Home » Articles on Demand » Designing a Curriculum for EC Teachers and Caregivers




Designing a Curriculum for EC Teachers and Caregivers

by Lawrence J. Schweinhart
March/April 2009
Access over 3,000 practical Exchange articles written by the top experts in the field through our online database. Join Today!

Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/designing-a-curriculum-for-ec-teachers-and-caregivers/5018634/

This article is written from the perspective of Larry Schweinhart’s work with HighScope. It is the intention of the provocations presented here to stimulate discussion and thinking around issues of teachers and caregivers, whatever a program’s curriculum might be. If you have ideas or feedback to share, please share your comments.

Early childhood programs are not institutionalized like educational programs for children and youth. Instead, they operate in schools, several types of community agencies, other people’s homes, and parents’ own homes. Several long-term studies show that high-quality preschool programs can have long-term effects and strong return on investment. However, several other, short-term studies show that most existing preschool programs have at best modest effects on children’s development. A central task of university-based early childhood teacher educators is to provide prospective early childhood teachers with coursework towards bachelors’ degrees and certification. But these apply mainly to schoolteachers and are not required of most teachers and caregivers in community agencies or private homes or parents in their own homes. Early childhood teacher educators in community colleges and pre- and in-service training programs of all sorts must train adults for these roles as well, beginning in high school. Thus, an early childhood curriculum must ...

Want to finish reading Designing a Curriculum for EC Teachers and Caregivers?

You have access to 5 free articles.
or an account to access full article.