“You Get What You Get”? Learner Agency in the Early Childhood Music Classroom

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Huisman Koops
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Color Preference ◽  
Student Choice ◽  
Early Childhood Classroom ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Learner Agency ◽  
And Control ◽  
Enhance Student Learning

In this article, I suggest that providing opportunities for agency (student choice or control) in the early childhood classroom could enhance student learning. One important way that young children demonstrate agency is through expressing color preference. I encourage teachers to look for opportunities to give children choices and control in the classroom, including selecting colors of classroom props or leading a conducting activity.

Building Epistemic Awareness in the Early Childhood Classroom

2010 ◽  
pp. 177-216
Author(s):  
Denise L. Winsor ◽  
Sally Blake
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Early Childhood Classroom ◽  
Academic Environments ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
The World ◽  
New Thinking

It is evident from the information in the previous chapters in this book that there is much to be learned about how technology fits into the world of early childhood education (ECE). This chapter discusses some exciting new thinking about epistemology and how children and teachers learn and how this could relate to technology and all learning with young children and their teachers. The new understanding of preschool education potential demands new approaches to these vital years of schooling if we are to prepare our children to succeed in the increasingly demanding academic environments.

Enhanced Picture Books

2013 ◽  
pp. 196-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Cahill ◽  
Anne McGill-Franzen ◽  
Dawn Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Literacy Development ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Shared Reading ◽  
Home School ◽  
Early Childhood Classroom ◽  
School Connection ◽  
Children's Literacy

This chapter provides a rationale for using digitally Enhanced Picture Books (EPBs), electronic texts which pair text narration with animated pictures, with young children in the classroom and as a home-school connection tool. First, we synthesize the research on shared reading with young children. Next, we detail the research literature in the area of digital text use with young children. We suggest substantive variables to consider when selecting EPBs. Finally, we recommend practices for integrating EPBs into the primary and early childhood classroom in a manner that will advance young children’s literacy development.

Repurposing Principles and Successful Pedagogical Techniques from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood for the Early Childhood Music Classroom

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Harrison Grant Poole
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Television Program ◽  
Early Childhood Music ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Pedagogical Techniques ◽  
Communicating With Children

Fred Rogers’s television program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, connected with young children and educated them about difficult concepts for more than 30 years. The author analyzes and discusses several principles and pedagogical techniques that were used in Rogers’s television program, including communicating with children, establishing routines, managing expectations and transitions, presenting concepts through multiple formats, and exposing children to our multicultural world. Suggestions for repurposing and implementing the principles and pedagogical techniques for the early childhood music classroom are provided.

Interventions for Young Children With and at Risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-187
Author(s):  
Kristin L. Withey
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Behavioral Interventions ◽  
Emotional And Behavioral Disorders ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Early Childhood Classroom ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Behavioral Skills ◽  
Life Success ◽  
A Current

Social-emotional and behavioral skills are essential to school and life success. Some young children, though, demonstrate significant delays in these areas. While there is a current hierarchical model of behavioral interventions for young children, it is lacking explicit interventions to be implemented in the early childhood classroom. This column suggests an intervention continuum to be used that extends beyond the current model, providing a matrix that aligns social-emotional or behavioral skills with specific interventions shown to be effective for students who fall under other disability labels.

Learner agency: To understand and to be understood

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah V. Blair
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Music Classroom ◽  
Learner Agency ◽  
Musical Understanding

What began as an exploration of student learning while listening to music evolved into a study of learner agency in a music classroom. Whilst students used and developed strategies that enabled their own success while listening to, performing and creating music, it became evident that they were proactively seeking musical understanding and growth in their own musicianship. Their intense desire to share their musical ideas and to be valued for their role in the music learning community within the classroom illustrated the learners’ agency for affirmation and valuing of self and others. These qualities are closely connected to the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978) and perezhivanie (Mahn & John-Steiner, 2000, 2002; Mahn, 2003). As educators may seek to enable students to grow in conceptual understanding (competence) and self-efficacy (confidence), a reflexive relationship occurs as students, too, seek to grow in musicianship (competence) and to be valued for who they are (confidence).

Enabling the Exercise of Choice and Control: How early Childhood Intervention Professionals may Support Families and Young Children with a Disability to Exercise Choice and Control in the Context of the National Disability Insurance Scheme

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Brien ◽  
Jane Page ◽  
Jeanette Berman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Disability Insurance ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Early Childhood Intervention ◽  
Insurance Scheme ◽  
Childhood Intervention ◽  
And Control

THE NATIONAL DISABILITY INSURANCE Scheme (NDIS) is progressively being implemented across Australia. The Scheme aims to more equitably and sustainably support families and young children with a disability to optimise independence and participation in all aspects of their lives, including early childhood education. A key platform of the NDIS is for people with a disability to have choice and control over decisions about service provision. It is imperative to review the research that investigates what the notion of choice and control over service provision means for families and children with a disability, and how early childhood intervention (ECI) professionals can effectively support this decision making. In this article we argue that to effectively support families and children to experience choice and control, ECI professionals must build and share specialist knowledge and expertise to support informed decision making, engage in positive relationship-building practices and develop a shared approach to accountability with families.

scholarly journals Leadership in the Early Childhood Years

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-23
Author(s):  
Debra Jo Hailey ◽  
Michelle Fazio-Brunson
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
Young Children ◽  
First Graders ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Student Leaders ◽  
Behavioral Characteristics ◽  
Contextual Influences ◽  
Early Childhood Classroom ◽  
Rural Living

Research into young children’s leadership skills is sparse and focuses on leadership in early childhood classroom contexts. Understanding of leadership development in young children can be expanded by studying parents’ perceptions of children’s leadership development as it is enacted in contexts outside of the school. This qualitative study examined beliefs, practices, and contextual relationships of families with young children who were identified by teachers within their schools as having strong leadership skills. Student leaders were identified according to the Leadership subscale of the Scales for Rating the Behavioral Characteristics of Superior Students, 3rd ed. Four mothers and three fathers of identified first graders who met gender and ethnic selection criteria participated. Interviews were conducted with structured and unstructured open-ended questions, and parent journals were collected from participants. Using Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of human development as a guide, parental perceptions of contextual influences on young children’s leadership development were investigated. Findings indicate that parents were intentional in trying to develop characteristics and dispositions in their children to help them become good citizens but did not necessarily consider their actions as also building early leadership skills. Information concerning contextual situations, relationships, tools, and characteristics of early leadership development is shared. As parents discussed opportunities for their first graders to develop leadership skills, an unexpected theme emerged regarding benefits of rural living for young leadership development.

scholarly journals An Exploration of Preschool Teachers’ Perceptions of Physical Activity Integration in a Whole Child Pilot Curriculum

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Alicia Stapp ◽  
◽  
Madalyn Falkenheiner ◽  
Kenya Wolff ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Vigorous Physical Activity ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Early Childhood Classroom ◽  
Critical Determinant ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Childhood Education

It is recommended that children ages 3-5 receive 180 minutes of physical activity a day, with at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Despite these recommendations, a majority of preschoolers are not provided opportunities in the early childhood education setting to meet these daily recommendations through either structured or unstructured physical activity. Accordingly, the number of young children identified as overweight or obese over the past couple of decades has increased. Critical to addressing this epidemic is the role of physical activity in the early childhood classroom and its capacity to increase healthy development and lifelong habits for young children. Participants in this study consisted of 23 Pre-K 4 teachers from 5 different preschools across North Mississippi. A phenomenological approach was utilized to determine if the barriers to physical activity implementation in early childhood education classrooms were effectively addressed through the Growing Healthy Minds, Bodies, and Communities curriculum. This was completed by garnering teachers' perceptions of the curriculum through pre- and post-focus groups. Three themes emerged from the data regarding teachers’ perceptions of the Growing Healthy Minds, Bodies, and Communities physical activity curriclum. Those themes are as follows: (a) teacher and student benefits of and engagement with physical activity in early childhood education; (b) shifting the mindset from “fitting it all in” to “making it work with modifications”; and (c) linking it to literacy. The opportunity for young children to participate in physical activity is a critical determinant of their overall health and development. While there has been an overall decrease in opportunities for preschool children to participate in both unstructured and structured physical activity, it is crucial to view physical activity as an essential and integrated component of the curriculum. When viewed through this lens, it provides a foundation that promotes lifelong healthy habits and development of children who become happy, healthy, and productive citizens in society.

“An idea is in your body”: Technology and transformation in the early childhood classroom

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-172
Author(s):  
Dana Frantz Bentley
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Transformational Learning ◽  
Early Childhood Classroom ◽  
Child Centered ◽  
Traditional Technologies

What does it mean to engage in transformational learning with young children? In a time when “technology” is hallowed as all-important, how do we frame young children as empowered, critical thinkers around technologies, instead of just consumers? This article looks closely at a child-centered, emergent curricular process within an early childhood classroom. Framing the “having of ideas” as the essential technology in children’s lives, a teacher chronicles and analyzes children’s idea-having process and the pedagogies around it. Focusing on children’s talk, questioning, critique, and negotiation, this article shifts away from notions of traditional technologies, looking closely at the transformational learning inherent in children’s collective having-of-ideas.

Setting Effects on Friendship Formation among Young Children with and without Disabilities

2002 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Buysse ◽  
Barbara Davis Goldman ◽  
Martie L. Skinner
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Early Childhood Classroom ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Friendship Formation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Difference

This study examined the effects of social setting on the friendship formation of 333 preschool children (120 children with disabilities and 213 typically developing children) enrolled in inclusive early childhood programs. The study found that typically developing children in specialized classrooms had significantly more friends than did children with disabilities in those same settings. In child care settings, however, the difference between the reported number of friendships for typically developing children and their peers with disabilities did not reach statistical significance. Implications are presented for considering how the social ecology of the early childhood classroom setting may influence social outcomes for young children enrolled in inclusive programs.

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