Play and Pedagogy (Early Childhood Education) Essay

Play and Pedagogy (Early Childhood Education) - Essay Example Understanding the quote presented in the module at 4.1.2 - "....curriculum is what happens in an educational environment - not what is rationally planned to happen, but what actually takes place." , it can be said that the curriculum comprises the whole early childhood programme. It covers a broad spectrum - from how the physical environment is designed, which skills are targeted to be developed in the children, which concepts and activities are appropriate for the age group, what are the routines to be included and how one transitions from one activity to another. Early childhood settings may be particularly challenging to plan a curriculum for, as the learners are very young and may be at various stages of development. Each age may be a different stage in early childhood as children grow up rapidly in all domains. Group settings at preschools or day care centres may have various ideas of how to provide group care and education. In this particular paper, curriculum shall be discusse d in terms of meeting children where they are at. The situation to be studied falls under a constructivist approach of learning which puts the learner in charge of â€Å"constructing† his or her own learning with the able help of a nurturing educator who provides her class with much challenge to their potentials. An ideal early childhood curriculum considers various factors in its planning and implementation. The writer shall discuss what she deems essential aspects of the early childhood curriculum based on observations of how very young children learn and various theoretical frameworks culled from literature. It will enumerate the roles, responsibilities and benefits to stakeholders in early childhood education, specifically that of the children themselves and the teacher-practitioners who are in charge of creating the curriculum. Specifically, the writer believes the following are the