares them for listening.
Consider providing information or instructions in both verbal and visual formats where possible to help children retain key details. Images; graphs and charts; mind maps; visual schedules; step planners; infographics; and visual reference keys are all excellent models.
The cooperative liaison between home and school is particularly important to children’s learning of organizational skills and strategies. Daily organizational systems can be shared with parents. These might include organizing school bags with specific pockets for lunch, permission slips and library book; organizing schoolwork with color-coded books; or organizing desk and work area.
The use of step planners helps children develop a metacognitive perspective. Step planners outline all the steps involved in a task, reinforce verbal instructions, and reduce working memory demands. Step planners could be completed on the classroom whiteboard or a small whiteboard on a child’s desk, with an arrow or number to indicate each step.
In today’s world, the ability to focus is quite a challenge with so many competing distractions that are vying for our attention. Some say that we are living in a state of continuous partial attention and that our attention is in radar mode, divided by multitasking and distractions.
This brief sketch of the neural networks of attention serves as a baseline for understanding the critical importance of regulating student’s attention for classroom learning. With these important skills, students are attentionally focused and ready for deep learning.
3.05: The student-teacher relationship
Authors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
The student-teacher relationship
Click here to watch video lecture. (8:20 minutes)
Video summary
JULIE BOWER: "What is it about that one teacher we remember so strongly that makes us feel either immense warmth and admiration or sheer dread when remembering how we learned about how to find the area of a triangle!
I came across a really powerful statement a number of years ago by Dr. Haim Ginott that has completely changed the way I walk into a classroom."
“I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather…I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized”.
The student – teacher relationship is profoundly important in how students learn.
When the classroom is characterized by emotionally engaged teachers, there is a much greater chance that students will be actively engaged and deep learning will take place.
Meta-analyses by John Hattie indicate that the student-teacher relationship is absolutely paramount – the school context is a major source of social and cultural learning and the quality of the relationship that a student has with his/her teacher is an important factor in that student’s well-being and learning outcomes.
The teacher smiles, some laughter – a relaxed but structured atmosphere, students are respectful of a teacher’s knowledge about a subject, students feel comfortable sharing opinions, students know and accept teacher expectations, teachers treat students with respect. Cornelius-White (2007) conducted a meta-Analysis of 119 studies to identify these teacher-student relational variables.
The emotional connectivity of the teacher with the student, the student with the student, and the teacher with the teacher optimizes the classroom for positive learning experiences and outcomes.
Emotions drive our engagement with the world around us. They influence our decisions, how we interpret experience, and how we create memories. As educators it is imperative to leverage this emotional drive in our students if we want to impact student motivation for deep learning. Relationships are a crucial pathway for doing so.
Cooperative group learning and peer mentoring have been linked to positive social and academic outcomes, relative to individual or competitive tasks. Social emotions such as empathy, admiration, love, and compassion meet our basic human need to belong. So providing opportunities for students to work together, and for teachers to work together, can have important positive outcomes in schools.
Some fascinating research about empathy by Mary-Helen Immordino-Yang has shown us that being able to empathize with others actually increases neural activity in the brain. What her research shows us is that by engaging social emotions (such as empathy) where students experience meaningful learning and connect socially with others, they are actually using more brain processing capacity, enabling them to connect ideas, to remember these experiences longer term, and make meaning of their life experiences.
The Mindful Practice for Teachers program was developed with teachers for teachers. It provides an opportunity for teachers to work together on their own well-being and experience social emotions such as empathy. This program combines relaxation skills, self-awareness, mindful movement, and background knowledge about the effects of stress on the body and brain to assist teachers to self-regulate their emotions in the classroom. Teachers have found some really positive impacts on their daily teaching practice and their relationships with their students.
We know positive relationships are crucial to learning, but what steps can we take to build an environment where positive teacher-student relationships flourish
• Firstly, we must look after our teachers. Teachers need opportunities to plan together, to debrief, to make professional decisions, and to learn about emotions. Teachers need to be aware of the enduring effects that their own presence, empathy, and emotional states have on their students.
• Secondly, we then need to create relaxed and respectful classrooms where students and teachers can engage meaningfully with each other for deep learning.
• Thirdly, we must find the balance between helping students to find their strengths and challenging them to broaden their minds and build the capacity to think creatively about new and exciting concepts.
Activities that promote interest, challenge thinking, and provide opportunities for success for all students, whether individually or collaboratively, are more emotionally engaging longer term.
Once we establish that emotionally positive educational climate, there are a number of strategies we can use to build positive student teacher relationships. For example, we can explicitly teach social and emotional skills for working together (for example managing emotions, mindfulness, social problem solving, being a good communicator, naming emotions, understanding how emotions and the brain work, finding personal strengths); we can provide opportunities for students to work meaningfully together towards self-set goals; periodically we can check in and see if the presentation can be made more creative or enjoyable, we can smile; we can provide a sense of predictability in the classroom to heighten students’ perception of control; we can clearly communicate expectations and performance demands; we can create a learner-centered classroom where learning is separate from testing; we can encourage students to become intrinsically motivated and self-regulated learners; and we can provide a degree of student choice in authentic learning tasks.
If we focus on building positive teacher-student relationships using these strategies, perhaps we will become that one amazing teacher that someone conjures up and remembers when reflecting back on what they have learned at school | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/03%3A_Motivation/3.04%3A_Attention_Regulation.txt |
Authors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
Alternative learning environments to motivate students
• Walking Neighborhoods
• PLACED-based learning and pedagogy
• NH Example: The Wediko Experience
One of the factors for motivating students for deep learning that is often overlooked, is the powerful change that can occur when a variety of different learning environments are used. Dr. Melissa Cain from the School of Education at The University of Queensland is passionate about providing a range of alternative learning spaces and provides some ideas in this next video.
Click here to watch video lecture. (4:23 minutes)
MELISSA CAIN: When we think of learning environments, we often think of a classroom with walls; students sitting at desks and the teacher at the front of the room pacing back and forth. If we look around more closely, we realize that learning happens anywhere and everywhere. We start to see that there are an abundance of factors involved in preparing students for learning, engaging and motivating learners, and sustaining that engagement.
One factor that should be given consideration is inspiring students through working in alternative learning environments.
Even within the classroom, alternative learning spaces can be included. Arranging desks so that students can collaborate in small groups, providing a reading corner, and establishing a virtual learning environment are possible. A change in learning spaces with attention to the affective dimension of learning, can bring about changes in behavioral and pedagogical practices, and provide greater inclusivity for the diversity of learning preferences.
Alternative learning spaces can bring the community into the school or allow learners to develop a relationship with their local community. A change in environment can shift the focus of power, and bring the teacher and students closer together as co-learners. Often, it’s the outdoor learning space which is overlooked, but which offers great potential for engaging students in deep learning.
Changes in light, temperature, sound, air quality, and space can all affect motivation and engagement. Allowing students to engage with their school and community environments provides a different perspective to learning within four walls. Vegetable gardens, forest areas, outdoor spaces for reflection, planning and dialogue, as well as spaces to display artworks and perform should be considered as alternatives to the traditional classroom.
If students are involved in designing and creating these spaces they are even more effective. Lenine Bourke is the director of the Walking Neighborhood project (click) and Dr. Louise Phillips is a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Queensland. Both are interested in alternative ways of learning, and promoting intergenerational civic engagement. In responding to young learners’ concerns about their lack of autonomy, Louise and Lenine formed a research partnership to provoke and promote intergenerational learning in public spaces. And the Walking Neighborhood project was born.
So far the project has explored neighborhoods in Brisbane, Sydney, and Bagot, Australia; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Seoul South Korea; and Koupio Finland amongst others. The Walking Neighborhood premise is simple – children lead adult audience members on a curated tour of places of the children’s interest in urban communities.
This facilitates a new way for adults to see and experience public places, spaces and buildings. Children are placed in control of developing the artistic experience, guiding an audience, navigating the physical space, and sharing their experiences of autonomy all the while creating new friendships with people they do not know.
Listen to the ways in which the Walking Neighborhood project encourages:
• Learner motivation
• Group collaboration
• Trust
• Community integration
• Empathy
And provides alternative ways to present knowledge and findings through:
• Alternative learning spaces
• Student voice
• Student choice
• Student agency
These are critical factors in motivating for developing deep engagement competencies and reflect the principles of Universal Design for Learning.
PLACED-based learning and pedagogy
Dr. Louise Phillips from the School of Education at The University of Queensland has been an integral part of The Walking Neighborhood project with its Director, Lenine Bourke. In this video, Louise discusses how deep engagement through ‘place based pedagogy’ is developed through projects such as The Walking Neighborhood
Click here to watch video lecture (8:13 minutes)
New Hampshire Example of Alternative Learning Environments
The Wediko Experience
New Hampshire Example of Alternative Learning Environments
The Wediko Experience
Watch this video to learn about the NH Fish and Game’s Aquatic Resources Education Programs, Let’s Go Fishing, the Watershed Education Program and the school that has implemented both into its curriculum.
NHFishandGame}. (2017, Nov. 8). The Wediko Experience. [Video File].
Berkeley’s Farm and Garden Based Learning Program
[Berkeley Unified School District]. (2015, Jun. 23). Garden-Based Learning at Berkeley USD 2015. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/03%3A_Motivation/3.06%3A_Alternative_learning_environments.txt |
In general usage, the term direct instruction refers to (1) instructional approaches that are structured, sequenced, and led by teachers, and/or (2) the presentation of academic content to students by teachers, such as in a lecture or demonstration. In other words, teachers are “directing” the instructional process or instruction is being “directed” at students.
While a classroom lecture is perhaps the image most commonly associated with direct instruction, the term encompasses a wide variety of fundamental teaching techniques and potential instructional scenarios. For example, presenting a video or film to students could be considered a form of direct instruction (even though the teacher is not actively instructing students, the content and presentation of material was determined by the teacher). Generally speaking, direct instruction may be the most common teaching approach in the United States, since teacher-designed and teacher-led instructional methods are widely used in American public schools. That said, it’s important to note that teaching techniques such as direct instruction, differentiation, or scaffolding, to name just a few, are rarely mutually exclusive—direct instruction may be integrated with any number of other instructional approaches in a given course or lesson. For example, teachers may use direct instruction to prepare students for an activity in which the students work collaboratively on a group project with guidance and coaching from the teacher as needed (the group activity would not be considered a form of direct instruction).
Key Takeaways
In addition, the basic techniques of direct instruction not only extend beyond lecturing, presenting, or demonstrating, but many are considered to be foundational to effective teaching. For example:
• Establishing learning objectives for lessons, activities, and projects, and then making sure that students have understood the goals.
• Purposefully organizing and sequencing a series of lessons, projects, and assignments that move students toward stronger understanding and the achievement of specific academic goals.
• Reviewing instructions for an activity or modeling a process—such as a scientific experiment—so that students know what they are expected to do.
• Providing students with clear explanations, descriptions, and illustrations of the knowledge and skills being taught.
• Asking questions to make sure that students have understood what has been taught.
It should be noted that the term direct instruction is used in various proprietary or trademarked instructional models that have been developed and promoted by educators, including—most prominently—Direct Instruction, created by Siegfried Engelmann and Wesley Becker, which is a “explicit, carefully sequenced and scripted model of instruction,” according to the National Institute for Direct Instruction.
4.02: Debate
In recent decades, the concept of direct instruction has taken on negative associations among some educators. Because direct instruction is often associated with traditional lecture-style teaching to classrooms full of passive students obediently sitting in desks and taking notes, it may be considered outdated, pedantic, or insufficiently considerate of student learning needs by some educators and reformers.
That said, many of direct instruction’s negative connotations likely result from either a limited definition of the concept or a misunderstanding of its techniques. For example, all teachers, by necessity, use some form of direct instruction in their teaching—i.e., preparing courses and lessons, presenting and demonstrating information, and providing clear explanations and illustrations of concepts are all essential, and to some degree unavoidable, teaching activities. Negative perceptions of the practice tend to arise when teachers rely too heavily upon direct instruction, or when they fail to use alternative techniques that may be better suited to the lesson at hand or that may improve student interest, engagement, and comprehension.
While a sustained forty-five-minute lecture may not be considered an effective teaching strategy by many educators, the alternative strategies they may advocate—such as personalized learning or project-based learning, to name just two options—will almost certainly require some level of direct instruction by teachers. In other words, teachers rarely use either direct instruction or some other teaching approach—in actual practice, diverse strategies are frequently blended together. For these reasons, negative perceptions of direct instruction likely result more from a widespread over-reliance on the approach, and from the tendency to view it as an either/or option, rather than from its inherent value to the instructional process.
(Direct Instruction, 2013)
The next section of the chapter is adapted from:McLeskey, J., Barringer, M-D., Billingsley, B., Brownell, M., Jackson, D., Kennedy, M., Lewis, T., Maheady, L., Rodriguez, J., Scheeler, M. C., Winn, J., & Ziegler, D. (2017, January). High-leverage practices in special education. Arlington, VA: Council for Exceptional Children & CEEDAR Center. (Public domain)
High Leverage Practice #16 Use Explicit Instruction
Teachers make content, skills, and concepts explicit by showing and telling students what to do or think while solving problems, enacting strategies, completing tasks, and classifying concepts. Teachers use explicit instruction when students are learning new material and complex concepts and skills. They strategically choose examples and non-examples and language to facilitate student understanding, anticipate common misconceptions, highlight essential content, and remove distracting information. They model and scaffold steps or processes needed to understand content and concepts, apply skills, and complete tasks successfully and independently. (High-leverage practices in special education. Arlington, VA: Council for Exceptional Children & CEEDAR Center. Public domain)
Watch video on Explicit Instruction- *start at 1:30 minutes.
[Council for Exceptional Children]. (2019, April 22). HLP#16 Use Explicit Instruction. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/04%3A_Direct_Instruction/4.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Explicit, Systematic Instruction in the context of Mathematics Instruction
This next section contains excerpts from National Center on Intensive Intervention. (2016). Principles for designing intervention in mathematics. Washington, DC: Office of Special Education, U.S. Department of Education and is in the pubic domain.
Explicit, systematic instruction in mathematics requires educators to clearly teach the steps involved in solving mathematical problems using a logical progression of skills (Hudson, Miller, & Butler, 2006; Montague & Dietz, 2009). Explicit instruction may take the form of teaching students how to use manipulatives, teaching specific algorithms for solving computational problems, or teaching strategies for solving more advanced mathematical concepts. Systematic instruction considers the scope and mathematical trajectories, such as the types of examples used for developing the foundational skills prior to introduction/re-teaching of grade-level material (Gersten et al., 2009; Kroesbergen & Van Luit, 2003; Maccini, Mulcahy, & Wilson, 2007). Regardless of the concept or skill being taught, explicit, systematic instruction should include the following components (Archer & Hughes, 2011; Hudson et al., 2006):
1. Advance Organizer: Providing students with an advance organizer allows them to know the specific objective of the lesson and its relevance to everyday life.
2. Assessing Background Knowledge: In assessing background knowledge, instructors determine whether students have mastered the prerequisite skills for successful problem solving in the new concept area. If the prerequisite skills were recently covered, assessment of background knowledge should be conducted quickly. If, however, those skills were taught several weeks ago, more time may be needed to refresh students’ memories. Instructors can also determine whether students are able to generalize previously learned concepts to the new concept.
For example, if students have previously learned regrouping strategies in addition and subtraction, are they able to generalize these concepts to regrouping in multiplication and division? In addition, instructors should ask students questions about the new concept to assess their knowledge of the concept.
3. Modeling: During the modeling phase, instructors “think aloud” as they model the process of working through a computation problem; read, set up, and solve a word problem; use a strategy; or demonstrate a concept. During modeling, instructors should be clear and direct in their presentation; they also should be precise and mindful in using general and mathematical vocabulary as well as in selecting numbers or examples for use during instruction. During modeling, instructors should involve students in reading the problems and should ask questions to keep students engaged in the lesson.
4. Guided Practice: During guided practice, instructors engage all students by asking questions to guide learning and understanding as students actively participate in solving problems. During this phase, instructors prompt and scaffold student learning as necessary. Scaffolding is gradually eliminated as students demonstrate accuracy in using the material being taught. Positive and corrective feedback is provided during this phase, and instruction is adjusted to match student needs.
Students should reach a high level of mastery (typically 85 percent accuracy or higher) before moving out of the guided practice phase.
5. Independent Practice: After achieving a high level of mastery, students move to the independent practice phase where they autonomously demonstrate their new knowledge and skills. During independent practice, the instructor closely monitors students and provides immediate feedback as necessary. Countless independent practice activities can be used with students, and the primary focus of the independent practice activity should be related to the content of the modeling and guided practice. If students demonstrate difficulty at this stage, instructors evaluate and adjust their instruction to re-teach concepts as needed.
6. Maintenance: Students with disabilities often have a difficult time maintaining what they have learned when the knowledge is not used on a regular basis. Students are given opportunities to independently practice these skills during the maintenance phase. During this phase, instructors use distributed practice to assess student maintenance at regularly scheduled intervals. Distributed practice is focused practice on a specific skill, strategy, or concept. The frequency of these practice assessments is determined by the difficulty level of the skill and according to individual student needs. Maintenance may also include cumulative practice.
Instructors often want to know how much time they should spend on each phase. Although there are no specific guidelines concerning how much time should be devoted to each phase, the bulk of the instruction should occur within the guided practice phase (National Center on Intensive Intervention, 2013)
4.04: Videos
Watch Videos on Direct and Explicit Instruction
How to do Direct Instruction – Teach Like This (3:40 minutes)
[TeachLikeThis]. (2013, Oct. 11). How to do Direction Instruction-TeachLike This. [Video File].
Goal Mastery Learning
• I do– Teacher Modeling, Teacher Directed
• We do– Guided Practice with Support and Structure
• You do– Independent Practice to Demonstrate Learning
Teaching Matters: Explicit Instruction (4:53 minutes)
[eMedia Workshop]. (2012, Sep. 17). Teaching Matters Explicit Instruction. [Video File}.
This model focuses on the [I do-We do- You do] model and similar aspects of the Direct Instruction Method:
1. Modeling
2. Guided Practice
3. Independent Practice (check for understanding).
• Additional steps in the Direct Instruction Teaching Method Include:
4. Monitoring- how will you formatively assess learning and collect data on student learning?
5. Feedback– how will you respond to student learning: move learning forward, address misconceptions, and areas of difficulty?
Watch this video that models gradual release in the context of a writing lesson. (8:06 minutes).
[CitizensAcademyCleve]. (2011, Dec. 5). Gradual Release (Modeled-Guided-Independent Practice). [Video File]
4.05: Recommended Reading and References
Recommended Reading
Calvin, S. (n.d.) Planning and Teaching with Explicit Instruction, LD@school. Retrieved from https://www.ldatschool.ca/planning-teaching-explicit-instruction/
Direct/Explicit Instruction and Mathematics, (n.d The Access Center, Improving Outcomes for All Students K-8. Retrieved from http://165.139.150.129/intervention/math/DirecIinstruction.pdf
Basic Philosophy of Direct Intruction-, The National Institute of Direct Instruction, Retrieved from https://www.nifdi.org/15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=27
Traver, Sara, Dr. (1999). A Focus on Direct Instruction. Current Practice Alerts, TeachingLD.org, Retrieved from http://s3.amazonaws.com/cmi-teaching-ld/alerts/17/uploaded_files/original_Alert2.pdf?1301001903 | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/04%3A_Direct_Instruction/4.03%3A_Explicit_Systematic_Instruction_in_the_context_of_Mathematics_Instruction.txt |
Author: Evan Glazer (University of Georgia)
Editor’s Note: Dr. Glazer chose to use the term Problem-based Instruction and Inquiry, but my reading and other references to this chapter also use the term Problem-based Learning. The reader can assume the terms are equivalent.
Description
• Problem-based inquiry is an effort to challenge students to address real-world problems and resolve realistic dilemmas.
Such problems create opportunities for meaningful activities that engage students in problem solving and higher-ordered thinking in authentic settings. Many textbooks attempt to promote these skills through contrived settings without relevance to students’ lives or interests. A notorious algebra problem concerns the time at which two railway trains will pass each other:
Two trains leave different stations headed toward each other. Station A is 500 miles west of Station B. Train A leaves station A at 12:00 pm traveling toward Station B at a rate of 60 miles per hour. Train B leaves Station B at 2:30 pm for Station A at a rate of 45 miles per hour. At what time will the trains meet?
Reading this question, one might respond, “Who cares?”, or, “Why do we need to know this?” Such questions have created substantial anxiety among students and have, perhaps, even been the cause of nightmares. Critics would argue that classic “story problems” leave a lasting impression of meaningless efforts to confuse and torment students, as if they have come from hell’s library. Problem-based inquiry, on the other hand, intends to engage students in relevant, realistic problems.
Several changes would need to be made in the above problem to promote problem-based inquiry. It would first have to be acknowledged that the trains are not, in fact, traveling at constant rates when they are in motion; negotiating curves or changing tracks at high speeds can result in accidents.
Further, all of the information about the problem cannot be presented to the learner at the outset; that is, some ambiguity must exist in the context so that students have an opportunity to engage in a problem-solving activity. In addition, the situation should involve a meaningful scenario. Suppose that a person intends to catch a connecting train at the second station and requires a time-efficient itinerary? What if we are not given data about the trains, but instead, the outcome of a particular event, such as an accident?
Why should we use problem-based inquiry to help students learn?
The American educational system has been criticized for having an underachieving curriculum that leads students to memorize and regurgitate facts that do not apply to their lives (Martin, 1987; Paul, 1993). Many claim that the traditional classroom environment, with its orderly conduct and didactic teaching methods in which the teacher dispenses information, has greatly inhibited students’ opportunities to think critically (Dossey et al., 1988; Goodlad, 1984; Wood, 1987). Problem-based inquiry is an attempt to overcome these obstacles and confront the concerns presented by the National Assessment of Educational Progress:
If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament. (A Nation at Risk, 1983)
Problem-based inquiry emphasizes learning as a process that involves problem solving and critical thinking in situated contexts. It provides opportunities to address broader learning goals that focus on preparing students for active and responsible citizenship. Students gain experience in tackling realistic problems, and emphasis is placed on using communication, cooperation, and resources to formulate ideas and develop reasoning skills. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/05%3A_Problem_Based_Learning/5.01%3A_Description_of_Problem_Based_Learning.txt |
Characteristics
Activity is grounded in a general question about a problem that has multiple possible answers and methods for addressing the question. Each problem has a general question that guides the overall task followed by ill-structured problems or questions that are generated throughout the problem-solving process. That is, to address the larger question, students must derive and investigate smaller problems or questions that relate to the findings and implications of the broader goal. The problems or questions thus created are most likely new to the students and lack known definitive methods or answers that have been predetermined by the teacher.
Learning is student-centered; the teacher acts as facilitator. In essence, the teacher creates an environment where students take ownership in the direction and content of their learning.
Students work collaboratively towards addressing the general question. All of the students work together to attain the shared goal of producing a solution to the problem. Consequently, the groups co-depend on each other’s performance and contributions in order to make their own advances in reasoning toward answering the research questions and the overall problem.
Learning is driven by the context of the problem and is not bound by an established curriculum. In this environment, students determine what and how much they need to learn in order to accomplish a specific task. Consequently, acquired information and learned concepts and strategies are tied directly to the context of the learning situation. Learning is not confined to a preset curriculum. Creation of a final product is not a necessary requirement of all problem-based inquiry models.
Project-based learning models most often include this type of product as an integral part of the learning process, because learning is expected to occur primarily in the act of creating something. Unlike problem based inquiry models, project-based learning does not necessarily address a real-world problem, nor does it focus on providing argumentation for resolution of an issue.
In a problem-based inquiry setting, there is greater emphasis on problem-solving, analysis, resolution, and explanation of an authentic dilemma. Sometimes this analysis and explanation is represented in the form of a project, but it can also take the form of verbal debate and written summary.
Instructional models and applications
• There is no single method for designing problem-based inquiry learning environments.
Various techniques have been used to generate the problem and stimulate learning. Promoting student-ownership, using a particular medium to focus attention, telling stories, simulating and recreating events, and utilizing resources and data on the Internet are among them. The instructional model, problem based learning will be discussed next with attention to instructional strategies and practical examples.
Problem-Based Learning
• Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional strategy in which students actively resolve complex problems in realistic situations.
It can be used to teach individual lessons, units, or even entire curricula. PBL is often approached in a team environment with emphasis on building skills related to consensual decision making, dialogue and discussion, team maintenance, conflict management, and team leadership. While the fundamental approach of problem solving in situated environments has been used throughout the history of schooling, the term PBL did not appear until the 1970s and was devised as an alternative approach to medical education.
In most medical programs, students initially take a series of fact intensive courses in biology and anatomy and then participate in a field experience as a medical resident in a hospital or clinic. However, Barrows reported that, unfortunately, medical residents frequently had difficulty applying knowledge from their classroom experiences in work-related, problem-solving situations. He argued that the classical framework of learning medical knowledge first in classrooms through studying and testing was too passive and removed from context to take on meaning.
Consequently, PBL was first seen as a medical field immersion experience whereby students learned about their medical specialty through direct engagement in realistic problems and gradual apprenticeship in natural or simulated settings. Problem solving is emphasized as an initial area of learning and development in PBL medical programs more so than memorizing a series of facts outside their natural context.
In addition to the field of medicine, PBL is used in many areas of education and training. In academic courses, PBL is used as a tool to help students understand the utility of a particular concept or study. For example, students may learn about recycling and materials as they determine methods that will reduce the county landfill problem.
In addition, alternative education programs have been created with a PBL emphasis to help at-risk students learn in a different way through partnerships with local businesses and government. In vocational education, PBL experiences often emphasize participation in natural settings.
For example, students in architecture address the problem of designing homes for impoverished areas. Many of the residents need safe housing and cannot afford to purchase typical homes. Consequently, students learn about architectural design and resolving the problem as they construct homes made from recycled materials. In business and the military, simulations are used as a means of instruction in PBL. The affective and physiological stress associated with warfare can influence strategic planning, so PBL in military settings promotes the use of “war games” as a tactic for facing authentic crises.
In business settings, simulations of “what if” scenarios are used to train managers in various strategies and problem-solving approaches to conflict resolution. In both military and business settings, the simulation is a tool that provides an opportunity to not only address realistic problems but to learn from mistakes in a more forgiving way than in an authentic context | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/05%3A_Problem_Based_Learning/5.02%3A_Characteristics_of_Problem_Based_Learning.txt |
Designing the learning environment
The following elements are commonly associated with PBL activities.
Problem generation: The problems must address concepts and principles relevant to the content domain. Problems are not investigated by students solely for problem solving experiences but as a means of understanding the subject area. Some PBL activities incorporate multidisciplinary approaches, assuming the teacher can provide and coordinate needed resources such as additional content, instructional support, and other teachers. In addition, the problems must relate to real issues that are present in society or students’ lives. Contrived scenarios detract from the perceived usefulness of a concept.
Problem presentation: Students must “own” the problem, either by creating or selecting it. Ownership also implies that their contributions affect the outcome of solving the problem. Thus, more than one solution and more than one method of achieving a solution to the problem are often possible. Furthermore, ownership means that students take responsibility for representing and communicating their work in a unique way.
Predetermined formats of problem structure and analysis towards resolution are not recommended; however, the problem should be presented such that the information in the problem does not call attention to critical factors in the case that will lead to immediate resolution. Ownership also suggests that students will ask further questions, reveal further information, and synthesize critical factors throughout the problem-solving process.
Teacher role: Teachers act primarily as cognitive coaches by facilitating learning and modeling higher order thinking and meta cognitive skills. As facilitators, teachers give students control over how they learn and provide support and structure in the direction of their learning. They help the class create a common framework of expectations using tools such as general guidelines and time lines.
As cognitive modelers, teachers think aloud about strategies and questions that influence how students manage the progress of their learning and accomplish group tasks. In addition, teachers continually question students about the concepts they are learning in the context of the problem in order to probe their understanding, challenge their thinking, and help them deepen or extend their ideas.
Student role: Students first define or select an ill-structured problem that has no obvious solution. They develop alternative hypotheses to resolve the problem and discuss and negotiate their conjectures in a group. Next, they access, evaluate, and utilize data from a variety of available sources to support or refute their hypotheses. They may alter, develop, or synthesize hypotheses in light of new information. Finally, they develop clearly stated solutions that fit the problem and its inherent conditions, based upon information and reasoning to support their arguments. Solutions can be in the form of essays, presentations, or projects.
5.04: Videos
Maine School Engages Kids With Problem-Solving Challenges (11:37)
[PBS NewsHour].(2013, May 6). Maine School Engages Kids with Problem Solving Challenges. [Video File].
Special correspondent John Tulenko of Leaning Matters reports on a public middle school in Portland, Maine that is taking a different approach to teaching students. Teachers have swapped traditional curriculum for an unusually comprehensive science curriculum that emphasizes problem-solving, with a little help from some robots.
Effectiveness of Problem and Inquiry-based learning.
Why does inquiry-based learning only have an effect size of 0.31 when it is an approach to learning that seems to engage students and teachers so readily in the process of learning?
When is the right and wrong time to introduce inquiry and problem based learning?
Watch video from John Hattie on inquiry and problem-based learning, (2:11 minutes).
[Corwin]. (2015, Nov. 9). John Hattie on inquiry-based learning. [Video File].
5.05: References
Glazer, E. (2010) Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology, Global Text, Michael Orey. (Chapter 14) Attribution CC 3.0. Retrieved from https://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emerging_Perspectives_Learning.pdf | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/05%3A_Problem_Based_Learning/5.03%3A_Designing_the_learning_environment.txt |
Authors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
Project-based learning through developing the five attitudes of creative people
Developing deep learning competencies can be achieved in many ways, but one of the most exciting is through project-based learning.
• Project-based learning is a learner-centered pedagogy that involves learners identifying a real-world problem and engaging in hands-on learning to identify a solution.
Dr Melissa Cain from the School of Education at The University of Queensland notes in this next video how a deeper engagement with content can be developed through engaging in project-based learning.
Project based learning using Piirto’s five core attitudes – Watch video lecture (4:52 minutes)
MELISSA CAIN: Do you have the right attitudes for deep learning? Jane Piirto, in her work ‘Creativity for 21st Century Skills’ identified five core attitudes that creative people possess. These are:
1. self-determination
2. openness to experience
3. risk taking
4. a tolerance for ambiguity
5. group trust
We see these attitudes displayed in episodes of deep learning. One of the ways to further develop these attitudes and deep learning competencies is through project based learning.
In a nutshell, project based learning (or PBL for short) is learner-centered pedagogy applicable to all ages. It involves students identifying a real-world problem with authentic connections and engaging in a hands-on project to identify a solution.
Project based learning places emphasis on the process of inquiry over the final product. Through connecting with students’ interests, prior experiences, and family funds of knowledge, well-constructed projects excite and motivate students to work collaboratively on learning about a topic in depth over an extended period of time.
This includes students sharing their findings with others in insightful ways, and using a range of communication strategies to suit various learner preferences and abilities.
Through project based learning, students connect with experts in the real world to initiate a sustained inquiry.
In project based learning, student choice and student voice are critical elements in igniting intrinsic motivation, developing a sense of agency, and placing the learners as captains of their ship.
Project based learning has a focus on deep learning skills such as:
• critical thinking
• collaboration
• communication
• innovation
• creativity
Project based learning also fosters teamwork and positive social relations, and develops higher order cognitive skills so that learners engage in analyzing, synthesizing, justifying, evaluating, and creating. (Bloom’s Taxonomy)
To undertake such a project successfully, students will also need to demonstrate Piirto’s core attitudes of self- discipline, openness to experience, risk taking, a tolerance for ambiguity, and group trust.
• To summarize, project based learning involves an in-depth investigation of real world topics, manipulation of authentic objects, active learning through projects which occur over weeks or months, and is achieved through questioning experts, making observations, making connections, and demonstrating learning to others.
Project based learning incorporates the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. These provide a framework that helps teachers plan learning activities to meet the diverse needs of all students.
These principles include multiple means of representation to allow for connections to be made by all students through varied means of presenting information, multiple means of action and expression so that students can choose topics, ideas, and information, as well as how to organize them, display them, and how they will present them for their chosen audience, and multiple means of engagement Students work with their own interests and on authentic problems.
Personal relevance and subjectivity is important. Students are engaged and motivated by their team and the technology they use. In future, you might like to consider developing learning activities that involve extended projects and which develop attitudes essential for moving students from surface to deep learning.
The Creative Arts Charter School video is useful for demonstrating a number of key concepts in motivating students for deep learning. Take the time to revisit this video and look for the following main concepts of project-based learning:
1. Learners working with a real-world issue that is presented in an authentic manner
2. Exploration of the topic begins with a ‘big question’ and extends over weeks or months
3. Learners connect with experts or ‘knowledgeable others’
4. There is an emphasis on the process of inquiry over the final product
5. There are opportunities for collaborative learning, teamwork, and the development of positive social relationships
6. Learners present their findings to others in insightful ways
Link to video: Creative Arts Charter School’s Approach to Project Based Learning (5.59 minutes)
[Tom Scott]. (2013, Jan. 16). Creative Arts Charter School Approach to Project-Based Teaching. [Video File] | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/06%3A_Project_Based_Learning/6.01%3A_Project-based_learning_through_developing_the_five_attitudes_of_creative_people.txt |
The following are a few representative examples of the kinds of arguments typically made by advocates of project-based learning:
• Project-based learning gives students a more “integrated” understanding of the concepts and knowledge they learn, while also equipping them with practical skills they can apply throughout their lives. The interdisciplinary nature of project-based learning helps students make connections across different subjects, rather than perceiving, for example, math and science as discrete subjects with little in common.
• Because project-based learning mirrors the real-world situations, students will encounter after they leave school, it can provide stronger and more relevant preparation for college and work. The student not only acquires important knowledge and skills, they also learn how to research complex issues, solve problems, develop plans, manage time, organize their work, collaborate with others, and persevere and overcome challenges, for example.
• Project-based learning reflects the ways in which today’s students learn. It can improve student engagement in school, increase their interest in what is being taught, strengthen their motivation to learn, and make learning experiences more relevant and meaningful.
• Since project-based learning represents a more flexible approach to instruction, it allows teachers to tailor assignments and projects for students with a diverse variety of interests, career aspirations, learning styles, abilities, and personal backgrounds. For related discussions, see differentiation and personalized learning.
• Project-based learning allows teachers and students to address multiple learning standards simultaneously. Rather than only meeting math standards in math classes and science standards in science classes, students can work progressively toward demonstrating proficiency in a variety of standards while working on a single project or series of projects. For a related discussion, see proficiency-based learning.
The following are few representative examples of the kinds of arguments that may be made by critics of project-based learning:
• Project-based learning may not ensure that students learn all the required material and standards they are expected to learn in a course, subject area, or grade level. When a variety of subjects are lumped together, it’s more difficult for teachers to monitor and assess what students have learned in specific academic subjects.
• Many teachers will not have the time or specialized training required to use project-based learning effectively. The approach places greater demands on teachers—from course preparation to instructional methods to the evaluation of learning progress—and schools may not have the funding, resources, and capacity they need to adopt a project-based-learning model.
• The projects that students select and design may vary widely in academic rigor and quality. Project-based learning could open the door to watered-down learning expectations and low-quality coursework.
• Project-based learning is not well suited to students who lack self-motivation or who struggle in less-structured learning environments.
• Project-based learning raises a variety of logistical concerns, since students are more likely to learn outside of school or in unsupervised settings, or to work with adults who are not trained educators.
6.03: Reflections
Reflection
How and why could the Problem- Based and/or Project-Based Learning, teaching methods to enhance opportunities for deep learning, motivation, equity, and inclusion of students with disabilities?
Reflections from Robin Vogt, Granite State College School of Education teacher candidate
Finding inclusive educational balance with students who have disabilities is not an easy task. There are many factors that affect not only the student’s willingness to participate, but their ability to consistently be a contribution to the overarching educational goal(s) that is set by the teacher. Cooperative learning opportunities encompass everything that is good and right about education, and the success of an entire body of students. Most importantly, the special education population that makes up a percentage of this student body plays a large role in these successes as well. Deeper learning, motivation, equity and inclusion are all aspects of PBL (Project Based Learning) and the ultimate goal that surrounds its pedagogy.
As with any instructional practice, students should have clear expectations, and feel a connection to the content. Why am I learning this, and how can I use these skills in life? In that process, students (both populations) should be able to problem-solve, feel motivated by the task, and work with each-other as learners (not individuals) to achieve success. Project-Based Learning is built on “identifying real-world problems” and coming to a solution (UQx, 2017). When performing the necessary tasks involved, all students have an equal-opportunity at both completing the learning or find themselves coming to a conclusion on where things may have gone wrong. These experiences are not true to just one kind of learner; it crosses many levels of understanding and learning styles. Using Project-Based Learning inclusively allows students with diverse learning needs to interact with his or her peers on a leveled-playing field, all with the same purpose and drive at heart. Hearing the voices of peers that they (learners with diverse needs) understand and possibly look-up to is momentous and a deciding factor in the learning process. Classmates motivate and push each other to new limits when given the tools to do so. There is no single teacher that can do this, however, the experience of PBL (Project Based Learning) and the unique opportunity to be with classmates as a unified unit can create those deep-learning experiences.
Outlined by Bloom’s Taxonomy, “higher-order cognitive skills” can embrace the learning experiences created by PBL and cooperative teaching methodology. When exposed to the learning-methods and practices of his or her own peers, the student’s motivation to participate and be part of the strategy is increased dramatically. There are times, especially when discussing students with diverse learning needs, that the learner is spending quite a few hours in another setting on discrete trials or receiving IEP services. Their participation in the general-education classroom is often limited and held to a small period of time during the week. Socially, the inclusiveness of Project-Based, Problem-Based and cooperative-teaching learning is needed. Academically, the inclusiveness is influential. Personally, the experience created by all three pedagogues cannot be compared to any other facet of education. Encouraging and allowing learners with diverse learning needs to participate in these learning-formats can mean the difference between a really good day filled with exploration, and just another day of the same language and learning in the classroom. Not every day can be PBL, and we all know this as educators, however, when used at the right time, and within the right environment, the PBL undertaking can drive learning for many years to come. For our students with diverse learning needs, isn’t this what we want?
Thanks, Robin Vogt
UQx: LEARNx Deep Learning through Transformative Pedagogy. (2017). University of Queensland, Australia. (an Open edX MOOC). Project Based Learning
6.04: References
Project Based Learning. (2013). The Glossary of Education Reform. Retrieved from http://edglossary.org/project-based-learning/
UQx: LEARNx Deep Learning through Transformative Pedagogy (2017). University of Queensland, Australia | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/06%3A_Project_Based_Learning/6.02%3A_Arguments_For_and_Against_Project_Based_Learning.txt |
Authors: Guinevere Palmer, Rachel Peters, and Rebecca Streetman (The University of Georgia)
Think about the way you prefer to learn. Do you like to bounce ideas off other people and engage in conversation and debate, or do you prefer to learn by yourself and seek help only when needed?
Our students need to be engaged in learning in a variety of ways, but collaborative learning has been identified as a necessary skill for success in the 21st century and also an essential component of deep learning.
Cooperative learning involves students working together to accomplish shared goals, and it is this sense of interdependence that motivate group members to help and support each other.
When students work cooperatively they learn to listen to what others have to say, give and receive help, reconcile differences, and resolve problems democratically.
However, placing students in small groups and telling them to work together does not guarantee that they will work cooperatively. Groups need to be structured to ensure that members will work interdependently if they are to reap the academic and social benefits widely attributed to this approach to learning.
The role the teacher plays in establishing cooperative learning in the classroom is critically important for its success. This involves being aware of how to structure cooperative learning in groups, including their size and composition the type of task set; expectations for student behavior; individual and group responsibilities; and the teacher’s role in monitoring both the process and the outcomes of the group experience.
(Robyn Gillies, UQx: LEARNx Deep Learning through Transformative Pedagogy (2017). University of Queensland, Australia.
Definition and Background
• Cooperative learning is defined as students working together to “attain group goals that cannot be obtained by working alone or competitively” (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1986).
• The main purpose of cooperative learning is to actively involve students in the learning process; a level of student empowerment which is not possible in a lecture format. The underlying premise is founded in constructivist epistemology.
• It is a process which requires knowledge to be discovered by students and transformed into concepts to which the students can relate. The knowledge is then reconstructed and expanded through new learning experiences.
• Learning takes place through dialog among students in a social setting.
Cooperative learning is a methodology that employs a variety of learning activities to improve students’ understanding of a subject by using a structured approach which involves a series of steps, requiring students to create, analyze and apply concepts (Kagan, 1990). Cooperative learning utilizes ideas of Vygotsky, Piaget, and Kohlberg in that both the individual and the social setting are active dynamics in the learning process as students attempt to imitate real-life learning.
By combining teamwork and individual accountability, students work toward acquiring both knowledge and social skills. It is a teaching strategy which allows students to work together in small groups with individuals of various talents, abilities and backgrounds to accomplish a common goal. Each individual team member is responsible for learning the material and also for helping the other members of the team learn.
Students work until each group member successfully understands and completes the assignment, thus creating an “atmosphere of achievement” (Panitz, 1996). As a result, they frame new concepts by basing their conclusions on prior knowledge. This process results in a deeper understanding of the material and more potential to retain the material.
7.02: Theoretical Framework for Cooperative Learning
There are two major theoretical perspectives associated with cooperative learning: motivational and cognitive (Swortzel, 1997). First, because students perceive that their success or failure is dependent upon their ability to work together as a group, students are likely to encourage each other to do whatever helps the group succeed. They are also more likely to help each other with the task(s) at hand. Therefore, cooperative learning increases student motivation to do academic work (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1986).
The other theory is that cooperative learning helps students acquire critical thinking skills. Because cooperative learning creates a situation in which students must explain and discuss various perspectives, a greater understanding of the material is obtained. Elaborative thinking is promoted because students give and receive explanations more often (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1986).
The use of cooperative learning (CL) also helps students clarify concepts and ideas through discussion and debate. Because the level of discussion within groups is significantly greater than in instructor led discussions, students receive immediate feedback, thus advancing the level of discussion. It is through this process of interacting with students of differing viewpoints that cognitive growth is stimulated. Emphasis is placed on learning how to cooperate in order to find the best possible solution to a problem. According to the constructivist approach, when students formulate their own solutions in this manner, they are truly thinking critically (Davis, Mahler & Noddings, 1990).
7.03: Collaborative vs. Cooperative Learning
Collaborative and cooperative learning are so closely related that the two terms are often used interchangeably. However, let’s take a moment to address the similarities and differences in the two. Both learning theories assign specific tasks, both use groups, and both require the students to share and compare their findings. In both cases, discovery approaches are used to teach interpersonal skills and student talks are stressed as a means for working things out.
Collaborative learning has British roots and is based on the findings of English instructors who explored ways to help students take a more active role in their learning. It is a teaching methodology in which “students team together to explore a significant question or a meaningful project” (Disney).
Cooperative learning, which will be the focus of this chapter, was first used in America and can be traced back to John Dewey’s philosophy of the social nature of learning. It is a “specific kind of collaborative learning” (Disney). In this setting, not only is the group assessed as a whole, but students are also individually accountable for their work.
A climate such as that created by cooperative learning will help Mrs. Solomon to better manage her classroom and help to keep the students on task. By following the guidelines presented in this chapter, Mrs. Solomon will be able to help her students use cooperative learning to acquire the knowledge necessary to reach the objectives of the course. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/07%3A_Cooperative_Learning/7.01%3A_Definition_and_Background.txt |
Implementation of Cooperative Learning
There are three phases of the implementation of cooperative learning.
1. The first phase is the pre-implementation phase, which includes: specifying instructional objectives, determining group sizes and assigning students to groups, arranging room, planning instructional materials to promote interdependence, assigning group roles, assigning tasks, explaining the criteria for success, structuring positive interdependence and accountability, and specifying desired behaviors.
2. The second phase is implementation which includes: monitoring behavior, intervening if needed, assisting with needs, and praise.
3. The third phase is post-implementation which includes: providing closure through summarization, evaluating students’ learning, and reflecting on what happened.
Pre-Implementation
After deciding to implement cooperative learning, the biggest challenge will be planning and readying the classroom and students for CL. According to Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991), there are several tasks that an instructor must accomplish before implementing cooperative learning in the classroom. This section will detail those responsibilities.
Specify Instructional Objectives (academic and social) of CL– The instructor must explain why she is using CL, describe its benefits, and the results typically found from using CL. To aid in this explanation, the instructor might produce and distribute a handout that describes collaborative learning.
Determine Group Size and Assign Students to Groups– Group size can range from two to four students, depending on the CL task. These groups can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. Groups can be formed by putting students together who share common strengths, interests, etc, or they can be randomly assigned. Once the groups are assigned, though, they should not be changed too often; students need time to develop a cohesive group and work together for a while before moving to a different group.
Arrange room– Instructors should optimize the space in their classroom so that students/groups can interact and move about the room easily. It is essential that a group’s seats face one another. Further, research tools should be made easily available either in the classroom or in another room near the classroom (see, Resource-based Learning chapter for a more detailed discussion of this).
Plan instructional materials to promote interdependence– The instructional methods and materials that an instructor chooses must allow each individual to contribute to the group’s success in a unique and meaningful way. Without these unique contributions, a group’s structure and cohesion will be put in jeopardy.
Assign group roles– There is some debate about whether or not the instructor should play a role in this decision. Whether or not an instructor chooses to assign roles within a group, they should make sure there is a distinct role for each student. Also, the instructor should choose or assist the students in choosing roles that use their strengths and improve their areas of weakness. Instructors should also oversee that students don’t choose the same role over and over again. Some of the roles that could be chosen or assigned include facilitator, timekeeper, recorder, checker (for understanding), summarizer, elaborator (on prior knowledge or discussion points), research-runner (gets materials), and wild card (does anything else that needs to be done).
Assign task– When picking an assessment task (product to be produced), the instructor should choose one standard to address and match it to the learning approach. The cooperative learning group’s task should be interesting, challenging, and motivating. It should also be a performance driven and authentic task. The instructor should clearly explain procedures for the task, provide structure (especially useful for inexperienced CL students), and set a specific time frame for each part and the whole task. Finally, the instructor should question the students to check for understanding of the task and its procedures.
Explain Criteria for Success– The instructor should communicate the group-work skills that will be evaluated. A rubric should also be created, possibly with the students’ assistance, which will be used to evaluate the group-work skills as well as the assessment task.
Structure positive interdependence and accountability– Group size should be kept small so that each member participates and contributes uniquely to the group. Instructors should also “test” groups and individuals by asking questions of both. A group should be asked to collectively explain its results and individuals should be able to defend their own position as well as the group’s as a whole.
Specify desired behaviors– An essential part of cooperative learning’s success is teaching students how to work in a group. To accomplish this, the instructor can conduct mini-lessons on ways to respect others (i.e. praise, taking turns, and shared decision making). Students also need to be trained in conflict-resolution. Finally, it would be wise to use icebreaker activities before beginning so that students find that they have something in common.
Before the actual implementation of cooperative learning, students also have several tasks. First, they can help the instructor generate an evaluation rubric, and they could possibly help design the assessment task if the instructor is willing to let the students participate in this capacity. By playing a part in the production of these items, students will have a greater motivation to participate in the group work (see Six C’s of Motivation chapter about choice and control as methods to increase motivation).
Finally, the students’ most important role at this point in CL is to question the instructor if anything is unclear to them. Without students’ complete understanding of the goals, objectives, and procedures, cooperative learning will not be a success.
As illustrated in the scenario at the beginning of the chapter, the students in Mrs. Solomon’s classroom are very diverse and appear not to get along. Before implementing CL, it will be vitally important that Mrs. Solomon spend some time teaching respect, conflict-resolution, and other group work skills. It is probably a good idea to use some icebreaker activities so that the students learn that they have some commonalities with other class members.
In addition, because of the tension among them, Mrs. Solomon will want to assign students to cooperative learning groups; she may even want to assign each individual their role. As Mrs. Solomon designs and assigns the task to the students, it will be imperative that she chooses a structured, authentic assignment. This will assist the students in remaining on-task, and it will help with transferring their knowledge to real-world applications.
Implementation
After all the preparations, it is time to begin working. During the implementation phase of cooperative learning, the students play the most important role. Some of their tasks at this stage include:
• Working together
• Listening to one another
• Questioning one another
• Keeping records of their work and progress
• Producing the assessment task (product)
• Assuming personal responsibility/ being involved in the group
The instructor also has responsibilities during this stage as well. Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991) list several roles that an instructor has during the implementation of cooperative learning.
Monitor behavior– During the implementation of cooperative learning, the instructor should circulate throughout the classroom, visiting each group.
Intervene if needed– While circulating, if the instructor notices any group conflict or off-task behavior, she should intervene. Small-group conflict should be resolved as soon as possible, and students should be shown how to prevent problems in the future. The instructor might use a conflict resolution checklist to resolve the group’s conflict. This checklist includes items such as explaining the importance of listening to everyone in the group, defining responsibilities, valuing each person’s gifts, modeling excellence, and promoting humor. Having these listed on a handout for each group could prevent group discord and off-task behavior.
Assist with needs– While monitoring the groups’ work, the instructor should assist groups with their needs. This might involve pointing out additional resources and/or points-of-view, and it also includes helping the students reflect on the work they have completed and their progress.
Praise– Students need to know if they are completing the assignment in a satisfactory manner, especially if they are inexperienced at working in cooperative groups. For this reason, the instructor should let individual students and groups know when they do something right or well.
As the class begins to work on their CL assignment, Mrs. Solomon will need to circulate around the room. It is likely, especially at the beginning of implementation, that her class will still have difficulty focusing on the task and getting along with one another. By moving around the class while the students are working, she will be able to assist any group that is facing these problems, and she can help them resolve the issues. At the same time, Mrs. Solomon must remember to praise the students and teams who are making an effort to cooperate and who are progressing nicely with the group assignment.
Post Implementation
After many hours are spent planning for cooperative learning groups, the plan is then put into action. Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991) give three jobs for the instructor to complete after the students have worked together to complete and submit the task.
Provide closure through summarization– The instructor should reconvene the entire group of students. At this point, the instructor can summarize the important points of the lesson/unit. Another suggestion is to have each group summarize their work and points that they think were important. This helps the instructor to know exactly in which knowledge level the groups are working. This is also very much in line with the idea of articulation and reflection in the Cognitive Apprenticeships chapter.
Evaluate students’ learning– The instructor should use a rubric to grade/ evaluate each group’s assessment task. They should also be evaluated on their group work using a rubric. These rubrics should have been created during the pre-implementation phase of cooperative learning, and the students might have had input into their content. After the instructor has completed the evaluations, it is important that they provide feedback to the students about their product and their group performance. Without this information, the students will not be able to improve their cooperative learning skills.
Reflect on what happened– Instructors should keep a record of what worked and why it worked each time they undertake a CL lesson or unit. This information can and should be shared with their cooperative learning support group. The instructor should also adjust their lessons based on the reflection and feedback of the students. This will prevent the stagnation of a CL unit; it will grow and change with each group of students.
After completing the group work and assessment task, the student’s job is to reflect on the work that was accomplished in their group. What worked and what did not work? What would they change or keep next time they work together? The students should also give feedback to their instructor. They should be able to tell the instructor what worked or what was good about this unit, and they should point out what did not work well. This information can be written down or informally discussed in class.
At the conclusion of Mrs. Solomon’s first cooperative learning lesson, it will be important for her to get feedback from the students about how they thought the lesson went. In turn, she will also have to provide feedback to the students about their group work skills and their assignment. This may involve teaching or re-teaching group work skills and/or adjusting the procedures for the next cooperative learning lesson. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/07%3A_Cooperative_Learning/7.04%3A_Phases_of_Cooperative_Learning.txt |
Helpful Hints for Cooperative Learning Lessons
• Begin trying cooperative learning with a homework assignment. Students could check their homework in groups, going over each problem and clarifying if there were any questions. The groups could then work each problem on the board.
• When beginning to use cooperative learning, start each class with a short lecture and then transition to a CL activity. As the instructor and students gain experience with using CL, begin the class with a CL activity and then conclude with a short lecture to highlight important points.
• Begin implementation by only using pairs for CL groups. Students who are inexperienced in using CL groups will be more likely to participate with just one other person in the group. Having only two students in a group is also an ideal way to teach key group work skills.
• When beginning CL implementation, only use the technique in one class period. Once you and the students have become more adept at using CL, you can increase it to involve more students/classes.
• Begin with worksheets as a form of group accountability. Students who are inexperienced with CL often have a difficult time getting started or reaching their goals. Having a worksheet to guide them will help the groups set their priorities, work towards their goal, and produce the assessment task.
Frequently Asked Questions about Cooperative Learning
When is the best time to begin implementing cooperative learning?
The best time to begin using CL in the classroom is at the start of a new term or school year. This way, the students will not be exposed to individual work and then have to “switch gears” and learn to work in a group in the middle of the year.
Do you have to use cooperative learning all the time?
No, it is not necessary to use CL in your classroom at all times. It is often advised to use CL for a unit or two, use another teaching method for a while, and then revisit CL at a later time.
Should you include parents in cooperative learning?
Yes, parents and the community should be included in all school activities, including CL. This can be done through newsletters and/or special programs when parents and the community, visit the classroom and view the groups’ assessment tasks.
What happens if one group finishes early?
If one group finishes early, the instructor can provide extension activities/tasks for that group. As more groups finish, pairs of groups can team up and share/comment on each other’s work
7.06: Other Forms
Other Forms of Cooperative Learning Groups [2]
3-step interview– Members of a group choose one partner from the group. The individuals interview their partners by asking questions. Then, they reverse roles and share their responses with the rest of the group.
3-review– The instructor gives the teams 3 minutes to review/clarify what has been said.
Numbered Heads– Group members are assigned a number. The group discusses as one, and then the instructor calls one number. The person with that number answers for the group.
Team-pair-solo– Students do the problem(s) first as a team, then in a pair, and finally, solo.
Circle the sage– The instructor polls the students looking for special knowledge on a certain topic. Those with the knowledge spread out around the room. (They are the sages.) The other students (no two from the same team) circle the sage, take notes on the information they are presenting, and question them. Then, the group reforms and each explains what they have learned. If there is a disagreement, it is aired as a group with the whole class, and it is resolved there.
Structured problem solving– Groups are given a problem to solve within a specified time. All members must agree and all must be able to explain the solution.
Send-a-problem– Several groups generate solutions to problems. The problem is clipped to the outside of a folder, and all solutions from that group are written down and placed inside the folder. The folder is passed to a different group who reads the problem, but not the solutions. They write their solutions and put them inside the folder. A third group selects the two best solutions and amends them as necessary.
Drill review pairs– Groups of four split into pairs. The pairs are given two problems. One member is the explainer and one is the accuracy checker. After one problem is complete, they switch roles. When both problems are complete, the group of four reforms. If they are in agreement to the solution, they repeat the process with more problems. If there is disagreement, the problem is reviewed and a consensus is reached. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/07%3A_Cooperative_Learning/7.05%3A_Helpful_Hints_and_FAQ.txt |
Benefits of Cooperative Learning
Ted Panitz (1996) lists over 50 benefits provided by cooperative learning. These benefits can be summarized into four major categories: social, psychological, academic and assessment.
Cooperative learning promotes social interactions; thus students benefit in a number of ways from the social perspective. By having the students explain their reasoning and conclusions, cooperative learning helps develop oral communication skills. Because of the social interaction among students, cooperative learning can be used to model the appropriate social behaviors necessary for employment situations.
By following the appropriate structuring for cooperative learning, students are able to develop and practice skills that will be needed to function in society and the workplace. These skills include: leadership, decision-making, trust building, communication and conflict-management.
The cooperative environment also develops a social support system for students. Other students, the instructor, administrators, other school staff, and potentially parents become integral parts of the learning process, thus supplying multiple opportunities for support to the students (Kessler and McCleod, 1985).
Students also benefit psychologically from cooperative learning. Johnson and Johnson (1989) claim, “cooperative learning experiences promote more positive attitudes” toward learning and instruction than other teaching methodologies. Because students play an active role in the learning process in cooperative learning, student satisfaction with the learning experience is enhanced.
Cooperative learning also helps to develop interpersonal relationships among students. The opportunity to discuss their ideas in smaller groups and receive constructive feedback on those ideas helps to build student self-esteem. In a lecture format, individual students are called upon to respond to a question in front of the entire class without having much time to think about his/her answer.
Cooperative learning creates a safe, nurturing environment because solutions come from the group rather than from the individual. Errors in conclusions and thought processes are corrected within the group before they are presented to the class.
Students also tend to be inspired by instructors who take the time to plan activities which promote an encouraging environment (Janke, 1980). Receiving encouragement in a cooperative setting from both the instructor and peers helps to develop higher self-efficacy (see the Motivation chapter). As a result of higher self-efficacy, student grades tend to increase; thus, cooperative learning methods provide several academic benefits for students.
Research indicates that students who were taught by cooperative methods learned and retained significantly more information than students being taught by other methods. Requiring students to verbalize their ideas to the group helps them to develop more clear concepts; thus, the thought process becomes fully embedded in the students’ memory. Vygotsky supports this concept in his research on egocentric speech by claiming that verbalization plays a significant role in task solution (Bershon, 1992).
Discussions within the groups lead to more frequent summarization because the students are constantly explaining and elaborating, which in turn validates and strengthens thoughts. Students also benefit from cooperative learning academically in the sense that there is more of a potential for success when students work in groups. Individuals tend to give up when they get stuck, whereas a group of students is more likely to find a way to keep going (Johnson & Johnson, 1990).
Cooperative learning calls for self-management from students because they must come prepared with completed assignments and they must understand the material which they have compiled. As a result, a more complete understanding of the material is developed.
There are also many benefits of cooperative learning from the aspect of assessment. It provides instant feedback to the students and instructor because the effectiveness of each class can be observed. As instructors move around the room and observe each group of students interacting and explaining their theories, they are able to detect misconceptions early enough to correct them. Only a few minutes of observation during each class session can provide helpful insight into students’ abilities and growth.
Cooperative teaching methods also utilize a variety of assessments. Grades are not dependent solely on tests and individual assignments which only allow for right or wrong responses, leaving little or no room for reflection and discussion of error or misconceptions. With cooperative learning, instructors can use more authentic assessments such as observation, peer assessment and writing reflections.
Cooperative Learning Benefits in Mrs. Solomon’s Classroom
As Mrs. Solomon learns all of the benefits gained from the use of cooperative learning, her curiosity is piqued; however, she still finds herself questioning whether her complex class could overcome all of the barriers that are hindering the learning environment. There is evidence, though, that most of the problems experienced in her class could be solved by using cooperative learning.
Poor Attendance – In addition to the four major categories of benefits detailed above, schools utilizing this strategy report an increase in student attendance because students feel that they are a valuable and necessary part of their groups (McBrien & Brandt, 1997).
Classroom Disruptions – Students are less likely to act out in a cooperative setting. Students act out to get attention; however, the “stage” is removed in a cooperative environment because it is very difficult to gain the attention of the entire class when students are divided up into smaller groups (Stahl & Van Sickle, 1992). As a result, students are more likely to stay on task and are less likely to be disruptive. Cooperative learning also helps reduce classroom disruptions because students are allowed to socialize during the learning process. Students need peer interaction, and without the integration of interaction among students, the need for social contact emerges in a negative context.
Violence– According to Johnson and Johnson (1990), cooperative learning also helps to reduce violence. If enforced correctly, cooperative activities model non-violent resolutions to problems. Because group consensus is promoted, blame is eliminated and honor, friendliness and quality are promoted.
Diversity among students – Research shows that cooperative learning also builds diversity awareness among students. It encourages students to use their differences to help each other. Because students are placed in a situation where they are able to interact with peers that they otherwise may never socialize with, behaviors which might appear odd in other settings become understandable when students are given the opportunity to explain and defend their reasoning.
In a traditional classroom, there is very little opportunity for students to defend their perspectives. As students observe each other’s reasoning processes, there is more room to understand and appreciate their differences (Johnson and Johnson, 1990). As a result, a much deeper understanding of cultural and individual difference is developed (Yager, 1985).
In addition, because students are placed in a supportive environment where group-processing skills are essential, they are more likely to accept these differences than they would in a competitive, non-interactive environment. This greater understanding of their differences also helps students learn to resolve social problems which might arise (Johnson and Johnson, 1990).
Students with special needs – Cooperative methods are flexible and can easily be adapted for students with special needs. Because of the reasons mentioned above, this type of learning environment allows for improved social acceptance of mainstreamed students with learning disabilities (Slavin, 1990).
ESL students – Cooperative learning is especially useful in courses where interactions involving the use of language are important, such as ESL courses. It is an ideal way to “facilitate the acquisition of language and to practice the customs of debate and discussion which occur within the classroom” (Brufee, 1993). Research conducted using cooperative learning in classes with ESL students shows significant development in acquiring English-language skills.
Cooperative learning helps students learn language better than the drill and practice of traditional language training. It would appear that peer interaction in natural settings is the ideal use of language that is necessary for successfully acquiring second language skills (Neves, 1983). In addition, most educational psychology textbooks now contain “extended discussions of cooperative pedagogics and their effectiveness with regard to improved racial relations, self-esteem, and internal locus of control” (Sherman, 1991).
Arguments among students – Marzano (1992) asserts that in a cooperative setting, students can analyze the effects of the groups and “suggest activities which will promote positive interactions or deal with conflicts or personality problems within each group.” It provides a supportive environment within which to manage conflict resolution (Johnson & Johnson, 1990).
Disrespect toward instructor – In the cooperative classroom, instructors have more opportunities to explain policies and procedures. When instructor expectations are clear, there seems to be less room for personal interpretations, which often leads to a negative attitude toward the instructor. The class could also, potentially, be empowered to contribute to the development and implementation of classroom rules and procedures. This classroom management technique, when intertwined with cooperative activities, could help students overcome resentments which were created as a result of the teacher-centered classroom.
Differences in learning abilities – Performance is improved among weaker students when they are grouped with higher achieving students because the stronger students model successful reasoning processes. Students who usually struggle in academics are able to learn to prepare for tests, check and correct homework, and see alternative solutions to problems. Vygotsky (1978) hypothesizes that the social interaction among students extends the students’ zone of proximal development (the difference between a student’s understanding and their potential to understand).
When students work cooperatively in groups the more knowledgeable students are able to help the less knowledgeable students understand new concepts. High achieving students also benefit because they are verbalizing their ideas and actually teaching others. As mentioned earlier, the process of verbalizing thoughts helps to further promote understanding of material.
Cooperative learning also accommodates learning style differences among students because they are utilizing each of the three main learning styles: kinesthetic, auditory and visual. Material presented by the instructor is both auditory and visual, and students working together use kinesthetic abilities by working with hands-on activities. Discussing issues within the groups further enhances verbal skills, and class presentation of group findings helps to reinforce visual and auditory skills (Midkiff & Thomasson, 1993).
Drawbacks of Cooperative Learning
Instructors who are unfamiliar with cooperative learning may not initially accept this style of learning because they may feel they will lose control of their classroom, or they may be unsure of the techniques used or possibly even think that it is too time consuming. In this next section, we will discuss some of the possible drawbacks to cooperative learning.
Loss of Control – Cooperative learning is a structured approach that requires instructor support and guidance. In order for cooperative learning to be utilized in the classroom, instructors must receive training to be proficient in implementing the techniques. Maximum learning will only emerge if proper training is received by the instructor and then transferred to the student.
Instructors may resist using cooperative learning techniques in their classroom because they are afraid they may lose control of their teaching routine. Cooperative learning takes time to implement; therefore, initial lessons may take longer. Once students and the instructor are comfortable with the process, then the amount of time for each lesson decreases.
Instructors may have a difficult time giving up their control of the content that is being covered (Panitz). They are accustomed to presenting the curriculum to the students and are unable to give students the freedom to learn on their own. Students learning only one part of the curriculum in their group may make an instructor anxious about what their students know.
Showing their expertise in a subject area is important for some instructors. Giving up the opportunity to show off this expertise may deter instructors from using cooperative learning in their classrooms. Also, if students are expected to explore on their own, then they may have questions that the instructor cannot answer. Both of these possibilities may cause an instructor to lose confidence in her teaching abilities. Instructors can still be experts, but they will be using their knowledge as a facilitator rather than a giver of information.
Group Work – Depending on the age level, students may resist using cooperative learning in their classrooms. Lecture does not require much interaction and participation from the students; therefore, they can get as much or as little from the class as they like. Being required to work in a group may ruffle a few feathers with the students because now they are being asked to participate and contribute to their learning. In addition, they are also asked to learn new concepts and taught how to work in a group. They may not be accustomed to working in a group, and therefore, may be unsure of the dynamics involved in group work.
Since cooperative learning is centered on group work, students may be concerned that other members of their group are going to bring their grades down. This is especially true if students are grouped by mixed ability, requiring higher ability students to guide lower ability students.
Deciding how groups should be formed is an important part of the cooperative learning planning process. There has been some debate as to how groups should be formed in order for students to effectively work together and reach their maximum potential.
Mixed ability grouping allows for all group members to be involved, though the type of involvement differs. Advanced students can teach struggling students, but concerns arise about advanced students doing all the work and struggling students not being motivated to be involved at all. There are also concerns that gifted students are held back by the lower ability students in their group.
If students are grouped with others of the same ability level, then the lower ability group may feel frustrated and unmotivated to try. This is also true of those who are grouped by gender or race because it may support stereotypes that certain subject areas are dominated by certain groups.
There are also varying opinions about the optimal number of people for small group formation. The consensus seems to agree that no more than 4 people in a group produces higher achievement (Slavin, 1987). Fixed seating and large class sizes may make group arrangement difficult though. Still, even if the room is easily arranged into small groups, instructors may have a difficult time accessing all of the numerous small groups.
Most students are not accustomed to group work, especially in high school classrooms. Students will have to be taught to work effectively in a group setting. Resolving group conflict can be a major challenge for instructors. Groups will need to make sure that every member listens to and appreciates each group member’s contribution. Identifying responsibilities within the group and encouraging each to do their best work needs to be addressed before group work begins. Also, students that work better alone may struggle to succeed in a group atmosphere.
Since the classroom will be made up of several small groups, the noise level will escalate. This can be very uncomfortable for some instructors, especially if they are accustomed to a lecture and seatwork classroom. This can also cause problems for those students who have attention difficulties.
Cooperative learning is based on social interaction; thus, grouping students together to work independently even for a short period of time may encourage behavior that is off task. While the instructor is circling the room to observe and interact with the groups, it is difficult to make sure every group is productively working on their assignment. Self-management skills will have to be introduced before students break out into groups and be reinforced as they progress through their work.
Time Requirements – With cooperative learning, the textbook is used only as an instructional supplement, so it is necessary for instructors to create additional materials for the students. Usually these materials are made from scratch because many instructors’ manuals offer limited suggestions for group activities. Creating these new materials can be very time consuming. So, not only are instructors spending a large amount of time implementing this new way of learning, but they also have to create the materials to go along with it.
Since students have to generate an answer or information within their group, work time may take longer than the traditional lecture. Because of this additional time, instructors may be unable to cover the same amount of curriculum as before when they used teacher directed class discussions. Many times, in a traditional classroom, the quality of the work is compromised in order to teach the entire curriculum.
Vague objectives, avoidance of teaching, and lack of critical thinking activities are other problems associated with cooperative learning. With the focus on managing groups, it is possible for instructors to overlook the students’ objectives and tasks. Therefore, students are not receiving the needed guidance to effectively learn the task at hand. Some critics say that instructors who rely on small group work are avoiding their teaching responsibilities. Students are left on their own to teach themselves the curriculum. In addition, since students are working in small groups that require additional time, instructors may be more apt to assign tasks that do not demand higher level thinking skills. The quality is overlooked in order to increase the quantity of assignments.
Other Drawbacks – Since students are working together on a group assignment, it is difficult to assess students with a paper and pencil test. Instructors will have to find another way to assess student work and progress. Since students are used to concrete assessments, it may be difficult for students to adjust to authentic assessments.
7.08: Conclusion
Conclusion
Mrs. Solomon decided to implement cooperative learning in her Careers course. As mentioned earlier, there was some initial resistance from the students. But she kept a positive attitude about the benefits of cooperative learning and encouraged the students to give it a try.
She also started with a fun activity to help boost student morale. She carefully grouped students together, making sure that each group consisted of a diversity of student abilities and backgrounds. She continued to follow the strategies mentioned in this chapter for successful implementation. She was impressed with the results. She found that, once the students had some experience with CL, the higher-achieving students did not resent being paired with lower-ability students.
In fact, it helped to build their self-esteem to know that they were able to help their peers. They also found that the students with learning disabilities were actually very creative and could offer new perspectives on how to solve the given problem. The students also began to realize that students from different cultures may struggle to communicate in the English language, but they were very dedicated students who had a desire to do well on given assignments. Interestingly enough, Mrs. Solomon also found that absences began to decrease.
In the reflection papers that she had students complete at the end of the project, she discovered that students felt valued as part of the group and that they attended her class so that they would not disappoint their peers. After training the students on conflict resolution, cultural diversity, and respect for others, Mrs. Solomon noticed that students appeared to get along better while doing the cooperative exercises. But most importantly, student grades actually improved over time.
Students of all ability levels took pride in their accomplishments and felt a sense of involvement by being allowed to have input into the activities and classroom expectations. They also seemed to have a more complete understanding of the material and were able to score higher on all types of tests, including application questions. Overall, she saw a dramatic difference in her classroom atmosphere.
Both Mrs. Solomon and her students were more motivated and enthusiastic about each new chapter. Mrs. Solomon realized that there were still situations which would arise periodically within her classroom, and that cooperative learning would be a teaching strategy that she would have to improve on over time. But after learning more about cooperative learning, she believed that she had a whole new perspective on classroom strategies.
7.09: References
Additional Reading
McMaser, K and Fuchs, D. (2005). A Focus on Cooperative Learning for Students with Disabilities. Current Practice Alerts. TeachingLD.org | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/07%3A_Cooperative_Learning/7.07%3A_Benefits_and_Drawbacks_of_Cooperative_Learning.txt |
Author: Mary Forehand (The University of Georgia)
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification system used to define and distinguish different levels of human cognition—i.e., thinking, learning, and understanding.
Educators have typically used Bloom’s taxonomy to inform or guide the development of assessments (tests and other evaluations of student learning), curriculum (units, lessons, projects, and other learning activities), and instructional methods such as questioning strategies. (Bloom’s Taxonomy, 2014)
Biography
Benjamin Samuel Bloom, one of the greatest minds to influence the field of education, was born on February 21, 1913 in Lansford, Pennsylvania. As a young man, he was already an avid reader and curious researcher. Bloom received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1935. He went on to earn a doctorate’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1942, where he acted as first a staff member of the Board of Examinations (1940-43), then a University Examiner (1943-59), as well as an instructor in the Department of Education, beginning in 1944. In 1970, Bloom was honored with becoming a Charles H. Swift Distinguished Professor at the University of Chicago.
Bloom’s most recognized and highly regarded initial work spawned from his collaboration with his mentor and fellow examiner Ralph W. Tyler and came to be known as Bloom’s Taxonomy. These ideas are highlighted in his third publication, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook I, The Cognitive Domain. He later wrote a second handbook for the taxonomy in 1964, which focuses on the affective domain. Bloom’s research in early childhood education, published in his 1964 Stability and Change in Human Characteristics sparked widespread interest in children and learning and eventually and directly led to the formation of the Head Start program in America. In all, Bloom wrote or collaborated on eighteen publications from 1948-1993.
Aside from his scholarly contributions to the field of education, Benjamin Bloom was an international activist and educational consultant. In 1957, he traveled to India to conduct workshops on evaluation, which led to great changes in the Indian educational system. He helped create the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, the IEA, and organized the International Seminar for Advanced Training in Curriculum Development. He developed the Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis (MESA) program at eh University of Chicago. He was chairman of both the research and development committees of the College Entrance Examination Board and the president of the American Educational Research Association.
Introduction
One of the basic questions facing educators has always been “Where do we begin in seeking to improve human thinking?” (Houghton, 2004). Fortunately, we do not have to begin from scratch in searching for answers to this complicated question. The Communities Resolving Our Problems (CROP) recommends, “One place to begin is in defining the nature of thinking.
Before we can make it better, we need to know more of what it is” (Houghton, 2004). Benjamin S. Bloom extensively contemplated the nature of thinking, eventually authoring or co-authoring 18 books. According to a biography of Bloom, written by former student Elliot W Eisner, “It was clear that he was in love with the process of finding out, and finding out is what I think he did best. One of Bloom’s great talents was having a nose for what is significant” (2002).
Although it received little attention when first published, Bloom’s Taxonomy has since been translated into 22 languages and is one of the most widely applied and most often cited references in education. (Anderson & Sosniak, 1994, preface), (Houghton, 2004), (Krathwohl, 2002), (oz-TeacherNet, 2001). As of this writing, three other chapters in this e-book make reference to Bloom’s Taxonomy, yet another testament to its relevance.
History
In 1780, Abigail Adams stated, “Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence” (quotationspage.com, 2005).
• Learning, teaching, identifying educational goals, and thinking are all complicated concepts interwoven in an intricate web.
•
Discussions during the 1948 Convention of the American Psychological Association led Bloom to spearhead a group of educators who eventually undertook the ambitious task of classifying educational goals and objectives. Their intent was to develop a method of classification for thinking behaviors that were believed to be important in the processes of learning. Eventually, this framework became a taxonomy of three domains:
Bloom was arduous, diligent, and patient while seeking to demystify these concepts and untangle this web. He made “the improvement of student learning” (Bloom 1971, Preface) the central focus of his life’s work.
Discussions during the 1948 Convention of the American Psychological Association led Bloom to spearhead a group of educators who eventually undertook the ambitious task of classifying educational goals and objectives. Their intent was to develop a method of classification for thinking behaviors that were believed to be important in the processes of learning. Eventually, this framework became a taxonomy of three domains:
Note
• The cognitive – knowledge based domain, consisting of six levels
• The affective – attitudinal based domain, consisting of five levels, and
• The psychomotor – skills based domain, consisting of six levels.
In 1956, eight years after the group first began, work on the cognitive domain was completed and a handbook commonly referred to as “Bloom’s Taxonomy” was published. This chapter focuses its attention on the cognitive domain.
While Bloom pushed for the use of the term “taxonomy,” others in the group resisted because of the unfamiliarity of the term within educational circles.
Eventually, Bloom prevailed, forever linking his name and the term. The small volume intended for university examiners “has been transformed into a basic reference for all educators worldwide. Unexpectedly, it has been used by curriculum planners, administrators, researchers, and classroom teachers at all levels of education” (Anderson & Sosniak, 1994, p. 1). While it should be noted that other educational taxonomies and hierarchical systems have been developed, it is Bloom’s Taxonomy which remains, even after nearly fifty years, the de facto standard | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/08%3A_Blooms_Taxonomy/8.01%3A_History.txt |
What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Understanding that “taxonomy” and “classification” are synonymous helps dispel uneasiness with the term. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a multi-tiered model of classifying thinking according to six cognitive levels of complexity. Throughout the years, the levels have often been depicted as a stairway, leading many teachers to encourage their students to “climb to a higher (level of) thought”.
The lowest three levels are: knowledge, comprehension, and application. The highest three levels are: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. “The taxonomy is hierarchical; [in that] each level is subsumed by the higher levels. In other words, a student functioning at the ‘application’ level has also mastered the material at the ‘knowledge’ and ‘comprehension’ levels.” (UW Teaching Academy, 2003). One can easily see how this arrangement led to natural divisions of lower and higher level thinking.
Clearly, Bloom’s Taxonomy has stood the test of time. Due to its long history and popularity, it has been condensed, expanded, and reinterpreted in a variety of ways. Research findings have led to the discovery of a veritable smörgåsbord of interpretations and applications falling on a continuum ranging from tight overviews to expanded explanations. Nonetheless, one recent revision (designed by one of the co-editors of the original taxonomy along with a former Bloom student) merits particular attention.
Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (RBT)
During the 1990’s, a former student of Bloom’s, Lorin Anderson, led a new assembly which met for the purpose of updating the taxonomy, hoping to add relevance for 21st century students and teachers. This time “representatives of three groups [were present]: cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists” (Anderson, & Krathwohl, 2001, p. xxviii).
Like the original group, they were also arduous and diligent in their pursuit of learning, spending six years to finalize their work. Published in 2001, the revision includes several seemingly minor yet actually quite significant changes. Several excellent sources are available which detail the revisions and reasons for the changes. A more concise summary appears here. The changes occur in three broad categories: terminology, structure, and emphasis.
Terminology changes
Changes in terminology between the two versions are perhaps the most obvious differences and can also cause the most confusion. Basically, Bloom’s six major categories were changed from noun to verb forms. Additionally, the lowest level of the original, knowledge was renamed and became remembering. Finally, comprehension and synthesis were retitled to understanding and creating. In an effort to minimize the confusion, comparison images appear below.
The new terms are defined as:
• Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory.
• Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.
• Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing.
• Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing.
• Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.
• Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing.
(Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001, pp. 67-68)
Structural changes
Structural changes seem dramatic at first, yet are quite logical when closely examined. Bloom’s original cognitive taxonomy was a one-dimensional form. With the addition of products, the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy takes the form of a two-dimensional table.
One of the dimensions, identifies The Knowledge Dimension (or the kind of knowledge to be learned) while the second identifies The Cognitive Process Dimension (or the process used to learn).
Each of the four Knowledge Dimension levels is subdivided into either three or four categories (e.g. Factual is divided into Factual, Knowledge of Terminology, and Knowledge of Specific Details and Elements). The Cognitive Process Dimension levels are also subdivided with the number of sectors in each level ranging from a low of three to a high of eight categories. For example, Remember is subdivided into the three categories of Remember, Recognizing, and Recalling while the Understanding level is divided into eight separate categories.
The resulting grid, containing 19 subcategories is most helpful to teachers in both writing objectives and aligning standards with curricular. The “Why” and “How” sections of this chapter further discuss use of the Taxonomy Table as well as provide specific examples of applications.
Go to this following website and click on the verbs and see examples of learning objectives
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/coursedev/models/id/taxonomy/#table
Changes in emphasis
Emphasis is the third and final category of changes. As noted earlier, Bloom himself recognized that the taxonomy was being “unexpectedly” used by countless groups never considered an audience for the original publication. The revised version of the taxonomy is intended for a much broader audience. Emphasis is placed upon its use as a “more authentic tool for curriculum planning, instructional delivery and assessment” (oz-TeacherNet, 2001). | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/08%3A_Blooms_Taxonomy/8.02%3A_What_is_Blooms_Taxonomy.txt |
Why use Bloom’s Taxonomy?
As history has shown, this well known, widely applied scheme filled a void and provided educators with one of the first systematic classifications of the processes of thinking and learning. The cumulative hierarchical framework consisting of six categories, each requiring achievement of the prior skill or ability before the next, more complex, one, remains easy to understand. Out of necessity, teachers must measure their students’ ability. Accurately doing so requires a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. Bloom’s Taxonomy provided the measurement tool for thinking.
With the dramatic changes in society over the last five decades, the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy provides an even more powerful tool to fit today’s teachers’ needs. The structure of the Revised Taxonomy Table matrix “provides a clear, concise visual representation” (Krathwohl, 2002) of the alignment between standards and educational goals, objectives, products, and activities.
• Today’s teachers must make tough decisions about how to spend their classroom time. Clear alignment of educational objectives with local, state, and national standards is a necessity.
Like pieces of a huge puzzle, everything must fit properly. The Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Table clarifies the fit of each lesson plan’s purpose, “essential question,” goal or objective. The twenty-four-cell grid from Oregon State University that is shown above along with the printable taxonomy table examples can easily be used in conjunction with a chart. When used in this manner the “Essential Question” or the lesson objective becomes clearly defined.
How can Bloom’s Taxonomy be used?
A search of the World Wide Web will yield clear evidence that Bloom’s Taxonomy has been applied to a variety of situations. Current results include a broad spectrum of applications represented by articles and websites describing everything from corrosion training to medical preparation. In almost all circumstances when an instructor desires to move a group of students through a learning process utilizing an organized framework, Bloom’s Taxonomy can prove helpful. Yet the educational setting (K-graduate) remains the most often used application. A brief explanation of one example is described below.
The educational journal Theory into Practice published an entire issue on the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Included is an article entitled, “Using the Revised Taxonomy to Plan and Deliver Team-Taught, Integrated, Thematic Units” (Ferguson, 2002).
The writer describes the use of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy to plan and deliver an integrated English and history course entitled “Western Culture.” The taxonomy provided the team-teachers with a common language with which to translate and discuss state standards from two different subject areas. Moreover, it helped them to understand how their subjects overlapped and how they could develop conceptual and procedural knowledge concurrently. Furthermore, the taxonomy table in the revised taxonomy provided the history and English teachers with a new outlook on assessment and enabled them to create assignments and projects that required students to operate at more complex levels of thinking (Abstract, Ferguson, 2002).
Bloom’s group initially met hoping to reduce the duplication of effort by faculty at various universities. In the beginning, the scope of their purpose was limited to facilitating the exchange of test items measuring the same educational objectives. Intending the Taxonomy “as a method of classifying educational objectives, educational experiences, learning processes, and evaluation questions and problems” (Paul, 1985 p. 39), numerous examples of test items (mostly multiple choice) were included. This led to a natural linkage of specific verbs and products with each level of the taxonomy. Thus, when designing effective lesson plans, teachers often look to Bloom’s Taxonomy for guidance.
Likewise the Revised Taxonomy includes specific verb and product linkage with each of the levels of the Cognitive Process Dimension. However, due to its 19 subcategories and two-dimensional organization, there is more clarity and less confusion about the fit of a specific verb or product to a given level. Thus the Revised Taxonomy offers teachers an even more powerful tool to help design their lesson plans.
As touched upon earlier, through the years, Bloom’s Taxonomy has given rise to educational concepts, including terms such as high and low level thinking. It has also been closely linked with multiple intelligences (Noble, 2004) problem solving skills, creative and critical thinking, and more recently, technology integration.
Using the Revised Taxonomy in an adaptation from the Omaha Public Schools Teacher’s Corner, a lesson objective based upon the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is presented for each of the six levels of the Cognitive Process as shown on the Revised Taxonomy Table.
• Remember: Describe where Goldilocks lived.
• Understand: Summarize what the Goldilocks story was about.
• Apply: Construct a theory as to why Goldilocks went into the house.
• Analyze: Differentiate between how Goldilocks reacted and how you would react in each story event.
• Evaluate: Assess whether or not you think this really happened to Goldilocks.
• Create: Compose a song, skit, poem, or rap to convey the Goldilocks story in a new form.
Although this is a very simple example of the application of Bloom’s taxonomy the author is hopeful that it will demonstrate both the ease and the usefulness of the Revised Taxonomy Table.
8.04: Conclusion
Countless people know, love and are comfortable with the original Bloom’s Taxonomy and are understandably hesitant to change. After all, change is difficult for most people. The original Bloom’s Taxonomy was and is a superb tool for educators. Yet, even “the original group always considered the [Taxonomy] framework a work in progress, neither finished nor final” (Anderson & Krathwohl 2001 p. xxvii). The new century has brought us the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy which really is new and improved.
8.05: Videos
Watch this video from ITC Publications:Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain Explained”
[ITCPublications]. (2013, Dec. 3). Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain Explained. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/g1lc-GWtGII
Extended Campus- Oregon State University has an interactive Bloom’s Taxonomy chart of the six Cognitive Process dimensions (Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create) with the four Knowledge Dimensions (defined as Factual, Conceptual, Procedural, and Meta-Cognitive) forming a grid with twenty-four separate cells as represented.
Printable Taxonomy Table Examples to clearly define the “Essential Question” or lesson objectives.
8.06: Resources and References
Online resources on Bloom’s Taxonomy
Keep these resources on hand as a guide when you are writing lesson plans, developing learning objectives, student tasks, questions, and assessments.
Sample Question Stems Based on Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy by Lindsey Shorser
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy: Mathematics
Kathy Schrock has organized apps across the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy-“Bloomin Apps | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/08%3A_Blooms_Taxonomy/8.03%3A_Why_use_Blooms_Taxonomy.txt |
Authors: FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND UQX LEARNX TEAM OF CONTRIBUTORS, THE OPEN RESOURCE BANK FOR INTERACTIVE TEACHING, AND UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Introduction
The interaction between teacher and learners is the most important feature of the classroom. Whether helping learners to acquire basic skills or a better understanding to solve problems, or to engage in higher-order thinking such as evaluation, questions are crucial. Of course, questions may be asked by students as well as teachers: they are essential tools for both teaching and learning.
For teachers, questioning is a key skill that anyone can learn to use well. Similarly, ways of helping students develop their own ability to raise and formulate questions can also be learned. Raising questions and knowing the right question to ask is an important learning skill that students need to be taught.
Research into questioning has given some clear pointers as to what works. These can provide the basis of improving classroom practice. A very common problem identified by the research is that students are frequently not provided with enough ‘wait time’ to consider an answer; another is that teachers tend to ask too many of the same type of questions. (Adapted from Types Of Question, section Intro). (ORBIT)
Questioning Techniques
In 1940, Stephen Corey analyzed verbatim transcripts of classroom talk for one week across six different classes. His intent was to interrogate what the talk revealed about the learners’ increase in understanding. He wrote, however, that “the study was not successful for the simple reason that during the five class days involved the pupils did not talk enough to give any evidence of mental development; the teachers talked two-thirds of the time” (p. 746). The research focus thus shifted to patterns of questioning.
Findings included:
• For every student query, teachers asked approximately 11 questions
• Students averaged less than one question each, while teachers averaged more than 200 questions each
• Teachers often answered their own questions
• Fewer teacher questions requires deep thinking by the learner
Much has changed since 1940 – except, it seems, these patterns. Classroom discourse continues to be dominated by the ‘recitation script’: teachers asking known-answer questions (Howe & Abedin, 2013) that limit opportunities for learners to experience cognitive challenge, thereby inhibiting effective learning (Alexander, 2008).
Effective questioning techniques are critical to learner engagement and are a key strategy for supporting students to engage thoughtfully and critically with more complex concepts and ideas
(UQx:LEARNx Deep Learning Through Transformative Pedagogy
9.02: How to question
Why Question?
The purposes of questioning
Teachers ask questions for a number of reasons, the most common of which are
• to interest, engage and challenge students
• to check on prior knowledge and understanding
• to stimulate recall, mobilizing existing knowledge and experience in order to create new understanding and meaning
• to focus students’ thinking on key concepts and issues
• to help students to extend their thinking from the concrete and factual to the analytical and evaluative
• to lead students through a planned sequence which progressively establishes key understandings
• to promote reasoning, problem solving, evaluation and the formulation of hypotheses
• to promote students’ thinking about the way they have learned
Teachers ask questions for a number of reasons, the most common of which are
Closed questions, which have one clear answer, are useful to check understanding during explanations and in recap sessions. If you want to check recall, then you are likely to ask a fairly closed question, for example ‘What is the grid reference for Great Malvern?’ or ‘What do we call this type of text?’
On the other hand, if you want to help students develop higher-order thinking skills, you will need to ask more open questions that allow students to give a variety of acceptable responses. During class discussions and debriefings, it is useful to ask open questions, for example ‘Which of these four sources were most useful in helping with this inquiry?’, ‘Given all the conflicting arguments, where would you build the new superstore?’, ‘What do you think might affect the size of the current in this circuit?’
Questioning is sometimes used to bring a student’s attention back to the task in hand, for example ‘What do you think about that, Peter?’ or ‘Do you agree?’ (Adapted from Types Of Question, section Why).
2.1 A Common Classroom Sequence
A striking insight provided by classroom research is that much talk between teachers and their students has the following pattern: a teacher’s question, a student’s response, and then an evaluative comment by the teacher. This is described as an Initiation-Response-Feedback exchange, or IRF. Here’s an example
I – Teacher – What’s the capital city of Argentina?
R – Pupil – Buenos Aires
F – Teacher – Yes, well done
This pattern was first pointed out in the 1970s by the British researchers Sinclair and Coulthard. Their original research was reported in: Sinclair, J. and Coulthard, M. (1975) Towards an Analysis of Discourse: the English used by Teachers and Pupils. London: Oxford University Press.
Sinclair and Coulthard’s research has been the basis for extended debates about whether or not teachers should ask so many questions to which they already know the answer; and further debate about the range of uses and purposes of IRF in working classrooms. Despite all this, it seems that many teachers (even those who have qualified in recent decades) have not heard of it. Is this because their training did not include any examination of the structures of classroom talk – or because even if it did, the practical value of such an examination was not made clear?
A teacher’s professional development (and, indeed, the development of members of any profession) should involve the gaining of critical insights into professional practice – to learn to see behind the ordinary, the taken for granted, and to question the effectiveness of what is normally done. Recognizing the inherent structure of teacher-student talk is a valuable step in that direction. Student teachers need to see how they almost inevitably converge on other teachers’ style and generate the conventional patterns of classroom talk.
By noting this, they can begin to consider what effects this has on student participation in class. There is nothing wrong with the use of IRFs by teachers, but question-and-answer routines can be used both productively and unproductively. (Adapted from The Importance of Speaking and Listening, section IRF). (ORBIT)
Professor Robyn Gillies, from The University of Queensland, explores some questioning techniques and strategies that can support deep learning.
Example questions that promote dialogical discourse include things like:
• On one hand you’re telling me this, but on the other hand you’re saying something quite different.
• I wonder how these two positions could be reconciled?
• Can you explain that another way?
• Tell us again what you meant by …?
• Have you considered looking at it this way What might this or that type of person think about that?
These kinds of questions are designed to challenge students’ thinking and encourage them to think about things in different ways. By creating a state of cognitive dissonance in students, they have to reconsider their thinking.
Questions that scaffold students thinking might include things like:
• Have you considered using different descriptors in your search for the information you need?
• Have you thought about using some of this information to help you develop your ideas?
• Why don’t you try brainstorming some of the problems and how could you solve them?
Both types of questions are used interchangeably to help students clarify their thoughts and think more deeply about issues.
(UQx:LEARNx Deep Learning Through Transformative Pedagogy)
In this next video Professor John Hattie, from the University of Melbourne, elaborates on our understanding of why questions are an essential component of developing self-regulated learners.
Click here to watch video (4:43 minutes)
(UQx:LEARNx Deep Learning Through Transformative Pedagogy) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/09%3A_Questioning/9.01%3A_Questioning_Techniques.txt |
Summary of research
Effective questioning
Research evidence suggests that effective teachers use a greater number of open questions than less effective teachers. The mix of open and closed questions will, of course, depend on what is being taught and the objectives of the lesson. However, teachers who ask no open questions in a lesson may be providing insufficient cognitive challenges for students.
Questioning is one of the most extensively researched areas of teaching and learning. This is because of its central importance in the teaching and learning process. The research falls into three broad categories
• What is effective questioning?
• How do questions engage students and promote responses?
• How do questions develop students’ cognitive abilities?
What is effective questioning?
Questioning is effective when it allows students to engage with the learning process by actively composing responses. Research (Borich 1996; Muijs and Reynolds 2001; Morgan and Saxton 1994; Wragg and Brown 2001) suggests that lessons where questioning is effective are likely to have the following characteristics
• Questions are planned and closely linked to the objectives of the lesson.
• The learning of basic skills is enhanced by frequent questions following the exposition of new content that has been broken down into small steps. Each step should be followed by guided practice that provides opportunities for students to consolidate what they have learned and that allows teachers to check understanding.
• Closed questions are used to check factual understanding and recall.
• Open questions predominate.
• Sequences of questions are planned so that the cognitive level increases as the questions go on. This ensures that students are led to answer questions which demand increasingly higher-order thinking skills, but are supported on the way by questions which require less sophisticated thinking skills.
• Students have opportunities to ask their own questions and seek their own answers. They are encouraged to provide feedback to each other.
• The classroom climate is one where students feel secure enough to take risks, be tentative and make mistakes.
The research emphasizes the importance of using open, higher-level questions to develop students’ higher-order thinking skills.
Clearly there needs to be a balance between open and closed questions, depending on the topic and objectives for the lesson. A closed question, such as ‘What is the next number in the sequence?’, can be extended by a follow-up question, such as ‘How did you work that out?’
Overall, the research shows that effective teachers use a greater number of higher- order questions and open questions than less effective teachers.
However, the research also demonstrates that most of the questions asked by both effective and less effective teachers are lower order and closed. It is estimated that 70–80 percent of all learning-focused questions require a simple factual response, whereas only 20–30 percent lead students to explain, clarify, expand, generalize or infer. In other words, only a minority of questions demand that students use higher-order thinking sk
How do questions engage students and promote responses?
It doesn’t matter how good and well-structured your questions are if your students do not respond. This can be a problem with shy students or older students who are not used to highly interactive teaching. It can also be a problem with students who are not very interested in school or engaged with learning. The research identifies a number of strategies which are helpful in encouraging student response. (See Borich 1996; Muijs and Reynolds 2001; Morgan and Saxton 1994; Wragg and Brown 2001; Rowe 1986; Black and Harrison 2001; Black et al. 2002.)
Pupil response is enhanced where
• there is a classroom climate in which students feel safe and know they will not be criticized or ridiculed if they give a wrong answer
• prompts are provided to give students confidence to try an answer
• there is a ‘no-hands’ approach to answering, where you choose the respondent rather than have them volunteer
• ‘wait time’ is provided before an answer is required. The research suggests that 3 seconds is about right for most questions, with the proviso that more complex questions may need a longer wait time. Research shows that the average wait time in classrooms is about 1 second (Rowe 1986; Borich 1996)
How do questions develop students’ cognitive abilities?
Lower-level questions usually demand factual, descriptive answers that are relatively easy to give. Higher-level questions require more sophisticated thinking from students; they are more complex and more difficult to answer. Higher-level questions are central to students’ cognitive development, and research evidence suggests that students’ levels of achievement can be increased by regular access to higher-order thinking. (See Borich 1996; Muijs and Reynolds 2001; Morgan and Saxton 1994; Wragg and Brown 2001; Black and Harrison 2001.)
When you are planning higher-level questions, you will find it useful to use Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives (Bloom and Krathwohl 1956) to help structure questions which will require higher-level thinking. Bloom’s taxonomy is a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. The taxonomy classifies cognitive learning into six levels of complexity and abstraction.
On this scale, recalling relevant knowledge is the lowest-order thinking skill and creating is the highest.
Bloom researched thousands of questions routinely asked by teachers and categorized them. His research, and that of others, suggests that most learning- focused questions asked in classrooms fall into the first two categories, with few questions falling into the other categories which relate to higher-order thinking skills. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/09%3A_Questioning/9.03%3A_Summary_of_research.txt |
Although questions are the most common form of interaction between teachers and students, it is fair to say that questions are not always well judged or productive for learning. This section identifies some common pitfalls of questioning and suggests some ways to avoid them.
Not being clear about why you are asking the question: You will need to reflect on the kind of lesson you are planning. Is it one where you are mainly focusing on facts, rules and sequences of actions? If that is the case, you will be more likely to ask closed questions which relate to knowledge. Or is it a lesson where you are focusing mainly on comprehension, concepts and abstractions? In that case you will be more likely to use open questions which relate to analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
Asking too many closed questions that need only a short answer: It helps if you plan open questions in advance. Another strategy is to establish an optimum length of response by saying something like ‘I don’t want an answer of less than 15 words.’
Asking too many questions at once: Asking about a complex issue can often lead to complex questions. Since these questions are oral rather than written, students may find it difficult to understand what is required and they become confused. When you are dealing with a complex subject, you need to tease out the issues for yourself first and focus each question on one idea only. It also helps to use direct, concrete language and as few words as possible.
Asking difficult questions without building up to them: This happens when there isn’t a planned sequence of questions of increasing difficulty. Sequencing questions is necessary to help students to move to the higher levels of thinking.
Asking superficial questions: It is possible to ask lots of questions but not get to the center of the issue. You can avoid this problem by planning probing questions in advance. They can often be built in as follow-up questions to extend an answer.
Asking a question then answering it yourself: What’s the point? This pitfall is often linked to another problem: not giving students time to think before they answer. Build in ‘wait time’ to give students a chance to respond. You could say ‘Think about your answer for 3 seconds, then I will ask.’ You could also provide prompts to help.
Asking bogus ‘guess what’s in my head’ questions: Sometimes teachers ask an open question but expect a closed response. If you have a very clear idea of the response you want, it is probably better to tell students by explaining it to them rather than trying to get there through this kind of questioning. Remember, if you ask open questions you must expect to get a range of answers. Acknowledge all responses. This can easily be done by saying ‘thank you’.
Focusing on a small number of students and not involving the whole class: One way of avoiding this is to get the whole class to write their answers to closed questions and then show them to you together. Some teachers use small whiteboards for this. Another possibility, which may be more effective for more open questions, is to use the ‘no-hands’ strategy, where you pick the respondent rather than having them volunteer. One advantage of this is that you can ask students questions of appropriate levels of difficulty. This is a good way of differentiating to ensure inclusion.
Dealing ineffectively with wrong answers or misconceptions: Teachers sometimes worry that they risk damaging students’ self-esteem by correcting them. There are ways of handling this positively, such as providing prompts and scaffolds to help students correct their mistakes. It is important that you correct errors sensitively or, better still, get other students to correct them.
Not treating students’ answers seriously: Sometimes teachers simply ignore answers that are a bit off-beam. They can also fail to see the implications of these answers and miss opportunities to build on them. You could ask students why they have given that answer or if there is anything they would like to add. You could also ask other students to extend the answer. It is important not to cut students off and move on too quickly if they have given a wrong answer.
Practical tips
• Be clear about why you are asking the questions. Make sure they will do what you want them to do.
• Plan sequences of questions that make increasingly challenging cognitive demands on students.
• Give students time to answer and provide prompts to help them if necessary. Ask conscripts rather than volunteers to answer questions
Reflection
• Look again at the list of pitfalls and think about your own teaching. Which of these traps have you fallen into during recent lessons?
• Ho might you have avoided them?
9.05: Additional resources and references
Additional Resources
100 questions that promote Mathematical Discourse Download Printable Version for quick reference | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/09%3A_Questioning/9.04%3A_Common_pitfalls_of_questioning_and_possible_solutions.txt |
Authors: UQx LEARNx team of contributors
Professor Merrilyn Goos from The University of Queensland defines what we mean by ‘feedback for deep learning’.
Feedback is something that tells you if you’re on the right track or not. In a nutshell, feedback is information provided on the performance or understanding of a task which can then be used to improve this performance or understanding. Feedback helps to close the gap between actual performance and intended performance. There are a multitude of different types of feedback and we encounter many of these in our everyday lives.
Feedback can come from a diverse variety of sources as well. Feedback doesn’t need to be formal. In fact, some feedback is very informal and we hardly recognize it for what it is. Feedback has a powerful influence on learning and in particular on deep engagement with content. If we would like our students to have a full understanding of a task and gain skills they can use in the future and transfer to other tasks, then effective feedback on learning is crucial.
For a fuller understanding of the nature of feedback and closing the gap between actual performance and intended performance, we need to explore the different purposes, types, and levels of feedback and ask three important questions:
1) Where am I going?
2) How am I going? and
3) Where to next?
(Hattie & Timperley, 2007).
In exploring the Hattie and Timperley (2007) feedback model and the three feedback questions, van den Bergh, Ros and Beijaard (2012, p. 345) state:
The first question is about the learning goals: ‘Where am I going?’
The second question that has to be answered is: ‘How am I going?’ Learners need to know how the current performance relates to the learning goals.
Finally, learners will ask: ‘Where to next?’ What activities need to be undertaken to make better progress?
10.02: Feedback
Dr Cameron Brooks from the School of Education at The University of Queensland explores what conditions are important for effective feedback and how powerful effective feedback can be for deep learning.
CAMERON BROOKS: Effective feedback is essential for deep learning. Though, what is often overlooked is the potential for feedback to have variable effects on learning.
The use of feedback is regarded as one of the most powerful strategies to improve student achievement and you may or may not be aware of just how much attention it receives in education policy and practice. As we explore effective feedback, I want you to reflect on ways feedback has influenced you in your own learning journey.
Feedback is typically viewed as information given to the student which is designed to cause modifications of actions and result in learning.
Recently, this cause-and-effect notion of feedback has been challenged as the provision of feedback is no guarantee of learning. Research suggests that much of feedback that is given is in fact rarely used by students. For this reason, we need to focus upon how feedback is being received rather than just how feedback is given. The effects of feedback on learning have been studied by educational and psychological researchers since the early 20th century.
Feedback is typically related with greater academic achievement, improvements in student work, and enhanced student motivation. Further investigation of feedback research, however, reveals that feedback produces highly variable effects upon learning. Numerous variables are identified in feedback literature that affect how feedback is received and used by students. These including the purpose, focus and timing of feedback.
Feedback can serve many different purposes such as to provide: a grade, a justification of a grade, a qualitative description of the work, praise, encouragement, identification of errors, suggestions of how to fix errors and guidance on how to improve the work standard.
• Feedback can be directive and tell students where they went wrong or facilitative and provide guidance on how to improve.
• Feedback that includes elaborations about how to improve is more likely to lead to improvements in learning efficiency and student achievement.
• Improvement based feedback that includes guidance is more effective than statements about whether work is right or wrong as it takes into consideration how feedback is received by learners.
Literature on student perceptions of feedback includes findings that students become frustrated with feedback that is too general or tells them where they went wrong but does not provide guidance on how to improve. Effective feedback tells students how they are doing in relation to goals and criteria and then provides guidance and opportunities for improvement.
Unfortunately, much of feedback that is given in classrooms is directed to the self, rather than to these specific learning elements of tasks. Research directed to the self, most commonly given as praise, has been found to have negative impacts upon learning as it can contribute towards learners developing a mindset that sees achievement as a fixed attribute rather than something to be worked on and improved.
Early, behavioristic feedback models used feedback as a means of reinforcement of behavior with the belief that feedback needs to be immediate to help condition a response. As cognitivist theories emerged, researchers began to investigate the effects of immediate versus delayed feedback upon learning.
Immediate feedback vs. delayed feedback
Immediate feedback is more likely to be effective for the acquisition of verbal, procedural and some motor skills. While immediate feedback is helpful during initial task acquisition, it can negate deeper learning during tasks that encourage fluency and development of skills and understanding.
In fact, delayed feedback can be more effective for difficult tasks due to the benefits associated with learners’ processing and thinking about methods to satisfy task requirements. Therefore, delayed feedback may be beneficial for deeper learning where learning concepts can be transferred from one context to another. This is of course dependent upon the type of task and the developmental capability of the learner.
Four common, key conditions for effective feedback are evident from research:
1. Clarifying expectations and standards for the learner.
2. Scheduling ongoing, targeted feedback within the learning period.
3. Fostering practices to develop self-assessment, and
4. Providing feed forward opportunities to close the feedback loop.
Let’s have a look at each of these conditions in more detail.
1. Clarifying expectations and standards for the learner.
larifying expectations and standards for the learner is a key prerequisite for effective feedback practice. The clarification of criteria and standards at the beginning of, or at least during the learning cycle, orients learners towards purposeful actions designed to satisfy or even exceed the learning intent or goals.
Feedback pertaining to expectations and standards that arrives at the conclusion of the learning cycle is terminal and of limited value, primarily due to the learner not being given further opportunity to be able to implement the feedback. Feedback has the potential to be increasingly powerful when the task intent and the criteria for success can be matched to challenging learning goals.
Goals are a powerful strategy for focusing the intention of learners on the feedback standard gap, for instance, the difference between where the learner currently is in the learning cycle, and where they need to be at the end of the learning journey. Teachers need to be clear and specific when providing guidance on expectations as students hold different interpretations of the learning intent from their instructors.
An example of an effective strategy for clarifying expectations and standards is the use of exemplars or models. Exemplars are particularly effective as they clearly depict the required standards and enable students to make a direct comparison between their own work and the stated standards of the exemplar. Students also report they value feedback that is matched to the assessment criteria.
Crucially, feedback pertaining to the clarification of the expectations and standards lays the platform for students to monitor their own learning progress, and this is a key facet of self-regulated learning.
2. Scheduling ongoing, targeted feedback within the learning period.
Ongoing, targeted and specific feedback received within the current learning period is more powerful than feedback received after learning.
Hence, formative, rather than summative assessment is a key process for creating opportunities for feedback. Formative assessment provides learners with opportunities to both receive and implement feedback with a view to improving their work. The scheduling of formative assessment check points throughout the learning period gives students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge, understandings and skills.
Formative assessment also provides teachers with an evidence base of how their students are tracking towards achieving the learning intent. By comparing the learning intent and criteria for success with the students’ current learning state (as evidenced within their formative assessment samples), teachers can direct their attention to the gap between where the learner is currently situated and where they need to be. Teachers can then draw upon pedagogical practices such as differentiation and scaffolding to meet the individual needs of learners before the conclusion of the learning period.
3. Fostering practices to develop self-assessment
Self-regulation is a key process within an effective model of feedback for deep learning. Self-regulated learners are cognizant of both the standards and criteria and their own current levels of performance or achievement. To develop self-regulatory behaviors, learners must be regularly engaged in tasks and activities that are matched to the criteria for success and include processes, such as self-assessment, that encourage critical thinking and reflection.
Calibration mechanisms such as self-review, retrieval questions, peer feedback, comparison with models and exemplars all allow students to compare their work against given standards and importantly, identify areas for improvement.
Self-assessment thus forms part of self-regulation where students can direct and monitor actions to achieve the learning intent. Students who develop self-regulatory learning habits become willing and active seekers of feedback.
4. Providing feed forward opportunities to close the feedback loop.
The final condition for effective feedback is the provision of opportunities for students to implement the feedback and close the feedback loop. The closing of the feedback loop is crucial as it requires learners to act on earlier feedback that they have received or self-generated. Often termed feed forward, this highly valued process is often missing from some learning episodes, due to delays in students receiving the feedback or misinterpretation of the feedback content.
Thus, feed forward is heavily reliant on the previously discussed three conditions of effective feedback. When further consideration is given to incrementally increasing task challenge, feed forward opportunities can foster great improvement in learners.
In conclusion, variables such as the purpose, focus and timing of feedback can cause feedback to be received differently by learners. Teachers need to strive to provide conditions for learners where feedback is more likely to be effective. These conditions include, the clarification of expectations, the use of ongoing formative assessment, feedback that is aimed at developing self-regulation and the provision of feed forward opportunities.
In this video below, Dr. Cameron Brooks from the University of Queensland, provides effective feedback, coaching for teachers in Brisbane, Australia. Watch Cameron working with teachers and think about the types of feedback teachers receive.
Click here to watch the video. (8:02 minutes)
In this next video Dr. Cameron Brooks from The University of Queensland, talks about his own model that he has developed for effective feedback.
Click here to watch the video (8:41 minutes). The Feedback Matrix can be printed out at the link. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/10%3A_Feedback/10.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Dr. Melissa Cain from The University of Queensland explores the many advantages of providing and receiving peer feedback.
MELISSA CAIN: Have you ever been asked to provide feedback to a friend or colleague? Did you find that easy? What concerns did you have? Were you worried that your feedback wouldn’t be welcomed or that it might not be helpful?
Alternative assessment methods such peer assessment are growing in popularity and have been found to receive a more positive response from students than more traditional assessment approaches. Engaging in peer feedback as part of the formative assessment process develops a range of critical thinking skills and is important in developing deep learning competencies.
Stephen Bostock, Head of the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Assessment at Glyndwr University relates that there are many benefits in providing and receiving peer feedback. Engaging in peer feedback gives students a sense of belonging and encourages a sense of ownership in the process.
This type of engagement also helps students recognize assessment criteria; and develops a wide range of transferable skills. Interacting with their peers in this manner provides learners opportunities to problem solve and reflect. It increases a sense of responsibility, promotes independent learning and encourages them to be open to a variety of perspectives. Commenting on the work of peers enables learners to engage with assessment criteria; thus, inducting them into assessment practices and tacit knowledge. Learners are then able to develop an understanding of standards which they can potentially transfer of their own work.
Challenges of peer assessment
There are, however, some challenges surrounding the provision of effective peer feedback. Ryan Daniel, professor of creative arts at James Cook University, suggests that there exists the potential for resistance to peer feedback as it appears to challenge the authority of teachers as experts.
Indeed, students themselves have strong views about the effectiveness of peer assessment methods. This includes an awareness of their own deficiencies in subject areas; not being sure of their own objectivity; the influence of interpersonal factors such as friendship; and the belief that it is not their job but the teachers’ to provide feedback.
Learners may also be cautious of being criticized by their peers and worry about a lack of confidence in their ability to provide effective feedback. Part of this issue relates to the issue of teacher power in the classroom. As this power is usually considered absolute by students, they may in fact, consider their role to please teachers rather than demonstrate their learning in providing feedback. Providing effective peer feedback cannot be a one time event. Learners need to be prepared over time to provide effective feedback.
Spiller (2011) suggests that learners need to be coached using examples and models and should be involved in establishing their own assessment criteria if possible. Teachers should demonstrate how they can match the work of a learner to an exemplar which most closely resembles its qualities. And everyone should engage in rich discussions about the process following the provision of peer feedback. As students become better at providing peer feedback over time, they gain confidence and become more competent at it.
Learning to provide peer feedback has many advantages. Most importantly, when students evaluate their peers’ work and provide timely, specific, and personalized feedback, they have the opportunity to scrutinize their own work as well. And this is a critical factor in deep learning.
Peer Critique: Creating a Culture of Revision
Your students can improve their work by recognizing the strengths and weaknesses in the work of others.
Be Kind, Be Specific, Be Helpful
Click here to watch video from Edutopia: (4:32 minutes)
Using Self and Peer Feedback as Assessments for Learning
Click here to watch video on using self and peer feedback as assessments for learning. (2:44 minutes)
10.04: References
• [Edutopia]. (Nov. 1, 2016). Peer Critique: Creating a Culture of Revision. [Video File]. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8FKJPpvreY
• [PERTS]. (Jan. 6, 2016). Using Self and Peer Feedback as Assessments for Learning. [Video File] Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ckrbsigh9E
• UQx: LEARNx Deep Learning through Transformative Pedagogy (2017). University of Queensland, Australia (CC BY NC) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/10%3A_Feedback/10.03%3A_Peer_Feedback.txt |
Authors: Anne West (The University of Georgia), Janet Swanson, and Lindsay Lipscomb
What is Scaffolding?
The term ‘scaffolding’ comes from the works of Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976). The term ‘scaffolding’ was developed as a metaphor to describe the type of assistance offered by a teacher or peer to support learning. In the process of scaffolding, the teacher helps the student master a task or concept that the student is initially unable to grasp independently. The teacher offers assistance with only those skills that are beyond the student’s capability.
Of great importance is allowing the student to complete as much of the task as possible, unassisted. The teacher only attempts to help the student with tasks that are just beyond his current capability. Student errors are expected, but, with teacher feedback and prompting, the student is able to achieve the task or goal. When the student takes responsibility for or masters the task, the teacher begins the process of “fading”, or the gradual removal of the scaffolding, which allows the student to work independently.
“Scaffolding is actually a bridge used to build upon what students already know to arrive at something they do not know. If scaffolding is properly administered, it will act as an enabler, not as a disabler” (Benson, 1997).
Many different facilitative tools can be utilized in scaffolding student learning. Among them are: breaking the task into smaller, more manageable parts; using ‘think aloud, or verbalizing thinking processes when completing a task; cooperative learning, which promotes teamwork and dialogue among peers; concrete prompts, questioning; coaching; cue cards or modeling.
Others might include the activation of background knowledge, giving tips, strategies, cues and procedures. Teachers have to be mindful of keeping the learner in pursuit of the task while minimizing the learner’s stress level. Skills, or tasks too far out of reach can lead a student to his frustration level, and tasks that are too simple can cause much the same effect.
Each facilitative method used is chosen as an individually tailored instructional tool. Teachers have to have open dialogue with the students to determine what and how they are thinking in order to clear up misconceptions and to individualize instruction.
Crucial to successful scaffolding is an understanding of the student’s prior knowledge and abilities. The teacher must ascertain what the student already knows so that it can be “hooked”, or connected to the new knowledge and made relevant to the learner’s life, thus increasing the motivation to learn.
11.02: Vygotskys zone of proximal development
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development
Inherent in scaffolded instruction is Lev Vygotsky’s (1978) idea of the zone of proximal development. Vygotsky suggests that there are two parts of a learner’s developmental level: the “actual developmental level” and the “potential developmental level”. The zone of proximal development is “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86).
The zone of proximal development (ZPD) can also be described as the area between what a learner can do by himself and that which can be attained with the help of a ‘more knowledgeable other’ adult or peer. The ‘more knowledgeable other’, or MKO, shares knowledge with the student to bridge the gap between what is known and what is not known. Once the student has expanded his knowledge, the actual developmental level has been expanded and the ZPD has shifted. The ZPD is always changing as the student expands and gains knowledge, so scaffolded instruction must constantly be individualized to address the changing ZPD of each student.
It was Vygotsky’s belief that “good learning” occurs in the child’s zone of proximal development. Important to teaching in the ZPD is the determination of what the student can manage on his own and to allow the student to do as much as possible without any assistance. “Fading” is the process of gradually removing the scaffolding that was put into place for the child until it is completely gone. Eventually, the child internalizes the information and becomes a self-regulated, independent learner.
Until students can demonstrate task mastery of new or difficult tasks, they are given more assistance or support from a teacher or a more knowledgeable other (MKO). As the learner moves toward mastery, the assistance or support is gradually decreased in order to shift the responsibility for learning from the MKO to the learner (Larkin, 2002). Zhao and Orey (1999) summarize, “scaffolding is a metaphor to characterize a special type of instructional process which works in a task-sharing situation between the teacher and the learner.” The authors further delineate this basic idea into two key aspects (or rules):
“(a) help the learner with those aspects of the task that the learner cannot manage yet; and
(b) allow the learner to do as much as he or she can without help” (p. 6). | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/11%3A_Scaffolding/11.01%3A_What_is_scaffolding.txt |
Lange (2002) states that there are two major steps involved in instructional scaffolding: (1) “development of instructional plans to lead the students from what they already know to a deep understanding of new material,” and (2) “execution of the plans, wherein the instructor provides support to the students at every step of the learning process.”
In an appropriate scaffolding process, there will be specific identifiable features that are in place to allow facilitation of assisting the learner in internalizing the knowledge until mastery occurs. Applebee and Langer (1983), as cited by Zhao and Orey (1999), identify these five features as:
• Intentionality: The task has a clear overall purpose driving any separate activity that may contribute to the whole.
• Appropriateness: Instructional tasks pose problems that can be solved with help but which students could not successfully complete on their own.
• Structure: Modeling and questioning activities are structured around a model of appropriate approaches to the task and lead to a natural sequence of thought and language.
• Collaboration:The teacher’s response to student work recasts and expands upon the students’ efforts without rejecting what they have accomplished on their own. The teacher’s primary role is collaborative rather than evaluative.
• Internalization: External scaffolding for the activity is gradually withdrawn as the patterns are internalized by the students (p. 6).
Larkin (2002) states, “Scaffolding is one of the principles of effective instruction that enables teachers to accommodate individual student needs.”
In keeping with this theory, it can be seen that instruction must also be tailored around “contingent instruction”, which is a term identified by Reichgerlt, Shadbolt, Paskiewica, Wood, & Wood (1993) as cited by Zhao and Orey (1999).
• The teacher or MKO realizes that the amount of instructional support given is dependent upon the outcome of the previous assistance.
• If a learner is unable to complete a task after an intervention by the MKO, then he or she is immediately given a more specific directive.
• Equally, if the learner is successful with an intervention, then he or she is given a less explicit directive the next time he or she needs assistance.
• Next, the instructor or MKO must recognize that the instructional intervention must be specific to the task the learner is currently attempting to complete.
• Finally, the teacher must keep in the forefront of the process that the student must be given ample time to apply the directive or to try a new move him/herself before additional intervention is supplied.
11.04: Six general elements of scaffolded instruction
1 – Sharing a Specific Goal
It is the teacher’s responsibility to establish the shared goal. However, the learner’s interests must be recruited or enlisted through the teacher’s ability to communicate with the learner and achieve intersubjectivity (sharing intentions, perceptions, feelings and conceptions) (Zhao & Orey, 1999). The teacher must do some pre-assessment of the student and the curriculum. Achievement of curriculum objectives is planned as the teacher considers the needs of each student. The teacher must be considerate of some of the unique, unusual, and often ineffective problem-solving techniques that children use. Allowing input from the student on the shared goal will enhance intrinsic motivation.
It will also help control the frustration level of the learner as he or she will feel that their interests have been validated. It will assist the learner in establishing a desire to master the goal where success is contingent upon one’s own ability in developing new skills. In this manner, the process of learning itself is esteemed, and the attainment of mastery is seen as being directly correlated with the effort put forth.
2 -Whole Task Approach
In the Whole Task Approach, the focus is on the overall goal to be attained throughout the entire process. Consequently, the task is learned as a whole instead of a set of individual sub-skills. Each feature of the lesson is learned as it relates to the whole task. This approach lessens the amount of passive knowledge on the part of the learner and the need for transfer is not as great. It must be noted that this approach is only effective if the learner does not experience extreme difficulty with any of the component skills needed to complete the whole task. Imagine how difficult it would be to scaffold a child in telling time if they could not identify the numbers 1 through 12
3 – Immediate Availability of Help
Frequent success is important in scaffolding, especially in helping control frustration levels of the learner. Student successes may be experienced more often if the MKO provides assistance in a timely and effective manner so as to enable the learner to proceed with the task. These successes, in turn, help to increase motivation through a positive self-efficacy and make the learner’s time and effort more productive. This procedure directly corresponds to the first rule of scaffolding as defined by Zhao & Orey (1999), which is to assist the learner with those tasks he/she is not yet able to carry out on his/her own.
4 – Intention-assisting
It is central to the scaffolding process to supply assistance to the learner’s present focus, thereby helping the learner with his/her current difficulties. In providing this immediate help with the current task at hand, a more productive learning environment is fostered because information has been related and conferred according to the learner’s focus keeping the learner in pursuit of the task.
However, it is often necessary to redirect the intentions of the learner if they do not represent an effective strategy for completing the task. The teacher or MKO must be cognizant that there are numerous ways of accomplishing a certain task. If the learner’s current path is effective, it should be accepted as it is the essence of scaffolding to help the learner proceed with the least amount of assistance as possible. If the MKO finds him/herself consistently helping a learner with low level intentions, it may be a good idea to turn to coaching as a strategy to help the learner progress. This is beneficial in that it helps the learner examine the task from a different perspective so as to encourage higher level thinking skills.
5 – Optimal Level of Help
What the learner is able to do should be matched with the level of assistance provided. The learner should be given just enough help to overcome the current obstacle, but the level of assistance should not hinder the learner from contributing and participating in the learning process of that particular task. In other words, the assistance should only attend to the areas of the task that he/she cannot accomplish on his/her own. No intervention should be made if the current task is within the learner’s capabilities. However, if the learner lacks the necessary skills, a demonstration is needed.
6 – Conveying an Expert Model
An expert model can provide an explicit example of the task as the expert way of accomplishing the task. The techniques for accomplishing the task are clearly expressed. In an implicit demonstration, the information is outlined around the expert model. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/11%3A_Scaffolding/11.03%3A_Characteristics_and_critical_features_of_scaffolded_instruction.txt |
Lange (2002) states that based on the work of Hogan and Pressley (1997) there are five different methods in instructional scaffolding: modeling of desired behaviors, offering explanations, inviting students to participate, verifying and clarifying student understandings, and inviting students to contribute clues. These techniques are used to direct students toward self-regulation and independence.
The first step in instructional scaffolding is usually modeling. Lange (2002) cites Hogan and Pressley (1997) as defining modeling as, “teaching behavior that shows how one should feel, think or act within a given situation.” There are three types of modeling. Think-aloud modeling gives auditory substance to the thought processes associated with a task. For example, a teacher might verbalize her thought processes for breaking an unfamiliar word down into its parts so that it can be read.
Talk-aloud modeling involves verbalizing the thought process or problem-solving strategy while demonstrating the task. An example would be a teacher verbally describing her thought processes as she demonstrates the correct way to subtract two-digit numbers on the board. Lastly, there is performance modeling. Performance modeling requires no verbal instruction. For example, a baseball coach might show one of his players how to get under a ball to catch it (Lange, 2002).
As well as modeling, the instructor needs to offer explanations. These explanations should openly address the learner’s comprehension about what is being learned, why and when it is used, and how it is used (Lange, 2002). At the beginning, explanations are detailed and comprehensive and repeated often. As the learner progresses in his knowledge, explanations may consist of only key words and prompts to help the learner remember important information.
For example, when teaching children how to identify adjectives in a sentence, the teacher will need to lead the children through learning the detailed definition of an adjective in the beginning. The instructor may have to repeat or rephrase this thorough explanation many times during guided practice. As the students gain experience, the teacher might just prompt the students with words like “what kind”, “which one” and “how many.”
Lange (2002) next addresses inviting student participation, especially in the early stages of scaffolding. This technique will heighten student engagement and ownership in the learning process. It will also provide the instructor with an opportunity to emphasize or correct understandings of the task. This leads us to verifying and clarifying student understandings. As students become familiar with new material, it is key for the teacher to evaluate student understanding and provide positive and corrective feedback
Points to Consider When Implementing Instructional Scaffolding:
• The scaffolding should be removed gradually and then removed completely when mastery of the task is demonstrated.
Larkin (2002) suggests that teachers can follow a few effective techniques of scaffolding:
Begin by boosting confidence. Introduce students first to tasks they can perform with little or no assistance. This will improve self-efficacy. Provide enough assistance to allow students to achieve success quickly. This will help lower frustration levels and ensure that students remain motivated to advance to the next step.
This will also help guard against students giving up due to repeated failures. Help students “fit in.” Students may actually work harder if they feel as if they resemble their peers. Avoid boredom. Once a skill is learned, don’t overwork it. Look for clues that the learner is mastering the task. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/11%3A_Scaffolding/11.05%3A_Methods_of_instructional_scaffolding.txt |
Scaffolding is used in a very wide range of situations. Mothers naturally employ this approach as they teach their children how to live in and enjoy their world. Teachers, from Pre-K to Adult Education appreciate the necessity and increased learning afforded by the use of these techniques.
Non-traditional educational settings, such as business training scenarios and athletic teams, also use these methods to assure the success of their employees and/or members. Teachers and trainers can even use the techniques and strategies of scaffolding without even knowing the name of this useful method. It is a very natural approach to ensure the learning of the student.
Pre – School (Toddlers)
Morelock, Brown and Morrissey (2003) noted in their study that mothers adapt their scaffolding to the perceived abilities of their children. The mothers scaffold interactions at play by modeling or prompting behaviors which they see demonstrated by their child or just beyond the level demonstrated. For instance, the very young child is playing with blocks by stacking them on top of each other.
The mother attracts the child’s attention and models how to “build” a wall or bridge by stacking them in a different way and using a toy person or truck to climb the wall or ride over the bridge. She then watches and assists as needed until the child appropriates the skill or loses interest and moves on to something else. She will try again the next time the child is playing with the blocks or try another construction which she feels will be more attractive to the child.
The study further suggested that the mother will adapt her scaffolding behavior to the needs of her child. If she sees that the child is imaginative and creative, she will then scaffold beyond the apparent skill level exhibited. Conversely, if she perceives that the child is less attentive or exhibits behaviors which are not easy to decipher, she will then demonstrate new skills instead of extensions to the skills already present. The authors suggest that this could be a possible early indicator of giftedness.
Pre-K through Grade 5 (Elementary School)
An elementary math teacher is introducing the addition of two-digit numbers. She first solicits the students’ interest by using a “hook” such as an interesting story or situation. Then she reduces the number of steps for initial success by modeling, verbally talking through the steps as she works and allowing the students to work with her on the sample problems.
An overhead projector is a great tool for this activity because the teacher is able to face the class while she works the problems. She can then pick up non-verbal cues from the class as she works. The students’ interest is held by asking them to supply two-digit numbers for addition, playing “Stump the Teacher”. She takes this opportunity for further modeling of the skills and verbally presenting the process as she works through these problems.
The students are then allowed to work several problems independently as the teacher watches and provides assistance where needed. The success rate is increased by providing these incremental opportunities for success. Some students may require manipulatives to solve the problems and some may require further “talking through” the procedures. These strategies may be applied individually or in small groups.
More challenging problems can then be added to the lesson. Further explicit modeling and verbalization will be required. Some students will be able to work independently while some will require more assistance and scaffolding. She will begin to fade the scaffolding as soon as she is sure that the students can effectively function alone.
Upper Grades (6-12)
Banaszynski (2000) provides another example of instructional scaffolding in his article about a project in which a group of eighth-grade history students in Wisconsin examined the Revolutionary War from two points of view—American and British. He began by guiding his students as they undertook a sequential series of activities in order to thoroughly investigate the opposing reactions to causes of the war. Then students contributed to a class timeline which detailed causes, actions and reactions. Banaszynski describes how work continued:
“After the timeline was completed, the students were arranged in groups, and each group did a critical analysis of primary-source material, focusing on the efforts each side made to avoid the war. This started students thinking about what the issues were and how each side handled them. The next step was to ask a question: Did the colonists have legitimate reasons for going to war against Great Britain? [I] asked each group to choose either the Patriot or Loyalist position and spend a day searching the Internet for primary sources and other materials to support their positions.”
The instructor continued scaffolding by interviewing the groups to probe for misconceptions, need for redirection, or re-teaching. Students later compared research and wrote essays that were analyzed and evaluated by fellow students using rubrics; groups then composed essays that included the strongest arguments from the individual works.
The project, Banaszynski says, was an enormous success; students began the unit working as individuals reliant upon him for instruction. As work proceeded, the feedback framework was altered so that students were guiding each other and, in turn, themselves. Banaszynski’s role in guiding the research and leading the reporting activities faded as the project continued and requirements became more complicated. As a result, students were able to appreciate their mastery of both materials and skills.
The following examples will serve to illustrate a few common scaffolding strategies:
• Possible early identifier of giftedness
• Provides individualized instruction
• Greater assurance of the learner acquiring the desired skill, knowledge or ability
• Provides differentiated instruction
• Delivers efficiency – Since the work is structured, focused, and glitches have been reduced or eliminated prior to initiation, time on task is increased and efficiency in completing the activity is increased.
• Creates momentum – Through the structure provided by scaffolding, students spend less time searching and more time on learning and discovering resulting in quicker learning
• Engages the learner
• Motivates the learner to learn
• Minimizes the level of frustration for the learner | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/11%3A_Scaffolding/11.06%3A_Applications_of_scaffolding.txt |
As a general instructional strategy, scaffolding shares many similarities with differentiation, which refers to a wide variety of teaching techniques and lesson adaptations that educators use to instruct a diverse group of students, with diverse learning needs, in the same course, classroom, or learning environment. Because scaffolding and differentiation techniques are used to achieve similar instructional goals—i.e., moving student learning and understanding from where it is to where it needs to be—the two approaches may be blended together in some classrooms to the point of being indistinguishable.
That said, the two approaches are distinct in several ways. When teachers scaffold instruction, they typically break up a learning experience, concept, or skill into discrete parts, and then give students the assistance they need to learn each part. For example, teachers may give students an excerpt of a longer text to read, engage them in a discussion of the excerpt to improve their understanding of its purpose, and teach them the vocabulary they need to comprehend the text before assigning them the full reading.
Alternatively, when teachers differentiate instruction, they might give some students an entirely different reading (to better match their reading level and ability), give the entire class the option to choose from among several texts (so each student can pick the one that interests them most), or give the class several options for completing a related assignment (for example, the students might be allowed to write a traditional essay, draw an illustrated essay in comic-style form, create a slideshow “essay” with text and images, or deliver an oral presentation).
11.08: Challenges and benefits of scaffolding
As with any other learning theory or strategy, there are challenges and benefits to scaffolding. Understanding and comparing both will assist the educational, professional or trainer in their assessment of the usefulness of the strategies and techniques as well as allow for comprehensive planning before implementation. The challenges are real but can be overcome with careful planning and preparation.
Challenges:
• Very time consuming
• Lack of sufficient personnel
• Potential for misjudging the zone of proximal development; success hinges on identifying the area that is just beyond but not too far beyond the students’ abilities
• Inadequately modeling the desired behaviors, strategies or activities because the teacher has not fully considered the individual student’s needs, predilections, interests, and abilities (such as not showing a student how to “double click” on an icon when using a computer)
• Full benefits not seen unless the instructors are properly trained
• Requires the teacher to give up control as fading occurs
• Lack of specific examples and tips in teacher’s editions of textbooks
When assessing the benefits of scaffolding, it is necessary to consider the context in which you wish to implement the strategies and techniques. Additionally, you must know the learners and evaluate their particular needs first.
Benefits:
• Possible early identifier of giftedness
• Provides individualized instruction
• Greater assurance of the learner acquiring the desired skill, knowledge or ability
• Provides differentiated instruction
• Delivers efficiency – Since the work is structured, focused, and glitches have been reduced or eliminated prior to initiation, time on task is increased and efficiency in completing the activity is increased.
• Creates momentum – Through the structure provided by scaffolding, students spend less time searching and more time on learning and discovering resulting in quicker learning
• Engages the learner
• Motivates the learner to learn
• Minimizes the level of frustration for the learner | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/11%3A_Scaffolding/11.07%3A_Scaffolding_vs._differentiation.txt |
The following examples will serve to illustrate a few common scaffolding strategies:
• The teacher gives students a simplified version of a lesson, assignment, or reading, and then gradually increases the complexity, difficulty, or sophistication over time.To achieve the goals of a particular lesson, the teacher may break up the lesson into a series of mini-lessons that progressively move students toward stronger understanding.For example, a challenging algebra problem may be broken up into several parts that are taught successively. Between each mini-lesson, the teacher checks to see if students have understood the concept, gives them time to practice the equations, and explains how the math skills they are learning will help them solve the more challenging problem (questioning students to check for understanding and giving them time to practice are two common scaffolding strategies). In some cases, the term guided practice may be used to describe this general technique.
• The teacher describes or illustrates a concept, problem, or process in multiple ways to ensure understanding. A teacher may orally describe a concept to students, use a slideshow with visual aids such as images and graphics to further explain the idea, ask several students to illustrate the concept on the blackboard, and then provide the students with a reading and writing task that asks them articulate the concept in their own words. This strategy addresses the multiple ways in which students learn—e.g., visually, orally, kinesthetically, etc.—and increases the likelihood that students will understand the concept being taught.
• Students are given an exemplar or model of an assignment they will be asked to complete. The teacher describes the exemplar assignment’s features and why the specific elements represent high-quality work. The model provides students with a concrete example of the learning goals they are expected to achieve or the product they are expected to produce.Similarly, a teacher may also model a process—for example, a multistep science experiment—so that students can see how it is done before they are asked to do it themselves (teachers may also ask a student to model a process for her classmates).
• Students are given a vocabulary lesson before they read a difficult text. The teacher reviews the words most likely to give students trouble, using metaphors, analogies, word-image associations, and other strategies to help students understand the meaning of the most difficult words they will encounter in the text. When the students then read the assignment, they will have greater confidence in their reading ability, be more interested in the content, and be more likely to comprehend and remember what they have read.
• The teacher clearly describes the purpose of a learning activity, the directions students need to follow, and the learning goals they are expected to achieve. The teacher may give students a handout with step-by-step instructions they should follow, or provide the scoring guide or rubric that will be used to evaluate and grade their work. When students know the reason why they are being asked to complete an assignment, and what they will specifically be graded on, they are more likely to understand its importance and be motivated to achieve the learning goals of the assignment. Similarly, if students clearly understand the process they need to follow, they are less likely to experience frustration or give up because they haven’t fully understood what they are expected to do.
• The teacher explicitly describes how the new lesson builds on the knowledge and skills students were taught in a previous lesson. By connecting a new lesson to a lesson the students previously completed, the teacher shows students how the concepts and skills they already learned will help them with the new assignment or project (teachers may describe this general strategy as “building on prior knowledge” or “connecting to prior knowledge”). Similarly, the teacher may also make explicit connections between the lesson and the personal interests and experiences of the students as a way to increase understanding or engagement in the learning process. For example, a history teacher may reference a field trip to a museum during which students learned about a particular artifact related to the lesson at hand. For a more detailed discussion, see the relevance. (Scaffolding, 2015)
11.10: References
Lipscomb, A. Swanson, J. & West, A.(2010) Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology, Global Text, Michael Orey. Chapter 21. Retrieved from https://textbookequity.org/Textbooks/Orey_Emergin_Perspectives_Learning.pdf (CC BY) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/11%3A_Scaffolding/11.09%3A_Scaffolding_strategies.txt |
[Education Week]. (2018, Sept. 11). Differentiating Instruction: It’s Not As Hard as You Think. [Video File].
Differentiation refers to a wide variety of teaching techniques and lesson adaptations that educators use to instruct a diverse group of students, with diverse learning needs, in the same course, classroom, or learning environment. Differentiation is commonly used in “heterogeneous grouping”—an educational strategy in which students of different abilities, learning needs, and levels of academic achievement are grouped together.
In heterogeneously grouped classrooms, for example, teachers vary instructional strategies and use more flexibly designed lessons to engage student interests and address distinct learning needs—all of which may vary from student to student. The basic idea is that the primary educational objectives—making sure all students master essential knowledge, concepts, and skills—remain the same for every student, but teachers may use different instructional methods to help students meet those expectations.
Teachers who employ differentiated instructional strategies will usually adjust the elements of a lesson from one group of students to another, so that those who may need more time or a different teaching approach to grasp a concept get the specialized assistance they need, while those students who have already mastered a concept can be assigned a different learning activity or move on to a new concept or lesson.
In more diverse classrooms, teachers will tailor lessons to address the unique needs of special-education students, high-achieving students, and English-language learners, for example. Teachers also use strategies such as formative assessment—periodic, in-process evaluations of what students are learning or not learning—to determine the best instructional approaches or modifications needed for each student.
Key Takeaways
Also called “differentiated instruction,” differentiation typically entails modifications to:
• practice (how teachers deliver instruction to students),
• process (how the lesson is designed for students),
• products (the kinds of work products students will be asked to complete),
• content (the specific readings, research, or materials, students will study),
• assessment (how teachers measure what students have learned), and
• grouping (how students are arranged in the classroom or paired up with other students).
Differentiation techniques may also be based on specific student attributes, including interest (what subjects inspire students to learn), readiness (what students have learned and still need to learn), or learning style (the ways in which students tend to learn the material best).
12.02: Differentiation vs. scaffolding
As a general instructional strategy, differentiation shares may similarities with scaffolding, which refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process.
Because differentiation and scaffolding techniques are used to achieve similar instructional goals—i.e., moving student learning and understanding from where it is to where it needs to be—the two approaches may be blended together in some classrooms to the point of being indistinguishable. That said, the two approaches are distinct in several ways.
When teachers differentiate instruction, they might give some students an entirely different reading (to better match their reading level and ability), give the entire class the option to choose from among several texts (so each student can pick the one that interests them most), or give the class several options for completing a related assignment (for example, the students might be allowed to write a traditional essay, draw an illustrated essay in comic-style form, create a slideshow “essay” with text and images, or deliver an oral presentation).
Alternatively, when teachers scaffold instruction, they typically break up a learning experience, concept, or skill into discrete parts, and then give students the assistance they need to learn each part. For example, teachers may give students an excerpt of a longer text to read, engage them in a discussion of the excerpt to improve their understanding of its purpose, and teach them the vocabulary they need to comprehend the text before assigning them the full reading.
(edglossary, 2013)
The following comparison chart will help illustrate the differentiation concept and its major component strategies (original link in this book to a Google Doc file is dead, the following table has been substituted)
Table \(2\): Examples of differentiation strategies compared to traditional ones (CC-BY-NC-SA Great Schools Partnership, Glossary of Education Reform
Element Traditional Example Differentiated Example
Practice A math teacher explains how to calculate slope to the entire class and gives students fifteen problems to practice. A math teacher pre-tests students to determine their understanding of critical mathematical skills and then arranges students into groups based on their learning progress and understanding. Some students work online to practice the skills, some work in groups with the teacher, and some work individually with occasional teacher support.
Process In an art class, students complete the following activities in order: write an artist statement, critique a peer’s work, and then compile artifacts for a portfolio of their art. Students determine the order in which they will write an artist statement, critique a peer’s work, and compile artifacts for a portfolio of work. Some tasks can be done at home and some in class, and some can be done collaboratively and some individually.
Products In a social studies class, students write a four-page essay arguing a position related to free speech that uses supporting evidence drawn from historical and contemporary sources. Students may elect to write an essay, op-ed, or persuasive speech, or they may create a short documentary arguing a position related to free speech that uses supporting evidence drawn from historical and contemporary sources.
Content In English class, students read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and discuss the messages it conveys about race and racism in the United States. Students choose between The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Invisible Man to discuss different messages about race and racism in the United States. The three groups share their knowledge with each other.
Assessment In a math class, students take an exam and are given a percentage grade based on how many answers were correct. Students take an exam and receive feedback on which mathematics standards they have mastered, which standards they are making progress on, and which standards need more attention. The feedback suggests remedies for students with learning gaps and new projects for students who have mastered all the required skills and knowledge.
Grouping Students are either grouped as a full class or they work independently most of the time. Teachers use grouping strategies to address distinct learning needs. Students may be working independently, in small groups, in pairs, or using technology. Some groupings are by choice and some are assigned based on common learning needs. Some groupings or individual students work closely with the teacher and others have more independence.
Interest In a social studies class, the teacher assigns a single topic, such as the Civil War, for a unit or project, and all students research the same historical event. The teacher poses a question, such as “Why do nations go to war?” Students may select a military conflict that interests them most and address the question in different ways—for example, one student may choose to read historical literature about World War II, while another student may research films about the Vietnam War.
Readiness In an English course, the teacher plans out the course topics and reading assignments in advance, and all students work through the same series of readings, lessons, and projects at the same pace. The teacher evaluates students to determine what they already know, and then designs lessons and projects that allow students to learn at different levels of difficulty, complexity, or independence. For example, teachers may determine reading levels and then assign a variety of texts, reflecting different degrees of difficulty, to ensure an appropriate level of reading challenge for each student.
Learning Preference In a math course, every student receives the same problems and assignments, which are all structured in the same way. The teacher assigns a topic: solving quadratic equations. Some students choose to work with a software program that uses visual representations and simulations, other students work in teams and solve a series of problems from a book that increase in difficulty, and still others watch an online tutorial that can be viewed multiple times until the concept becomes clear.
12.03: Differentiated Instruction and Universal Design for Learning
Myths and Misconceptions about Differentiated Instruction and Universal Design for Learning
Differentiation plays into ongoing debates about equity and “academic tracking” in public schools. One major criticism of the approach is related to the relative complexities and difficulties entailed in teaching diverse types of students in a single classroom or educational setting.
Since effective differentiation requires more sophisticated and highly specialized instructional methods, teachers typically need adequate training, mentoring, and professional development to ensure they are using differentiated instructional techniques appropriately and effectively.
Some teachers also argue that the practical realities of using differentiation—especially in larger classes comprising students with a wide range of skill levels, academic preparation, and learning needs—can be prohibitively difficult or even infeasible.
Yet other educators argue that this criticism stems, at least in part, from a fundamental misunderstanding of the strategy. In her book How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, the educator and writer Carol Ann Tomlinson, who is considered an authority on differentiation, points out a potential source of confusion:
“Differentiated instruction is not the ‘Individualized Instruction’ of the 1970s.”
In other words, differentiation is the practice of varying instructional techniques in a classroom to effectively teach as many students as possible, but it does not entail the creation of distinct courses of study for every student (i.e., individualized instruction).
The conflation of “differentiated instruction” and “individualized instruction” has likely contributed to ongoing confusion and debates about differentiation, particularly given that the terms are widely and frequently used interchangeably.
(Myths and Misconceptions, n.d)
Differentiated Instruction and Implications for UDL Implementation
To differentiate instruction is to recognize students’ varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning and interests; and to react responsively. As Tomlinson notes in her recent book Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (2014), teachers in a differentiated classroom begin with their current curriculum and engaging instruction. Then they ask, what will it take to alter or modify the curriculum and instruction so that so that each learner comes away with knowledge, understanding, and skills necessary to take on the next important phase of learning. Differentiated instruction is a process of teaching and learning for students of differing abilities in the same class. Teachers, based on characteristics of their learners’ readiness, interest, learning profile, may adapt or manipulate various elements of the curriculum (content, process, product, affect/environment). These are illustrated in Table \(2\): below which presents the general principles of differentiation by showing the key elements of the concept and relationships among those elements.
Table \(2\): Differentiation is a teacher's response to learner's needs. Adapted with permission from Carol Tomlinson: Differentiation Central Institutes on Academic Diversity in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia (September 2014) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/12%3A_Differentiated_Instruction/12.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Identifying Components/Features
While Tomlinson and most recognize there is no magic or recipe for making a classroom differentiated, they have identified guiding principles, considered the “Pillars that Support Effective Differentiation”: Philosophy, Principles, and Practices. The premise of each is as follows:
The Philosophy of differentiation is based on the following tenets:
1. recognizing diversity is normal and valuable,
2. understanding every student has the capacity to learn,
3. taking responsibility to guide and structure student success,
4. championing every student entering the learning environment and assuring equity of access
The Principles identified that shape differentiation include
1. creating an environment conducive to learning
2. identifying a quality foundational curriculum
3. informing teaching and learning with assessments
4. designing instruction based on assessments collected
5. creating and maintaining a flexible classroom
The Practices are also essential to differentiation, highlighted as
1. proactive planning to address student profiles
2. modifying instructional approaches to meet student needs
3. teaching up (students should be working just above their individual comfort levels)
4. assigning respectful tasks responsive to student needs—challenging, engaging, purposeful
5. applying flexible grouping strategies (e.g., stations, interest groups, orbital studies)
Content
• Several elements and materials are used to support instructional content. These include acts, concepts, generalizations or principles, attitudes, and skills. The variation seen in a differentiated classroom is most frequently in the manner in which students gain access to important learning. Access to content is seen as key.
• Align tasks and objectives to learning goals. Designers of differentiated instruction view the alignment of tasks with instructional goals and objectives as essential. Goals are most frequently assessed by many state-level, high-stakes tests and frequently administered standardized measures. Objectives are frequently written in incremental steps resulting in a continuum of skills-building tasks. An objectives-driven menu makes it easier to find the next instructional step for learners entering at varying levels.
• Instruction is concept-focused and principle-driven. Instructional concepts should be broad-based, not focused on minute details or unlimited facts. Teachers must focus on the concepts, principles, and skills that students should learn. The content of instruction should address the same concepts with all students, but the degree of complexity should be adjusted to suit diverse learners.
• Clarify key concepts and generalizations. Ensure that all learners gain powerful understandings that can serve as the foundation for future learning. Teachers are encouraged to identify essential concepts and instructional foci to ensure that all learners comprehend.
Process
• Flexible grouping is consistently used. Strategies for flexible grouping are essential. Learners are expected to interact and work together as they develop knowledge of new content. Teachers may conduct whole-class introductory discussions of content big ideas followed by small group or paired work. Student groups may be coached from within or by the teacher to support completion of assigned tasks. Grouping of students is not fixed. As one of the foundations of differentiated instruction, grouping and regrouping must be a dynamic process, changing with the content, project, and on-going evaluations.
• Classroom management benefits students and teachers. To effectively operate a classroom using differentiated instruction, teachers must carefully select organization and instructional delivery strategies. In her text, How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms (2001), Carol Tomlinson identifies 17 key strategies for teachers to successfully meet the challenge of designing and managing differentiated instruction.
• Emphasize critical and creative thinking as a goal in lesson design. The tasks, activities, and procedures for students should require that they understand and apply meaning. Instruction may require supports, additional motivation; and varied tasks, materials, or equipment for different students in the classroom.
Products
• Initial and on-going assessment of student readiness and growth are essential. Meaningful pre-assessment naturally leads to functional and successful differentiation. Incorporating pre- and on-going assessment informs teachers so that they can better provide a menu of approaches, choices, and scaffolds for the varying needs, interests, and abilities that exist in classrooms of diverse students. Assessments may be formal or informal, including interviews, surveys, performance assessments, and more formal evaluation procedures.
• Use assessment as a teaching tool to extend rather than merely measure instruction. Assessment should occur before, during, and following the instructional episode; and it should be used to help pose questions regarding student needs and optimal learning.
• Students are active and responsible explorers. Teachers respect that each task put before the learner will be interesting, engaging, and accessible to essential understanding and skills. Each child should feel challenged most of the time.
• Vary expectations and requirements for student responses. Items to which students respond may be differentiated so that different students are able to demonstrate or express their knowledge and understanding in a variety of ways. A well-designed student product allows varied means of expression and alternative procedures and offers varying degrees of difficulty, types of evaluation, and scoring.
Affect/Environment
• Developing a learning environment. Establish classroom conditions that set the tone and expectations for learning. Provide tasks that are challenging, interesting, and worthwhile to students.
• Engaging all learners is essential. Teachers are encouraged to strive for the development of lessons that are engaging and motivating for a diverse class of students. Vary tasks within instruction as well as across students. In other words, an entire session for students should not consist of all lecture, discussion, practice, or any single structure or activity.
• Provide a balance between teacher-assigned and student-selected tasks. A balanced working structure is optimal in a differentiated classroom. Based on pre-assessment information, the balance will vary from class-to-class as well as lesson-to-lesson. Teachers should ensure that students have choices in their learning.
The following instructional approach to teaching mathematics patterns has several UDL features (see Table 2). Through the use of clearly stated goals and the implementation of flexible working groups with varying levels of challenge, this lesson helps to break down instructional barriers. We have identified additional ways to reduce barriers in this lesson even further by employing the principles of UDL teaching methods and differentiated instruction. We provide recommendations of employing teaching methods of UDL to support this lesson in Table 3. Please note that we are not making generalized recommendations for making this lesson more UDL, but instead are focusing on ways that differentiated instruction, specifically, can help achieve this goal.
Table \(3\): . UDL Elements in a Differentiated Instruction Mathematics Lesson
UDL Guideline/Checkpoint Differentiated Instruction Features
Provide multiple examples. The teacher provides multiple examples throughout the lesson with multiple models, practice activities, and additional math problems.
Highlight critical features. The teacher highlights critical features of the mathematics by stopping and calculating, checking in with students, and modeling behavior.
Provide multiple media and formats. The teacher supports understanding by identifying patterns not only in text but also in the environment of the classroom, school, etc.
Support background context. Teachers analyze or pre-test students for key pre-skills and background knowledge.
Provide ongoing, relevant feedback. In cooperative groups, students may receive feedback from the teacher and from peers.
Offer choices of content and tools. Students are assigned to one of three groups tiered by difficulty; all students are working on the same task but with varying supports.
Offer adjustable levels of challenge. Varied supports in the working groups alter the level of independence and difficulty in solving the task.
Table \(4\): . UDL Strategies to Further Minimize Lesson Barriers in a Differentiated Instruction Lesson Plan for Mathematics.
Barrier UDL Strategy
Deducting/constructing numeric functions. Provide different demonstrations or models
of how to use the tools employed in the lesson. Provide scaffolds and prompt students in use of number patterns.
Students write rules for mathematical patterns. Provide alternative formats for students to express their interpretation of visual and representational patterns and the mathematical implications. For example, speaking, creating a diagram, numerical representations.
Creating number patterns. Consider background knowledge for students entering this mathematical problem. What range of supports could be made available to provide the informational knowledge so that students can focus on the problem-solving component?
(Hall, Vue, Meyer, 2004)
12.05: References
Additional Resources on Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated instruction: Maximizing the learning of all students. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/di/ | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/12%3A_Differentiated_Instruction/12.04%3A_Components_and_features.txt |
1. Multiple Means of Representation
2. Multiple Means of Action and Expression
3. Multiple Means of Engagement
UDL at a Glance
The following overview video is from CAST. CAST is a research and development organization whose mission is to
“Bust all barriers to learning that millions of people experience every day.”
The CAST website is a gateway to principles, tools and resources for educators.
See how UDL guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs.
Click here to watch this YouTube video (4:36 minutes)
UDL Instructional Module
If you are new to UDL, please go to the IRIS module on UDL and complete the module readings and multimedia presentations. As you read, watch and listen to the IRIS module, notice how IRIS has implemented the principles of UDL in their module design.
The IRIS Center. (2009). Universal Design for Learning: Creating a Learning Environment that Challenges and Engages All Students. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/udl/
Module goals:
• Understand the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
• Be able to apply the Universal Design for Learning principles to the components of a curriculum
Myths and Misconceptions about UDL
UDL is only for learners with disabilities.
UDL aims to remove barriers to learning and supports inclusive institutional and teaching practices that reach all learners. As many post-secondary institutions must support large student populations and students usually participate in large class sizes, UDL practices ensure that a large, diverse student body still has access to learning in ways that support their individual needs. Therefore, instructors still need to consider using UDL in their pedagogy, even if they do not have learners with disabilities in their courses. It is important to remember that those students who vary in age, gender, cultural background, first language and abilities will also benefit from UDL
Incorporating UDL into pedagogy lowers academic rigor.
UDL does not replace regular program, course and assessment objectives. UDL practices simply support the use of multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression and multiple means of engagement to support all learners in meeting these objectives. It may be argued that academic rigour increases, as students are expected to express materials in multiple ways, limiting options for memorization and increasing the likelihood of deep learning.
UDL has no research behind it.
UDL research has been conducted in many fields, by varying researchers with the support of numerous institutions. Its framework resulted from thorough research in the fields of cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology and neuroscience. UDL guidelines and practices were a direct result of intensive research and investigation both supported by experimental and quantitative evidence as well as scholarly reviews and expert opinions. A compilation of the past 10 years of UDL research can be located on the CAST website.
To make UDL work, you have to use technology.
It is true that technology can effectively support learning in today’s classroom and can play an important role in the implementation of UDL. However, in order to support UDL and apply it effectively, technology is not a requirement if it is not available. . Instructors can still support student learning with no-tech or low-tech options as UDL classrooms focus on flexible learning methods to support learning not just technological ones. The following resources provide some low/no tech UDL classroom options:
1. Example of a Technology-less lesson by Rose, Gravel, & Domings (2010)
2. Technology-less options according to UDL principles by Prince George County Public Schools
UDL is just good teaching.
UDL does not automatically assume or result in good teaching. The term “good” is often judged subjectively and therefore not an ideal term for academic discussion. UDL principles, guidelines and checkpoints provide a clear framework that informs intentional teaching practices. Effective teaching will support opportunities for BOTH instructors and students to assess learning meaningfully and frequently in an inclusive physical and intellectual environment. However, unless an instructor is referencing the UDL framework and applying the UDL principles in order to make decisions, assess and/or inform, they are not implementing UDL.
Watch this video from The National Center on Universal Design for Learning (now merged with CAST). A panel of experts discusses the UDL practices from a first grade mathematics lesson.
National Center on Universal Design for Leanring]. (2010, Mar. 17). UDL Guidelines in Practice:Grade 1 Mathematics. [Video File
13.02: UDL resources
IMPORTANT UDL Resources:
This is a matrix of UDL strategies and assistive technologies are categorized by the 3 main principles of UDL. Use this guide to identify appropriate strategies for your students to access the math curriculum.
Note: These UDL strategies will benefit ALL learners
Get the UDL Guidelines: Available in multiple formats and languages describing the context within which CAST developed the UDL Guidelines including explanations and examples of each principle and checkpoint.
Download and keep a copy of the UDL Guidelines on this CAST graphic organizer
Additional instructional modules and other resources on UDL
https://www.cast.org/impact/universa...l#.WaQvoiiGPIU
Ralabate, P.K. (2011) Universal Design for Learning: Meeting the Needs of All Students. The ASHA Leader, 16 (10), 14-17. do 10. 1044/leader.FTR2.16102011.14 Retrieved from http://leader.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2279147
MAST Modules on Universal Design for Learning: Modules Addressing Special Education and Teacher Education
The ASHA Leader, 16 (10), 14-17. do 10. 1044/leader.FTR2.16102011.14 Retrieved from http://leader.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2279147
This video from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at OU, illustrates, how UDL principles serve culturally diverse students, such as international students or English language learners. The target audience is higher education, however the strategies are completely relevant to K-12 environments.
Universal Design for Learning (Part 6): Culturally Diverse Learners. [Video File]
13.03: References
The IRIS Center. (2009). Universal Design for Learning: Creating a Learning Environment that Challenges and Engages All Students. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/udl/
Myths and Misconceptions. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.alludl.ca/myths-misconceptions (CC BY NC SA) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/13%3A_Universal_Design_for_Learning/13.01%3A_UDL_at_a_glance.txt |
Authors: Faculty of Education., The Open Resource Bank for Interactive Teaching, and University of Cambridge
Assessment for learning (AfL)
Assessment for learning has been defined as the process of interpreting evidence to decide where learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there. When assessment for learning is well established in a classroom, students are actively involved in their learning; able to judge the success of their work and to take responsibility for their own progress
The notion of ‘assessment’ is often bound up with ideas regarding examinations, accreditation, perhaps even accountability. However, for some time there has been a growing discussion regarding ‘Assessment for Learning’ (AfL), or formative assessment. This form of assessment stands in contrast to summative assessment, which is understood to be the form of assessment most often conducted at the end of the unit, which is supposed to represent the understanding of that unit’s content at that point in time. Assessment for Learning, in contrast, is targeted at assessing understanding throughout teaching, helping students to understand what stage they are at, and how they might improve. AfL thus involves assessment to provide feedback for improving learning.
Rick Wormeli, author of Fair Isn’t Always Equal and Differentiation, explains the difference between the two and how formative assessment helps you offer better feedback to your students.
Click here to watch video (4:48 minutes) Rick Wormeli: Formative and Summative Assessement
Rick Wormeli, author of Fair Isn’t Always Equal and Differentiation, explains the difference between the two and how formative assessment helps you offer better feedback to your students.
Stenhouse Publishers. (2010, Nov. 30). Rick Wormelli:Formative and Summative Assessment. [Video File].
Assessment for learning has been defined as:
The process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there.
Quoted from Assessment for Learning: 10 Principles by the Assessment Reform Group, 2002, available from aaia.org.uk.
Click here to watch a video from Engage NY (2:36 minutes) The Teacher provides feedback during and after instruction
• The teacher’s feedback to students is timely and based on high quality questions. The feedback helps guide students to a deeper understanding of the material and allows them to use that understanding to develop alternate solutions.
[EngageNY]. (2016, Jan. 11). Teacher provides feedback during and after instruction – Example 5. [Video File]
14.02: Characteristics of and use of AfL
The following key characteristics identify assessment for learning in practice.Assessment for learning
• is embedded in a view of teaching and learning of which it is an essential part. Assessment for learning is not something extra or ‘bolted on’ that a teacher has to do. Student learning is the principal aim of schools and assessment for learning aims to provide students with the skills and strategies for taking the next steps in their learning;
• involves sharing learning goals with students. If students understand the main purposes of their learning and what they are aiming for, they are more likely to grasp what they need to do to achieve it;
• aims to help students to know and recognize the standards that they are aiming for. Learners need to be clear about exactly what they have to achieve in order to progress. They should have access to the criteria that will be used to judge this, and be shown examples or models where other learners have been successful. Students need to understand what counts as ‘good work’;
• involves students in peer and self-assessment. Ultimately, learners must be responsible for their own learning; the teacher cannot do that for them. So students must be actively involved in the process and need to be encouraged to see for themselves how they have progressed in their learning and what it is they need to do to improve. Teachers need to encourage students to review their work critically and constructively;
• provides feedback, which leads to students recognizing their next steps and how to take them. Feedback should be about the qualities of the work with specific advice on what needs to be done in order to improve. Students need to be given the time to act on advice and make decisions about their work, rather than being the passive recipients of teachers’ judgements;
• involves both teacher and student in reviewing and reflecting on assessment data (information). Students need to have opportunities to communicate their evolving understanding and to act on the feedback they are given. The interaction between teacher and student is an important element of developing understanding and promoting learning;
• is underpinned by confidence that every student can improve. Poor feedback can lead to students believing that they lack ‘ability’ and are not able to learn. Students will only invest effort in a task if they believe they can achieve something. The expectation in the classroom needs to be that every student can make progress in his or her learning.
Based on: Assessment Reform Group (1999) Assessment for learning: beyond the black box. University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education. ISBN: 0856030422. (Adapted from Assessment for Learning Introduction, section What).
Readers should also refer to Assessment for Learning Research Summary and the references contained therein.
How might we use Assessment for Learning?
The following suggests some teaching strategies that will support the development of assessment for learning in your classroom.
Key Characteristics of Assessment for Learning and Teaching Strategies
Sharing learning objectives with students
• Share learning objectives at the beginning of the lesson and, where appropriate, during the lesson, in language that students can understand
• Use these objectives as the basis for questioning and feedback during class discussions.
• Evaluate this feedback in relation to the achievement of the learning objectives to inform the next stages of planning.
Click here to watch Engage NY video (2:10 minutes) Teacher communicates expectations for learning.
Teacher’s purpose for the lesson or unit is clarified through a Q & A with the students.
[EngageNY]. (2015, Nov. 18). Teacher communicates expectations for learning – Example 2. [Video File].
Helping students to know and recognize the standards they are aiming for
• Show students work that has met the criteria with explanations of why
• Give students clear success criteria and then relate them to the learning objectives
• Model what it should look like, for example, exemplify good writing on the board
• Ensure that there are clear, shared expectations about the presentation of work
• Provide displays of students’ work which show work in progress as well as finished products
Click here to watch the Engage NY video (1:16 minutes) Teacher communicates expectations for learning
Teacher’s purpose for the lesson or unit is clear, and includes where it is situated within broader learning, as demonstrated by student knowledge of key vocabulary.
[EngageNY]. (2015, Nov. 18). Teacher communicates expectations for learning – Example. [Video File].
Involving students in peer and self-assessment
• Give students clear opportunities to talk about what they have learned and what they have found difficult, using the learning objectives as a focus
• Encourage students to work/discuss together, focusing on how to improve
• Ask students to explain their thinking: ‘How did you get that answer?’
• Give time for students to reflect upon their learning
• Identify with students the next steps in learning
Click here to watch this Video from Engage NY (3:18 minutes). The teacher uses formative assessment to monitor and adjust pacing.
The teacher uses a variety of formative assessment moments to monitor the progress of individual students. The students self-assess progress and assist each other as necessary.
[EngageNY]. (2016, Jan 12). Teacher uses formative assessment to monitor and adjust pacing- Example 6 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/x4Wk_x3Zc2I
Providing feedback that leads students to recognizing their next steps and how to take them
• Value oral as well as written feedback
• Ensure feedback is constructive as well as positive, identifying what the student has done well, what needs to be done to improve and how to do it
• Identify the next steps for groups and individuals as appropriate
Click here to watch Engage NY video (2:17 minutes) The teacher provides feedback to students
The teacher’s feedback to students is timely, uses a common rubric, and connects to specific examples from the students’ work.
[EngageNY]. (2015, Dec. 4). Teacher provides feedback to students- Example 10 [Vide
Promoting confidence that every student can improve
• Identify small steps to enable students to see their progress, thus building confidence and self-esteem
• Encourage students to explain their thinking and reasoning within a secure classroom ethos
Involving both teacher and student in reviewing and reflecting on assessment information
• Reflect with students on their work, for example through a storyboard of steps taken during an investigation
• Choose appropriate tasks to provide quality information (with emphasis on process, not just the correct answer)
• Provide time for students to reflect on what they have learned and understood, and to identify where they still have difficulties
• Adjust planning, evaluate effectiveness of task, resources, etc. as a result of assessment
(Adapted from Assessment for Learning Introduction, section How) | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/14%3A_Assessment_for_Learning/14.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Assessment for learning
Highlights of research findings in this area include the following work
Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment
The publication Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment is an influential pamphlet that summarizes the main findings arising from 250 assessment articles (covering nine years of international research) which were studied by Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam. The document is well known and widely used, and acts as a touchstone for many professionals in the field of assessment.
Assessment for learning: beyond the black box
This publication by the Assessment Reform Group follows up the work of Black and Wiliam and identifies five key factors
• providing effective feedback to students;
• actively involving students in their own learning;
• adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment;
• recognizing the profound influence assessment has on the motivation and self- esteem of students, both of which are crucial to learning;
• considering the need for students to be able to assess themselves and to understand how to improve.
The research also identifies a number of risks with regard to assessment
• valuing quantity and presentation rather than the quality of learning;
• lowering the self-esteem of students by over-concentrating on judgements rather than advice for improvement;
• demoralizing students by comparing them negatively and repeatedly with more successful learners;
• giving feedback, which serves social and managerial purposes rather than helping students to learn more effectively;
• working with an insufficient picture of students’ learning needs.
14.04: Assessment in AfL
Working inside the black box: assessment for learning
Working inside the black box picks up where Inside the black box left off. It sets out its main findings under four headings:
Questioning
• More effort has to be spent in framing questions that are worth asking.
• Wait time has to be increased to several seconds to give students time to think, and everyone should be expected to contribute to the discussion.
• Follow-up activities have to provide opportunities to ensure that meaningful interventions that extend students’ understanding take place.
• The only point of asking questions is to raise issues about which the teacher needs information, or about which the students need to think.
Click here to watch the video from Engage NY (6:32 minutes) The teacher uses a variety of questions
Most of the teacher’s questions are of high quality and asked with adequate time for students to respond. Students share a few of their own thoughts and questions.
[EngageNY]. (2015, Nov. 24). Teacher uses a variety of questions- Example 4 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/3s0-8jP6eGk
Feedback through marking (grading and comments)
• Written tasks, alongside oral questioning, should encourage students to develop and show understanding of the key features of the subject they have studied.
• Comments should identify what has been done well and what still needs improvement, and give guidance on how to make that improvement.
• Opportunities for students to follow up comments should be planned as part of the overall learning process.
• To be effective, feedback should cause thinking to take place.
Peer and self-assessment
• The criteria for evaluating any learning achievements must be transparent to students to enable them to have a clear overview, both of the aims of their work and of what it means to complete it successfully.
• Students should be taught the habits and skills of collaboration in peer assessment.
• Students should be encouraged to keep in mind the aims of their work and to assess their own progress to meet these aims as they proceed.
• Peer and self-assessment make unique contributions to the development of students’ learning – they secure aims that cannot be achieved in any other way.
The formative use of summative tests
• Students should be engaged in a reflective review of the work they have done to enable them to plan their revision effectively.
• Students should be encouraged to set questions and mark answers to help them, both to understand the assessment process and to focus further efforts for improvement.
• Students should be encouraged through peer and self-assessment to apply criteria to help them understand how their work might be improved.
• Summative tests should be, and should be seen to be, a positive part of the learning process.
The underlying issues are identified:
• learning theory (teachers need to know in advance what sort of feedback will be useful; they need to understand how their students learn);
• subject differences (teachers need to have an understanding of the fundamental principles of the subject, an understanding of the kinds of difficulty that students might have, and the creativity to think up questions which can stimulate productive thinking – such pedagogical content knowledge is essential in interpreting response);
• motivation and self-esteem (learning is not just a cognitive exercise: it involves the whole person – learning for learning rather than for rewards or grades);
• a learning environment – principles and plans (teachers need to have forethought of how to teach in a way which establishes a supportive climate);
• a learning environment – roles and responsibilities (teachers need to help students become active learners who can take increasing responsibility for their progress)
14.05: Resources and references
Resources
Brookhart, S. & Lazarus, S. (2017) Formative Assessment for Students with Disabilities. Commissioned by the Council of Chief State School Officers State Collaborative on Assessing Special Education Students and Formative Assessment, Washington, DC. https://www.ccsso.org/sites/default/files/2017-12/Formative_Assessment_for_Students_with_Disabilities.pdf
56 different ways to gather evidence of student achievement ” Formative assessment”
*Collaborative Learning, Independent Learning. Retrieved from https://schools.archmil.org/CentersofExcellence/DOCsPDFs/Learning-Support-Teams/2015-16/October-8-2015/Formative-Assessments/FormativeAssessmentandMonitoringStudentProgress.pdf This resource has links to technology tools for formative assessment and monitoring student progress.
Formative Assessment Toolkit: from the West Virginia Department of Education. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/14%3A_Assessment_for_Learning/14.03%3A_Summary_of_the_research.txt |
Authors: Kevin Seifert and Rosemary Sutton
Teacher-made assessment strategies
Kym teaches sixth grade students in an urban school where most of the families in the community live below the poverty line. Each year the majority of the students in her school fail the statewide tests. Kym follows school district teaching guides and typically uses direct instruction in her Language Arts and Social Studies classes. The classroom assessments are designed to mirror those on the statewide tests so the students become familiar with the assessment format.
When Kym is in a graduate summer course on motivation she reads an article called, “Teaching strategies that honor and motivate inner-city African American students” (Teel, Debrin-Parecki, & Covington, 1998) and she decides to change her instruction and assessment in fall in four ways:
• First, she stresses an incremental approach to ability focusing on effort and allows students to revise their work several times until the criteria are met.
• Second, she gives students choices in performance assessments (e.g. oral presentation, art project, creative writing).
• Third, she encourages responsibility by asking students to assist in classroom tasks such as setting up video equipment, handing out papers etc.
• Fourth, she validates student’ cultural heritage by encouraging them to read biographies and historical fiction from their own cultural backgrounds.
Kym reports that the changes in her students’ effort and demeanor in class are dramatic: students are more enthusiastic, work harder, and produce better products. At the end of the year twice as many of her students pass the statewide test than the previous year.
Afterward. Kym still teaches sixth grade in the same school district and continues to modify the strategies described above. Even though the performance of the students she taught improved the school was closed because, on average, the students’ performance was poor. Kym gained a Ph.D and teaches Educational Psychology to preservice and inservice teachers in evening classes.
Kym’s story illustrates several themes related to assessment that we explore in this chapter on teacher-made assessment strategies and in the chapter on standardized testing.
First, choosing effective classroom assessments is related to instructional practices, beliefs about motivation, and the presence of statewide standardized testing.
Second, some teacher-made classroom assessments enhance student learning and motivation —some do not.
Third, teachers can improve their teaching through action research. This involves identifying a problem (e.g. low motivation and achievement), learning about alternative approaches (e.g. reading the literature), implementing the new approaches, observing the results (e.g. students’ effort and test results), and continuing to modify the strategies based on their observations.
Best practices in assessing student learning have undergone dramatic changes in the last 20 years. When Rosemary was a mathematics teacher in the 1970s, she did not assess students’ learning she tested them on the mathematics knowledge and skills she taught during the previous weeks. The test formats varied little and students always did them individually with pencil and paper.
Many teachers, including mathematics teachers, now use a wide variety of methods to determine what their students have learned and also use this assessment information to modify their instruction. In this chapter, the focus is on using classroom assessments to improve student learning and we begin with some basic concepts. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/15%3A_Teacher_made_assessment_strategies/15.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Assessment is an integrated process of gaining information about students’ learning and making value judgments about their progress (Linn & Miller, 2005). Information about students’ progress can be obtained from a variety of sources, including projects, portfolios, performances, observations, and tests. The information about students’ learning is often assigned specific numbers or grades and this involves measurement. Measurement answers the question, “How much?” and is used most commonly when the teacher scores a test or product and assigns numbers (e.g. 28 /30 on the biology test; 90/100 on the science project).
Evaluation is the process of making judgments about the assessment information (Airasian, 2005). These judgments may be about individual students (e.g. should Jacob’s course grade take into account his significant improvement over the grading period?), the assessment method used (e.g. is the multiple choice test a useful way to obtain information about problem solving), or one’s own teaching (e.g. most of the students this year did much better on the essay assignment than last year so my new teaching methods seem effective).
Assessment of learning is formal assessment that involves assessing students in order to certify their competence and fulfill accountability mandates and is the primary focus of the next chapter on standardized tests but is also considered in this chapter. Assessment of learning is typically summative, that is, administered after the instruction is completed (e.g. a final examination in an educational psychology course). Summative assessments provide information about how well students mastered the material, whether students are ready for the next unit, and what grades should be given (Airasian, 2005).
Assessment for learning: an overview of the process
Step 1: Having clear instructional goals and communicating them to students
Teachers need to think carefully about the purposes of each lesson and unit. This may be hard for beginning teachers. Teachers must communicate the lesson goals and objectives to their students so they know what is important for them to learn. No matter how thorough a teacher’s planning has been, if students do not know what they are supposed to learn they will not learn as much.
Step 2: Selecting appropriate assessment techniques
Selecting and administrating assessment techniques that are appropriate for the goals of instruction as well as the developmental level of the students are crucial components of effective assessment for learning. Teachers need to know the characteristics of a wide variety of classroom assessment techniques and how these techniques can be adapted for various content, skills, and student characteristics. They also should understand the role reliability, validity, and the absence of bias should play is choosing and using assessment techniques. Much of this chapter focuses on this information.
Step 3: Using assessment to enhance motivation and confidence
Students’ motivation and confidence is influenced by the type of assessment used as well as the feedback given about the assessment results. Consider, Samantha a college student who takes a history class in which the professor’s lectures and text book focus on really interesting major themes. However, the assessments are all multiple-choice tests that ask about facts and Samantha, who initially enjoys the classes and readings, becomes angry, loses confidence she can do well, and begins to spend less time on the class material. The type of feedback provided to students is also important and we elaborate on these ideas later in this chapter.
Step 4: Adjusting instruction based on information
for learning is that the teacher uses the information gained from assessment to adjust instruction. These adjustments occur in during lesson when a teacher may decide that students’ responses to questions indicate sufficient understanding to introduce a new topic, or that her observations of students’ behavior indicates that they do not understand the assignment and so need further explanation. Adjustments also occur when the teacher reflects on the instruction after the lesson is over and is planning for the next day. We provide examples of adjusting instruction in this chapter.
Step 5: Communicating with parents and guardians
Students’ learning and development is enhanced when teachers communicate with parents regularly about their children’s performance. Teachers communicate with parents in a variety of ways including newsletters, telephone conversations, email, school district websites and parent-teacher conferences. Effective communication requires that teachers can clearly explain the purpose and characteristics of the assessment as well as the meaning of students’ performance. This requires a thorough knowledge of the types and purposes of teacher made and standardized assessments and well as clear communication skills.
We now consider each step in the process of assessment for learning in more detail. In order to be able to select and administer appropriate assessment techniques teachers need to know about the variety of techniques that can be used as well as what factors ensure that the assessment techniques are high quality. We begin by considering high quality assessments | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/15%3A_Teacher_made_assessment_strategies/15.02%3A_Basic_Concepts.txt |
For an assessment to be high quality it needs to have good validity and reliability as well as absence of bias.
Validity
Validity is the evaluation of the “adequacy and appropriateness of the interpretations and uses of assessment results” for a given group of individuals (Linn & Miller, 2005, p. 68).
interpretation and uses made of the results of an assessment procedure not of the assessment procedure itself. For example, making judgments about the results of the same test on fractions may be valid if all the students understand English well. A teacher, concluding from her observations that the kindergarten student has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) may be appropriate if the student has been screened for hearing and other disorders (although the classification of a disorder like ADD cannot be made by one teacher). Validity involves making an overall judgment of the degree to which the interpretations and uses of the assessment results are justified. Validity is a matter of degree (e.g. high, moderate, or low validity) rather than all-or none (e.g. totally valid vs invalid) (Linn & Miller, 2005).
Three sources of evidence are considered when assessing validity—content, construct and predictive.
Validity is the evaluation of the “adequacy and appropriateness of the interpretations and uses of assessment results” for a given group of individuals (Linn & Miller, 2005, p. 68).
For example, is it appropriate to conclude that the results of a mathematics test on fractions given to recent immigrants accurately represents their understanding of fractions?
Is it appropriate for the teacher to conclude, based on her observations, that a kindergarten student, Jasmine, has Attention Deficit Disorder because she does not follow the teacher’s oral instructions?
Obviously, in each situation other interpretations are possible that the immigrant students have poor English skills rather than mathematics skills, or that Jasmine may be hearing impaired.
It is important to understand that validity refers to the interpretation and uses made of the results of an assessment procedure not of the assessment procedure itself. For example, making judgments about the results of the same test on fractions may be valid if all the students understand English well. A teacher, concluding from her observations that the kindergarten student has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) may be appropriate if the student has been screened for hearing and other disorders (although the classification of a disorder like ADD cannot be made by one teacher). Validity involves making an overall judgment of the degree to which the interpretations and uses of the assessment results are justified. Validity is a matter of degree (e.g. high, moderate, or low validity) rather than all-or none (e.g. totally valid vs invalid) (Linn & Miller, 2005).
Three sources of evidence are considered when assessing validity—content, construct and predictive.
Content validity evidence is associated with the question: How well does the assessment include the content or tasks it is supposed to? For example, suppose your educational psychology instructor devises a mid-term test and tells you this includes chapters one to seven in the text book. Obviously, all the items in test should be based on the content from educational psychology, not your methods or cultural foundations classes. Also, the items in the test, should cover content from all seven chapters and not just chapters three to seven—unless the instructor tells you that these chapters have priority.
Teachers’ have to be clear about their purposes and priorities for instruction before they can begin to gather evidence related content validity. Content validation determines the degree that assessment tasks are relevant and representative of the tasks judged by the teacher (or test developer) to represent their goals and objectives (Linn & Miller, 2005). It is important for teachers to think about content validation when devising assessment tasks and one way to help do this is to devise a Table of Specifications. (link below)
An example, based on Pennsylvania’s State standards for grade 3 geography, is in . In the left-hand column is the instructional content for a 20-item test the teacher has decided to construct with two kinds of instructional objectives: identification and uses or locates. The second and third columns identify the number of items for each content area and each instructional objective. Notice that the teacher has decided that six items should be devoted to the sub area of geographic representations- more than any other sub area. Devising a table of specifications helps teachers determine if some content areas or concepts are over-sampled (i.e. there are too many items) and some concepts are under-sampled (i.e. there are too few items).
Table \(1\): : Example of Table of Specifications: grade 3 basic geography literacy
Content Instructional objective Total number of items Percent of items
Identifies Uses or locates
Identify geography tools and their uses
Geographic representations: e.g., maps, globe, diagrams, and photographs 3 3 6 30%
Spatial information: sketch & thematic maps 1 1 2 10%
Mental maps 1 1 2 10%
Identify and locate places and regions
Physical features (e.g. lakes, continents) 1 2 3 15%
Human features (countries, states, cities) 3 2 5 25%
Regions with unifying geographic characteristics e.g. river basins 1 1 3 10%
Total number of items 10 10 20
Total percentage of items 50% 50% 100%
Construct validity evidence is more complex than content validity evidence. Often, we are interested in making broader judgments about student’s performances than specific skills such as doing fractions. The focus may be on constructs such as mathematical reasoning or reading comprehension.
A construct is a characteristic of a person we assume exists to help explain behavior.
For example, we use the concept of test anxiety to explain why some individuals when taking a test have difficulty concentrating, have physiological reactions such as sweating, and perform poorly on tests but not in class assignments. Similarly, mathematics reasoning and reading comprehension are constructs as we use them to help explain performance on an assessment.
Construct validation is the process of determining the extent to which performance on an assessment can be interpreted in terms of the intended constructs and is not influenced by factors irrelevant to the construct.
For example, judgments about recent immigrants’ performance on a mathematical reasoning test administered in English will have low construct validity if the results are influenced by English language skills that are irrelevant to mathematical problem solving. Similarly, construct validity of end-of-semester examinations is likely to be poor for those students who are highly anxious when taking major tests but not during regular class periods or when doing assignments. Teachers can help increase construct validity by trying to reduce factors that influence performance but are irrelevant to the construct being assessed. These factors include anxiety, English language skills, and reading speed (Linn & Miller 2005).
A third form of validity evidence is called criterion-related validity. Selective colleges in the USA use the ACT or SAT among other criteria to choose who will be admitted because these standardized tests help predict freshman grades, i.e. have high criterion-related validity. Some K-12 schools give students math or reading tests in the fall semester in order to predict which are likely to do well on the annual state tests administered in the spring semester and which students are unlikely to pass the tests and will need additional assistance. If the tests administered in fall do not predict students’ performances accurately, then the additional assistance may be given to the wrong students illustrating the importance of criterion-related validity. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/15%3A_Teacher_made_assessment_strategies/15.03%3A_Selecting_appropriate_assessment_techniques.txt |
Reliability refers to the consistency of the measurement (Linn & Miller 2005). Suppose Mr Garcia is teaching a unit on food chemistry in his tenth-grade class and gives an assessment at the end of the unit using test items from the teachers’ guide. Reliability is related to questions such as: How similar would the scores of the students be if they had taken the assessment on a Friday or Monday? Would the scores have varied if Mr Garcia had selected different test items, or if a different teacher had graded the test? An assessment provides information about students by using a specific measure of performance at one particular time. Unless the results from the assessment are reasonably consistent over different occasions, different raters, or different tasks (in the same content domain) confidence in the results will be low and so cannot be useful in improving student learning.
Obviously, we cannot expect perfect consistency. Students’ memory, attention, fatigue, effort, and anxiety fluctuate and so influence performance. Even trained raters vary somewhat when grading assessment such as essays, a science project, or an oral presentation. Also, the wording and design of specific items influence students’ performances. However, some assessments are more reliable than others and there are several strategies teachers can use to increase reliability
• First, assessments with more tasks or items typically have higher reliability.
To understand this, consider two tests one with five items and one with 50 items. Chance factors influence the shorter test more then the longer test. If a student does not understand one of the items in the first test the total score is very highly influenced (it would be reduced by 20 per cent). In contrast, if there was one item in the test with 50 items that were confusing, the total score would be influenced much less (by only 2 percent). Obviously, this does not mean that assessments should be inordinately long, but, on average, enough tasks should be included to reduce the influence of chance variations.
• Second, clear directions and tasks help increase reliability.
If the directions or wording of specific tasks or items are unclear, then students have to guess what they mean undermining the accuracy of their results.
• Third, clear scoring criteria are crucial in ensuring high reliability (Linn & Miller, 2005).
15.05: Absence of bias
Bias occurs in assessment when there are components in the assessment method or the administration of the assessment that distort the performance of the student because of their personal characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, or social class (Popham, 2005).
Two types of assessment bias are important: offensiveness and unfair penalization.
An assessment is most likely to be offensive to a subgroup of students when negative stereotypes are included in the test. For example, the assessment in a health class could include items, in which all the doctors were men and all the nurses were women. Or, a series of questions in a social studies class could portray Latinos and Asians as immigrants rather than native born Americans. In these examples, some female, Latino or Asian students are likely to be offended by the stereotypes and this can distract them from performing well on the assessment.
Unfair penalization occurs when items disadvantage one group not because they may be offensive but because of differential background experiences. For example, an item for math assessment that assumes knowledge of a particular sport may disadvantage groups not as familiar with that sport (e.g. American football for recent immigrants). Or an assessment on team work that asks students to model their concept of a team on a symphony orchestra is likely to be easier for those students who have attended orchestra performances—probably students from affluent families. Unfair penalization does not occur just because some students do poorly in class. For example, asking questions about a specific sport in a physical education class when information on that sport had been discussed in class is not unfair penalization as long as the questions do not require knowledge beyond that taught in class that some groups are less likely to have.
It can be difficult for new teachers teaching in multi-ethnic classrooms to devise interesting assessments that do not penalize any groups of students. Teachers need to think seriously about the impact of students’ differing backgrounds on the assessment they use in class. Listening carefully to what students say is important as is learning about the backgrounds of the students.
Selecting appropriate assessment techniques II: types of teacher-made assessments
One of the challenges for beginning teachers is to select and use appropriate assessment techniques. In this section, we summarize the wide variety of types of assessments that classroom teachers use. First, we discuss the informal techniques teachers use during instruction that typically require instantaneous decisions. Then we consider formal assessment techniques that teachers plan before instruction and allow for reflective decisions. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/15%3A_Teacher_made_assessment_strategies/15.04%3A_Reliability.txt |
During teaching, teachers not only have to communicate the information they planned, but also continuously monitor students’ learning and motivation in order to determine whether modifications have to be made (Airasian, 2005). Beginning teachers find this more difficult than experienced teachers because of the complex cognitive skills required to improvise and be responsive to students’ needs while simultaneously keeping in mind the goals and plans of the lesson (Borko & Livingston, 1989).
The informal assessment strategies teachers most often use during instruction are observation and questioning.
Observation
Effective teachers observe their students from the time they enter the classroom. Some teachers greet their students at the door not only to welcome them but also to observe their mood and motivation. Are Hannah and Naomi still not talking to each other? Does Ethan have his materials with him? Gaining information on such questions can help the teacher foster student learning more effectively (e.g. suggesting Ethan goes back to his locker to get his materials before the bell rings or avoiding assigning Hannah and Naomi to the same group).
During instruction, teachers observe students’ behavior to gain information about students’ level of interest and understanding of the material or activity. Observation includes looking at non-verbal behaviors as well as listening to what the students are saying. For example, a teacher may observe that a number of students are looking out of the window rather than watching the science demonstration, or a teacher may hear students making comments in their group indicating they do not understand what they are supposed to be doing.
Observations also help teachers decide which student to call on next, whether to speed up or slow down the pace of the lesson, when more examples are needed, whether to begin or end an activity, how well students are performing a physical activity, and if there are potential behavior problems (Airasian, 2005). Many teachers find that moving around the classroom helps them observe more effectively because they can see more students from a variety of perspectives. However, the fast pace and complexity of most classrooms makes it difficult for teachers to gain as much information as they want.
Questioning
Teachers ask questions for many instructional reasons, including keeping students’ attention on the lesson, highlighting important points and ideas, promoting critical thinking, allowing students to learn from each other’s answers, and providing information about students’ learning. Devising good appropriate questions and using students’ responses to make effective instantaneous instructional decisions is very difficult.
Some strategies to improve questioning include:
• planning and writing down the instructional questions that will be asked
• allowing sufficient wait time for students to respond
• listening carefully to what students say rather than listening for what is expected
• varying the types of questions asked
• making sure some of the questions are higher level
• asking follow-up questions
Table \(2\): : Validity and reliability of observation and questioning (problem and strategies to alleviate the problem
Problem Strategies to alleviate problem
Teachers lack of objectivity about overall class involvement and understanding Try to make sure you are not only seeing what you want to see. Teachers typically want to feel good about their instruction so it is easy to look for positive student interactions. Occasionally, teachers want to see negative student reactions to confirm their beliefs about an individual student or class.
Tendency to focus on process rather than learning Remember to concentrate on student learning not just involvement. Most of teachers’ observations focus on process—student attention, facial expressions posture—rather than pupil learning. Students can be active and engaged but not developing new skills.
Limited information and selective sampling
Make sure you observe a variety of students—not just those who are typically very good or very bad.
Walk around the room to observe more students “up close” and view the room from multiple perspectives.
Call on a wide variety of students—not just those with their hands up, or those who are skilled as the subject, or those who sit in a particular place in the room.
Keep records.
Fast pace of classrooms inhibits corroborative evidence If you want to know if you are missing important information ask a peer to visit your classroom and observe the students’ behaviors. Classrooms are complex and fast paced and one teacher cannot see much of what is going on while trying to also teach.
Cultural and individual differences in the meaning of verbal and non verbal behaviors Be cautious in the conclusions that you draw from your observations and questions. Remember that the meaning and expectations of certain types of questions, wait time, social distance, and role of “small talk” varies across cultures. Some students are quiet because of their personalities not because they are uninvolved, nor keeping up with the lesson, nor depressed or tired.
Record keeping
Keeping records of observations improves reliability and can be used to enhance understanding of one student, a group, or the whole class’ interactions. Sometimes this requires help from other teachers. For example, Alexis, a beginning science teacher is aware of the research documenting that longer wait time enhances students’ learning (e.g. Rowe, 2003) but is unsure of her behaviors so she asks a colleague to observe and record her wait times during one class period. Alexis learns her wait times are very short for all students so she starts practicing silently counting to five whenever she asks students a question.
Teachers can keep anecdotal records about students without help from peers. These records contain descriptions of incidents of a student’s behavior, the time and place the incident takes place, and a tentative interpretation of the incident. For example, the description of the incident might involve Joseph, a second-grade student, who fell asleep during the mathematics class on a Monday morning.
A tentative interpretation could be the student did not get enough sleep over the weekend, but alternative explanations could be the student is sick or is on medications that make him drowsy. Obviously, additional information is needed and the teacher could ask Joseph why he is so sleepy and also observe him to see if he looks tired and sleepy over the next couple of weeks.
Anecdotal records often provide important information and are better than relying on one’s memory, but they take time to maintain and it is difficult for teachers to be objective. For example, after seeing Joseph fall asleep the teacher may now look for any signs of Joseph’s sleepiness—ignoring the days he is not sleepy. Also, it is hard for teachers to sample a wide enough range of data for their observations to be highly reliable.
Teachers also conduct more formal observations, especially for students who have IEP’s. An example of the importance of informal and formal observations in a preschool follows:
The class of preschoolers in a suburban neighborhood of a large city has eight special needs students and four students—the peer models—who have been selected because of their well-developed language and social skills. Some of the special needs students have been diagnosed with delayed language, some with behavior disorders, and several with autism.
The students are sitting on the mat with the teacher who has a box with sets of three “cool” things of varying size (e.g. toy pandas) and the students are asked to put the things in order by size, big, medium and small. Students who are able are also requested to point to each item in turn and say “This is the big one”, “This is the medium one” and “This is the little one”.
For some students, only two choices (big and little) are offered because that is appropriate for their developmental level. The teacher informally observes that one of the boys is having trouble keeping his legs still so she quietly asks the aid for a weighted pad that she places on the boy’s legs to help him keep them still. The activity continues and the aide carefully observes student’s behaviors and records on IEP progress cards whether a child meets specific objectives such as: “When given two picture or object choices, Mark will point to the appropriate object in 80 per cent of the opportunities.”
The teacher and aides keep records of the relevant behavior of the special needs students during the half day they are in preschool. The daily records are summarized weekly. If there are not enough observations that have been recorded for a specific objective, the teacher and aide focus their observations more on that child, and if necessary, try to create specific situations that relate to that objective. At end of each month the teacher calculates whether the special needs children are meeting their IEP objectives. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/15%3A_Teacher_made_assessment_strategies/15.06%3A_Teachers_observation_questioning_and_record_keeping.txt |
Common formal assessment formats used by teachers are multiple choice, matching, and true/false items. In selected response items students must select a response provided by the teacher or test developer rather than constructing a response in their own words or actions. Selected response items do not require that students recall the information but rather recognize the correct answer.
Tests with these items are called objective because the results are not influenced by scorers’ judgments or interpretations and so are often machine scored. Eliminating potential errors in scoring increases the reliability of tests but teachers who only use objective tests are liable to reduce the validity of their assessment because objective tests are not appropriate for all learning goals (Linn & Miller, 2005). Effective assessment for learning as well as assessment of learning must be based on aligning the assessment technique to the learning goals and outcomes.
For example, if the goal is for students to conduct an experiment then they should be asked to do that rather that than being asked about conducting an experiment.
Common problems
Selected response items are easy to score but are hard to devise. Teachers often do not spend enough time constructing items and common problems include:
1. Unclear wording in the items
• True or False: Although George Washington was born into a wealthy family, his father died when he was only 11, he worked as a youth as a surveyor of rural lands, and later stood on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York when he took his oath of office in 1789.
1. Cues that are not related the content being examined.
• A common clue is that all the true statements on a true/false test or the corrective alternatives on a multiple-choice test are longer than the untrue statements or the incorrect alternatives.
1. Using negatives (or double negatives) the items.
• A poor item. “True or False: None of the steps made by the student was unnecessary.”
• A better item. True or False: “All of the steps were necessary.”
Students often do not notice the negative terms or find them confusing so avoiding them is generally recommended (Linn & Miller 2005). However, since standardized tests often use negative items, teachers sometimes deliberately include some negative items to give students practice in responding to that format.
1. Taking sentences directly from a textbook or lecture notes.
Removing the words from their context often makes them ambiguous or can change the meaning. For example, a statement from Chapter 3 taken out of context suggests all children are clumsy. “Similarly, with jumping, throwing and catching: the large majority of children can do these things, though often a bit clumsily.” A fuller quotation makes it clearer that this sentence refers to 5-year-olds: For some fives, running still looks a bit like a hurried walk, but usually it becomes more coordinated within a year or two. Similarly, with jumping, throwing and catching: the large majority of children can do these things, though often a bit clumsily, by the time they start school, and most improve their skills noticeably during the early elementary years.” If the abbreviated form was used as the stem in a true/false item it would obviously be misleading.
1. Avoid trivial questions
e.g. Jean Piaget was born in what year?
1. a) 1896
2. b) 1900
3. c) 1880
4. d) 1903
While it important to know approximately when Piaget made his seminal contributions to the understanding of child development, the exact year of his birth (1880) is not important.
Strengths and weaknesses
All types of selected response items have a number of strengths and weaknesses.
• True/False items are appropriate for measuring factual knowledge such as vocabulary, formulae, dates, proper names, and technical terms. They are very efficient as they use a simple structure that students can easily understand, and take little time to complete. They are also easier to construct than multiple choice and matching items. However, students have a 50 percent probability of getting the answer correct through guessing so it can be difficult to interpret how much students know from their test scores. Examples of common problems that arise when devising true/false items are in Table 37.
Table \(3\): : Common errors in selected response items (type of assessment item/ common errors/ example)
Type of item Common errors Example
True/False The statement is not absolutely true—typically because it contains a broad generalization. T/F: The President of the United States is elected to that office. This is usually true but the US Vice President can succeed the President.
True/False The item is opinion not fact T/F: Education for K-12 students is improved though policies that support charter schools. Some people believe this, some do not.
True/False Two ideas are included in item T/F: George H Bush the 40th president of the US was defeated by William Jefferson Clinton in 1992. The 1st idea is false; the 2nd is true making it difficult for students to decide whether to circle T or F.
True/False Irrelevant cues T/F: The President of the United States is usually elected to that office. True items contain the words such as usually generally; whereas false items contain the terms such as always, all, never.
Matching Columns do not contain homogeneous information
Directions: On the line to the US Civil War Battle write the year or confederate general in Column B.
Column A
• Ft Sumter
• 2nd Battle of Bull Run
• Ft Henry
Column B
• General Stonewall Jackson
• General Johnson
• 1861
• 1862
Column B is a mixture of generals and dates.
Matching Too many items in each list Lists should be relatively short (4–7) in each column. More than 10 are too confusing.
Matching Responses are not in logical order In the example with Spanish and English words (Exhibit 1) should be in a logical order (they are alphabetical). If the order is not logical, student spend too much time searching for the correct answer.
Multiple Choice Problem (i.e. the stem) is not clearly stated problem New Zealand
1. Is the worlds’ smallest continent
2. Is home to the kangaroo
3. Was settled mainly by colonists from Great Britain
4. Is a dictatorship
This is really a series of true-false items. Because the correct answer is 3, a better version with the problem in the stem is
Much of New Zealand was settled by colonists from
1. Great Britain
2. Spain
3. France
4. Holland
Multiple Choice Some of the alternatives are not plausible Who is best known for their work on the development of the morality of justice?
1. Gerald Ford
2. Vygotsky
3. Maslow
4. Kohlberg
Obviously Gerald Ford is not a plausible alternative.
Multiple Choice Irrelevant cues
• Correct alternative is longer
• Incorrect alternatives are not grammatically correct with the stem
• Too many correct alternatives are in position “b” or “c” making it easier for students to guess. All the options (e.g. a, b, c, d) should be used in approximately equal frequently (not exact as that also provides clues).
Multiple Choice Use of “All of above” If all of the “above is used” then the other items must be correct. This means that a student may read the 1st response, mark it correct and move on. Alternatively, a student may read the 1st two items and seeing they are true does nor need to read the other alternatives to know to circle “all of the above.” The teacher probably does not want either of these options.
In matching items, two parallel columns containing terms, phrases, symbols, or numbers are presented and the student is asked to match the items in the first column with those in the second column. Typically, there are more items in the second column to make the task more difficult and to ensure that if a student makes one error they do not have to make another.
Matching items most often are used to measure lower level knowledge, such as persons and their achievements, dates and historical events, terms and definitions, symbols and concepts, plants or animals and classifications (Linn & Miller, 2005). An example with Spanish language words and their English equivalents is below:
Directions: On the line to the left of the Spanish word in Column A, write the letter of the English word in Column B that has the same meaning.In matching items, two parallel columns containing terms, phrases, symbols, or numbers are presented and the student is asked to match the items in the first column with those in the second column. Typically there are more items in the second column to make the task more difficult and to ensure that if a student makes one error they do not have to make another. Matching items most often are used to measure lower level knowledge such as persons and their achievements, dates and historical events, terms and definitions, symbols and concepts, plants or animals and classifications (Linn & Miller, 2005). An example with Spanish language words and their English equivalents is below:
Exhibit \(1\): : Spanish and English translation
Column A Column B
___ 1. Casa A. Aunt
___ 2. Bebé B. Baby
___ 3. Gata C. Brother
___ 4. Perro D. Cat
___ 5. Hermano E. Dog
1. Father
2. House
While matching items may seem easy to devise it is hard to create homogenous lists. Other problems with matching items and suggested remedies are in Table 37.
Multiple Choice items are the most commonly used type of objective test items because they have a number of advantages over other objective test items.
• Most importantly, they can be adapted to assess higher levels thinking such as application as well as lower level factual knowledge. The first example below assesses knowledge of a specific fact, whereas the second example assesses application of knowledge.
Exhibit 2 \(2\)
Who is best known for their work on the development of the morality of justice?
1. a) Erikson
2. b) Vygotsky
3. c) Maslow
4. d) Kohlberg
(Adapted from Linn and Miller 2005, p, 193).
Exhibit \(3\)
Which one of the following best illustrates the law of diminishing returns
1. a) A factory doubled its labor force and increased production by 50 per cent
2. b) The demand for an electronic product increased faster than the supply of the product
3. c) The population of a country increased faster than agricultural self sufficiency
4. d) A machine decreased in efficacy as its parts became worn out
(Adapted from Linn and Miller 2005, p, 193).
Table \(4\): Common errors in constructed response items
Type of item Common errors Examples
Completion and short answer There is more than one possible answer. Where was US President Lincoln born? The answer could be in a log cabin, in Kentucky, etc.
Completion and short answer Too many blanks are in the completion item so it is too difficult or doesn’t make sense. In ________ theory, the first stage, ________ is when infants process through their ________ and________ ________.
Completion and short answer Clues are given by length of blanks in completion items. Three states are contiguous to New Hampshire: ________ is to the West, ________ is to the East, and ________ is to the South.
Extended response Ambiguous questions Was the US Civil War avoidable? Students could interpret this question in a wide variety of ways, perhaps even stating “yes” or “no.” One student may discuss only political causes another moral, political and economic causes. There is no guidance in the question for students.
Extended response Poor reliability in grading The teacher does not use a scoring rubric and so is inconsistent in how he scores answers especially unexpected responses, irrelevant information, and grammatical errors.
Extended response Perception of student influences grading By spring semester the teacher has developed expectations of each student’s performance and this influences the grading (numbers can be used instead of names). The test consists of three constructed responses and the teacher grades the three answers on each students’ paper before moving to the next paper. This means that the grading of questions 2 and 3 are influenced by the answers to question 1 (teachers should grade all the 1st question then the 2nd etc).
Extended response Choices are given on the test and some answers are easier than others Testing experts recommend not giving choices in tests because then students are not really taking the same test creating equity problems.
Constructed response items
Formal assessment also includes constructed response items, in which students are asked to recall information and create an answer—not just recognize if the answer is correct—so guessing is reduced.
• Constructed response items can be used to assess a wide variety of kinds of knowledge and two major kinds are discussed: completion or short answer (also called short response) and extended response.
Completion and short answer
Completion and short answer items can be answered in a word, phrase, number, or symbol. These types of items are essentially the same only varying in whether the problem is presented as a statement or a question (Linn & Miller 2005). For example:
Completion: The first traffic light in the US was invented by…………….
Short Answer: Who invented the first traffic light in the US?
These items are often used in mathematics tests, e.g.
3 + 10 = …………..?
If x = 6, what does x(x-1) =……….
Draw the line of symmetry on the following shape
A major advantage of these items is they that they are easy to construct. However, apart from their use in mathematics they are unsuitable for measuring complex learning outcomes and are often difficult to score. Completion and short answer tests are sometimes called objective tests as the intent is that there is only one correct answer and so there is no variability in scoring but unless the question is phrased very carefully, there are frequently a variety of correct answers. For example, consider the item
Where was President Lincoln born?………………..
The teacher may expect the answer “in a log cabin” but other correct answers are also “on Sinking Spring Farm”, “in Hardin County” or “in Kentucky”. Common errors in these items are summarized in Table 38.
Extended response
Extended response items are used in many content areas and answers may vary in length from a paragraph to several pages. Questions that require longer responses are often called essay questions. Extended response items have several advantages and the most important is their adaptability for measuring complex learning outcomes particularly integration and application. These items also require that students write and therefore provide teachers a way to assess writing skills. A commonly cited advantage to these items is their ease in construction; however, carefully worded items that are related to learning outcomes and assess complex learning are hard to devise (Linn & Miller, 2005).
Well-constructed items phrase the question so the task of the student is clear. Often this involves providing hints or planning notes. In the first example below the actual question is clear not only because of the wording, but because of the format (i.e. it is placed in a box). In the second and third examples planning notes are provided:
Example 1: Third grade mathematics:
The owner of a bookstore gave 14 books to the school. The principal will give an equal number of books to each of three classrooms and the remaining books to the school library. How many books could the principal give to each student and the school?
Show all your work on the space below and on the next page. Explain in words how you found the answer. Tell why you took the steps you did to solve the problem.
From Illinois Standards Achievement Test, 2006;
Example 2: Fifth grade science: The grass is always greener
Jose and Maria noticed three different types of soil, black soil, sand, and clay, were found in their neighborhood. They decided to investigate the question, “How does the type of soil (black soil, sand, and clay) under grass sod affect the height of grass?”
Plan an investigation that could answer their new question.
In your plan, be sure to include
• Prediction of the outcome of the investigation
• Materials needed to do the investigation
• Procedure that includes:
• logical steps to do the investigation
• one variable kept the same (controlled)
• one variable changed (manipulated)
• any variables being measure and recorded
• how often measurements are taken and recorded (From Washington State 2004 assessment of student learning)
Writing prompt
Some people think that schools should teach students how to cook. Other people think that cooking is something that ought to be taught in the home. What do you think? Explain why you think as you do. Planning notes
Choose One:
• i think schools should teach students how to cook
• I think cooking should l be taught in the home
• I think cooking should be taught in…………………………..because………(school) or (the home)
(From Illinois Measure of Annual Growth in English)
A major disadvantage of extended response items is the difficulty in reliable scoring. Not only do various teachers score the same response differently but also the same teacher may score the identical response differently on various occasions (Linn & Miller 2005). A variety of steps can be taken to improve the reliability and validity of scoring.
First, teachers should begin by writing an outline of a model answer. This helps make it clear what students are expected to include. Second, a sample of the answers should be read. This assists in determining what the students can do and if there are any common misconceptions arising from the question. Third, teachers have to decide what to do about irrelevant information that is included (e.g. is it ignored or are students penalized) and how to evaluate mechanical errors such as grammar and spelling. Then, a point scoring or a scoring rubric should be used.
In point scoring components of the answer are assigned points. For example, if students were asked:
What are the nature, symptoms, and risk factors of hyperthermia?
Point Scoring Guide:
Definition (natures) 2 pts
Symptoms (1
pt for each) 5 pts
Risk Factors (1 point for each) 5 pts
Writing 3 pts
This provides some guidance for evaluation and helps consistency, but point scoring systems often lead the teacher to focus on facts (e.g. naming risk factors) rather than higher level thinking that may undermine the validity of the assessment if the teachers’ purposes include higher level thinking. A better approach is to use a scoring rubric that describes the quality of the answer or performance at each level. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/15%3A_Teacher_made_assessment_strategies/15.07%3A_Selected_response_items.txt |
Scoring rubrics can be holistic or analytical. In holistic scoring rubrics, general descriptions of performance are made and a single overall score is obtained. An example from grade 2 language arts in Los Angeles Unified School District classifies responses into four levels: not proficient, partially proficient, proficient and advanced is on Table \(5\): .
Assignment. Write about an interesting, fun, or exciting story you have read in class this year. Some of the things you could write about are:
• What happened in the story (the plot or events)
• Where the events took place (the setting)
• People, animals, or things in the story ( the characters)
In your writing make sure you use facts and details from the story to describe everything clearly. After you write about the story, explain what makes the story interesting, fun or exciting.
Table \(5\) Example of holistic scoring rubric: English language arts grade 2
Scoring Rubric
Level Points Criteria
Advanced Score 4
• The response demonstrates well-developed reading comprehension skills.
• Major story elements (plot, setting, or characters) are clearly and accurately described.
• Statements about the plot, setting, or characters are arranged in a manner that makes sense.
• Ideas or judgments (why the story is interesting, fun, or exciting) are clearly supported or explained with facts and details from the story.
Proficient Score 3
• The response demonstrates solid reading comprehension skills.
• Most statements about the plot, setting, or characters are clearly described.
• Most statements about the plot, setting, or characters are arranged in a manner that makes sense.
• Ideas or judgments are supported with facts and details from the story.
Partially Proficient Score 1
• The response demonstrates some reading comprehension skills
• There is an attempt to describe the plot, setting, or characters
• Some statements about the plot, setting, or characters are arranged in a manner that makes sense.
• Ideas or judgments may be supported with some facts and details from the story.
Not Proficient Score 1
• The response demonstrates little or no skill in reading comprehension.
• The plot, setting, or characters are not described, or the description is unclear.
• Statements about the plot, setting, or characters are not arranged in a manner that makes sense.
• Ideas or judgments are not stated, and facts and details from the text are not used.
Source: Adapted from English Language Arts Grade 2 Los Angeles Unified School District, 2001
Analytical rubrics provide descriptions of levels of student performance on a variety of characteristics. For example, six characteristics used for assessing writing developed by the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory (NWREL) are:
• ideas and content
• organization
• voice
• word choice
• sentence fluency
• conventions
Descriptions of high, medium, and low responses for each characteristic are available from Education Northwest.
Holistic rubrics have the advantages that they can be developed more quickly than analytical rubrics. They are also faster to use as there is only one dimension to examine. However, they do not provide students feedback about which aspects of the response are strong and which aspects need improvement (Linn & Miller, 2005). This means they are less useful for assessment for learning. An important use of rubrics is to use them as teaching tools and provide them to students before the assessment so they know what knowledge and skills are expected.
Holistic rubrics have the advantages that they can be developed more quickly than analytical rubrics. They are also faster to use as there is only one dimension to examine. However, they do not provide students feedback about which aspects of the response are strong and which aspects need improvement (Linn & Miller, 2005). This means they are less useful for assessment for learning. An important use of rubrics is to use them as teaching tools and provide them to students before the assessment so they know what knowledge and skills are expected.
Teachers can use scoring rubrics as part of instruction by giving students the rubric during instruction, providing several responses, and analyzing these responses in terms of the rubric. For example, use of accurate terminology is one dimension of the science rubric in Table 40. An elementary science teacher could discuss why it is important for scientists to use accurate terminology, give examples of inaccurate and accurate terminology, provide that component of the scoring rubric to students, distribute some examples of student responses (maybe from former students), and then discuss how these responses would be classified according to the rubric.
• This strategy of assessment for learning should be more effective if the teacher:
(a) emphasizes to students why using accurate terminology is important when learning science rather than how to get a good grade on the test (we provide more details about this in the section on motivation later in this chapter)
(b) provides an exemplary response so students can see a model
(c) emphasizes that the goal is student improvement on this skill not ranking students.
Table \(6\): Example of a scoring rubric, Science* On the High School Assessment, the application of a concept to a practical problem or real-world situation will be scored when it is required in the response and requested in the item stem.
Level of understanding Use of accurate scientific terminology Use of supporting details Synthesis of information Application of information[1]
4 There is evidence in the response that the student has a full and complete understanding. The use of accurate scientific terminology enhances the response. Pertinent and complete supporting details demonstrate an integration of ideas. The response reflects a complete synthesis of information. An effective application of the concept to a practical problem or real-world situation reveals an insight into scientific principles.
3 There is evidence in the response that the student has a good understanding. The use of accurate scientific terminology strengthens the response. The supporting details are generally complete. The response reflects some synthesis of information. The concept has been applied to a practical problem or real-world situation.
2 There is evidence in the response that the student has a basic understanding. The use of accurate scientific terminology may be present in the response. The supporting details are adequate. The response provides little or no synthesis of information. The application of the concept to a practical problem or real-world situation is inadequate.
1 There is evidence in the response that the student has some understanding. The use of accurate scientific terminology is not present in the response. The supporting details are only minimally effective. The response addresses the question. The application, if attempted, is irrelevant.
0 The student has no understanding of the question or problem. The response is completely incorrect or irrelevant. | textbooks/socialsci/Early_Childhood_Education/Instructional_Methods_Strategies_and_Technologies_(Lombardi_2018)/15%3A_Teacher_made_assessment_strategies/15.08%3A_Scoring_rubrics.txt |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.