Enthusiastic and Engaged Learners: Approaches to Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom

Of all the school readiness domains, approaches to learning is perhaps the least understood but the most important. Research shows that positive approaches to learning improve both social–emotional and academic outcomes. This new resource will help early childhood professionals implement strategies to support young children’s positive approaches to learning―their enthusiasm (interest, joy, and motivation to learn) and their engagement (attention, persistence, flexibility, self-regulation, and other essential learning behaviors). Along with extensive research, the text includes images of practice in early education programs in culturally, economically, and linguistically diverse settings.

This book will help teachers, future teachers, and other early childhood stakeholders to:

• Understand how children acquire positive approaches to learning.
• Know what research says about why approaches to learning are so important.
• Recognize what supports and what undermines children’s enthusiasm and engagement in learning.
• Identify and plan specific strategies for the classroom.
• Use culturally sensitive assessments to plan interventions.
• Select and modify curriculum and teaching practices.
• Access resources to help every child enter school with positive approaches to learning.
• Influence educational policies and decision making.

Marilou Hyson is Senior Consultant with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and Affiliate Faculty in Applied Developmental Psychology at George Mason University. She is the author of The Emotional Development of Young Children: Building an Emotion-Centered Curriculum, Second Edition.