From an Academician's Preschool Diary: Emergent Curriculum and Its Practices in a Qualified Example of Laboratory Preschool

Abstract

The purpose of this research; a laboratory preschool located in one of the northern states of the United States ofAmerica and operating under the Child Development Institute, explains the practices about the Emergent Curriculumand builds a bridge between theory and practice in preschool education. It is thought that bringing good examples ofa laboratory school in the United States with a long history in the field of education to the national domain literaturewill be especially useful for teachers, researchers and specialists working on this field. The method of the study wascarried out by the observational case study which is one of the qualitative research designs. In addition, the documentanalysis method was used to support the information obtained from the observations over time. Obtained dataconsisted of observations made by the researcher in the preschool, unstructured teacher interviews, and informationobtained from the handbook of the kindergarten. The findings are discussed in the headings on the basis of theEmergent Program: Beginning of the day: Arrival in preschool exploration time and gym, large group time/classmeeting, activity time and free play, large and small group activities, use of learning centers, outdoor, role of teacherin practice and role of family and parent involvement practices.