The High Scope Model In Early Childhood Education

The early years curriculum that supports children's care learning and development is the foundation phase. Foundation phase promotes learning through play. There are 7 areas of learning that consists of:

Based on this policy analysis, the recommended alternative is for the federal government to educate states on recognizing the importance of and participating in the quality early education programs. Some states have already started making progress in modeling and developing early learning systems for children zero to age five. According to the Whitehouse (2011), “The President’s 2012 budget calls upon Congress to establish a new, competitive Early Learning Challenge Fund, administered by the Departments of Education (ED) and Health and Human Services (HHS), for states that are ready to take dramatic steps to improve the quality of their early childhood programs. The Early Learning Challenge Fund will be complemented by investments in Head Start

I believe that as an early childhood educator my goal will be to promote the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of each child. I also believe that play should be the base of learning since children learn best by doing. I believe that a balance between teacher-directed and child-initiated activities is essential balance can be developed by using the developmentally appropriate practice approach, which means that activities should be “appropriate for each child and relevant to the child’s ability, needs and interests, also including the child’s family and being respectful to the child’s culture.

Provide a definition of what a “high quality” preschool program consists of and why that is important.

The High Scope early childhood education approach, used in preschools, kindergarten, and childcare, or in elementary school settings. The High Scope approach is a branch off of the Cognitively Oriented Curriculum, which was developed under the leadership of David Weikart at the High Scope Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan in the early 1960’s (Essa, 2007). The philosophy behind High Scope is based on child development theory and research, originally drawing on the work of theorists such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and John Dewey. A key part of the High Scope approach is that the development revolves around certain activities that can

My philosophy of Early childhood education is based on research that indicates that a child’s growth is developmental. Every child is unique in terms of life experiences, developmental readiness, and cultural heritage. A high quality early childhood program that provides a safe and nurturing environment, which promotes physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive development will ensure a positive continuation of the child’s education process

In Ypsilanti, Michigan Dr. David P. Weikard created High Scope in 1970. High Scope does research in a variety of areas. However, they are best known for their research in preschool education and their preschool curriculum approach. High Scope preschool curriculum is used throughout the world and has had an impact on Head Start programs (Morrison, 1976, p. 15).

The Nursery set out many different activities for the Children. This is designed for them for the different areas that they develop within the Nursery. They are set to reach all the areas of learning, Personal social and emotional development, communication language and literacy development, problem solving reasoning and numeracy, knowledge and understanding of the world, physical development and creative development. With all these different resources the Children begin to recognize their skills and how to use them. For an example, in the toddler room the creative area always has something out, the toddlers can then sit at the table, start to do mark making on the paper and realize they are drawing on paper. They created a picture!

In order to respond this question, we must first review the history of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) and Early Childhood Education (ECE). Although ECE has been around since the creation of kindergarten in the 1800’s, the decade of the 1980’s was an important period for ECE. “By the 1980’s, meta-analysis of the well-designed US projects offered compelling evidence on the positive outcomes of [early childhood education and intervention]” (Woodhead, 2007). Therefore, there was much pressure to improve the state of education, including ECE. “The decade of the 1980’s saw numerous calls for widespread school reform, with changes recommended in teacher education, graduation requirements, school structure, and accountability measures” (S. Bredekamp, R.A. Knuth, L.G. Kunesh, and D.D. Shulman, 1992). At this time, there was an increasing concern about the quality of early childhood education for the influx number of families that needed it. This led the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) to “begin planning a national voluntary accreditation system for early childhood programs”(NAEYC, 2014). With this planning came a need for a more specific description with regards to accreditation guidelines. Therefore, NAEYC issued a formal statement defining DAP.

The NAEYC statement on developmental practice indicates change and continuity and change in the early childhood education field is vital due to the fact that their main commitment is excellence and equity. Nevertheless, all new knowledge gained over time has been advanced and increased. This means that with understanding, it has allowed us to revise and refine ideas for promoting children's development and learning. With developmentally appropriate practice, meeting and enabling the children are required. This means that teachers should get to know them well and push them to reach goals that may be a challenge but are achievable for them.

Early childhood education must always be changing and evolving to meet the needs of the children and families that we serve. In the short term for this school, the plan is to implement a new curriculum for students 2 and under. The plan is to re-train teachers and add new equipment to the classrooms when expansion becomes available. Long term, the plan is to open a second school.

In the planning cycle, the planning characteristic can be reflected into the ‘respond’ section of it. There are two different planning styles that can be use, the DOPS planning cycle (MoE, 1998) or the progressive filters which is notice, recognise, respond and possibilities (MoE, 2004a). In the planning the environment is viewed as the foundation of the child’s learning. Te Whāriki defines planning as “helping adults who work in early childhood education to understand what young children are learning, how the learning happens, and the role that both adults and other children play in such learning” (MoE, 1996, p.28). Observations have a very important role in planning for the child, as the observation shows a lot about a child and what their interests are, which can help to determine the ‘what next’ characteristic to extend children interests. Observations help teachers to plan in regards to what they have seen (MoE, 1996). It helps to create an environment that facilitates the children’s learning, so that they can get the optimal benefits in regards to what they are interested in. It also indicate

Everything teachers plan and do should focus on the individual child. They tailor, adjust, and adapt the curriculum to fit each child in the program, rather than expecting children to fit the program (Elkind, 1987). It is imperative in a developmentally appropriate perspective that the curriculum and teaching methods be age appropriate, individually appropriate, and culturally appropriate (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). This means considering and understanding similarities within an age group, and also recognizing each child’s individual differences. In a developmentally appropriate classroom, children are allowed to progress at their own rate, and both the curriculum and teaching strategies are relevant for all the children in the classroom. Thus, a great deal of flexibility is required, but this does not mean a total lack of structure and academics; rather, it means that the structure and academics of the program are based on individual and group needs and current understanding of child development (Raines, 1997).

High Scope uses “Key Developmental Indicators” and separated into eight different categories. The first category is approaches to learning with recognizing problem solving skills. Social and emotional develop begin to grow with

High Scope was originally established as a camp program for talented adolescents…the name was chosen by the camp's founders "at the end of a long evening of heady and serious discussion about [the program's] purpose and goals. They chose "high" to signify their aspiration level and "scope" to describe the breadth of vision they hoped to achieve.”(HighScope.org, 2017). The founder of High Scope, David Weikart, was a special education director in 1962. He began a scientific experiment now known as the Perry Preschool Study. This experiment was based on High Scope’s participatory learning approach, where it indicated the effects of a high-quality preschool program for children age’s three to four living in minority areas and who were at high risk of failing in school. There were about one hundred and twenty eight children who were being evaluated and these children were divided into two equal groups.