AGENDA

1. Bank Street College_____________________________ Leadership in Museum Education_____________________________ October 13-14, 2006

2. AGENDA • Developmental Theory and Principles • Developmental Framework • Play and Children’s Development • Environments Supporting Children’s Development • Review Assignment • PlayWorks Observation at CMOM

3. WHY? • Children are part of your audience. • A developmental perspective is a valuable approach for considering all your visitors. • Some of your adult audience “think like children.”

4. COMING TO TERMS • Early Childhood: Birth TO eight years • Developmental Domains: • Cognitive: Perception, senses, memory, language • Social-Emotional: Self-regulation, identity, peer relations • Physical: Motor, movement and competence • Development: The sequence of cognitive, socio-emotional and physical changes children undergo as they grow older.

5. PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT • Sensory Motor stage: 0 - 2 years • Pre-Operational stage: 2- 6/7 years • Concrete Operational stage: 6/7 years - 11/12 years (?) • Formal Operations stage: 11/12 years +

6. PIAGET’S IMPACT ON INFORMAL LEARNING • Children are active agents in their own learning. • Philosophies, programs and environments have been created based on his theory. • Children’s readiness is a cue for what experiences to present to them. • Individual differences are more accepted.

7. BIO-SOCIAL-BEHAVIORAL SHIFTS • 2-1/2 months: Social smiling • 7-9 months: Discover properties of objects • 1 year: Memory • 18 month: Sense of self • 1-2 years: Relational play with objects • 24-30 months: Grammatical language • 5-7 years: Peer group as major context

8. DEVELOPMENTAL PRINCIPLES • Developmental domains are related and interact. • Development occurs in a relatively orderly sequence. • Development proceeds at varying rates child to child. • Early experiences have cumulative and delayed effects. • Development proceeds in predictable directions toward greater complexity, organization and internalization. • Development and learning are influenced by multiple social and cultural contexts.

9. DEVELOPMENTAL PRINCIPLES • Children are active learners. • Development and learning come from the interaction of biological maturation and the environment. • Play is an important vehicle for children’s development. • Development advances when children have opportunities to practice newly acquired skills. • Children representing what they know through different ways. • Children learn best in the context of a community in which they are safe and valued.

10. DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE • A practice that • Describes groups of people in your audience • And plans experiences for them • Based on knowledge of them and • On a general understanding of principles of development.

11. DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE • Bring a developmental lens to discussions about your audience. • Make meaningful distinctions in learning experiences for different segments of your audience. • Promote an awareness that childhood is unique and valuable stage of development. • Support efforts to plan activities designed for young children based on what is known about them. • Promote play as a natural and powerful strategy for children to learn and grow.

12. DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK • Organizes and displays information about children’s development • Tool for research, planning and assessment • Focus varies: age, content, domain • Basic parts: • Age/Stage • Developmental Summary • Developmental Goal • Supporting Play Experience • Museum Environment

13. LITERACY FRAMEWORK

14. OBSERVATIONS • Provide provide first-hand examples of children’s development. • Bring Developmental principles to life. • Serve as one source of information to use in the Framework.

15. OBSERVATION “You can’t make a thunderstorm. I am watching birds!”

16. “I AM WATCHING BIRDS!” • Developmental Summary: • Cognitive: Use imaginative and fantasy play to give meaning to people and events. • Developmental Goal: Explore and make meaning of experiences through fantasy and imagination while exploring objects and space. • Supporting Play Experience: • Museum Environment:

17. CONNECTING THE DOTS • Background: Integrate the readings, class material, Framework, observations • Developmental fit: Match the learner experience with the learner. • Project Summary: Capture key information about an exhibit or program project and • what it will accomplish • how it will serve the developmental needs of a young museum audience

18. PLAY DEFINED • Problem solving without consequences. (Forman) • Activities not consciously performed for the sake of any results beyond themselves. (Dewey) • The natural unfolding of the germinal leaves of childhood. (Froebel) • A sensory-motor exercise, regulated essential social and symbolic - especially with infants after the second year. (Piaget) • The exaltation of the possible. (Buber)

19. CHARACTERISTICS OF PLAY • Play is activity. • Play is not limited to any particular form of activity. • The educational value of play is proportional to its power to interest the player, absorb attention, and engage in persistent activity. • An activity is play depending on the attitude of the doer toward the thing he is doing. • The play spirit is an attitude of mind

20. BENEFITS OF PLAY Play positively impacts: • Physical development. • Development in dexterity, practice gross motor skills, keep active and manage weight • Cognitive development. • Verbalization, vocabulary, language comprehension, attention span, concentration, imagination, curiosity, problem solving • Social-emotional learning. • Sharing, cooperation, negotiation, empathy, impulse control, confidence, resiliency. • Joy

21. DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES IN PLAY • Babies play with …….. Objects • Toddlers play ………… Pretend • 3-4’s play ……………. Games • 5-6’s play with ………..Props • 7-9’s play is concerned with…. Social groups

22. ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION • A transactional process between the child, parent and physical environment • Adults are uniquely designed to teach babies and babies are uniquely designed to learn and elicit teaching behavior from adults. • Children are also uniquely designed to learn from their interactions with the physical environment. • Babies are immersed in a physical environment.

23. ENVIRONMENT AS TEACHER • “We value space for its power to organize, promote pleasant relationships between children of different ages, create a handsome environment, provide changes, promote choices and activity and its potential for sparking all kinds of social and affective learning. All this contributes to a sense of well-being and security in children.” Loris Mallaguzzi

24. HABITOT • Target age. • 6 months -to 48 months • Supporting Play Experience • Highlight and make visible children’s physical exploration as a tool to enhance cognitive development. • Museum Environment • Developmentally-designed environment and facilitated play experiences that invite adult interaction.

25. HABITOT

26. DEVELOPMENTAL DESIGN • Basic forms that work in a variety of ways for different ages • Environmental features that afford certain behaviors especially those related to specific developmental tasks at different ages. • Design choices that make developmental changes visible.

27. SUMMARY & NEXT STEPS • Questions? • What’s next?

28. THANK YOU!