Pressure or challenge in preschool? how academic environments affect children

Abstract

Highly acudcmu environments b e little bcn@for children's academic skills, muy dampen creative cxprcssion, and muy create some anxicty. These $ects, havcvcr, ure lcss dram& than some h e claimed. Pressure or Challenge in Preschool?How Academic Environments Affect Children Kathy Hirsh-PasekBloom (1964) writes that over 50 percent of adult intelligence is acquired by the age of four years. Assuming a causal relationship between this early knowledge and later intellectual ability, many argue that we should fill young minds full of information so that we can increase the intelligence of our children and can groom the next generation of leaders. Indeed, the past two decades of infancy research support this contention insofar as the work has revealed the striking abilities that infants and young toddlers have to process and learn new information.This line of reasoning represents the extreme position taken by those who endorse proposals for early academic orientations during the preschool years (Doman, 1964(Doman, , 1979(Doman, , 1984 Eastman and Barr. 1985; Engelmann and Engelmann, 1981; see Storfer, 1990, for a review). Academic attitudes and practices in the early years, they suggest, provide a challenge that enhances young minds and increases academic and intellectual abilities. By this account, both advantaged and disadvantaged children should benefit fiom this intellectual "head start."In direct opposition to this position are outspoken developmental psychologists and educators (Elkind, 1981(Elkind, , 1987 Sigel, 1987;Gallagher and Coche, 1987; Kagan and Zigler, 1987;Bredekamp, 1987) who argue that highly academic expectations and practices may harm young children by compromising n o d development Academic orientations for preschoolers, they suggest, offer "too much too soon" and constitute pressures that could result in social and emotional problems.

The effects of different recess timing regimens on preschoolers' classroom attention

“…Furthermore, there is an increased stress on academics during the preschool period (Elkind, 1981(Elkind, , 1988(Elkind, , 1993Hyson et al, 1990;Hirsch-Pasek, 1991). As Egertson (2003) noted, views of preschool as preparation for kindergarten are leading to curricula that include more adult-directed, sedentary kinds of tasks in contrast to those that emphasize child-directed and childcentered play and learning activities.…”

“…This movement is especially strong at the primary school level, but is also gaining strength among early childhood educators, where the stress on early achievement is rapidly gaining (Hyson et al, 1990;Hirsch-Pasek, 1991). The debate generally centers on the extent to which recess takes away from instructional time (thus the movement to reduce or eliminate it) or the degree to which breaks between periods of academic work actually foster attention to subsequent classroom tasks.…”

Guided Play: Where Curricular Goals Meet a Playful Pedagogy

“…When considering the preschool environment, research from the science of learning suggests that guided play approaches provide a developmentally appropriate pedagogy that offers children a focused approach to learning (e.g., Burts, Hart, Charlesworth, & Kirk, ; Burts et al, ; Hirsh‐Pasek, ; Love, Ryer, & Faddis, ; Marcon, , ; Schweinhart, Barnes, & Weikart, ; for reviews, see Alfieri et al, ; Hirsh‐Pasek et al, ; Lillard & Else‐Quest, ). More specifically, pedagogical techniques involving child‐centered playful learning have been shown to boost young children's academic development, leading to improvements in reading and math scores, and these advantages last into the primary grades (e.g., Marcon, , ; Stipek et al, ).…”

Parents’ Involvement in Children’s Learning in the United States and China: Implications for Children’s Academic and Emotional Adjustment

“…Perhaps because of the American cultural orientation toward independence (Markus & Kitayama, 1991), European American parents see cultivating a sense of autonomy in children as critical to children’s learning (Chao, 1996). Many parents in the United States view intense academic training as inappropriate, and even detrimental, for children (Elkind, 1987; Hirsh‐Pasek, 1991). Instead, there tends to be an emphasis on developing the “whole child”—that is, cultivating not just academic adjustment but also emotional and social adjustment (Chao, 1996; Parmar, Harkness, & Super, 2004).…”