Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. 'Early childhood' is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling - five years in most nations.
Developmental Interaction (The Bankstreet Approach)
Bankstreet’s Developmental Interaction Approach is based on the theories of Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, John Dewey and Lucy Sprague Mitchell, among others. The Developmental Interaction Approach stresses that the optimal educational process maximizes children’s direct and rich interactions with a wide variety of materials, ideas and people in their environment. The approach aims for actively involving children in acquiring competence. Choice, active investigation, independent pursuit and learning through discovery are dominant components of the learning climate. The curriculum is flexible within a planned framework encompassing developmentally appropriate knowledge and skills. Teachers seize every opportunity to promote cognitive development by creating a climate that encourages questioning, exploration and children’s growing understanding of patterns, rhythms and relationships in the ideas and environment around them.
Developmental interaction as it was formulated at Bankstreet College of Education reflects the beliefs that as children grow and develop, their thoughts and emotions work together and that children learn from engaging with the world. The approach informs teachers about children through a theoretical framework, rather than prescribing a particular way to teach. Democratic ideas influence the teacher’s decisions about content, practices, and the social and physical environment. Developmental interaction regards the young child as a maker of meaning who is actively engaged in making sense of the world. Teachers help children expand their understanding of themselves and their surroundings through extensive curriculum that builds on the children’s...