Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemCan the incorporation of a structured pre-primary curriculum improve primary scholastic performance?( 1996)Primary and secondary educational reforms seeking quality and accountability are placing top-down pressure on early childhood education to become more defined and assessable in preparation for future learning. State and Federal government policies advocate set curriculum with definable results. Such trends are also observed overseas. The aim is for early childhood education to be more relevant to the rest of the child's learning and to the demands of the time. A large body of professionals within early childhood education view this as an intrusive, restrictive and regressive approach which is inconsistent with what years of research have taught us about early childhood education. They maintain that early childhood education is a stage in its own right and does not need to be altered to match another. Their main view is that each child learns individually to full potential via firsthand experiences through play under the guidance of a qualified educarer. Frameworks, and curricular continuity are seen as restrictions of such freedom. Generally accepting this premise, the study seeks to investigate the viability of concepts that will provide quality, continuity and smooth transition from pre-prep education to primary school while remaining true to a free early childhood educational philosophy. Theories of prominent educators, psychologists and sociologists, current overseas research and practise, as well as guidelines contained in developmentally appropriate publications, were used as foundations and substantiations for the concept of a structured learning component through which social skills, cognitive skills and internalised learning are developed. This is seen to enable the incorporation of continuity of learning into early schooling and beyond. Play remains the medium of the child's learning experiences. The research established that a structured learning component can be valuable provided it is carried out by experienced professionals. A survey of community opinion indicated that such a component can be beneficial to future learning. Literature across the ideological continuum as surveyed, and most authors advocated the need for some structure in the early childhood curriculum.