Total Learning: Developmental Curriculum for the Young Child

  This text is based on primarily a constructivist philosophy and advocates designing curriculum that uses children’s emerging interests within a flexible and thoughtful teacher-guided plan.   Other characteristics include: The developmental approach emphasizes that learning should be integrated. The text addresses curriculum through discussion of the five selves: physical, emotional, social, creative, and cognitive. The authors emphasize play, cross-cultural sensitivity, and encouraging competence in young children.  The clear writing and practical examples ensure easy reading. The concise writing style, relevant examples, and practical suggestions are hallmarks of this text. Present-day emergent curriculum programs are explored in new “Emergent Curriculum in Action” features. Well-developed tables organize pertinent information. The excellent theoretical base and conceptual framework for curriculum provide understanding that will stay with students forever.  The text encourages students to respond to the needs of children, but also explains how to identify goals and objectives, incorporate them into curriculum that meets individual needs, and use developmentally appropriate assessment methods.    For a course covering Early Childhood Curriculum.

Joanne Hendrick is  professor emerita of early childhood education from the University of Oklahoma.  In addition to raising four children of her own, her practical experience includes working with children at Stanford Speech and Hearing Clinic, directing a parent-child workshop, working in Head Start, and chairing the early childhood areas at Santa Barbara City College and the University of Oklahoma.  She holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University in disorders of speech and hearing, and graduate degrees from the University of California in counseling and early childhood education.  She is past president of the California Association for the Education of Young Children.

Her current interests include gardening, photography, traveling to exotic places, writing about young children, and enjoying her 10 grandchildren.

Patricia Weissman began her early childhood career as a family care provider for two infants.  Having found her calling, she studied early childhood education in the master's program at San Francisco State University and received a doctorate of education from the University of San Francisco.  During the past 25 years, she has worked as an infant caregiver, a preprimary teacher, a center director, a Child Development Associate(CDA) advisor, a professor of early childhood education, and a research associate in early childhood development at the Merrill-Palmer Institute of Wayne State University.  She was the founding editor of the journal Innovations in Early Education:  The International Reggio Exchange.  Dr. Weissman also designed and consulted on the production of the Public Broadcasting Service video series titled The Whole Child: A Caregiver's Guide to the First Five Years.