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Universal Early Childhood Curriculum Principles

by Larry Schweinhart and Diane Trister Dodge, Initiative Coordinators, World Forum Foundation Early Childhood Curriculum Initiative
May/June 2015
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Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/universal-early-childhood--curriculum-principles/5022378/

The topic of curriculum in early childhood programs has been of great interest at every World Forum on Early Care and Education since 1999 and has generated engaged and meaningful conversations among participants. The World Forum’s Early Childhood Curriculum Initiative evolved from sessions that described specific curriculum models and how they were being implemented to an effort to identify and promote a list of early childhood curriculum principles that all early childhood educators can agree on.
This article reviews the history of how the topic of curriculum has been addressed at the World Forum over many years, describes the process of developing universal principles, and presents the eleven principles. The 2014 principles now focus on relationships, environment, play as children’s work, respect, content, children’s role in the curriculum, outcomes, the inter-relatedness of development, early childhood assessment, families and teachers as partners, and ongoing professional development. We suggest ways the principles can be used, and invite an ongoing dialogue that will continue to refine and extend the principles as needed.

Initial Focus on Well-Known Models

At the first seven World Forum meetings, from 1999 in Honolulu, Hawaii, through 2007 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, curriculum-related sessions focused on several well-regarded, widely used curricula: ...

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