Implications Of Environmental Enrichment, The Project Approach, And Preschool Program On Early Childhood Education Essay.

Write a summative statement that identifies the implications of the articles for the early childhood sector and teaching pedagogies and strategies of enhancing children’s progression from lower order to higher order thinking and provision of executive functioning learning experiences in early childhood environments.

Environmental Enrichment for Early Childhood Education

Baroncelli, L., Braschi, C., Spolidoro, M., Begenisic, T., Sale, A., &Maffei, L. (2010). Nurturing brain plasticity: impact of environmental enrichment. Cell death and differentiation, 17(7), 1092.

The primary purpose of the article was to elaborate on the potential of environmental enrichment in the form of a major non-invasive strategy, with the aim of perfecting the developmental deficits of CNS. The article identified the complexities of the adult human brain and also recognized the role of interaction between plasticity processes that are driven by experience and genetic developmental programs. The study was grounded on the fact that there is inadequate evidence that illustrates the effect of EE on plasticity and developmental physiology of the CNS. The authors also identified EE as a mixture of composite non-living and social stimulation. The article also elaborated on the fact that birth related EE persuades a noticeable acceleration in the development of VA, and this impact was steadily reported by rats and mice subjected to behavioural and electrophysiological methods. The information presented in the article also elaborated on the fact nurturing animals during their initial life phases in EE results in a functional phenotype alike to transgenic mice that overexpress forebrain BDNF levels. Environmental stimulation was also found to play an important role in retina development by inducing changes in the visual responsiveness and retinal ganglionic stratifications. This made the authors conclude that CNS development is quite receptive to external environment during early stages of growth. Besides obtaining increased maternal care levels, EE animals are also found to be subjected to incessant physical connexion due to company of adult females, and also demonstrate increased licking and grooming levels. The article further identified the role of massaging and gentle stroking on quickening maturation of biological visual functions. They emphasised on the classical dogma of decline in brain plasticity with age. The impacts of brief EE exposure of adult amblyopic rats on promoting recovery of OD and VA were explained with the help of graphical representations. Additionally, the article also contained evidence for the dynamic control of EE on cortical synaptic plasticity, which leads to retrieval of evoking WM-LTP in optical cortical slices. Another important observation by the researchers was that EE among amblyopic rats was found to decrease the visual cortex concentration of chondroitin-sulphate proteoglycan (CSPG) perineuronal nets (PNNs). Accompanying these functional impacts are retrieval of dendritic-spine density, representing that the exclusion of CSPGs helps altering the synaptic contacts on the visual-cortex pyramidal neurons.Further efforts were also taken by the authors to correlate EE effects with different kinds of cognitive impairment such as, Down’s syndrome, Rett’s syndrome, and Alzheimer’s disease.

The Project Approach and Critical Thinking

Thus, it can be suggested that the information presented in the aforementioned article was useful in relation to early childhood education since the science of early development of the brain has often been found associated with early childhood investments. The authors were able to establish the fact that brain development of the child from birth till an estimated five years of age is critical for forming the foundation of a sustainable and prosperous society. The findings of the study were consistent with other research results that a stimulating and enriched environment proves advantageous in the behavioural and psychological outcomes. In addition, the findings encouraged the application of EE for neurological and behavioural studies and also suggested that several molecular hotspots should be taken into consideration for efficacious treatment of neuropathological circumstances that affect the adult and juvenile CNS. 

Burns, M. V., & Lewis, A. L. (2016). How the Project Approach Challenges Young Children. Gifted Child Today, 39(3), 140-144.

The chief purpose of the article was to elucidate the ways by which the ‘The Project Approach’ provides challenges to young children to think in a critical manner on important topics related to their world. The authors elaborated on the fact that Piaget’s theory forms a principle of primary school practice. The Project Approach was implemented to test and involve young kids’ learning. The authors elaborated on the fact that designated time for project at the Uni Primary occursover whole-group incitements, field tours, and investigation. The article also elaborated on the fact that the study groups are directed by teachers and encompass pupils absorbed in a particular facet of the theme. The Project Approach was also defined as a budding curriculum in concurrence to the learning goals and understandings assessed by the teachers. The article suggested that the phase I focused on sharing understanding and further questioning that makes it imperative for all students to share their previous understandings of the concerned topic with the help of ideas, memory stories, and experiences, thus facilitating the process of challenging children on essential questions. The authors also suggested that duration of the project poses challenges to the articulation of the questions. Hence, the article elaborated on the importance of The Project Approach in inviting children to be “displeasing” in an optimistic way, thus fostering healthy disagreement. Hence, the project was found to create provisions for safety that allows students to express their theories, opinions, and hypotheses without the fear of being misjudged.Phase II on the other hand was an investigation phase where the students are expected to think critically. The author stated that critical thinking can be carried out by the formation along with testing of hypothesis along with the use of trial and error method in addition to representation, experimentation and dispelling of the assumptions. In the final phase that is phase III, the article presented that during the conclusion of the project, the students are expected to present their ideas visually to their families as well as the school community. The article states that these representation might be in the form of artifacts, written reports, graphs and many other such documents. Additionally it was mentioned that the study group faced a challenge that was coming to consensus along with the problem of representation. The article also brings forward the challenges of critical thinking that is experienced during the project work especially in terms of mathematics, literacy, social justice and creativity.

Preschool Program and Cognitive Control

Thus, it can be deduced that the project approach presented by the article was quite useful in providing endless opportunities in terms of the challenges. This is due to the fact that each project is restricted but the questions and resources of the individual investigators. The article was also able to provide a clear aim that to understand the ways of project approach and similarly clearly provided the findings related to the research question. The findings that was revealed from the research was able to successfully provoke the academic as well as the social challenges for the individuals along with the classroom communities of the children in order to foster the interest of the experiences of the children in addition to research, questioning and representations. 

Diamond, A., Barnett, W. S., Thomas, J., & Munro, S. (2007). Preschool program improves cognitive control. Science (New York, NY), 318(5855), 1387.

This article primarily focuses on the cognitive skill development and control that is stated to be important for the success in school as well as life in order to improve at-risk pre-schoolers without use of costly interventions. The study stated that the Tools of the Mind (Tools) was able to improve the executive functions of the pre-schoolers having regular classrooms with regular teachers that too with minimal expense. The study signified that EFs have an intricate association with school readiness compared to the intelligence quotient. There was also a mention of the fact that most of the children begin school while lacking the EF skills. Evidences were obtained in relation to the evaluation using the Tools of the Mind (Tools) which included 18 classrooms initially for the evaluation to be carried out. Steps were taken in order to set the quality standards by the state. It was perceived from the study that stratified random assignment of teachers and assistants was able to minimize confounds due to teacher characteristics. The findings of the results that was articulated revealed accuracy more than speed since in case of young children, accuracy acts as a more sensitive measure. It was perceived that on Dots-Congruent, which had minimal EF demands, children performed similarly regardless of curriculum, year in a curriculum, or gender, though older children performed better. As revealed from the article, the Tools are accounted for more variance existing in EFs as compared to the age or gender. There was significance present that was observed when control was implemented for those. The findings of the study of the superior scores evaluated by Tools children as compared to the closely matched peers in terms of objective as well as neuro-cognitive EF measures were perceived to be consistent with observation of the teachers. It was also mentioned that the specific tasks were more demanding of the efficient functions (EF) as correlation was found to be more intricate with the standardized academic measures.

This article successfully suggests that tools are effective to move the children possessing poor EF to a state which is more optional. However it is not known that to what extend it would be helpful for the children who usually begin with better effective function (EF). However there were certain limitations imposed which included that prior to and after the measurement of the EFs including the academic measures in the dBL children, for whom it is generally strengthened. However in spite of the various limitations present, there were various strengths present which included sampling in a random manner and the use of objective measures. It also stated that there were no authors or testers who had a stake in either of the curriculum. Similarly many it was deduced that many competing explanations ha been ruled out from the study. In conclusion the article successfully stated a hypothesis that was related to the improvement of the EFs in order to have a beneficial effect over time and which will help reduce the needs to special education thus reducing societal costs along with the number of the diagnoses of the efficiency function disorder.

As suggested by the articles discussed above, it was seen that the various strategies mentioned in the studies were quite significant in terms of early childhood education. As the first paper suggests, early development of the brain has often been found associated with early childhood investments. It was also proved that a stimulating and enriched environment proves advantageous in the behavioural and psychological outcomes in children (Baroncelli et al., 2010). Similarly in the second article it was mentioned that The Project Approach’ provides was able to challenge the young children to think in a critical manner on important topics related to their world. This contributed to the pedagogy as it provided endless opportunities in terms of facing the challenges of critical thinking in education (Burns & Lewis, 2016). Finally as revealed by the third article, this article successfully suggested that Tools were effective to move the children possessing poor Efficient Function to a state which is more optional (Diamond et al., 2007).  

Reference list 

Baroncelli, L., Braschi, C., Spolidoro, M., Begenisic, T., Sale, A., &Maffei, L. (2010). Nurturing brain plasticity: impact of environmental enrichment. Cell death and differentiation, 17(7), 1092.

Burns, M. V., & Lewis, A. L. (2016). How the Project Approach Challenges Young Children. Gifted Child Today, 39(3), 140-144.

Diamond, A., Barnett, W. S., Thomas, J., & Munro, S. (2007). Preschool program improves cognitive control. Science (New York, NY), 318(5855), 1387.