This comprehensive text gives pre-service early childhood educators a balanced, accessible introduction to early childhood education that also covers the content areas. It shows readers how to teach and care for children by identifying and focusing on five essential elements: understanding child development, play, guidance, working with families, and diversity. Each essential element is addressed in its own separate chapter and then explored at a deeper level in a featured section in ever chapter.
Included is a rigorous overview of the planning, preparation, and delivery of a curriculum for young children built around six specific curriculum areas, each explored in its own chapter. The author stresses the importance of play and the need to nurture each child's natural affinity for learning through experimentation and exploration. Separate chapters cover the importance of the outdoor environment and the effect of technology on early childhood education, giving future teachers a well-rounded look at delivering quality early education. Short vignettes help students better understand young children; numerous practical examples of developmentally appropriate strategies provide tools for actual classroom teaching; and supplemental resources assist instructors in presenting the course.
PART I: INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD
1. Overview of the Profession
2. Historical Contexts
3. Early Childhood Program Models
PART II: FOUNDATIONS
4. Understanding How a Child Develops and Learns
5. Play in Childhood
6. Guiding Young Children
7. Working with Families and Communities
8. Diversity and Young Children
PART III: ORGANIZING FOR INSTRUCTION
9. Planning the Physical Environment: Indoors
10. Planning the Physical Environment: Outdoors
11. Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum
PART IV: THE CURRICULUM
12. Health and Wellness
13. Supporting Emotional and Social Development
14. Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies Learning
15. Language and Literacy Learning
16. The Creative Arts
17. Technology and Young Children
DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD
Michael Henniger is a retired professor emeritus of early childhood education at Western Washington University. Prior to his 20 years at Western Washington University, he taught early childhood education courses at Northern Illinois University, Central Washington University, and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His teaching and research interests include preschool and primary curriculum, play, learning environments, and family/community involvement in education. While completing his doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Henniger taught preschool children in the university lab school. His public school experiences were in rural Alaska, where he taught first and second grades and high school mathematics.