Preschool education
Encyclopedia
Preschool education is the provision of learning to child
ren before the commencement of statutory and obligatory education, usually between the ages of zero and three or five, depending on the jurisdiction.
In the United Kingdom
nursery school
(or 'playgroup') is the form of preschool education. In the United States the terms 'preschool' and 'Pre-K' are used, while "nursery school" is an older term.
Preschool work is organized within a framework that professional educators create. The framework includes structural (administration, class size, student–teacher ratio, services, etc.), process (quality of classroom environments, teacher-child interactions, etc.), and alignment (standards, curriculum, assessments) components that are associated with each individual unique child that has both social and academic outcomes. At each age band, an appropriate curriculum should be followed. For example, it would be normal to teach a child how to count to 10 after the age of four. Arguably the first pre-school institution was opened in 1816 by Robert Owen
in New Lanark
, Scotland. The Hungarian countess Theresa Brunszvik
followed in 1828. In 1837, Friedrich Fröbel opened one in Germany, coining the term "kindergarten
".
Allowing preschool aged children to discover and explore freely within each of these areas of development is the foundation for developmental learning. While the National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC) and the National Association of Child Care Professionals (NACCP) have made tremendous strides in publicizing and promoting the idea of developmentally appropriate practice
, there is still much work to be done. It is widely recognized that although many preschool educators are aware of the guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice, putting this practice to work effectively in the classroom is more challenging. The NAEYC published that although 80% of Kindergarten classrooms claim to be developmentally appropriate, only 20% actually are.
are begun at birth. A child's brain at this age is making connections that will last the rest of their life. During these early years, a human being is capable of absorbing more information at a time than they will ever be able to again. The environment of the young child influences the development of cognitive skills and emotional skills due to the rapid brain growth that occurs in the early years. Studies have shown that high quality/ or any high rated preschools have a long term effect in improving the outcomes of a child, especially a disadvantaged child.
However, some more recent studies dispute the accuracy of the earlier results which cited benefits to preschool education, and actually point at preschool being detrimental to a child's cognitive and social development. A study by UC Berkeley and Stanford University
on 14,000 Kindergarteners revealed that while there is a temporary cognitive boost in pre-reading and math, preschool holds detrimental effects on social development and cooperation.
The Universal Preschool
movement is an international effort to make access to preschool available to families in a similar way to compulsory
primary education
. Various jurisdictions and advocates have differing priorities for access, availability and funding sources. See kindergarten
for details of pre-school education in various countries.
There has been a shift from preschools that operated primarily as controlled play groups to educational settings in which children learn specific, if basic, skills. It examines several different perspectives on teaching in kindergarten, including those of the developmentally appropriate practice
, the academic approach, the child-centered approach
, and the Montessori approach to the curriculum.
, beginning in the second cycle (from three to six years), but extending to the first cycle (from birth to three years).
it is when children develop through all areas
In Japan, development of social skills and a sense of group belonging are major goals for preschools. Class sizes tend to be large, up to 40 students per class, to decrease the role of the teacher's personality and increase the likelihood of peer interactions. Because exclusion from the group is extremely undesirable, a wide range of behaviors is tolerated. For example, a young child who is standing near the class during an exercise session is deemed to be participating in the group activity and belonging to the group, even if he does not engage in any of the exercises. Children are expected to be learn how to work harmoniously in large and small groups, and to develop the praiseworthy qualities of childhood, such as cooperativeness, kindness, and social consciousness. Because the most important goal for preschools is to provide children with the rich social environment that increasingly isolated nuclear families are unable to provide at home, unstructured, lightly supervised time to play freely with other children is valued. Teachers take a hands-off approach to most disputes between children, including physical fighting, as well as to children's choices to participate or to move to another activity. Most behavioral problems are believed to be due to the disruptive child's inappropriately expressed emotional need to be dependent, resulting in gentle care and careful attention to accepting the child, rather than a biological problem to be treated medically or a willfully chosen behavior to be punished. Consistent with the social belief that success is a result of hard work rather than inborn talent, teachers are expected to minimize innate differences between children by encouraging and praising perseverance in less-capable children and suppressing or ignoring high-performing children. Although a wide variety of attitudes and educational philosophies exist in Japanese preschools, most preschools focus on age-appropriate personal development, such as learning empathy, rather than academic programs. Academic programs tend to be more common among Westernized and Christian preschools in Japan.
In China, a vast and varied country, the preschool programs are highly variable. Some amount to little more than babysitting services, and others are university-run programs with high-quality curricula. Some are showpieces designed to impress foreign visitors, and others have very limited facilities and resources. The qualifications of staff members and their beliefs about early childhood education are also highly variable. Many are associated with an employer, and some provide overnight care during the week, frequently reserving these slots for parents who work at night or in jobs requiring travel. However, a few themes are common to most Chinese preschools: Chinese parents' traditional concerns about spoiling their children have intensified since the introduction of the one-child policy
: Only children are widely seen as lonely, selfish, and prone to anti-social behaviors. Parents, however, feel somewhat reluctant to discipline their only children, thinking it may cause resentment and ultimately an unwillingness to care for the parents in their old age. Teachers, therefore, are seen as professionals whose primary responsibility is to counteract the parents' natural tendency to indulge their children and the unfortunate effects of the one-child policy, and thus produce well-behaved children who benefit society. Because parents worry about their children's health, Chinese society provides significant, visible health care through the preschools, such as on-site nurses to examine children after a weekend at home. Children are taught to behave as part of a orderly, regimented collective that is obedient to its leader. For example, children eat meals silently and sit quietly for long periods of time during the school day while the teacher reads or instructs them. Unlike the Japanese programs, group dynamics are authoritarian and vertical, with the relationship between the teacher and the children more important than the relationships between the children. Teachers intervene very early to stop inappropriate behavior before it escalates to disruption, usually by verbally criticizing the child's behavior. Positive reinforcement through publicly praising examples of proper behavior is typical. Programs permit little unstructured time and emphasize academic development. For example, a lesson may have children use building blocks to construct pre-determined structures exactly matching a printed diagram, rather than to build anything they wish. Academic progress and good public speaking skills are valued, as parents believe this will result in the child being economically successful later in life. Parents in Taiwan have similar attitudes in many respects, and many of the concerns and goals related to child rearing in the modern era echo those found in ancient Confucian writings.
In the United States, preschool education emphasizes the basic American values of individual liberty and self-determination. Rather than the teacher leading all children through a specific activity, the children are frequently permitted to choose from a wide variety of activities in a learning center model. During these times, a few children may choose to be painting, a few children may be playing house
, a few children may be playing with puzzles, and a few more may be listening to the teacher read a storybook aloud. Different learning center activities are offered in each session. Children are assumed to be more different than similar, with each child having particular strengths and weaknesses that must be encouraged or ameliorated by the teachers. A typical belief is that children's play is their work, and by allowing the child to select the type of play, then the child will meet his or her individual developmental needs. Preschools also model the rule of law
and American ideas about justice, such as the idea that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Teachers actively intervene in disputes between children and encourage them to "use your words" rather than to engage in physical aggression. Children may be punished with a time out
or a requirement to apologize or make reparations for misbehavior, such as taking a toy from another child, but the teachers assist them through a process of "defending" themselves (by explaining what happened) before the teacher imposes a punishment. The development of self-expressive language skills, so that the child can describe an experience to an adult, is emphasized through both informal interactions with the teachers and through structured group activities like show and tell
exercises. The equipment and facilities available to a preschool vary depending on the wealth of the area, but they generally have more and fancier supplies than other cultures. As most programs are not subsidized by government funds, preschools are often expensive compared to the average worker's income, and the staff is typically poorly paid. However, student-teacher ratios are lower than in other cultures, with about 15 students per group seen as ideal. Parents and teachers also see preschool teachers as being extensions of or partial substitutes for the parents, and consequently emphasize personal relationships and consistent expectations at home and at school.
, the first publicly funded preschool program, was created in 1965 by President Johnson
. The federal government helped create this half-day program for preschool children from low-income families. Head Start began as a summer pilot program that included an education component, nutrition and health screenings for children, and support services for families (CPE, 2007). In the 1960s only ten percent of the nations three and four year olds were enrolled in a classroom setting. Due to a large amount of people interested, and a lack of funding for Head Start, during the 1980s a handful of states started their own version of a program for students from low-income families. The positive success and effects of preschool meant many state leaders were showing interest in educational reform of these young students (CPE, 2007). By 2005 sixty-nine percent, or over 800,000, four year-old children nationwide participated in some type of state preschool program (CPE, 2007). The yearly increase in enrollment of preschool programs throughout the years is due to an increase of higher maternal employment rates, national anti-poverty initiatives, and research showing the link between early childhood experiences and the brain development of young children. These factors have caused the rate of attendance in preschool programs to grow each year (CPE, 2007). It is important one note that Head Start
was the first publicly funded preschool program and not necessarily the first preschool program. It should also be stressed that Head Start
programs are not the same as preschool programs in the private sector. Head Start
is a federally funded program with specific federal guidelines that they must adhere to. Preschools in the private sector do not have to adhere to these same federal guidelines and they do not receive the same public and federal funding.
In most states, there are multiple preschool or Pre-K options for young children. Parents have the choice of sending their child to a federally funded Head Start program, if their income is at the poverty level, state-funded preschool, government-funded special education programs, and for-profit and not-for-profit providers (Levin & Schartz, 2007), including those that accept government subsidies that help low income parents pay. Currently, in the United States, Georgia, Illinois, Florida, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and New York are the only states with legislation underway or which already have universal preschool
for all four year olds in the state, and Preschool For All in Illinois is the only universal preschool program that serves three year olds as well.
, Waldorf, Head Start, HighReach Learning, High Scope, The Creative Curriculum, Reggio Emilia approach
, Bank Street
, Forest kindergartens, and various other pedagogies which contribute to the foundation of education.
Creative Curriculum has an interactive website where parents and teachers can work together in evaluating preschool age children. The website is very user friendly and prints off many reports that are helpful in evaluating children and the classroom itself. The web site has a variety of activities that are targeted to each of the fifty goals on the continuum.
The International Preschool Curriculum
adopted a bilingual approach to teaching and offers a curriculum that embraces international standards and recognizes national requirements for preschool education.
In the United States, most preschool advocates support the National Association for the Education of Young Children
's Developmentally Appropriate Practices.
Family childcare can also be nationally accredited by the National Association of Family Childcare if the provider chooses to go through the process. National accreditation is only awarded to those programs who demonstrate the quality standards set forth by the NAFCC.
Two popular Australian curriculums are the Emergent curriculum
or the Building Waterfalls program.
Some Philosophy for Children
programs also offer a unique approach to engaging developmentally a young child's ability to reason, learn, and inquire in a critical and socially-engaged manner.
The benefits and challenges of a public preschool are closely tied to the amount of funding provided. Funding for a public preschool can come in a variety of sources. According to Levin and Schwartz (2007) funding can range from federal, state, local public allocations, private sources, and parental fees (p. 4). The problem of funding a public preschool occurs not only from limited sources but from the cost per child. The average cost across the 48 states is $6,582 (Levin and Schwartz, 2007). There are four categories that determine the costs of public preschools: personnel ratios, personnel qualifications, facilities and transportation, and health and nutrition services. According to Levin and Schwartz (2007) these structural elements depend heavily on the cost and quality of services provided (p. 14). The main personnel factor related to cost is the qualifications each preschool require for a teacher. Another determinate of cost is the length of a preschool day. The longer the session, the more increase in cost. Therefore, the quality of program accounts presumably for a major component of cost (Levin and Schwartz, 2007).
Collaboration has been a solution for funding issues in several districts. Wilma Kaplan, principal, turned to collaborating with the area Head Start and other private preschool to fund a public preschool in her district. “We’re very pleased with the interaction. It’s really added a dimension to our program that’s been very positive” (Reeves, 2000). The National Head Start Bureau has been looking for more opportunities to partner with public schools. Torn Schultz of the National Head Start Bureau states, “We’re turning to partnership as much as possible, either in funds or facilities to make sure children get everything necessary to be ready for school” (Reeves, 2000, p. 6). The goal for funding is to develop a variety of sources that provide for all children to benefit from early learning within a public preschool.
, students who may benefit from special education
receive services in preschools. Since the inception of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Public Law 101-476 in 1975 and its amendments, PL 102-119 and PL 105-17 in 1997, the educational system has moved away from self-contained classrooms and progressed to inclusion. As a result, there has been a need for special education teachers to practice in various settings in order to assist children with special needs, particularly by working with regular classroom teachers when possible to strengthen the inclusion of children with special needs. As with other stages in the life of a child with special needs, the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or an Individual Family Service Plan
(IFSP) is an important way for special education teachers, regular classroom teachers, administrators and parents to set guidelines for a partnership to help the child succeed in preschool.
Child
Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...
ren before the commencement of statutory and obligatory education, usually between the ages of zero and three or five, depending on the jurisdiction.
In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
nursery school
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
(or 'playgroup') is the form of preschool education. In the United States the terms 'preschool' and 'Pre-K' are used, while "nursery school" is an older term.
Preschool work is organized within a framework that professional educators create. The framework includes structural (administration, class size, student–teacher ratio, services, etc.), process (quality of classroom environments, teacher-child interactions, etc.), and alignment (standards, curriculum, assessments) components that are associated with each individual unique child that has both social and academic outcomes. At each age band, an appropriate curriculum should be followed. For example, it would be normal to teach a child how to count to 10 after the age of four. Arguably the first pre-school institution was opened in 1816 by Robert Owen
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
in New Lanark
New Lanark
New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde, approximately 1.4 miles from Lanark, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was founded in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers. Dale built the mills there to take advantage of the water power provided by the river...
, Scotland. The Hungarian countess Theresa Brunszvik
Theresa Brunszvik
Countess Teréz Brunszvik de Korompa was a member of the Hungarian nobility, pedagoge and a follower of the Swiss Pestalozzi...
followed in 1828. In 1837, Friedrich Fröbel opened one in Germany, coining the term "kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
".
Developmental areas
The areas of development which preschool education covers varies from country to country. However, the following main themes are represented in the majority of systems.- Personal, social, economical, and emotional development
- Communication, including sign language, talking and listening
- Knowledge and understanding of the world
- Creative and aesthetic development
- Educational softwareEducational softwareEducational software is computer software, the primary purpose of which is teaching or self-learning.-Early History, 1940s - 1970s:The use of computer hardware and software in education and training dates to the early 1940s, when American researchers developed flight simulators which used analog...
- Mathematical awareness and development
- Physical development
- Physical health
- Playing
- Teamwork
- Self-help skills
- Social skills
- Scientific thinking
- Creative arts
- Literacy
- Speaking ability is started too.
Allowing preschool aged children to discover and explore freely within each of these areas of development is the foundation for developmental learning. While the National Association for the Education of Young Children
National Association for the Education of Young Children
The National Association for the Education of Young Children is the largest nonprofit association in the United States representing early childhood education teachers, paraeducators, center directors, trainers, college educators, families of young children, policy makers, and advocates...
(NAEYC) and the National Association of Child Care Professionals (NACCP) have made tremendous strides in publicizing and promoting the idea of developmentally appropriate practice
Developmentally Appropriate Practice
Developmentally appropriate practice is a perspective within early childhood education whereby a teacher or child caregiver nurtures a child's social/emotional, physical, and cognitive development by basing all practices and decisions on theories of child development, individually identified...
, there is still much work to be done. It is widely recognized that although many preschool educators are aware of the guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice, putting this practice to work effectively in the classroom is more challenging. The NAEYC published that although 80% of Kindergarten classrooms claim to be developmentally appropriate, only 20% actually are.
Age and importance
It is well established that the most important years of learningLearning
Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning...
are begun at birth. A child's brain at this age is making connections that will last the rest of their life. During these early years, a human being is capable of absorbing more information at a time than they will ever be able to again. The environment of the young child influences the development of cognitive skills and emotional skills due to the rapid brain growth that occurs in the early years. Studies have shown that high quality/ or any high rated preschools have a long term effect in improving the outcomes of a child, especially a disadvantaged child.
However, some more recent studies dispute the accuracy of the earlier results which cited benefits to preschool education, and actually point at preschool being detrimental to a child's cognitive and social development. A study by UC Berkeley and Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
on 14,000 Kindergarteners revealed that while there is a temporary cognitive boost in pre-reading and math, preschool holds detrimental effects on social development and cooperation.
The Universal Preschool
Universal preschool
Universal preschool is an international movement to make access to preschool education available to all families, similar to the availability of kindergarten. Child advocates and other members of this movement differ in terms of how they define who should be included and how it should be funded...
movement is an international effort to make access to preschool available to families in a similar way to compulsory
Compulsory education
Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all persons.-Antiquity to Medieval Era:Although Plato's The Republic is credited with having popularized the concept of compulsory education in Western intellectual thought, every parent in Judea since Moses's Covenant with...
primary education
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
. Various jurisdictions and advocates have differing priorities for access, availability and funding sources. See kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
for details of pre-school education in various countries.
There has been a shift from preschools that operated primarily as controlled play groups to educational settings in which children learn specific, if basic, skills. It examines several different perspectives on teaching in kindergarten, including those of the developmentally appropriate practice
Developmentally Appropriate Practice
Developmentally appropriate practice is a perspective within early childhood education whereby a teacher or child caregiver nurtures a child's social/emotional, physical, and cognitive development by basing all practices and decisions on theories of child development, individually identified...
, the academic approach, the child-centered approach
Student-centred learning
Student-centred learning is an approach to education focusing on the needs of the students, rather than those of others involved in the educational process, such as teachers and administrators...
, and the Montessori approach to the curriculum.
Gratuity
The gratuity of infant education has been established in some countries, as SpainEducation in Spain
The current system of education in Spain is known as LOE after the Ley Orgánica de Educación, or Fundamental Law of Education. Education in Spain is compulsory, and free from 6 to 16 years of age, supported by the Government in each Region....
, beginning in the second cycle (from three to six years), but extending to the first cycle (from birth to three years).
it is when children develop through all areas
Role in cultural transmission
Preschool education, like all other forms of education, is intended by the society that controls it to transmit important cultural values to the participants. As a result, different cultures make different choices about preschool education. Despite the variations, there are a few common themes. Most significantly, preschool is universally expected to increase the young child's ability to perform basic self-care tasks such as dressing, feeding, and toileting.In Japan, development of social skills and a sense of group belonging are major goals for preschools. Class sizes tend to be large, up to 40 students per class, to decrease the role of the teacher's personality and increase the likelihood of peer interactions. Because exclusion from the group is extremely undesirable, a wide range of behaviors is tolerated. For example, a young child who is standing near the class during an exercise session is deemed to be participating in the group activity and belonging to the group, even if he does not engage in any of the exercises. Children are expected to be learn how to work harmoniously in large and small groups, and to develop the praiseworthy qualities of childhood, such as cooperativeness, kindness, and social consciousness. Because the most important goal for preschools is to provide children with the rich social environment that increasingly isolated nuclear families are unable to provide at home, unstructured, lightly supervised time to play freely with other children is valued. Teachers take a hands-off approach to most disputes between children, including physical fighting, as well as to children's choices to participate or to move to another activity. Most behavioral problems are believed to be due to the disruptive child's inappropriately expressed emotional need to be dependent, resulting in gentle care and careful attention to accepting the child, rather than a biological problem to be treated medically or a willfully chosen behavior to be punished. Consistent with the social belief that success is a result of hard work rather than inborn talent, teachers are expected to minimize innate differences between children by encouraging and praising perseverance in less-capable children and suppressing or ignoring high-performing children. Although a wide variety of attitudes and educational philosophies exist in Japanese preschools, most preschools focus on age-appropriate personal development, such as learning empathy, rather than academic programs. Academic programs tend to be more common among Westernized and Christian preschools in Japan.
In China, a vast and varied country, the preschool programs are highly variable. Some amount to little more than babysitting services, and others are university-run programs with high-quality curricula. Some are showpieces designed to impress foreign visitors, and others have very limited facilities and resources. The qualifications of staff members and their beliefs about early childhood education are also highly variable. Many are associated with an employer, and some provide overnight care during the week, frequently reserving these slots for parents who work at night or in jobs requiring travel. However, a few themes are common to most Chinese preschools: Chinese parents' traditional concerns about spoiling their children have intensified since the introduction of the one-child policy
One-child policy
The one-child policy refers to the one-child limitation applying to a minority of families in the population control policy of the People's Republic of China . The Chinese government refers to it under the official translation of family planning policy...
: Only children are widely seen as lonely, selfish, and prone to anti-social behaviors. Parents, however, feel somewhat reluctant to discipline their only children, thinking it may cause resentment and ultimately an unwillingness to care for the parents in their old age. Teachers, therefore, are seen as professionals whose primary responsibility is to counteract the parents' natural tendency to indulge their children and the unfortunate effects of the one-child policy, and thus produce well-behaved children who benefit society. Because parents worry about their children's health, Chinese society provides significant, visible health care through the preschools, such as on-site nurses to examine children after a weekend at home. Children are taught to behave as part of a orderly, regimented collective that is obedient to its leader. For example, children eat meals silently and sit quietly for long periods of time during the school day while the teacher reads or instructs them. Unlike the Japanese programs, group dynamics are authoritarian and vertical, with the relationship between the teacher and the children more important than the relationships between the children. Teachers intervene very early to stop inappropriate behavior before it escalates to disruption, usually by verbally criticizing the child's behavior. Positive reinforcement through publicly praising examples of proper behavior is typical. Programs permit little unstructured time and emphasize academic development. For example, a lesson may have children use building blocks to construct pre-determined structures exactly matching a printed diagram, rather than to build anything they wish. Academic progress and good public speaking skills are valued, as parents believe this will result in the child being economically successful later in life. Parents in Taiwan have similar attitudes in many respects, and many of the concerns and goals related to child rearing in the modern era echo those found in ancient Confucian writings.
In the United States, preschool education emphasizes the basic American values of individual liberty and self-determination. Rather than the teacher leading all children through a specific activity, the children are frequently permitted to choose from a wide variety of activities in a learning center model. During these times, a few children may choose to be painting, a few children may be playing house
House (game)
House, also referred to as "playing house", is a traditional game where children or adults take on the roles of a nuclear family, which typically consists of a father, mother, a child/children, a baby, and a cat/dog....
, a few children may be playing with puzzles, and a few more may be listening to the teacher read a storybook aloud. Different learning center activities are offered in each session. Children are assumed to be more different than similar, with each child having particular strengths and weaknesses that must be encouraged or ameliorated by the teachers. A typical belief is that children's play is their work, and by allowing the child to select the type of play, then the child will meet his or her individual developmental needs. Preschools also model the rule of law
Rule of law
The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...
and American ideas about justice, such as the idea that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Teachers actively intervene in disputes between children and encourage them to "use your words" rather than to engage in physical aggression. Children may be punished with a time out
Time-out (parenting)
A time-out involves temporarily separating a child from an environment where inappropriate behavior has occurred, and is intended to give an over-excited child time to calm down and thereby discouraging such behavior. It is an educational and parenting technique recommended by some pediatricians...
or a requirement to apologize or make reparations for misbehavior, such as taking a toy from another child, but the teachers assist them through a process of "defending" themselves (by explaining what happened) before the teacher imposes a punishment. The development of self-expressive language skills, so that the child can describe an experience to an adult, is emphasized through both informal interactions with the teachers and through structured group activities like show and tell
Show and tell (education)
Show and tell is the process of showing an audience something and telling them about it, predominantly in North America and also popular in Australia. It is usually done in a classroom as an early elementary school technique for teaching young children the skills of public speaking...
exercises. The equipment and facilities available to a preschool vary depending on the wealth of the area, but they generally have more and fancier supplies than other cultures. As most programs are not subsidized by government funds, preschools are often expensive compared to the average worker's income, and the staff is typically poorly paid. However, student-teacher ratios are lower than in other cultures, with about 15 students per group seen as ideal. Parents and teachers also see preschool teachers as being extensions of or partial substitutes for the parents, and consequently emphasize personal relationships and consistent expectations at home and at school.
History of preschool in the United States
Head StartHead Start
The Head Start Program is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families....
, the first publicly funded preschool program, was created in 1965 by President Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
. The federal government helped create this half-day program for preschool children from low-income families. Head Start began as a summer pilot program that included an education component, nutrition and health screenings for children, and support services for families (CPE, 2007). In the 1960s only ten percent of the nations three and four year olds were enrolled in a classroom setting. Due to a large amount of people interested, and a lack of funding for Head Start, during the 1980s a handful of states started their own version of a program for students from low-income families. The positive success and effects of preschool meant many state leaders were showing interest in educational reform of these young students (CPE, 2007). By 2005 sixty-nine percent, or over 800,000, four year-old children nationwide participated in some type of state preschool program (CPE, 2007). The yearly increase in enrollment of preschool programs throughout the years is due to an increase of higher maternal employment rates, national anti-poverty initiatives, and research showing the link between early childhood experiences and the brain development of young children. These factors have caused the rate of attendance in preschool programs to grow each year (CPE, 2007). It is important one note that Head Start
Head Start
The Head Start Program is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families....
was the first publicly funded preschool program and not necessarily the first preschool program. It should also be stressed that Head Start
Head Start
The Head Start Program is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families....
programs are not the same as preschool programs in the private sector. Head Start
Head Start
The Head Start Program is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families....
is a federally funded program with specific federal guidelines that they must adhere to. Preschools in the private sector do not have to adhere to these same federal guidelines and they do not receive the same public and federal funding.
In most states, there are multiple preschool or Pre-K options for young children. Parents have the choice of sending their child to a federally funded Head Start program, if their income is at the poverty level, state-funded preschool, government-funded special education programs, and for-profit and not-for-profit providers (Levin & Schartz, 2007), including those that accept government subsidies that help low income parents pay. Currently, in the United States, Georgia, Illinois, Florida, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and New York are the only states with legislation underway or which already have universal preschool
Universal preschool
Universal preschool is an international movement to make access to preschool education available to all families, similar to the availability of kindergarten. Child advocates and other members of this movement differ in terms of how they define who should be included and how it should be funded...
for all four year olds in the state, and Preschool For All in Illinois is the only universal preschool program that serves three year olds as well.
Methods of preschool education
Some preschools have adopted specialized methods of teaching, such as MontessoriMontessori method
Montessori education is an educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori. Montessori education is practiced in an estimated 20,000 schools worldwide, serving children from birth to eighteen years old.-Overview:...
, Waldorf, Head Start, HighReach Learning, High Scope, The Creative Curriculum, Reggio Emilia approach
Reggio Emilia approach
The Reggio Emilia Approach is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education. It was started by Loris Malaguzzi and the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy after World War II. The destruction from the war, parents believed, necessitated a new, quick approach...
, Bank Street
Bank Street College of Education
Bank Street College of Education is located in Manhattan, New York City.-History:Bank Street was founded in 1916 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell as the "Bureau of Educational Experiments"....
, Forest kindergartens, and various other pedagogies which contribute to the foundation of education.
Creative Curriculum has an interactive website where parents and teachers can work together in evaluating preschool age children. The website is very user friendly and prints off many reports that are helpful in evaluating children and the classroom itself. The web site has a variety of activities that are targeted to each of the fifty goals on the continuum.
The International Preschool Curriculum
International Preschool Curriculum
The International Preschool Curriculum "IPC" is research based curriculum for children aged 3 to 6. The curriculum is devised and reviewed by an advisory committee consisting of academics, teachers and education consultants.-Features:...
adopted a bilingual approach to teaching and offers a curriculum that embraces international standards and recognizes national requirements for preschool education.
In the United States, most preschool advocates support the National Association for the Education of Young Children
National Association for the Education of Young Children
The National Association for the Education of Young Children is the largest nonprofit association in the United States representing early childhood education teachers, paraeducators, center directors, trainers, college educators, families of young children, policy makers, and advocates...
's Developmentally Appropriate Practices.
Family childcare can also be nationally accredited by the National Association of Family Childcare if the provider chooses to go through the process. National accreditation is only awarded to those programs who demonstrate the quality standards set forth by the NAFCC.
Two popular Australian curriculums are the Emergent curriculum
Emergent curriculum
Emergent curriculum is a way of planning curriculum based on the student’s interest and passions as well as the teacher’s. To plan an emergent curriculum requires observation, documentation, creative brainstorming, flexibility and patience...
or the Building Waterfalls program.
Some Philosophy for Children
Philosophy for Children
Philosophy for Children, sometimes abbreviated to P4C, is a movement that aims to teach reasoning and argumentative skills to children. There are also related methods sometimes called "Philosophy for Young People" or "Philosophy for Kids". Often the hope is that this will be a key influence in the...
programs also offer a unique approach to engaging developmentally a young child's ability to reason, learn, and inquire in a critical and socially-engaged manner.
Funding for preschool programs
While a majority of American preschool programs remain tuition-based, support for some public funding of early childhood education has grown over the years. As of 2008, 38 states and the District of Columbia invested in at least some pre-kindergarten programs, and many school districts were providing preschool services on their own, using local and federal funds.The benefits and challenges of a public preschool are closely tied to the amount of funding provided. Funding for a public preschool can come in a variety of sources. According to Levin and Schwartz (2007) funding can range from federal, state, local public allocations, private sources, and parental fees (p. 4). The problem of funding a public preschool occurs not only from limited sources but from the cost per child. The average cost across the 48 states is $6,582 (Levin and Schwartz, 2007). There are four categories that determine the costs of public preschools: personnel ratios, personnel qualifications, facilities and transportation, and health and nutrition services. According to Levin and Schwartz (2007) these structural elements depend heavily on the cost and quality of services provided (p. 14). The main personnel factor related to cost is the qualifications each preschool require for a teacher. Another determinate of cost is the length of a preschool day. The longer the session, the more increase in cost. Therefore, the quality of program accounts presumably for a major component of cost (Levin and Schwartz, 2007).
Collaboration has been a solution for funding issues in several districts. Wilma Kaplan, principal, turned to collaborating with the area Head Start and other private preschool to fund a public preschool in her district. “We’re very pleased with the interaction. It’s really added a dimension to our program that’s been very positive” (Reeves, 2000). The National Head Start Bureau has been looking for more opportunities to partner with public schools. Torn Schultz of the National Head Start Bureau states, “We’re turning to partnership as much as possible, either in funds or facilities to make sure children get everything necessary to be ready for school” (Reeves, 2000, p. 6). The goal for funding is to develop a variety of sources that provide for all children to benefit from early learning within a public preschool.
Special education in preschool
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, students who may benefit from special education
Special education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...
receive services in preschools. Since the inception of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Public Law 101-476 in 1975 and its amendments, PL 102-119 and PL 105-17 in 1997, the educational system has moved away from self-contained classrooms and progressed to inclusion. As a result, there has been a need for special education teachers to practice in various settings in order to assist children with special needs, particularly by working with regular classroom teachers when possible to strengthen the inclusion of children with special needs. As with other stages in the life of a child with special needs, the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or an Individual Family Service Plan
Individual Family Service Plan
An Individual family service plan is a plan for special services for young children with disabilities. An IFSP only applies to children from birth to three years of age. Once a child turns 3, an IEP it put into place...
(IFSP) is an important way for special education teachers, regular classroom teachers, administrators and parents to set guidelines for a partnership to help the child succeed in preschool.