Young Children's Play and Environmental Education in Early Childhood Education

2014-01-18
Young Children's Play and Environmental Education in Early Childhood Education

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  • Author: Amy Cutter-Mackenzie
  • Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
  • ISBN: 3319037404
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 88

In an era in which environmental education has been described as one of the most pressing educational concerns of our time, further insights are needed to understand how best to approach the learning and teaching of environmental education in early childhood education. In this book we address this concern by identifying two principles for using play-based learning early childhood environmental education. The principles we identify are the result of research conducted with teachers and children using different types of play-based learning whilst engaged in environmental education. Such play-types connect with the historical use of play-based learning in early childhood education as a basis for pedagogy. In the book ‘Beyond Quality in ECE and Care’ authors Dahlberg, Moss and Pence implore readers to ask critical questions about commonly held images of how young children come to construct themselves within social institutions. In similar fashion, this little book problematizes the taken-for-grantedness of the childhood development project in service to the certain cultural narratives. Cutter-Mackenzie, Edwards, Moore and Boyd challenge traditional conceptions of play-based learning through the medium of environmental education. This book signals a turning point in social thought grounded in a relational view of (environmental) education as experiential, intergenerational, interspecies, embodied learning in the third space. As Barad says, such work is based in inter-actions that can account for the tangled spaces of agencies. Through the deceptive simplicity of children’s play, the book stimulates deliberation of the real purposes of pedagogy and of schooling. Paul Hart, University of Regina, Canada

Young Children and the Environment

2014-11-07
Young Children and the Environment

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  • Author: Julie M. Davis
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • ISBN: 1107636345
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 353

This is an essential text for students, teachers and practitioners in a range of early childhood education and care settings.

Nature and Young Children

2012
Nature and Young Children

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  • Author: Ruth A. Wilson
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 0415526736
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 130

From adding richness and variety to learning, to redesigning a playground, this highly accessible text will provide early years practitioners with a wealth of ideas on how to foster creative play and learning in the outdoor environment with a focus on interacting with the natural world.

Urban Environmental Education Review

2017-06-06
Urban Environmental Education Review

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  • Author: Alex Russ
  • Publisher: Cornell University Press
  • ISBN: 1501712780
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 449

Urban Environmental Education Review explores how environmental education can contribute to urban sustainability. Urban environmental education includes any practices that create learning opportunities to foster individual and community well-being and environmental quality in cities. It fosters novel educational approaches and helps debunk common assumptions that cities are ecologically barren and that city people don't care for, or need, urban nature or a healthy environment. Topics in Urban Environmental Education Review range from the urban context to theoretical underpinnings, educational settings, participants, and educational approaches in urban environmental education. Chapters integrate research and practice to help aspiring and practicing environmental educators, urban planners, and other environmental leaders achieve their goals in terms of education, youth and community development, and environmental quality in cities. The ten-essay series Urban EE Essays, excerpted from Urban Environmental Education Review, may be found here: naaee.org/eepro/resources/urban-ee-essays. These essays explore various perspectives on urban environmental education and may be reprinted/reproduced only with permission from Cornell University Press.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8

2015-07-23
Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8

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  • Author: National Research Council
  • Publisher: National Academies Press
  • ISBN: 0309324882
  • Category : Social Science
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 706

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Childhood and Nature

2008
Childhood and Nature

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  • Author: David Sobel
  • Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers
  • ISBN: 157110741X
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 181

Presents a collection of essays combining anecdotal and theoretical insights into environmental ethics and human ecology to help foster environmentally responsible students.

Nature and Young Children

2018-04-02
Nature and Young Children

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  • Author: Ruth Wilson
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 135137320X
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 227

Now in its third edition, Nature and Young Children promotes the holistic development of children by connecting them with nature. It offers practical advice on how to set up indoor and outdoor nature play spaces as well as encouraging environmentally responsible attitudes, values and behaviour in your early childhood setting. With fully revised chapters in line with recent developments to policy and practice, and brand new material covering Early Childhood Education for Sustainability, the power of pro-nature poetry and philosophical discussions, and children living in urban environments, this book reveals just how important nature play can be in the development of young children. The user-friendly chapters offer guidance on: alternative settings for nature-focused programs culturally sensitive approaches to nature play in early childhood the role of the adult in nature-based learning using nature play for cross-curricular learning environmentally appropriate practices integrating nature education and peace education health, safety, and risky play. Highly accessible, detailed and now extensively updated, Nature and Young Children will provide all early years practitioners, teachers and students with a wealth of ideas on how to foster creative play and learning in nature-focused environments while also encouraging positive connections with nature.

Thinking Critically About Environments for Young Children

2014
Thinking Critically About Environments for Young Children

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  • Author: Lisa P. Kuh
  • Publisher: Teachers College Press
  • ISBN: 0807773085
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 217

Using a practice-based focus and a researcher lens, the contributors consider the ways in which environments for children enhance or diminish educational experiences, how social constructs about what is good for children influence environmental design, and what practitioners can do in their own work when creating learning environments for young children. There are copious examples from practice, lessons learned, and illustrations and photographs of key aspects of the environments they discuss. Organized into three parts, this essential text addresses: Aesthetics, politics, and space configurations in school environments for young children. Outdoor spaces, beginning with intentionally designed playscapes, children’s gardens, and spontaneous improvisational play venues. The role of environments outside school, including informal learning environments that promote science knowledge, museum spaces, and virtual environments. “Through rich examples and clear explanations of the historical, political, and aesthetic dimensions of design, [Kuh and her colleagues] help us think critically about environments and provide theoretical and practical tools to support our efforts.” —Benjamin Mardell, professor, Early Childhood Education, Lesley University. “An enlightening book that gives educators new lenses for thinking about and creating the kinds of places that can optimize children’s growth and learning, especially in this era of standardization. Educators need this book!” —Nancy Carlsson-Paige, professor emerita, Lesley University “For everyone who wants to take educational settings beyond minimal standards, this collection is a thoughtful and inspiring guide.” —Louise Chawla, professor, Environmental Design Program, University of Colorado, Boulder

Environmental Education at the Early Childhood Level

1994
Environmental Education at the Early Childhood Level

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  • Author: Ruth A. Wilson
  • Publisher:
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 148

The purpose of this publication is to establish a rationale for early childhood environmental education and to offer some guidelines and suggestions for planning and implementing developmentally appropriate environmental education programs for preschool children. This monograph is divided into four major sections. Part 1 outlines the rationale for early childhood environmental education and includes contributions from researchers both in the United States and the United Kingdom. Part 2 presents philosophical and research perspectives relating to environmental education for preschool children. It also outlines some of the major developmental characteristics of children during the early childhood years, especially in relation to cognitive and moral development. Part 3 provides specific guidelines and suggestions for developing and implementing environmental education programs at the early childhood level, thus establishing a framework for quality in such programs. Highlighted in Part 4 are existing programs offering environmental education for pre-school children. These programs include early childhood centers offering a nature-based curriculum and environmental education centers offering preschool programs. The final sections of this monograph offer information on efforts to establish international networking, an annotated list of selected resources, and biographical information on the contributors to the monograph. (JRH)

Outdoor Learning and Play

2021-07-20
Outdoor Learning and Play

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  • Author: Liv Torunn Grindheim
  • Publisher: Springer Nature
  • ISBN: 3030725952
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 213

This Open Access book examines children’s participation in dialectical reciprocity with place-based institutional practices by presenting empirical research from Australia, Brazil, China, Poland, Norway and Wales. Underpinned by cultural-historical theory, the analysis reveals how outdoors and nature form unique conditions for children's play, formal and informal learning and cultural formation. The analysis also surfaces how inequalities exist in societies and communities, which often limit and constrain families' and children's access to and participation in outdoor spaces and nature. The findings highlight how institutional practices are shaped by pedagogical content, teachers' training, institutional regulations and societal perceptions of nature, children and suitable, sustainable education for young children. Due to crises, such as climate change and the recent pandemic, specific focus on the outdoors and nature in cultural formation is timely for the cultural-historical theoretical tradition. In doing so, the book provides empirical and theoretical support for policy makers, researchers, educators and families to enhance, increase and sustain outdoor and nature education.