LAI 506
Foundations of Early Childhood Education
THE PROJECT APPROACH:
An Overview
The role of the teacher in the Project Approach is mainly that of a facilitator. A teacher may invite experts to visit the classroom, have students conduct investigations, take them on field trips, and participate in activities related to the topic of study, but the amount of class time and effort devoted to these pursuits depends on student interest (Clark, 2006).
The central idea behind the project approach is children piloting their own learning. Teachers observe and provide them with the materials needed to complete the project or projects, but their interference is kept at a minimum (Katz & Chard, 2000).
OBSTACLES
The implementation of national standards-based school reform presents a potential obstacle for teachers desiring to individualize instruction and adapt curriculum in response to a diversified student base (naeyc).
Unlike more traditional models of direct instruction, there is no one way to incorporate project-based learning into a curriculum. Whereas some teaching methods rely on an assigned activity list, universal worksheets or even scripts,
IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHERS
"Teachers who are able to facilitate investigations and representations that come from children's thinking and ideas have more fully developed their understanding of a central construct of the processes involved in project work" Ann-Marie Clark, 2006
Professional Development
Because project work is student-interest driven, it may be beneficial to provide teachers with professional development training that strengthen their ability to recognize and identify children’s interests. Professional development in skills like observation and documentation might help them to become more attentive to individual children’s interests and help them identify academic and social growth resulting from student's participation in project work.
Professional development focusing on the Project Approach may also be constructive for early childhood educators who are attempting to support the inclusion of students with special needs in classrooms with their more typically developing peers. Learning the approach as a cross-disciplinary team may help both special and general educators working in inclusive settings develop ways to join together in incorporating Individualized Education Plan (IEP) objectives within project work. Showing teachers how to incorporate project work in their plans and discussing processes for embedding goals and objectives for diverse learners within project work is also likely to help teachers bolster increased child participation.
(Beneke & Ostrosky, 2009)
project work is different every time. Though project work is organized around a three-phase structure of investigation, representation, and culmination, there are no specific directions to follow or teacher's manuals to use as a model. The amount of time that will be devoted to project work and which activities the students will take part in is mostly dependent on student interest while taking into account classroom restraints. Fitting the project into the context of the classroom and common core standards as well as developing appropriate methods for assessment falls on the teacher. Because of this, some find the Project Approach complicated and difficult to implement (Katz & Chard, 2000).
Some teachers new to the project approach still use the same pedagogical methods of systematic, direct instruction that they have always used (Clark, 2006). According to Katz and Chard (2000) "Projects are easier for some teachers to implement than for others for a variety of reasons. These individual differences may be related to teachers' prior teaching philosophies, practices, and experiences, or to institutional, collegial, or administrative contexts in which they work" (p. 162)