Emergent Learning Curriculum
The most important thing we can teach children is that they are valued. Unless children have a basic sense of self-worth, it's very unrealistic to expect them to embrace the challenges of learning and problem solving.
In the past, the way to teach children was to simply provide the facts and information. Traditionally, we planned in advance everything we wanted children to learn.
Opening our minds to new ideas today in Sandy Land we are engaging in a much more interactive style of instruction often referred to as emergent learning. In this more collaborative approach, the adults and the children seek out answers together. I continue to make plans but adjust them as I pay attention to the children and find out what is particularly interesting to them.
I am also constantly looking for challenges to present to the children so they can propose their own solutions. The children's solutions to such challenges will unfold gradually and often spontaneously in response to my questions. Instead of just telling me their ideas, they can even show what they mean, perhaps drawing what they have in mind - or helping to make a model of their idea. Of course, I still include more traditional approaches, too, such as finding out some facts on the subject. Whole learning is a place where you can combine both the traditional and emergent approaches in order to present a truly balanced curriculum for the children.
A key component to teaching in the emergent style is to listen to the children's questions and think of ways for them to seek out and discover their own answers. Once again, it all comes back to self-worth, the foundation of learning. There's nothing like mastery over a problem, challenge or difficult question. When we know what we're doing, we feel capable, competent, in control and empowered.
Of course, children can't teach themselves everything and find their own solutions to all their problems. As teachers, caregivers, and parents, we're still the primary source of the children's early education. It remains our responsibility to assess the children's ideas and plan ways to develop them.It is very important to keep the family informed and included, in order to reassure them that their children are really learning something. I encourage family members to visit and to look at the "LOOK WHAT WE DID" wall, read our newsletters "Sandy Land Press", and visit our "Parents Place" on this web site to see pictures illustrating the children's adventures. These are all excellent ways to keep my families informed as to the value of the kind of learning environment I am providing. I find when a child's family is informed and pleased with what is happening, they often contribute suggestions of their own to further enrich their child's education.
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