Family Development and Children's Research Centre

Parents

Our Present Curriculum*

The early childhood curriculum emphasizes “the whole child” and the development of a positive self-concept, self-discipline, positive attitude toward school and learning, multicultural, nonsexist, and sensitivity towards the differently abled. The curriculum is organized in a manner that is intended to match learning experiences to each child’s development and skills. Activities are provided in both structured and unstructured configurations, with opportunities for individual instruction, small-group instruction, and incidental learning during child-initiated activities in learning centres.

The UWI-FDCRC is committed to carrying out The University’s mission of research, teaching, and service. Therefore, every early childhood classroom is a research and teacher-training site, which contributes to high-quality education for each child.

 

Meet Our Teachers

Our 3+ Teachers: Aunty Roxanne, Aunty Caroline and Aunty Rena

Our 4+ Teachers: Aunty Camelia, Aunty Beverly and Aunty Shekeefa

Visual and Performing Arts: Aunty Shanna

A Mixed Methodology

At the heart of our curriculum are the following basic principles:

• Our children are active learners. By allowing children to make choices and take responsibility for learning activities they develop intellectual independence, self-reliance, and judgment.
• Learning is a process of individual development.  In addition to factual knowledge, children will learn critical thinking skills when they are given opportunities for innovation, experimentation, and intellectual synthesis.

 

Learning Centres

A significant feature of our programme is the Learning Centres, which were introduced in 1984. In this approach, each child works at his/her own pace, with materials designed to meet his/her particular needs and level of learning. This provision reflects careful planning and construction of materials by the teacher, designed to provide structure, guidance, and foundation for learning activities. Such careful planning channels the child’s natural curiosity and eagerness to learn towards educational goals for the individual. In other words, well-planned, carefully arranged and organized centres can be an individualized, learner-paced system for arriving at broad educational achievement.

 

The Project Approach

A project is an extended, in-depth investigation of a topic—ideally one worthy of the children’s attention and energy.  Projects involve children conducting research on phenomena and events worth learning about in their own environments.

Projects also provide contexts in which children can apply a wide variety of verbal, social, and intellectual skills in addition to the basic academic skills being learnt in the more formal parts of the curriculum.

All children come to school with lively minds marked (discernible) by a powerful disposition to make the best sense they can of their experiences. Projects provide rich contexts for expressing and strengthening that fundamental disposition.

 

The High/Scope Methodology

This model enables our students to share control with the adults in the environment, and facilitates a balance in the children’s learning. This active learning approach allows children to have direct and immediate experiences via the implementation of the High/Scope wheel of learning in which children engage in key experiences by participating in child-initiated activities in a process entitled the Plan-Do-Review system of learning. This gives the children the opportunity to choose/plan, investigate, discover, and master the necessary skills required.  They then review/recall after completion of the day’s activities.

 

Children’s Research in Learning Spaces

Research on the project is conducted at the centre, and at home by parents and children. Language skills, inclusive of asking pertinent questions about the subject being investigated, are developed; vocabulary is expanded; and the children’s ability to interact socially is amplified, thus preparing them to be accomplished public speakers.

Children continue to research the project through live interviews with relevant professionals. The project is further explored through the execution of field trips to places of interest, which enhance their knowledge base and provide practical experiences through direct interaction with the elements of the project being investigated.

 

Free play selection

• to orient children to working with the computer;
• to expose children to interactive software that focus on the different aspects of development as opposed to solely “entertaining” the child;
• to encourage a disposition to learning while interacting with software, focusing on Science, Language, Math, Music, and other content areas, which also focus on problem-solving and process skills;
• to allow children to learn at their own pace with each programme;
• to develop their creative abilities;
• to express their ideas;
• to develop split second responses as well as focus attention in the face of distractions;
• to introduce concepts, reinforce skills and allow exploration of any topic of interest to the child.

* Curriculum is developed on an ongoing basis to ensure that the most up-to-date material and new pedagogical ideologies are available for experimentation by staff, parents, and students. The programme description will therefore vary from year to year.