Giving Compass' Take:

• AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation (“AppleTree”) developed nine approaches to learning standards for preschoolers to think more explicitly about things like self-monitor behavior, interaction with peers, and others that will be embedded into their learning. 

• Why is it important for preschoolers to learn more about themselves and how they think?  Will early education programs adopt these approaches into their curriculum?

• If you want to be more involved in helping children earlier on in their lives, here are four ways you can promote child literacy. 

During group time in a preschool classroom, a teacher asks the children to, “Raise a nice quiet hand,” in order to share an idea. What does a child need to know and do in order to comply with this request? Children are being asked to:

  • self-monitor behavior;
  • think about and plan what to say;
  • use audio-representation or visualization to hold onto the response;
  • maintain directive attention; and
  • interact with and/or question others.

It would not be surprising to step into a preschool classroom and observe children learning about numbers, colors, and shapes. It might, however, be surprising to encounter preschool children learning about thinking—their own thinking. That is, preschool children tend to receive instruction and exposure to declarative knowledge (What is a nice quiet hand?), but less so procedural knowledge (How do I plan my response or question before speaking? How do I control myself while raising my hand?).

In early childhood, the focus is often on academic content, but that is not enough. Children need to be able to attend and access instruction as well as apply and elaborate on information gathered from others.To help teachers isolate and develop learning strategies, AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation (“AppleTree”) developed nine approaches to learning standards designed to be taught in both explicit and embedded ways.

Considerable progress has been made in extending what is known about approaches to learning in preschool and applying that in a way that is age-appropriate and engaging for very young learners.

There are multiple goals to this work, including the push to provide preschool as an early prevention measure and the hope of expanding current learning progressions to support the continuum of learning.

Read the full article about teaching preschoolers learning strategies by Felicia R. Truong, Abby G. Carlson, and Helyn Kim at Brookings