Understanding and Applying Developmentally Appropriate Practices Chapter 3

Understanding and Applying Developmentally Appropriate Practices Chapter 3

Developmentally Appropriate Practice Framework for organizing basic knowledge about early childhood education Evolved over time Defining principles and guidelines

What is DAP? Developmentally appropriate practice is teaching that is: Attuned to children’s ages, experience, abilities and interest That helps them attain challenging and achievable goals Focus on how children develop and learn optimally: Age-related Individual human variation

Position Statement • Summary of the field’s best thinking • A defense of its valued practices • An advocacy tool for improving programs for young children

Meeting Children where they are • Continuous Observations • Decision making: • Plan curriculum • Adapt teaching strategies • Continual progress • Reaching Challenging and Achievable goals

Intentional teachers Have a purpose for everything that they do Are thoughtful and prepared Can explain the rationale for their decisions and actions to other teachers, administrators, or parents An Intentional ESU Pre K 4 teacher is a Reflective and Deliberate Decision Maker

Making Informed Decisions 1. Age appropriate ~ Consider what is known about development and learning of children within a given age range 2. Individual Child ~ Consider what is known about each child individually ~ personality, strengths, interests, abilities ~ each child takes away something different 3. Culturally appropriate ~ Consider what is known about the social and cultural contexts in which children live Knowledge is substantial and changes over time!

Knowing Children What is it about children that should inform our teaching practice? Study Groups: Read # & # - Make sure you understand meaning!

Principles of Child Development and Learning that Inform Practice 1. All the domains of development and learning are important, closely interrelated and one domain influences what takes place in other domains. 2. Many aspects of children’s learning and development follow documented sequences, with later abilities, skills, and knowledge building on those already acquired. 3. Development and learning proceed at varying rates from child to child, as well as at uneven rates across different areas of a child’s individual functioning. 4. Development and learning result from a dynamic and continuous interaction of biological maturation and experience.

Principles of Child Development and Learning that Inform Practice 5. Early experiences have profound effects, both cumulative and delayed, on a child’s development and learning; and optimal periods exist for certain types of development and learning to occur. 6. Development proceeds toward greater complexity, self-regulation, and symbolic or representational capacities. 7. Children develop best when they have secure, consistent relationships with responsive adults and opportunities for positive relationships with peers. 8. Development and learning occur in and are influenced by multiple social and cultural contexts.

Principles of Child Development and Learning that Inform Practice 9. Always mentally active in seeking to understand the world around them, children learn in a variety of ways; a wide range of teaching strategies and interactions are effective in supporting learning. 10. Play is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as for promoting language, cognition, and social competence. 11. Development and learning advance when children are challenged to achieve just beyond their current mastery, and when they have many opportunities to practice new skills. 12. Children’s experiences shape their motivation and approaches to learning, such as persistence, initiative, and flexibility; in turn, these dispositions and behaviors affect their learning and development.

Role of the ECE Teacher Five interrelated dimensions: 1. Creating a caring community of learners 2. Teaching to enhance learning and development 3. Planning curriculum to meet important goals 4. Assessing children’s learning and development 5. Establishing reciprocal relationships with families

“Widening the Lens” Move beyond either/or thinking To BOTH/AND THINKING when solving problems or making decision about practice Rejects simple answers to complex questions Requires diverse perspectives Consider several possible correct answers Complexity and interrelationship among the principles that guide ECE practice

Research base Well grounded research forms the basis of NAEYCs position statements on developmentally appropriate practice Provides a solid guidance for early childhood educators DAP Research show gains in: Social-Emotional Development Learning

Knowing children + Knowing how to teach + Knowing what to teach + = EFFECTIVE PRACTICE

Artifacts ~ BEO ~ Rationale