Pushing ECE Practices Up

As the Pew Center on the States concludes its 10-year initiative to advance pre-kindergarten for all three and four-year-olds, it has released the final report of its Pre-K Now campaign, "Transforming Public Education: Pathway to a Pre-K-12 Future", which strongly advocates that policymakers transform public education by moving away from our current K-12 system.  One key recommendation is that the K-12 system incorporates play-based, child-centered approaches into its classes.  The report states...

"Direct instruction has an important place in classrooms, but those dominated by teacher-centered approaches tend not to maximize learning.  Instead, teachers trained to convert child development research into practice know how to complement direct instruction by structuring and facilitating activities in which children have a more dynamic role:  creative play, working with manipulatives, independent or small group projects.  These teachers are at the ready to provide feedback and to help children connect what they are doing to targeted concepts.  Such intentional practices, common in high-quality early programs, foster social-emotional development and cognitive skills by giving children opportunities to exercise their curiosity and bring their own experiences into the learning environment."

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