Curricular Concepts

“The Early Childhood Curriculum”
Krogh and Slentz (2001)

1. Integrated Curriculum: Curriculum is said to be integrated when various academic subjects are brought together to make a more meaningful learning experience for students. For older students, this may mean joining two classes in a team-teaching approach. In early childhood, however, when teaching separate academic courses is not the norm, integration frequently takes the form of an emergent or theme-based curriculum (discussed below). According to Bredekamp (1997), an “integrated curriculum is the answer to achieving coverage of the curriculum while also promoting meaningfulness.”
2. Emergent Curriculum: The term “emergent curriculum” was first coined by Elizabeth Jones (1970) in a publication from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). In her more recent NAEYC publication on emergent curriculum with John Nimmo(1994), Jones argued against formulaic and commercially packaged curriculum that seems to promise “magic” results. Instead, she emphasized the importance and value of learning that comes from and is determined by the daily lives of children and their caregivers. In an emergent curriculum, teachers practice observing and reflecting on child behavior and interests, which becomes the basis of their curriculum and instruction. One well-known model of emergent curriculum often used with primary grade students in the United States is called the project approach, in which teachers and students negotiate, plan, and participate in an in-depth study of their choice for several days or weeks at a time. As students study a topic of interest, they undoubtedly integrate reading and writing, as well as other content areas such as science, social studies, math, etc. Ultimately, the goal of the project approach is to communicate their learning and research findings with their intended audience through writing or through the arts.
3. Thematic Curriculum: In a theme-based approach, a theme or central idea is selected by the teacher, and related lessons and learning activities are designed and taught. As with the project approach to learning, themes allow students to focus deeply on a single topic over a period of time and are developed in response to student interests. Proponents of this approach argue that children make meaning from their learning experiences as they “form connections among individual bits of information. These connections contribute to children’s concept development and are the most important reason for advocating a theme-oriented approach to teaching” (Kostelnik, Soderman, & Whiren, 1999, p. 507). Kostelnik and colleagues (1999) state that effective themes are those that relate to children’s life experiences, represent a concept, are supported by a body of factual content, and lend themselves to possible development as projects (discussed previously). As an added benefit, an effective thematic curriculum can be highly motivating and keep students excited about learning.
4. Traditional Curriculum: Curriculum has traditionally been based on subjects such as reading, language arts, math, science, social studies, art, music, physical education, etc. While this may be appropriate for older high school or college students, dividing the curriculum by subject areas can be confusing to young children who are just becoming acquainted with the world around them. Subject-based curriculum also leaves all the decision-making power in the hands of the teacher and leads to learning experiences that are created and controlled primarily by adults, with little consideration of or input from students. While such learning experiences may still be interesting and enjoyable at times, it is not particularly beneficial in a society that strives to give students choices in their learning at the early childhood level. It is recommended that young children be provided choices and cross-curricular meaning wherever and whenever possible (Krogh & Slentz, 2001).