CULTURE, LEARNING and TEACHING

Carolyn Brown focused her study on the nature of Block Play in her Prek classroom in the Bronx in New York City. Here is an image and a short outline of her project:

My Research Questions included:

a. What kinds of structures are children building in the blocks area?

b. What is the nature of children’s social interactions with each other while they construct in the blocks area?

c. How do children engage with the materials in the blocks area?

Findings: The children in my classroom constructed numerous structures found in their environment, such as houses, bridges, highways, skyscrapers, and ramps.

They supported each other as they built together, exchanging ideas, sharing materials, and comforting one another when their structures fell and they became emotional, and cried profusely.

The children were very focused and engaged as they built foundations of learning block by block. Every domain of learning is supported in the Block Area, from STEM subjects to social-emotional, cognitive, physical, language development, and the arts.

Barbara Noel's study focused on teachers' perceptions and beliefs around DAP. Here is a summary and a visual image she created to represent her study:

This study explores how early childhood educators—both lead and assistant teachers—perceive and implement Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) within a Head Start program. Motivated by my personal journey from an assistant teacher with limited knowledge of DAP to a confident lead teacher, I sought to understand whether perceptions of DAP vary by role and how educational background, school philosophy, and professional development influence practice.

Through interviews and observations of four educators at Little Learners Head Start, I found that while all participants shared a basic understanding of DAP, their implementation differed based on their philosophies, experiences, and education levels. Notably, teachers with higher degrees in early childhood education demonstrated more alignment between their beliefs and classroom practices. One participant, Jennifer, held a more traditional, academically structured philosophy—shaped by her upbringing and educational path—which sometimes conflicted with the progressive, play-based model of the school.

The study also highlighted the critical role of institutional support in shaping educators’ understanding and use of DAP. Little Learners Head Start fosters this through reflective practices, family engagement, ongoing professional development, and collaboration with specialists. However, it also made me reflect on the gaps in professional learning at my current workplace, especially for assistant teachers who often lack formal training.

Although limited by a small sample and observation window, this research sheds light on the complex factors that influence DAP implementation and underscores the need for continued support, training, and alignment among teaching teams. Future research should expand across diverse educational settings to better understand how DAP is interpreted and practiced in varying contexts.

I recently read an article in the New York Times by Darby Saxbe, a clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California. Dr. Saxbe raises the question of whether today's parenting in "industrialized societies" is overdoing it with its over-protective approach, constant supervision, and tightly structured waking hours for children. She writes that "in the precious time when we’re not working, we place our children at the center of our attention, consciously engaging and entertaining them. We drive them around to sports practice and music lessons, where they are observed and monitored by adults, rather than the other way around." She compares this to children being raised in more traditional and hunter-gatherer societies where they "spend lots of time with their parents — they tag along throughout the day and often help with tasks like foraging — but they are rarely the main object of their parents’ attention. Sometimes bored, sometimes engaged, these kids spend much of their time observing adults doing adult things." 

Having said that it must be noted that the cultural contexts within which children in both kinds of societies are raised and educated are so different, each with a unique set of structural challenges and life goals. Children have to be equipped with the knowledge and skills that will enable them to thrive and succeed in each of their realities. I think back to how my children were raised during their early childhood days in India. They had more freedom and less supervision, more opportunity for free outdoor play, fewer commercial toys, way less screen time, they invented their own games, got together with neighborhood friends without grown-ups having to schedule play dates, were not reachable by cell phones or Apple watches, and couldn't wait to get their homework finished and rush to play outside in the park or any vacant plot of land that was available in our residential colony. Parents were often unaware of where their children were and I remember walking out into the neighborhood searching for them if I needed them to come home. In contrast, I see my young grand-children living a different kind of childhood in the US. Most striking is how screens have captivated them whether it is on a computer or a TV or a watch or an IPad - one has to implore them to go and play outside! Their parents are much more involved in scheduling their lives when they're not in school with carefully thought out play dates, sleep overs, car pools to sports and cultural activities, and hosting parties and get-togethers for their children's friends and their parents to hang out and socialize. 

But of course, the cultural and temporal contexts of the childhoods of my sons and grandsons couldn't be more different: India in the 1980s vs America in the 2020s. The societal pressures are completely different. However, I do think there is pause for thought in the concerns that Dr. Saxbe raises in this article. Should we, and can we, step back a little from the constant monitoring and give children a bit more freedom to "be"? And can that even be possible today in an urban and suburban world that is marked with so many more dangers?

I am sharing the link to the NY Times article referenced here which is titled Parents Should Ignore Their Children More Often by Darby Saxbe, published on September 15, 2024: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/opinion/parenting-helicopter-ignoring.html?unlocked_article_code=1.PU4.1aKI.bUnZz9KcEvXP&smid=url-share

School’s out and Summer is here. This year, following the lock-down summer of 2020 and hopeful after the widespread vaccinating drives of Spring 2021, there is much excitement as people across the country are looking forward to summer experiences as they used to be. Summer was always a time when most children put away their schoolbooks and enjoyed travel, visiting grandparents, hanging with friends, and attending hobby classes and summer camps. Unfortunately, the summer break in the American school system is unusually long, often stretching from early May (when many private schools end their academic year) to until after Labor Day in September. This gap of three or more months away from schoolwork will naturally result in the forgetting of some content knowledge that had been learned during the school year. More commonly known as Summer Slide it refers to the loss of knowledge and skills that occurs in the vacation break period between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. Summer Slide may be less apparent with children who are enrolled in summer classes and camps.

To prevent Summer Slide there are several experiences families can plan for at home. Because of virtual schooling during the past pandemic year most parents have probably already developed a level of proficiency in designing learning activities for their children. Still, here are some basic guidelines to keep in mind for those who are still looking for tips.

Apart from the usual summer outdoor activities such as sports, swimming and hiking – all of which are very important – there are countless indoor learning experiences that can be planned around daily activities.

To keep children constructively busy during summer days a well thought out schedule is essential. The planned experiences for children should serve to support their growth in four developmental domains (cognitive, social, emotional, and physical), and also address some academic content learning in Literacy, Social Studies, Math and Science. This may sound daunting to parents but the good news is that several of these targets can be reached with a single interdisciplinary activity or experience that can touch upon all the above content areas. And each experience can be made as simple or as complex to match the age and developmental levels of your children, as well as cultural contexts of your families and communities.  

Say you decide to make Fruit Salad one day. This may be extended into a rich learning experience. First you can help the kids write a list of their favorite fruit. This may be followed by a short research project where together you read up on each of those fruits and discuss where they grow and their health benefits. The next step would be to do a quick grocery run to shop for these fruit and involve the children in adding up the prices and making the payment. Once you return home you can wash the fruit and set up cutting stations on the dining table – give each child a plastic knife a cutting board and a large piece of fruit. The kids would proceed with cutting up the large piece of fruit into smaller bite-sized pieces. Once all the fruit is cut up it is put into a large bowl and chilled. Children then look forward to an afternoon snack that they helped make. While snacking you talk to them about the taste, smell, color and texture of each fruit. This can be followed by a writing and math activity where you help them chart how many fruit tasted sweet or sour.

As one can notice, this entire experience if planned and implemented thoughtfully and mindfully leads to getting kids practice their Reading, Writing, and Math skills and concepts, learning about the Science of the human body and healthy eating. If done with more than one child it nurtures social skills as they share, communicate with each other, and take turns. It also supports fine motor development as they hold down and cut the fruit into small pieces. And cognitive skills as they explore each fruit and identify its color, taste and texture. This experience can be made as simple or as complex depending on the age of the children.

Another completely different experience might be getting children to help with laundry and using that opportunity to discuss how laundry machines work, different kinds of fabric, colors and textures, how detergents and soaps work to clean stains, and then folding each piece of clothing which would be great for motor skills development. Again, depending on the age of the child the underlying academic concepts can be discussed at simple or complex levels.

Whatever the household chore – gardening, grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, cleaning and organizing, taking a walk – can all be turned into experiences in sorting, classifying, sequencing, observing, predicting, sharing, helping, team building, and problem solving These experiences can also be used to reinforce academic content like Math, Science, Literacy and Social Studies. Running errands for the elderly neighbors, or cleaning up their rooms and getting them to donate their old toys and books to those in need promotes empathy and citizenship values. Setting up a lemonade stall on a hot summer afternoon teaches children the value of working and being independent while understanding how drinking lemonade on a hot summer day can prevent the body from losing minerals and salts, and becoming dehydrated.

A mindfully planned learning experience each day will go a long way in preventing loss of content knowledge during summer or other stay at home periods of time. Though reading and math are literally everywhere and all around us, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of reading books. Reading is a fundamental skill that eventually helps children succeed in all other content areas because everything is all about reading, comprehending what you read, retelling it in your own words, analyzing what you understood, and finally being able to apply what you read to a practical situation.

Read more on my interview about Summer Slide in the following parent magazines:

https://www.rocklandparent.com/article/how-to-prevent-summer-slide

https://www.siparent.com/how-to-prevent-kids-from-forgetting-what-they-learned-in-school-over-the-summer/

One issue that emerges in research is that teachers are not adequately prepared on the topic of addressing Sustainability in their classroom curriculum and there has been wide agreement on the importance of including the topic of Educating for Sustainability into the Teacher Education Curriculum.

I discussed this with my graduate students and we agreed that it is easy to infuse this topic into all our teacher education courses. We also agreed that it is never too early to begin addressing issues around conserving and caring for our environment in PreK-12 schools even with young children.

We decided to compile a panel presentation on the theme of Educating for Sustainability. Participating on this panel are my graduate students most of whom are early childhood teachers in New York City schools and day care centers, and reflect a wide range of cultural, racial, ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversities as do the children they teach.

The course that they are taking with me is Social Studies in the Early Childhood Classroom. The New York State Pre-K Learning Standards for the Social Studies touches upon its 4 pillars: Geography, History, Economics, and Civics & Citizenship. Under each of these headings are sub-themes that include:

Geography: Our Earth and our Environment, Land and water,  Location and Mapping, How people, products and ideas travel between places, How people and environment interact with each other, Conserving and caring for our environment,

History: Change over time, Continuity of human life, Learning about the past

Civics & Citizenship: Participating responsibly in the welfare of the group, Democratic living, Being empathetic, Being socially responsible & considerate of shared space

Economics: Production and Consumption, Scarcity of Resources, Needs & Wants, Interdependence of people and communities