Course work may be considered in three categories: courses connecting content and pedagogy; pedagogical courses; and practica.

Courses connecting content and pedagogy

Emergent Curriculum: The Child as Meaning Maker is a two-semester course in which children’s interests and approaches to learning, across early childhood and childhood, are emphasized in developing curricula with multiple entry points. We will reflect on ways of knowing in our own learning and that of the children, exploring teaching strategies that value as well as expand children’s knowledge and modes of thinking and learning. We will discuss how children’s interests and questions connect to the large ideas and questions at the core of the subject matter disciplines. Central to the course is understanding how to create curriculum that is driven by ideas — striving for wholeness, integration, coherence, meaning — and focused on assisting children in applying knowledge and thinking to real-life problems.

Classroom design and organization, media and materials, approaches to teaching and learning across disciplines are discussed, with an emphasis on the Arts, Sciences and Humanities. Value is placed on enabling in-depth inquiry, experimentation and discovery, and on establishing classroom communities based on collaborative learning. The role in curriculum planning of the arts, literacy and technology in making and expressing knowledge is emphasized.

We discuss curriculum and teaching strategies for individual subject areas, with an emphasis on the connections among disciplines, building toward an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum and instruction. The roles of the teacher as observer, provisioner, collaborator and facilitator are discussed. During each semester, we will engage in hands-on inquiry in a workshop setting, reflecting on our own learning and that of our peers. Implications are drawn forward regarding the teacher’s role in accommodating different approaches to learning.

Important issues and questions* that guide the work in this course are:

• How can classroom activities and curriculum offer entry points to the spectrum of learners?
• How can teachers individualize learning experiences and still create a sense of community and collaboration?
• How can teachers create classrooms that are respectful of and that celebrate diversity?
• How can school curriculum make connections to the world outside school and to children’s lives in their communities?
• How can teachers prepare children to think critically about the world?
• How can teachers create a curriculum that prepares children for external expectations and testing without allowing it to be driven by such expectations?

*These questions were developed by Patricia F. Carini in collaboration with teachers at the Prospect School and Center, as well as in Mamaroneck and Phoenix.

Language and Literacy is a two-semester course, which focuses on the making of meaning and knowledge through listening, speaking, reading and writing in early childhood and childhood. All children — English speakers and English language learners — are recognized as capable of learning and of becoming competent English language and literacy users. Emphasis is on teaching that takes each child’s approaches to learning and pace in learning into account, valuing the complexity in developing instruction that builds on what the child already knows and can do.

• Learning is a process by which each person actively constructs meaning from experience, including encounters with print and non-print texts.
• Language and literacy are social acts.
• Language and literacy develop in the pursuit of real-life enterprise.
• Reading and writing, like spoken language, are best learned in rich, interactive environments where they serve real purposes.
• Reading and writing do not develop in pre-defined stages. Rather, literacy understanding is complex and unique to the individual.
• Language and literacy cannot be separated from the total expressiveness of the person.
• Literacy is power and children must have every opportunity to know its power.
• Literacy teaching and learning must be re-envisioned to accommodate a multi-modal, multi-lingual, multi-media world.

We will build our knowledge of language and literacy learning upon these assumptions by reflecting on ourselves as readers, writers and language users. We will explore how children learn to read and write by observing them as they use language and literacy for real purposes. We will consider new media and technologies as modes of communication and expression, and consider how they are reshaping the future of literacy. 

Our observations of children and our own literacy stories will help us understand the range and complexity of meanings and approaches among any group of learners. Our observations and recollections also provide an entry point for discussions regarding differences in race, class, ethnicity, gender, and learning style. The challenge for schools to be inclusive of the diversity — to enable each child to differ yet to belong to the community of learners — lies at the core of our work. We will, through our Child Studies, our recollections and the readings, begin to develop a picture of inclusive classrooms and schools in which children have the “space to dance with others” and the “room to differ.” (Patricia F. Carini)

The course paper is an in-depth inquiry focused on language and literacy teaching and learning, and on classroom practice and work with children, examined through the lens of your own philosophy, thought, values and standards.

Mathematics and Technology for Teachers I & II. This course will place strong emphasis on students’ own understanding of mathematics as directly related to the mathematics they will be teaching in early childhood and elementary school class-rooms. The course will have four foci. The first is exposure to the students’ development of algebraic thinking and geometric reasoning through their own integrated study of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Students will problem-solve and write about the meta-cognitive processes involved in these mathematical experiences. Patterns and functions will serve as the lenses through which students will examine connections and applications of the topics to the early childhood and childhood school curriculums. The second focus is the development of an understanding of the content, concepts, computation, and teaching and learning strategies of mathematics in schools. Emphasis will be placed on the NCTM Standards and the New York State Common Core  Standards; constructivist teaching and learning; inquiry-based learning; problem solving; and mathematical reasoning, connections, and communication. Students will be exposed to techniques in differentiating instruction that addresses learning differences, learning disabilities, and the special needs of English language learners, as well as ways to identify tasks that challenge and augment mathematical understandings. The use of technology as an integral support for the understanding and application of mathematics is the third focus. We will consider technology to consist of all the tools used to support understandings  in teaching and learning. We will use programs  in the College’s electronic classrooms. In addition to assessing and viewing software, students will create mathematical materials, learn to use a spreadsheet to collect and organize  data, and investigate software directly related to their college-level study of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. The fourth focus of the course is the study and development of mathematics assessment and testing. Students will develop a math portfolio that represents their own mathematical learning and contains the materials they have created and gathered throughout the course. In addition, students will write a conference paper that focuses on either early childhood or childhood education, depending on the area of certification they seek. Students seeking dual certification in Early Childhood/Childhood Education will complete conference work and write conference papers for both certification areas each semester.

Pedagogical Courses

The Child and the Family: Social, Cultural, and Health-Related Issues at Home and in School. Children must struggle with many issues while making their way toward adulthood. Teachers’ understandings of family culture and the interconnections between health and learning are crucial to their success in the classroom and central to the content of this course.

We will study how families affect the development of children, for no other unit of analysis more richly displays gender, social, and cultural factors and their influence on individual behavior and development. Today, children spend more time than ever before in early childhood programs and grade schools. We will investigate how families and schools provide a framework for the exploration of the social world and socialize children according to cultural norms.

Health and learning are intertwined in the context of the child’s social, emotional, intellectual, and physical development. In order for teachers to be equipped to help their students in the areas of personal health and safety, we will review the National and State Health Learning Standards, as well as the range of environmental factors that inhibit children’s development and learning (including the identification and implications of drug and alcohol abuse). We will also examine the social, political, and psychological concerns faced by children with chronic diseases and their families, and the plethora of health care issues with which they must contend. Through readings and analysis of case studies, students will explore the importance of teachers’ under-standing of the complexities of the lives of children and families to better prepare them for the challenges of the classroom.

Children with Special Needs. All children in early childhood settings and the elementary grades have strengths and weaknesses. All children have areas where they excel and areas where they feel insecure. All children have times when academic learning is difficult for them, while at the same time all children have the capacity to learn. Understanding the individual differences of an entire class of students is a challenge, and in order to meet the needs of our students we must observe their differences and individual patterns of behavior.

This course will explore the concepts of special-need diagnostic categories, building on a foundation of the cognitive processing components of learning, and always keeping in mind that the same symptoms and difficulties can mean very different things in different children. Goals of the course are to integrate our perspective of children’s special needs with the realities of our work in classrooms and schools; to explore ways of working with parents of children who require special support; to understand the role and meaning of diagnostic labels and their use; and to consider the interplay between special education and inclusion.

Each student in the course will investigate in-depth the terminology and substance of a specific diagnostic category, and research what is known about the category — the etiology, occurrence, symptom picture, method of diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Papers will be presented orally, with printed copies bound in a source book that will be distributed to the students at the end of the semester.

An eight-hour weekend seminar extension of this course will extend learning gained in the course and devote three hours to the identification of child abuse and maltreatment, the prevention of child abduction, the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, and three hours to school violence prevention and intervention (including fire and arson prevention).

Children’s Literature and Artistic Expression: Touching the Stories Within Us. In this course, we will explore children’s literature through the lens of developmental appropriateness (pre-kindergarten through grade 6); through the concept of story as motivation for learning to read and becoming a life-long reader; as a window on the particularities of period and place; and as an avenue to examine opportunities that books can provide for reflection of cultural heritage and exposure to the experiences of others. Course readings will include developmental, literary, and educational perspectives, and, of course, the children’s books themselves: picture books, books for the emerging reader, and novels for the fluent elementary-age reader.

The place of literature in the classroom involves careful choice on the part of teachers: this implies classroom libraries that support children’s interests and heritage, intrigue children through pictures and text, and eventually lead elementary-age children to discover new “worlds” that lie within the covers of chapter books. Students will consider these issues as well as the importance of reading aloud to children at each grade level.

An integral component of the course will be an investigation of ways in which literature can inspire artistic expression in a well-provisioned classroom. Early childhood and elementary classroom environments that provide appropriate opportunities for dramatic play, painting and drawing, sculpture and three-dimensional work, writing, and book-making, can enhance and expand children’s interactions with books. Students in the course will themselves have occasion to make meaning through a variety of artistic media as an extension of their readings. Course expectations include a major paper focused on the age range(s) of the students’ certification area(s), bibliographies of children’s books gathered from course readings, and  field trips to a local college’s bookstore, public libraries, and children’s bookstores..

Foundations of Education: An Exploration of Meaningful Learning and Teaching from Plato  to the Present. This course will begin with a reflection on philosophical approaches to teaching and learning as we investigate the implications of learning as acquisition, as manifestation, and as transaction. Students will read excerpts from the historical writings of Plato,Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel to better understand the roots of meaningful teaching and learning as exemplified in modern educational thought. We will then turn to a review of the history of public schooling in the United States, considering the role of education in a democratic society as conceptualized by such educational leaders as Thomas Jefferson, Horace Mann, and John Dewey. We will examine the challenges and achievements of public education from colonial times to the present with special emphasis on Dewey’s educational philosophy and practice and its impact on American education, as well as its relevance for contemporary practice. From this vantage point, we will then explore a series of issues facing educators today as we consider perspectives on meaningful education for a diverse society and views of the learning process in contemporary culture, including philosophical and political implications and variations in classroom experience and practice. Students will keep a journal of reflections on their readings together with a collection of relevant articles from newspapers and periodicals concerning current educational issues, and write a major paper focusing on their own educational values. .

Observation and Documentation. In the Art of Teaching program, we place the observation and documentation of children and their learning at the center of teaching. The emphasis is on seeing every child as capable, unique, and knowable; and on children as active makers of their own meaning and knowledge. Observing is focused on what the child can do and is interested in, and on how each child thinks and learns. We assume that teachers make knowledge of teaching and learning through longitudinal observation and documentation of each child as thinker and learner. This knowledge is the foundation for curriculum development and instructional planning that accommodate individual interests and approaches to learning.

The ideas and processes developed at Prospect Archive and Center for Education and Research, by Patricia Carini and others, will be the foundation of the work through-out the course. The Prospect Descriptive Processes, and in particular the Descriptive Review of the Child, will give students a formal and systematic framework for drawing together their observations of children over time. In addition, the review processes developed at Prospect Center will be discussed as avenues for collaborative inquiry and meaning making among educators and parents. Students will participate in a Descriptive Review and will review longitudinal collections of children’s work. They will also learn about descriptive inquiry processes for reviewing curriculums and teaching practice.

Students will share observations of children in early childhood and childhood education settings and develop a language of description. We will discuss the importance of creating classrooms where each child is visible through strength. Students will develop a child study that includes: a description of the child using the headings of the Descriptive Review; a collection of the child’s work; and reflections on the implications that the longitudinal documentation of the child holds for teaching.

Theories of Development. The field of developmental psychology has been shaped by several different, and often conflicting, visions of childhood experience. These visions have, in turn, influenced early childhood and childhood education practice. In this course, we will study the classical theories — behaviorist, psychoanalytic, and cognitive-developmental — as they were originally formulated and in light of subsequent critiques and revisions. We will focus on the kinds of questions each theory asks and the “image of the child” each puts forth.

Recent challenges within the field have highlighted specific conceptual problems, which we will address. Are patterns of development universal or culture-specific? Can childhood experiences be thought of as proceeding in a series of stages? How do we construct methods for studying children that will recognize and validate the significance of differing social and cultural experiences? How can we forge a multicultural view of development such that development is understood in terms of how it is experienced within a given cultural context?

The goal of the course is to prepare students to integrate theory and practice in their work with children.   Required papers will reflect this integration.

Practica

The theme of the “Advisement Seminar” is to explore the connections between early childhood education, childhood education, and the on-going education of teachers in the content disciplines. The seminar begins with observations of the very youngest children to help us begin to frame continuities and differences.   Faculty from the Early Childhood Center and the undergraduate Liberal Arts Faculty help us to think about learning as an ongoing process across ages and stages of development, leading sessions devoted to curriculum and its evolution both for children in classrooms and for us as teachers.  We consider intercultural perspectives and themes related to teaching in a diverse society; view videos and films of children in classrooms engaged in drawing, writing, reading, imaginative play and social studies explorations; read source material in the content disciplines; and engage in hands-on explorations.

The “Practicum Seminar” is a yearlong course that supports early childhood and child-hood student-teaching experiences, and provides opportunities to draw together the ideas, processes, and approaches in early childhood and childhood teaching practice, curriculum development, and instructional planning across content disciplines in pre-kindergarten through grade 2 settings and first- through sixth-grade classrooms.  

Issues and questions that arise in student-teaching and will continue to be present in classrooms and schools are explored. These include the role of observation and documentation as they inform assessments of children’s learning, and teaching itself; the creation of learning environments for children from birth through grade 2 and in grades 1 through 6, inclusive of all children across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and learning differences; the development of approaches that enable continuity for children between home and school and in their school lives; the development of class-rooms as communities of learners; and the exploration of the teacher’s role and approaches to classroom organization and structure that relate to very young and elementary-age children. Other topics of importance in the course are the creation of opportunities and processes for collaboration among teachers, parents, and administrators and the development of strategies to reflect on, renew, and revise teaching with an emphasis on the importance of professional development.

The “Practicum Seminar” also supports students in their continued efforts to understand the political nature of teaching, placing emphasis on educating for a democratic society. The roles of the family, school, and community in educating children are explored,  as well as  current philosophies and climate regarding home, school, and community relationships.

Practicum Seminar students will keep a reflective journal of their field placement and student-teaching experiences, including observation and documentation of children, classrooms, activities, curriculum planning and facilitation, materials, and media.  Students will also begin to develop, refine, and share their thinking regarding their master’s project topics.