Developmentally Appropriate Practices

Developmentally appropriate practices include the following teaching strategies:

• Active Learning Experiences. Developmentally appropriate programs promote children's active exploration of the environment. Children manipulate real objects and learn through hands-on, direct experiences. The curriculum provides opportunities for children to explore, reflect, interact, and communicate with other children and adults (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1996). Learning centers are one means of providing active learning experiences. Field trips, real life experiences--such as cooking, reenacting historical events, conducting scientific experiments, and participating in community service projects--are other examples.

• Varied Instructional Strategies. Developmentally appropriate practice encourages the use of varied instructional strategies to meet the learning needs of children. Such approaches may include process writing, skill instruction, guided reading, modeled writing, cooperative learning, independent learning activities, peer coaching and tutoring, teacher-led instruction, thematic instruction, projects, learning centers, problem-based learning, and literature-based instruction (Privett, 1996; Stone,1995; American Association of School Administrators, 1992). By providing a wide variety of ways to learn, children with various learning styles are able to develop their capabilities. Teaching in this way also helps provide for multiple intelligences, and enables children to view learning in new ways.

• Balance Between Teacher-Directed and Child-Directed Activities. Developmentally appropriate practice encourages a mixture of teacher-directed and child-directed activities. Teacher-directed learning involves the teacher as a facilitator who models learning strategies and gives guided instruction. Child-directed learning allows the child to assume some responsibility for learning goals.

• Integrated Curriculum. An integrated curriculum is one that connects diverse areas of study by cutting across subject-matter lines and emphasizing unifying concepts. It combines many subject areas into a cohesive unit of study that is meaningful to students. An integrated curriculum often relates learning to real life. It also recognizes the importance of basic skills and the "inclination to use them" (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1996).

One technique for integrating curricula is a thematic approach, which "motivates students to investigate interesting ideas from multiple perspectives. The central theme becomes the catalyst for developing concepts, generalizations, skills, and attitudes" (American Association of School Administrators, 1992, p. 25). Not all integrated curricula revolve around a theme, however. Whole language and writing across the curriculum are examples of integrated approaches that may or may not involve a thematic approach (American Association of School Administrators, 1992).

• Learning Centers. Learning centers are independent stations set up throughout the classroom where children can go to actually engage in some learning activity. Children choose the center they will go to and decide on the amount of time to spend there. The learning center approach provides a time when children explore and practice skills to their own satisfaction. These centers provide children with opportunities for hands-on learning, cooperative learning, social interaction, real-life problem solving, autonomous learning, and open-ended activities. "Open-ended activities allow for each child to successfully engage in the activity at whatever skill level the child happens to be," notes Stone (1995, p. 123). Learning centers should reflect the goal of active learning; they must not be workstations full of worksheets for students to complete. Learning centers offer an opportunity for children to be responsible for their own learning; this responsibility is the foundation for lifelong learning (Stone, 1995).

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