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Resources on Curriculum & Pedagogy
Finding a balance between what children enjoying doing (playing) and meeting the desire for student success remains foremost in the minds of educators and those that teach them. The shift toward early learning programs that provide opportunities for learning and play in environments that are just as rich in literacy and numeracy as they are in socio dramatic and block play need curriculum frameworks that support a well balanced environment for children.
Effective pedagogical practice needs to be grounded in child development and an awareness of the absolute critical role that parents play in a child’s learning. It is also grounded in knowing that the social emotional support that teachers provide to young children, can play a very important role in how children progress.
ON: Early Learning Central – New Website
Source: ETFO Central, April 19, 2013
Description: "ETFO is dedicated to the development, promotion and protection of quality education for every student. Professional development plays a key role in achieving this vision. ETFO is the foremost provider of professional learning activities in Ontario. A wide range of professional learning activities are provided that are developed by teachers for teachers."
"Raising Healthy Children: Translating Child Development Research into Practice"
Source: Child Development, January/February, 2011
Description: "The importance of grounding policy and practice in the scientific study of children’s development is consistent with the relatively new and rapidly evolving domain of translational research.... This critical shift emphasizing the end usability of research on basic processes for health improvement became influential in other areas such as social psychology and developmental psychopathology. Within developmental studies, there has been increased focus on the connection between normative development, atypical development, and intervention, including the importance of understanding atypical development through a normative lens that can guide interventions."
Best Practices DVD for Early Childhood Launched
Source: JIS Voice of Jamaica, January 19, 2011
Excerpt: "The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) in collaboration with the Canadian-based George Brown College on Monday (January 17) launched the ‘Best Practices DVD’ which is aimed at improving the learning, behaviour, developmental and coping skills for the 0-6 year old age group in Jamaica. Executive Director of the ECC, Winsome Johns-Gayle, said that the DVD brings to life the content of the Best Practices Document for the sector, which was launched in 2009. She said that it will be used as a resource tool by all early childhood practitioners to enforce their training."
Curriculum and Play in Early Child Development
Source: Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development (CEECD), 2010
Excerpt: "The need to integrate play into early childhood curriculum has been supported by decades of child development research and is reflected in the most recent documents of such professional organizations as National Association for the Education of Young Children and National Research Council. However, the specific aspects of the relationship between play and curriculum remain open to interpretation which affects the beliefs of Early Childhood practitioners as well as their classroom practices."
Full-Day Early Learning in Ontario
Source: Government of Ontario, 2010
Description: In 2010, Ontario began phasing in a new full-day learning program for its 4- and 5-year-olds. The Early Learning Kindergarten Program and supporting documents can be found on the Ministry of Education's website.
Every Child, Every Opportunity: Curriculum to Pedagogy for the Early Learning Program
Source: Government of Ontario, 2009
Description: A compendium report to "With Our Best Future in Mind: Implementing Early Learning in Ontario". Every Child, Every Opportunity describes the curriculum and pedagogy required for the Early Learning Program. It sets out an organized system of intentions and plans to encourage that reciprocity of learning among children, educators and parents and capitalizes on children’s natural curiosity and exuberance for learning. It emphasizes how children and adults learn from each other.
Early Learning for Every Child Today: A Framework for Ontario Early Childhood Settings (pdf, 4MB)
Source: Best Start Expert Panel on Early Learning, 2007
Description: "Early Learning for Every Child Today" provides a framework for Ontario early childhood settings.