Developmental Education for Young Children: Concept, Practice and Implementation

304 Pages·2012·3.123 MB·English

by  Bert van Oers Ph.D. (auth.), Bert van Oers (eds.)

Developmental Education for Young Children
International Perspectives on Early Childhood
Education and Development
Volume 7
SeriesEditors
ProfessorMarilynFleer,MonashUniversity,Australia
ProfessorIngridPramling-Samuelsson,GothenburgUniversity,Sweden
EditorialBoard
ProfessorJoyCullen,MasseyUniversity,NewZealand
ProfessorYukikoMastsukawa,Rak-RakUniversity,Japan
ProfessorRebecaMej´ıaArauz,ITESO,Mexico
ProfessorNirmalaRao,UniversityofHongKong,China
ProfessorAnneB.Smith,FormallyfromtheChildren’sIssuesCentre,UniversityofOtago,
NewZealand
ProfessorColletteTayler,QueenslandUniversityofTechnology,Australia
AssociateProfessorEvaJohansson,GothenburgUniversity,Sweden
ProfessorLilianG.Katz,Ph.D.ProfessorEmeritaofEarlyChildhoodEducation,University
ofIllinois,USA
Earlychildhoodeducationinmanycountrieshasbeenbuiltuponastrongtraditionofamateriallyrich
andactiveplay-basedpedagogyandenvironment.Yetwhathasbecomevisiblewithintheprofession,is
essentiallyaWesternviewofchildhoodpreschooleducationandschooleducation.
Itistimelythataseriesofbooksbepublishedwhichpresentabroaderviewofearlychildhoodeducation.
Thisseries,seekstoprovideaninternationalperspectiveonearlychildhoodeducation.Inparticular,the
bookspublishedinthisserieswill:
(cid:129) Examinehowlearningisorganizedacrossarangeof cultures,particularlyIndigenouscommunities
(cid:129) Make visible a range of ways in which early childhood pedagogy is framed and enacted across
countries,includingthemajoritypoorcountries
(cid:129) Critiquehowparticularformsofknowledgeareconstructedincurriculumwithinandacrosscountries
(cid:129) Explorepolicyimperativeswhichshapeandhaveshapedhowearlychildhoodeducationisenacted
acrosscountries
(cid:129) Examinehowearlychildhoodeducationisresearchedlocallyandglobally
(cid:129) Examine the theoretical informants driving pedagogy and practice, and seek to find alternative
perspectivesfromthosethatdominatemanyWesternheritagecountries
(cid:129) Critiqueassessmentpracticesandconsiderabroadersetofwaysofmeasuringchildren’slearning
(cid:129) Examine concept formation from within the context of country-specific pedagogy and learning
outcomes
The series will cover theoretical works, evidence-based pedagogical research, and international
researchstudies.Theserieswillalsocoverabroadrangeofcountries,includingpoormajoritycountries.
Classical areas of interest, such as play, the images of childhood, and family studies will also be
examined.Howeverthefocuswillbecriticalandinternational(notWestern-centric).
Bert van Oers
Editor
Developmental Education
for Young Children
Concept, Practice and Implementation
123
Editor
Dr.BertvanOers
DepartmentofTheoryandResearch
inEducation
VUUniversity
VanderBoechorststraat1
Amsterdam
Netherlands
ISBN978-94-007-4616-9 ISBN978-94-007-4617-6(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-94-007-4617-6
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergNewYorkLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2012940733
©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaDordrecht2012
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof
thematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,
broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation
storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology
nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.Exemptedfromthislegalreservationarebriefexcerptsinconnection
with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered
and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of
this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the
Publisher’slocation,initscurrentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer.
PermissionsforusemaybeobtainedthroughRightsLinkattheCopyrightClearanceCenter.Violations
areliabletoprosecutionundertherespectiveCopyrightLaw.
Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublication
doesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevant
protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of
publication,neithertheauthorsnortheeditorsnorthepublishercanacceptanylegalresponsibilityfor
anyerrorsoromissionsthatmaybemade.Thepublishermakesnowarranty,expressorimplied,with
respecttothematerialcontainedherein.
Printedonacid-freepaper
SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com)
Preface
Like many other countries all over the world, the Dutch government struggles
to maintain high quality in Dutch schools. However, policy makers often do not
shine in their educational imagination and seem to believe that direct instruction
andnorm-referencedstandardisedmeasurementsoflearningoutcomeswillfinally
providethesolutiontotheproblemofachievingacademicexcellenceinallpupils.
Apparentlytheyseemtohopethatthiswillsubsequentlyguaranteeagoodposition
intheinternationalcompetitionsoftheknowledgeeconomy.
In the past decades,however,a numberof educatorshave been deeplyworried
aboutthis exclusively economy-basedapproach to the education of the upcoming
generation. Of course, they agreed that it is important that schools contribute
to the formation of well-informed citizens, but they also saw that much more
is required (at the level of loyalty to the community, fairness, personal sense,
creativity,moralposition, democraticattitude, etc.) to face the future problemsof
our world community and our planet. Schools also have duties in fostering what
Hannah Arendthas called amor mundi. It is this critical “love for the world” that
enablesfuturegenerationstolivetheirlivesasmorallyandintellectuallyresponsible
citizens, and to see life – using Vygotskij’s words – as an essentially creative
endeavour.
In the Netherlands, a small community of educationalists addressed the prob-
lem described above as an essentially pedagogical problem and as an issue of
meaningful learning. From a Vygotskian perspective they developed both theory
and examples of good practice for promoting cultural learning in play contexts
withintheschool.Thisresultedinanapproachembodiedinanevolvingplay-based
curriculum for the primary school. A large number of highly engaged teachers,
teacher trainers, curriculum innovators, and academics succeeded in turning this
idealintoaneffectiveinterdisciplinarycollaborationfortherealisationofinnovated
classroompractices.Ourpresentationsofthisapproachanditsoutcomesforyoung
children, both at international conferences and in journals, sparked much interest
amongmanycolleagues,especiallywithrespecttohowweimplementthisapproach
in the context of everyday classrooms. This interest led to the conception of this
book Developmental Education for Young Children. We are grateful to the series
v
vi Preface
editorMarilynFleerwhoencouragedustoembarkonthisambitiousenterprise.We
hopethatthisbookcansatisfyforthemomenttheinterestthathasbeenexpressed
intheapproach,eventhoughitremainsonethatisever-evolving.
Composingandeditingabooklikethis,withthecollaborationofsomanyover-
committed people, is no small thing. The engagementof everybody to contribute
andmaketimeforthisprojectisinitselfasignofthedeeppersonalengagementof
the membersof this interdisciplinarycommunity.For the fact that the bookcould
finally be published I must thank all contributorsand especially two persons who
have patiently and effectively supported me in the final stage of the project: Frea
Janssen-Vosandthepublisher’sagentAstridNoordermeer.
Amsterdam BertvanOers
Acknowledgements
Picturesinthebookweretakenby:
AnnekeHoogenberg:4.7a,b;4.8a,b
EstervanOers:4.6a,b
HannekeVerkley:4.1.a–e;4.3,4.4,4.5a,b;4.9a,b
LiekeRoof:9.1,9.2,9.3
Allphotographershavegiventheirwrittenpermissionforpublication.
Allphotographedpersonshavegiventheirconsentforpublication.
vii

Contents
1 Introduction................................................................. 1
BertvanOers
PartI DevelopmentalEducation:CoreIssues
2 DevelopmentalEducation:FoundationsofaPlay-BasedCurriculum 13
BertvanOers
3 ResponsibleTeaching ...................................................... 27
WillemWardekker
4 DevelopmentalEducationforYoungChildren:BasicDevelopment.. 41
FreaJanssen-VosandBeaPompert
PartII GoodPracticesofDevelopmentalEducation
5 LearningtoCommunicateinYoungChildren’sClassrooms.......... 67
DoriandeHaan
6 AssessingVocabularyDevelopment ...................................... 87
RenataAdan-Dirks
7 DynamicAssessmentofNarrativeCompetence......................... 105
ChielvanderVeenandMarie¨llePoland
8 PromotingAbstractThinkinginYoungChildren’sPlay .............. 121
BertvanOersandMarie¨llePoland
9 TeachingArts:PromotingAestheticThinking.......................... 137
LiekeRoof
10 Every Child Is Special: Teaching Young Children
withSpecialNeeds.......................................................... 149
BarbaraNellestijnandIsabelPeters
ix