Enthusiastic and Engaged Learners: Approaches to Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom (Early Childhood Education Series)

177 Pages·2008·1.18 MB·English

by  Marilou Hyson

Early Childhood Education Series
Leslie R. Williams, Editor
advisory board: Barbara T. Bowman, Harriet K. Cuffaro, Stephanie Feeney,
Doris Pronin Fromberg, Celia Genishi, Stacie G. Goffin, Dominic F. Gullo,
Alice Sterling Honig, Elizabeth Jones, Gwen Morgan
Enthusiastic and Engaged Learners: Approaches to Negotiating Standards in the Primary Classroom:
Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom The Teacher’s Dilemma
Marilou Hyson Carol Anne Wien
Powerful Children: Understanding How to Teach Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World:
and Learn Using the Reggio Approach Multicultural Education for Young Children, 3rd Ed.
Ann Lewin-Benham Patricia G. Ramsey
The Early Care and Education Teaching The Emotional Development of Young Children:
Workforce at the Fulcrum: An Agenda for Reform Building an Emotion-Centered Curriculum, 2nd Ed.
Sharon Lyn Kagan, Kristie Kauerz, & Marilou Hyson
Kate Tarrant Effective Partnering for School Change: Improving
Windows on Learning: Early Childhood Education in Urban Classrooms
Documenting Young Children's Work, 2nd Ed. Jie-Qi Chen & Patricia Horsch
Judy Harris Helm, Sallee Beneke, & with Karen DeMoss & Suzanne L. Wagner
Kathy Steinheimer Let’s Be Friends: Peer Competence and Social
Ready or Not: Inclusion in Early Childhood Programs
Leadership Choices in Early Care and Education Kristen Mary Kemple
Stacie G. Goffin & Valora Washington Young Children Continue to Reinvent Arithmetic—
Supervision in Early Childhood Education: 2nd Grade, 2nd Ed.
A Developmental Perspective, 3rd Ed. Constance Kamii
Joseph J. Caruso with M. Temple Fawcett Major Trends and Issues in Early Childhood
Guiding Children's Behavior: Education: Challenges, Controversies, and
Developmental Discipline in the Classroom Insights, 2nd Ed.
Eileen S. Flicker & Janet Andron Hoffman Joan Packer Isenberg & Mary Renck Jalongo, Eds.
What If All the Kids Are White? The Power of Projects: Meeting Contemporary
Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Challenges in Early Childhood Classrooms—
Children and Families Strategies and Solutions
Louise Derman-Sparks & Patricia G. Ramsey Judy Harris Helm & Sallee Beneke, Eds.
The War Play Dilemma: What Every Parent and Bringing Learning to Life: The Reggio Approach
Teacher Needs to Know, 2nd Ed. to Early Childhood Education
Diane E. Levin & Nancy Carlsson-Paige Louise Boyd Cadwell
Possible Schools: The Colors of Learning: Integrating the Visual Arts
The Reggio Approach to Urban Education into the Early Childhood Curriculum
Ann Lewin-Benham Rosemary Althouse, Margaret H. Johnson, &
Sharon T. Mitchell
Everyday Goodbyes: Starting School and Early
Care—A Guide to the Separation Process A Matter of Trust: Connecting Teachers and
Nancy Balaban Learners in the Early Childhood Classroom
Carollee Howes & Sharon Ritchie
Playing to Get Smart
Elizabeth Jones & Renatta M. Cooper Widening the Circle: Including Children with
Disabilities in Preschool Programs
How to Work with Standards in the Early
Childhood Classroom Samuel L. Odom, Ed.
Carol Seefeldt Children with Special Needs:
In the Spirit of the Studio: Lessons for Early Childhood Professionals
Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia Marjorie J. Kostelnik, Esther Etsuko Onaga,
Lella Gandini, Lynn T. Hill, Louise Boyd Barbara Rohde, & Alice Phipps Whiren
Cadwell, & Charles Schwall, Eds. Developing Constructivist Early Childhood
Understanding Assessment and Evaluation in Early Curriculum: Practical Principles and Activities
Childhood Education, 2nd Ed. Rheta Devries, Betty Zan, Carolyn Hildebrandt,
Dominic F. Gullo Rebecca Edmiaston, & Christina Sales
(continued)
Early Childhood Education Series titles, continued
Outdoor Play: Teaching Strategies with Young Experimenting with the World:
Children John Dewey and the Early Childhood Classroom
Jane Perry Harriet K. Cuffaro
Embracing Identities in Early Childhood Quality in Family Child Care and Relative Care
Education: Diversity and Possibilities Susan Kontos, Carollee Howes,
Susan Grieshaber & Gaile S. Cannella, Eds. Marybeth Shinn, & Ellen Galinsky
Bambini: The Italian Approach to Using the Supportive Play Model: Individualized
Infant/Toddler Care Intervention in Early Childhood Practice
Lella Gandini & Carolyn Pope Edwards, Eds. Margaret K. Sheridan, Gilbert M. Foley, &
Educating and Caring for Very Young Children: Sara H. Radlinski
The Infant/Toddler Curriculum The Full-Day Kindergarten:
Doris Bergen, Rebecca Reid, & Louis Torelli A Dynamic Themes Curriculum, 2nd Ed.
Young Investigators: Doris Pronin Fromberg
The Project Approach in the Early Years Assessment Methods for Infants and Toddlers:
Judy Harris Helm & Lilian G. Katz Transdisciplinary Team Approaches
Serious Players in the Primary Classroom: Doris Bergen
Empowering Children Through Active Learning Young Children Continue to Reinvent Arithmetic—
Experiences, 2nd Ed. 3rd Grade: Implications of Piaget’s Theory
Selma Wassermann Constance Kamii with Sally Jones Livingston
Telling a Different Story: Moral Classrooms, Moral Children: Creating a
Teaching and Literacy in an Urban Preschool Constructivist Atmosphere in Early Education
Catherine Wilson Rheta Devries & Betty Zan
Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic: Diversity and Developmentally Appropriate Practices
Implications of Piaget’s Theory, 2nd Ed. Bruce L. Mallory & Rebecca S. New, Eds.
Constance Kamii
Changing Teaching, Changing Schools
Managing Quality in Young Children’s Programs: Frances O’Connell Rust
The Leader’s Role
Physical Knowledge in Preschool Education
Mary L. Culkin, Ed.
Constance Kamii & Rheta Devries
The Early Childhood Curriculum:
Ways of Assessing Children and Curriculum
A Review of Current Research, 3rd Ed.
Celia Genishi, Ed.
Carol Seefeldt, Ed.
The Play’s the Thing
Leadership in Early Childhood:
Elizabeth Jones & Gretchen Reynolds
The Pathway to Professionalism, 2nd Ed.
Scenes from Day Care
Jillian Rodd
Elizabeth Balliett Platt
Inside a Head Start Center: Developing Policies
Making Friends in School
from Practice
Patricia G. Ramsey
Deborah Ceglowski
The Whole Language Kindergarten
Bringing Reggio Emilia Home: An Innovative
Shirley Raines & Robert Canady
Approach to Early Childhood Education
Louise Boyd Cadwell Multiple Worlds of Child Writers
Anne Haas Dyson
Master Players: Learning from Children at Play
Gretchen Reynolds & Elizabeth Jones The Good Preschool Teacher
William Ayers
Understanding Young Children’s Behavior:
A Guide for Early Childhood Professionals The Piaget Handbook for Teachers and Parents
Jillian Rodd Rosemary Peterson & Victoria Felton-Collins
Understanding Quantitative and Qualitative Visions of Childhood
Research in Early Childhood Education John Cleverley & D. C. Phillips
William L. Goodwin & Laura D. Goodwin Starting School
Diversity in the Classroom: New Approaches to Nancy Balaban
the Education of Young Children, 2nd Ed. Ideas Influencing Early Childhood Education
Frances E. Kendall Evelyn Weber
Developmentally Appropriate Practice in “Real Life” The Joy of Movement in Early Childhood
Carol Anne Wien Sandra R. Curtis
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Enthusiastic
Engaged
and
Learners
Approaches to Learning
in the Early Childhood
Classroom
MARILOU HYSON
Foreword by Sue Bredekamp
Teachers College National Association
Columbia University for the Education of
New York and London Young Children
Credits, chapter opening photos: pages 1, 9, 30, © Karen Phillips; pages 20, 122,
© Shari Schmidt; page 44, Marilyn Nolt, [email protected]; page 57, William
Geiger / © NAEYC; page 69, Barbara Bent / © NAEYC; page 84, photo by Penny
Farster-Narlesky; page 96, © Elisabeth Nichols; page 111, © Ellen B. Senisi.
Published simultaneously by Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue,
New York, NY 10027 and the National Association for the Education of Young
Children, 1313 L Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005
Copyright © 2008 by Teachers College, Columbia University
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hyson, Marilou.
Enthusiastic and engaged learners : approaches to learning in the early
childhood classroom / Marilou Hyson.
p. cm. — (Early childhood education series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8077-4880-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Early childhood education—United States. 2. Learning strategies—
United States. 3. Motivation in education—United States. I. Title.
LB1139.25.H965 2008
372.21—dc22 2008011040
ISBN 978-0-8077-4880-0 (paper)
NAEYC item 733
Printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
j
Contents
Foreword, by Sue Bredekamp ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
What We Know About Approaches to Learning 2
Why a Book on Approaches to Learning? Why Now? 3
Using Th is Book 4
Getting Started 5
PART I J Setting the Stage for Action:
Four Questions to Consider 7
1 What Are Positive Approaches to Learning? 9
Th e Concept of Approaches to Learning—Some Historical Background 10
Comparing Approaches to Learning with Other Umbrella Terms 12
Steps Toward a Concept of Young Children’s Approaches to Learning 13
Enthusiasm and Engagement: Two Primary Dimensions of
Positive Approaches to Learning 15
Using Th is Framework 18
Looking Back and Looking Forward 19
2 Why Do Positive Approaches to Learning Matter? 20
Enthusiasm and Engagement Have Intrinsic Value 21
Enthusiasm and Engagement Form a Foundation 22
Why Would You Expect Academic and Social Benefi ts? 25
Looking Back and Looking Forward 29
v
vi Contents
3 How Do Children Develop Positive Approaches to Learning? 30
What Infl uences Children’s Approaches to Learning?
An Ecological Perspective 32
Individual Diff erences in Children’s Characteristics 33
Approaches to Learning Grow Up: Th e Infl uence of Development 35
Family Infl uences 38
Th e Infl uence of School 38
Cultural Infl uences 40
Political and Policy Infl uences 42
Looking Back and Looking Forward 42
4 What Undermines Children’s Positive Approaches to Learning? 44
Becoming Discouraged and Disengaged—Th e Downward Spiral 45
What May Contribute to Children’s Negative Approaches to Learning? 46
Beyond Symptoms to Underlying Causes 50
Impact on the Most Vulnerable Children 52
Looking Back and Looking Forward 54
PART II J Transforming Risks into Opportunities:
Evidence-Based Tools to Support Positive
Approaches to Learning 55
5 Tools to Build Closer Relationships with All Children 57
Tool 1: Connections with Children 58
Tool 2: Community—Where Children Are Accepted,
Acknowledged, and Appreciated 62
Critical Times When Relationships Can Make the Diff erence 65
Looking Back and Looking Forward 67
6 Tools to Find and Use More Eff ective Curriculum 69
Why Do We Care About Curriculum? 71
Tool 1: Analysis of Curriculum Models 72
Tool 2: Adaptations to Curriculum 77
Tool 3: Curriculum Targeted to Approaches to Learning 81
Looking Back and Looking Forward 82
Contents vii
7 Tools to Teach in Ways Th at Promote Positive
Approaches to Learning 84
Tool 1: Eff ective Environments 86
Tool 2: Specifi c Teaching Practices 90
When More Intentional Strategies May Be Needed 93
Looking Back and Looking Forward 95
8 Tools to Assess Children’s Approaches to Learning 96
Good Early Childhood Assessment: A Reminder of Basic Principles 97
Tool 1: Familiar Assessments Used in Some New Ways 99
Tool 2: Specialized Assessments of Approaches to Learning 103
Tool 3: A Plan to Use the Results 106
Reducing the Risks and Maximizing the Potential of Assessing
Children’s Approaches to Learning 109
Looking Back and Looking Forward 110
9 Tools Th at Tap the Power of Families 111
Tool 1: Relationships with Families 113
Tool 2: Approaches-to-Learning Conversations with Families 115
Tool 3: Practical Ideas to Share with Families 118
Looking Back and Looking Forward 121
10 Tools to Create Change 122
Tool 1: A Th eory of Change and a Logic Model to Get Th ere 124
Tool 2: Relevant, Persuasive Research 125
Tool 3: New Approaches to Professional Development 127
Tool 4: Eff ective Advocacy 129
Tool 5: Strategies to Implement Knowledge About
Approaches to Learning 131
Looking Back and Looking Forward: Concluding Th oughts 132
Appendix A: Examples of Developmental Changes in Children’s
Approaches to Learning 133
Appendix B: Action Planning Form 139
References 143
Index 155
About the Author 163

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Foreword
I
N WRITING A FOREWORD, it is often useful to begin by looking backward. Almost
two decades ago, the President and the nation’s governors established a set of
National Education Goals, the fi rst of which was, “By the year 2000, all children
will start school ready to learn.” I served as a member of the Goal 1 Technical
Planning Group, whose charge was to defi ne the broad term “school readiness.”
With the clarity of hindsight, I now think that the group was brilliant in includ-
ingapproaches to learning in their multidimensional defi nition (Kagan, Moore, &
Bredekamp, 1995).
Admittedly, we weren’t exactly certain what this dimension included, and
little research existed to justify its importance. Nevertheless, knowledgeable
early childhood professionals valued positive approaches to learning. And like
other aspects of “quality,” we knew it when we saw it, so to speak. In the inter-
vening years, however, children’s approaches to learning continued to receive
less attention than they deserved.
Recently, however, teachers and parents have become quite concerned that
an overemphasis on standardized test scores in reading and mathematics is damag-
ing children’s motivation and interest in education. In light of the current context
and our expanding knowledge base, Marilou Hyson’s excellent book could not
come at a more opportune moment in the history of early childhood education.
This book fi lls a void that has existed in the fi eld for some time. As someone
who has grappled with the thorny challenge of defi nition, I fi nd enormous value
in the conceptual organization and defi nitional clarity that Hyson lends to the
heretofore loosely conceived construct approaches to learning. She points out
the many different terms that have been used for the various concepts and helps
the reader understand how they are synonymous or distinct.
In addition, by compiling the relevant research across these dimensions,
Hyson documents evidence-based practices for promoting positive approaches
to learning in all children, as well as intervening with disengaged or uninterested
children. At the same time, she articulates the gaps in the knowledge base, thus
setting forth a research agenda for the future.
In dispelling some of the myths related to the role of heredity, this book will
help teachers better understand the origins of various approaches to learning.
Hyson describes how children have inborn tendencies that infl uence their tem-
peraments and self-regulation capacities. But she also clearly explains how these
approaches to learning are amenable to intervention and intentional teaching.
ix