Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/how-do-we-know-what-we-know/5018946/
Every day we are bombarded with new claims that changing our teaching in certain ways will bring desired results to the children in our care.• Maybe it’s a mother asking you to give her toddler a sticker to reward her for potty training.
• Or a coworker who argues that posting preschoolers’ artwork in a school gallery increases creativity.
• Or maybe it’s your board of directors arguing that all of the ECE programs in your area have adopted a formal reading curriculum with their toddlers and young preschoolers to prepare them for school so you have to adopt it too.
Where do you turn for help in making these decisions? Who can you trust? And how do you cope with the increased demands that your program demonstrates its successes in educating children and preparing them for formal schooling? For answers to these and other questions, you might turn to a growing body of research in our field that offers evidence of best
practice.
Accountability
Increasingly, early childhood programs are subject to accountability measures that hold programs responsible for implementing high-quality standards of the profession. According to Pre-K Now, “Children will not reach their full potential unless teachers and administrators ...