Now in its third edition, this book shows teachers how to incorporate the Project Approach into early childhood and elementary curricula, engaging children intellectually and heightening their capacities for thinking, hypothesizing, reasoning, and expressing their natural curiosity. Why has the Project Approach proven to be so successful for engaging young children intellectually and supporting their capacities to think, predict, hypothesize, reason, and express their natural curiosity? Simply put, because project work provides meaningful contexts in which children can readily apply and perceive the usefulness of their growing academic skills. This book provides a brief history and overview of the Project Approach and a thorough explanation of how to better use this method proficiently in a wide range of educational contexts. This book is intended for teachers, early childhood practitioners, caregivers, and student teachers. Readers will learn how to apply this approach to engage children's interest and facilitate their intellectual development. The book's chapters articulate the processes and benefits of the Project Approach, identify and detail the three phases of project work, and provide specific suggestions for implementing each phase. The importance of documenting children's work to record the story of their investigation and findings is also discussed. Presents the philosophical, theoretical, and research bases of project work that serve to explain how the Project Approach enables children to make better, more in-depth and accurate sense of their experiences and phenomena in their everyday environment Includes descriptions of numerous projects implemented with children in a wide variety of settings to guide teachers through developing their own successful projects with children Provides a comprehensively updated new edition of the well-known standard book on the Project Approach

This book contains a collection of the author's previously published articles on early childhood care and education. Each chapter was written in response and reaction to particular events or contexts that were provocative. Many of the issues explored were stimulated by experiences with teachers and caregivers of young children, many of whom were also the author's students, as well as with other professional colleagues. These background experiences and events are described briefly in the introduction to each article.

The field of education generally, and teacher education particularly, is experiencing some general disquiet with traditional approaches to the identification and classification of knowledge. Formal research studies, long the source of the knowledge base of teaching, is discredited by new ideologies that are based in the women's movement, the multiculturalists, and persons taken up with newer research strategies called "naturalistic," "ethnographic," or "case study" approaches. The book is a collection of essays that rehearses the issues facing the field, and addresses them in forthright fashion.

Young Investigators has been expanded to guide today’s teachers through the process of conducting meaningful investigations with young children. This fourth edition of the bestseller begins with a new chapter, “How Children Really Learn,” which summarizes insights from mind-brain education research, showing how experiences firmly rooted in children’s curiosity and interest build intellectual capacity. The book then introduces the Project Approach with step-by-step guidance for incorporating child initiation and direction into curriculum while simultaneously addressing content standards. A new focus on critical Teacher Decision Points uses fresh-from-the-classroom examples to show how teachers think through project work. The emphasis on STEM experiences has been expanded to include STEAM through a new chapter, “The Role of Project Work in the Arts” This book makes project-based learning possible with the youngest children (toddlers through 2nd grade) who are not yet proficient in reading and writing, but capable of deep, focused thinking. Throughout, readers empathize with teachers’ concerns, witness how they find solutions to challenges, and feel the excitement of children during project work. Young Investigators is appropriate for teachers new to using the Project Approach, as well as for those who already have experience. Book Features: • Examples of projects from child care centers and preschool, K–2, and special education classrooms. • Instructions for incorporating standards and STEAM skills into project work. • A variety of experiences to help children connect to the natural world. • Toddler projects that reflect knowledge from recent mind-brain research. • Tools for integrating required curriculum goals and for assessing achievement. • A Teacher Project Planning Journal that leads teachers through the major decision points of project work. • Full-color photographs of children engaged with projects. • A study guide for pre- and inservice teachers (available at www.tcpress.com).

This book contains a collection of the author's previously published articles on early childhood care and education. Each chapter was written in response and reaction to particular events or contexts that were provocative. Many of the issues explored were stimulated by experiences with teachers and caregivers of young children, many of whom were also the author's students, as well as with other professional colleagues. These background experiences and events are described briefly in the introduction to each article.