By Laura Benard, Amanda Brannon, and Mischa Rosenberg, Teachers
From November 16–19, 2022, in Washington, D.C., 10 Bing teachers joined 6,000 early childhood professionals from across the United States at the Annual Conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The conference featured over 500 presentations, discussions, and events. Attendees were offered an abundance of opportunities to learn from experts and peers, exchange diverse ideas and opinions, and gain inspiration for ways to bring research and curriculum ideas into our Bing classrooms and community. Bing teachers Kathryn Carruthers and Melissa Gier and head teacher Todd Erickson presented “Read All About It!,” describing a yearlong project on daily classroom newspapers. (Please see https://bit.ly/classroom-newspapers for Erickson’s article about the project in the 2022 Bing Times.) Following are a few highlights:
Toddlers as Investigators: Making a Shift from Thematic Curriculum to Inquiry-Based Learning; Developing an Emergent Curriculum in Toddler Programs
Melissa Pinkham, author of Emergent Curriculum with Toddlers: Learning Through Play, opened her session on emergent curriculum for toddlers by saying that after 35 years as an early childhood educator, she has come to view herself as a combination of teacher, social constructivist, and play methodologist.
“What kinds of play are you observing in 2-year-olds in your programs?” Pinkham asked the attendees. The room reverberated with similar responses: “dumping,” “imitation,” “messy sensory play,” “parallel play,” “knocking things down,” “gross motor play,” “climbing and running.”
The answers might sound to some like activities that are destructive, counterproductive, or risky. However, they are all important parts of the inquiry-based lens through which toddlers learn about and explore the world.
Pinkham, who leads a toddler program (much like Bing’s Twos Room) at Northeast Los Angeles Forest School, views toddlers as individuals with a strong love of learning and discovery. “You don’t have to observe a toddler for long to recognize that they have a tremendous sense of inquiry and like to test out theories again and again,” she said while projecting images of children in her classroom. The images showed the children experimenting spontaneously with force, motion, and momentum by rolling pumpkins down a hill and with fluid dynamics by carefully observing rocks in flowing water. Ninety percent of human brain development occurs by age 5, and this vital time requires creative and flexible educators who are using developmentally appropriate practices to support cognitive inquiry and growth. Pinkham believes that the best way to support learning and growth at this stage of development is by carefully observing toddlers’ inquiries and developing curriculum that builds on the children’s investigations. That is the cornerstone of an emergent curriculum (and something we wholeheartedly support in our Twos Program at Bing).
Pinkham pointed out the importance of embracing and running with serendipitous moments—like finding insects underneath a stump—since they are rich with educational moments. Following children’s leads and giving them autonomy and a voice, while scaffolding their learning, allows them to explore the world authentically and starts them on a journey of being lifelong learners and explorers.
In her session, Pinkham shared a quote by Madga Gerber, a world-renowned infant specialist: “Be careful what you teach, it might interfere with what they are learning.”
About Emergent Curriculum
In her presentation, Pinkham clarified what emergent curriculum is—and is not. She also addressed both the challenges and benefits of incorporating this fluid framework into classrooms. To summarize:
What it is
• Understanding children’s inquiries. • Breaking away from scripts. • Trusting that children have ideas that are meaningful and relevant to them.
Why practice emergent curriculum?
• It is child-initiated and respects the voice of the child.
• It allows teachers to build on existing interests of toddlers.
• It provides children with opportunities to further their knowledge.
• It is flexible, allowing the curriculum to be constantly developed.
How can we best support and scaffold toddlers’ learning and inquiry in our classrooms (and in our homes)?
Pinkham suggests that educators (and parents):
• Slow down and be present.
• Meet toddlers where they are.
• Model for children and co-regulate with them.
• Let play happen naturally.
• Set appropriate boundaries.
• Pay attention to how you observe. Try not to be obtrusive or too eager with questions or to interject with “direct teaching.”
Developmentally Appropriate Practice: What Early Childhood Teachers Need to Know About the Changes in the Fourth Edition of Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs
In this interactive session, presenters Zlata Stankovic-Ramirez, assistant professor of early childhood education at Coastal Carolina University, and Josh Thompson, professor of early childhood education at Texas A&M University-Commerce, invited attendees to explore the changes in the fourth edition of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP), a position statement published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The presenters also asked us to share reflections of how the changes will influence our individual programs and classrooms. Some of the changes include:
1. Adopting the idea of children’s development resembling waves and cycles rather than the long-standing assumption of development being a linear process.
2. Emphasizing the importance of cultural and community contexts in which young children learn.
3. Expanding the emphasis on the right to equitable learning opportunities for young children and dismantling systems of bias.
These changes closely align with Bing’s emphasis on best practices and our constant striving for innovation and reflection to maintain developmentally appropriate instruction. Reimagining children’s learning as an ocean wave invites us to reflect on our own development as humans and teachers. Often, we feel we are progressing in certain aspects of life, and sometimes we have regression. The same can be said for young children, and as we learn new skills, there may be minor setbacks. It is also important to recognize that young children are raised in different environments, and our obligation as educators is to understand and embrace each child’s individual social, cultural, and linguistic contexts. The more informed we are as teachers, the easier it becomes to challenge our own biases and assumptions to form a healthy and positive view of the children. This view reminds us that each child has individual learning needs, and it is our job to assess where a child is developmentally in order to meet them where they are.
Meeting Up with Children’s Lively Minds by Understanding Schemas
Nadia Jaboneta and Brian Silveira, both classroom teachers and educational consultants from Pacific Primary School in San Francisco, presented “Meeting Up with Children’s Lively Minds by Understanding Schemas.” Jaboneta is the co-author, with Deb Curtis, of Children’s Lively Minds: Schema Theory Made Visible.
Schemas are types of play exploration that young children are drawn to naturally and repeatedly. Using anecdotes and photographs, Jaboneta and Silveira discussed eight types of schemas: transporting; transforming; trajectory; rotation and circularity; enclosing and enveloping; connecting and disconnecting; positioning, ordering, and classifying; and orientation and perspective. When adults observe play through these categories, they can notice patterns through which children build cognitive skills and display their astounding capability for learning. Below is a selection of schemas (all eight are discussed at length in Children’s Lively Minds):
• Transporting, at its most basic level, involves moving objects from one place to another. Stuffing a backpack to the brim with play food and carrying it across the yard is one example. Once a child has arrived at their destination, Jaboneta and Silveira noted, they often “do nothing” with the transported items because it is the process of moving objects that is satisfying.
• Transforming involves a child’s power to create change. When a child mixes red and yellow paint for the first time and exclaims, “I made orange!” or when they make a pretend cake by mixing sand and water, they are transforming. Open-ended materials are particularly conducive to this schema as they offer children more freedom to imagine, explore, and see how they can effect change without a pre-designated goal.
• Positioning, ordering, and classifying can be seen when children line up vehicles, categorize animals into groups, or create patterns with blocks. “Young children are constantly noticing similarities and differences,” said Jaboneta and Silveira, “and sorting and classifying everything.”
• Orientation and perspective involves a literal shift in how a child sees their surroundings. Climbing trees, crouching under tables, peering through holes, or hanging upside down offers opportunities to explore orientation and perspective. High, low, upside down or inside out, if there is an alternate angle to look at the world, children will find it.