A College-Community Collaboration: Fostering Developmentally Appropriate Practices in the Age of Accountability

Aki Ohseki,Elena Nitecki,Wendy K Mages

doi:10.14434/josotl.v18i3.21761

Abstract

Early childhood education faculty from a college collaborated with a local public school district to conduct a series of professional-development workshops for early childhood practitioners. The workshop series was designed to address pedagogical concerns identified by district administrators and teachers, as well as to help early childhood educators maintain developmentally appropriate practices in an increasingly standards-based, assessment-oriented climate, defined by the Common Core Standards and state-mandated testing. Participant survey responses indicated that, although all workshops were well received, participants found more value in the application-focused workshops than the content-focused workshops. In an evidence-based, educational climate, professional development opportunities tend to focus on initiatives designed to directly impact student learning outcomes. Yet, professional development initiatives that provide opportunities for teachers to broaden their knowledge and acquire new strategies and skills may also be beneficial. Thus, policies and practices associated with opportunities for teacher professional development should carefully consider practitioner and institutional needs and reflect a range of constituent-identified foci and goals, in order to productively meet the needs of both classroom teachers and their students.

Highlights

Nitecki and Ohseki position paper on early learning standards (NAEYC, 2002), jointly created by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education, warned that in elementary and secondary education (K-12) the introduction of standards had a tendency to drive “curriculum toward a more narrowly fact- and skill-driven approach with a resulting loss of depth, coherence, and focus” (p. 3) and that “this trend could undermine the use of appropriate, effective curriculum and teaching strategies” (p. 3) in early childhood education
The implementation of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) is supported in the literature, which points to a false dichotomy between play and academics based on standards (Katz, 2015; Snow, 2011)
The data suggest that for professional development (PD) initiatives to be useful and beneficial, PD providers must be cognizant of the needs of PD participants and how those needs may change over time

Summary

Introduction

Nitecki and Ohseki position paper on early learning standards (NAEYC, 2002), jointly created by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education, warned that in elementary and secondary education (K-12) the introduction of standards had a tendency to drive “curriculum toward a more narrowly fact- and skill-driven approach with a resulting loss of depth, coherence, and focus” (p. 3) and that “this trend could undermine the use of appropriate, effective curriculum and teaching strategies” (p. 3) in early childhood education. In a standards-based, assessment-oriented, educational environment, it is both necessary and beneficial for early childhood practitioners to employ developmentally appropriate strategies when teaching requisite curricular content to young children. PD for early childhood educators has the potential to be successful “if it is collaborative, positive, and practical It is this positive approach in the context of larger limitations that results in effective professional development, but can improve the quality of education for our youngest students” The workshop series, developed to address pedagogical concerns identified by district administrators and teachers, was designed to help early childhood educators maintain developmentally appropriate practices in an increasingly standards-based, assessment-oriented climate. This case study details the intervention, its effect on the participants, and implications for practice

Methods

Results

Conclusion