LAI 506
Foundations of Early Childhood Education
THE PROJECT APPROACH:
An Overview
The Project Approach provides children with the opportunity to learn about things that interest them and encourages spontaneous play in the early years while also setting up structure in the classroom. Project work teaches basic skills and embraces each student's unique contributions and insight (Katz & Chard, 2000).
A 2009 study in Illinois involving seven teachers implementing project work in their classrooms found that:
-4 of the 7 teachers described the Project Approach as helping children incorporate math and social skills, build self-esteem, learn new vocabulary, and develop an interest in science.
-4 of the 7 teachers reported that utilizing the Project Approach increased their ability to include diverse learners (children with special needs, challenging behaviors, or children at risk for academic failure).
Furthermore, research indicates that challenging behaviors are reduced when classroom staff emphasize learning rather than performance goals (Beneke & Ostrosky, 2009)
The Project Approach can be viewed as a merging
of Piaget's constructivism and Dewey's progressivism (Feng, 1989).
Project work places the student in the role of an active agent in his own learning. The child makes sense of his experiences and the world through the assimilative and accommodative process, functions Piaget views as fundamental processes of learning and growth.
Swiss developmental psychologist, Jean Piaget wrote that we make meaning from our experiences at different ages. Piaget's theory of constructivist learning challenged the belief held by many that children's play was aimless and unimportant. Piaget argued that students build on what they know through investigation, inquiry, social interaction and reflecting on their experiences.
The three characterizations of a child-as active, individual, and whole- are central to the Project Approach (Feng, 1989).
active
whole
individual
IMPLICATIONS FOR CHILD DEVELOPMENT
"Exposure to a classroom atmosphere that nurtures learning goals can lead to positive changes in ... children's learning strategies, self-conceptions of ability and competence, and achievement motivation" Patricia Smiley and Carol Dweck (p. 1742).
Research indicates that preschoolers who had more opportunities to engage in conversations with one another and with adults had greater academic success in kindergarten. "Cognitively challenging conversation using decontextualized language "requires children to remember, reason, fantasize, imagine, problem solve, predict, and hypothesize" (Massey, Pence, Justice, & Bowles, 2008, p. 342).
Studies conducted by experts in the field of early childhood education have shown that children in preschool classrooms where teachers de-emphasized direct instruction and basic skills and concentrated on a positive atmosphere had a more confident disposition and were less stressed, more independent, and less likely to think of themselves as "bad." (Beneke & Ostrosky, 2009).
Preschool Years