Peer Review

The Integrated Nature of Learning

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Jan 12, 2022 by Teacher Education

Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

The Integrated Nature of Learning is a publication providing early childhood education program administrators and teachers with guidance on practices that support an integrated approach to curriculum planning. Research shows that learning for young children often leads to the acquisition of knowledge and skills across several domains. The idea that domains overlap and influence each other is the subject of this publication. It addresses a key question: How can early educators put the idea of integrated learning into practice? Research recommends an interdisciplinary approach to developmental domains. For example, a learning activity may focus on a deep exploration of a mathematical concept while also supporting the language and literacy and socio-emotional competencies that come into play during the overall learning experience.

Type of Material:

This web publication is a teaching aid which could serve as reference material, background information or a well-organized handbook for select audiences.

Recommended Uses:

This resource is recommended for:

early childhood education program administrators
early childhood education program teachers

This pdf document could serve as a self-paced reading for individuals, or as a supplement to other resources provided by the California Department of Education’s Early Learning and Development System for teams of teachers and/or administrators.

Technical Requirements:

Adobe Reader

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The intended audience will:

examine how play, learning, and curriculum work together in early education.
describe the relationship context for early learning and the role of the teacher in supporting children’s active engagement in learning.
identify strategies for guiding young children’s learning taken fromthe California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework and the California PreschoolCurriculum Framework, Volumes One, Two, and Three.
identify ways in which learning experiences in one domain may also foster learning in other domains.
explore what it means to teach when working with children birth to five,using current research evidence as the starting point.
apply this understanding to a broad definition of curriculum that includesthe learning that occurs within play, within the daily routines, and withinconversations and interactions.
identify examples of how teachers observe, document, and interpretchildren’s play and interactions in order to plan and implement curriculum,to assess learning.
engage children and families as partners in planning the learning experiences.

Target Student Population:

Teacher education candidates in Early Children Education programs
In-service early childhood education teachers
Early childhood administrators

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

proficiency in the English language
familiarity with using browser plug-ins (i.e., PDF reader)
basic knowledge of early childhood education vocabulary, context and techniques

Pre-requisite knowledge of basic teaching and learning theories.
Knowledge of young children's socioemotional development.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The guide is comprehensive, the concepts are valid and the content is relevant.
The content includes vignettes, which are designed to invoke critical thinking and application in the real world context.
The resource is discipline-specific and includes definitions of key terms.
The file is organized and offers a balanced presentation of information.

The learning presents recent (within the last 20 years) educationally significant concepts designed to build early childhood educators' skills. The overarching objective is to help teachers build a toolkit so they can bolster their students' learning capabilities by using eight overarching principles from the California Preschool Curriculum Framework (2010) that reference physical, social, emotional, physiological, and psychological stimuli. The essence of these referents mirror elements outlined in the Dunn & Dunn learning styles (1975).

References

California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 1. (2010).California Department of Education.

Dunn, R., & Dunn, K. (1975). Learning styles, teaching styles. NASSP Bulletin, 59(393), 37–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/019263657505939308

Concerns:

The learning object was created in 2016. The range for many of the cited research extends ten years past that date. Although education theories are relatively stable, young children growing up in the rapidly developing Information Age might express knowledge-builing through creativity, play, and active learning in different ways than children who grew up in different decades, particularly since motivation is an essential caveat in this learning object.

Additionally, teaching and learning approaches that are grounded in learning styles, such as the Dunn and Dunn learning styles (1975), have inherent weaknesses because they are based on psychological essentialism that creates a fixed mindset regarding a student’s learning capability (Nancekivell et al., 2020). Further, the content in the learning object assumes a familiarity with common teaching and learning styles that are applicable to early childhood education. Given this, the learning object does not provide scaffolding for advanced learning in teacher education.

References

Dunn, R., & Dunn, K. (1975). Learning styles, teaching styles. NASSP Bulletin, 59(393), 37–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/019263657505939308

Nancekivell, S. E., Shah, P., & Gelman, S. A. (2020). Maybe they’re born with it, or maybe it’s experience: Toward a deeper understanding of the learning style myth. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(2), 221. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000366

The content would be enhanced by supplying embedded links to background knowledge or activating prior knowledge of the audience.
Hyperlinking key words and concepts to podcasts, videos and/or digital resources is recommended to advance multiples means of representation (UDL).

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Since the disciplines are integrated, both a seasoned and novice teacher can readily incorporate the concepts of the learning material into any curriculum and pedagogy. Although it is not prescriptive, the learning material contains examples on how different disciplines can be integrated, explains how play is the setting for individual and group knowledge-building, and provides a framework to reflect on these processes that is based on a systematic Curriculum-Planning Process. Further, the learning material contains scholarly resources to ground the ideas that are presented and several vignettes to situate the examples in real-world settings.

Concerns:

Teachers might need more supports or a prescriptive "road map" to learn how to effectively integrate curricula. Many might not realize that the goal is to equitably teach and assess content from both disciplines, not use one to support the learning goals of another or teach the subjects as distinct entities (McBee, 2000).

References

McBee, R. H. (2000, September). Why teachers integrate. In The Educational Forum (Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 254-260). Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131720008984762

The resource could be presented in a more flexible and adaptable format.
A more interactive approach, such as including tables, video lessons on the subject, or higher-level questions/reflections could enhance the effectiveness of the teaching tool.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The learning object is a clearly laid out PDF with images to break up the text, graphics and tables to simplify concepts, a glossary, and references page. The clean design, which breaks out each of the eight principles on which the content is based, allows the learning object to be easily navigated.

Concerns:

The use of multimedia elements should be considered. For example, linking images to digital content such as a podcast, might be more engaging than a static image.
The author could consider using the benefits of the digital environment rather than treating the file like a print version of the text.

Other Issues and Comments:

This teaching aid provides a wealth of no-cost, discipline-specific information.
As a teaching aid, the document would be especially helpful for learners who are new to technology.

It would be interesting to see if further research on and application of the concepts within this learning object need to be adapted every 10 to 20 years.

Creative Commons: