Learner-Centered Early Childhood Education

Research conducted over the last several decades has demonstrated conclusively that early experiences have a powerful impact on the development of the brain and on the course of later life. As Barbara Bowman and her colleagues wrote in Eager to Learn, “Children come into the world eager to learn. The first five years of life are a time of enormous growth of linguistic, conceptual, social, emotional, and motor competence” (Bowman, 2000).

Unfortunately, educational practice for the last several decades has been driven by concern with scores on standardized tests that are based state K-12 content standards and, more recently, on Common Core Standards. This concern has led to a reliance on testing the content that is easiest to measure, not that which is most worthwhile. This concern with test scores has resulted in devaluing important aspects of learning such as abstract thinking, problem solving, and creativity because they are difficult to quantify. In order to focus on what will be covered on tests young children have been provided with academic skills-based curriculum that involves rote learning and recitation of facts.

This situation is made worse by the belief that groups of children who are at risk for school failure—low-income African American and Latino children and those for whom English is their second language—benefit from skills based curriculum. What happens is that “Children are treated as passive receptacles of knowledge, with few opportunities to investigate topics and pose questions that they find intriguing. In place of discovery and exploration, tots are trained to sit still and listen, to memorize lists of letters, numbers, and colors.” (Strauss, 2014). This has sometimes been described by as the “pedagogy of poverty.” This approach continues to be extensively implemented in inner-city communities and while it might be well intended it is not based on contemporary research on early development and learning.

The accumulation of evidence from research demonstrates that young children are more capable learners than much of our current practices reflect. “Right from birth a healthy child is an active participant in that growth, exploring the environment, learning to communicate, and, in relatively short order, beginning to construct ideas and theories about how things work in the surrounding world” (Bowman, 2000). Experts agree that from birth through age five children thrive in environments that provide creative, exploratory, hands-on interactions play-based experiences. These experiences have a powerful impact on how children develop and learn. Early learning is not a matter of simply assimilating a store of facts and skills. Children construct knowledge actively, integrating new concepts and ideas into their existing understandings. Educators can facilitate children’s propensity to learn and help them to develop a positive attitude that will prepare them for actively engaging in learning throughout their lives (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000; Bowman, 2000).

Learner-centered educational philosophy

Today we refer to the educational philosophy based on knowledge of children’s development and innate desire to learn as “learner-centered." It is also referred to as “humanistic”, “child-centered” and “developmentally appropriate”. This educational philosophy has a long history that goes back to Aristotle and Plato and has been advanced by educational luminaries including Comenius, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Dewey, Steiner, Montessori and Malaguzzi. A number of contemporary approaches to early childhood education grow out of this philosophy of learning, that emphasizes the importance of hands-on experiences and exploration in a planned learning environment. These include the Montessori method created by Dr. Maria Montessori in Italy, Waldorf schools founded in Germany by Rudolf Steiner, progressive education programs such as Bank Street Children’s School and City and Country School based on the American philosophy of John Dewey, and programs based on the preschools of Reggio Emilia in Italy founded by Loris Malaguzzi. The educational approach called “playful inquiry” is based on the pedagogy developed in the city Reggio Emilia in Italy and adapted in the United States.

Learner-centered education differs in significant ways from traditional and academic models of early childhood practice. Importantly, the focus is always on the “whole child.” It is based on the belief that all domains of development (social, emotional, cognitive and physical) are important, that learning is integrated and cannot be focused on one domain to the exclusion of the others. It is also based on the assumption that every child is worthy of respect and has the right to be actively engaged in the process of education. Approaches to assessment are also quite different. Programs that have a skills-based academic emphasis tend to use standardized tests of children’s skills to evaluate learning. Learner-centered programs base assessment on careful observation of children, and samples of work that demonstrate their emerging understanding and skills.

Stephanie Feeney

Professor Emerita of Education, University of Hawaii

Adjunct Faculty, Graduate School of Education, Portland State University

References

Bowman, B., Donovan M. S, & Burns, M. S. (2000) Eager to Learn: Educating our Preschoolers. Washington, D. C.. National Academies Press.

Shonkoff, J. & Phillips, D. (Eds.) (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.Strauss, V. (2014). The Trouble With Calls for Universal “High-Quality” Pre-K. Washington Post. Feb. 1