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Designing Preschool Classrooms to Support Development

Research and Reflection

  • Chapter
Spaces for Children

Abstract

Many fields of study are concerned with children’s development or with the built environment. Only early childhood education, however, has focused attention on both of these topics. The concern with development was recently impressed upon me when I searched for a preschool for my 3-year-old daughter, Laura. Each school I visited thrust into my hands a written statement of its philosophy and objectives. Consider a small sample:

  • Our goal is to offer a well-balanced program for preschool-age children, which will enrich the social, emotional, physical, and intellectual development of each child.... We try to meet the individual needs of each child, while helping the child to develop self-confidence, self-esteem, a constructive approach toward learning, and a sense of curiosity and independence.

  • Our objectives—joy in learning, concentration, self-confidence, respect for others and the equipment, self-control and courtesy, coordination, intellectual growth.

  • Why your child should attend our school—

  • It helps him to mature emotionally: he is helped to overcome his shyness; he loses some of the fears and anxieties common to little people; he enjoys working and playing with other children; he acquires pleasure in his own accomplishments.

  • It helps him to mature socially: he learns to show consideration and respect for others, to give and to accept help from others, to participate and to lead in group activities, to accept responsibility.

  • It helps him to mature intellectually: he learns to express himself, to create in many ways, to use his initiative and imagination, to be alert to the world around him.

  • It helps him to mature physically: he develops better control of his large muscles; he improves his posture; he develops good health habits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, Rutgers—The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA

    Carol Simon Weinstein

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, Rutgers — The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Carol Simon Weinstein

  2. Bush Program in Child and Family Policy, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Thomas G. David

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Weinstein, C.S. (1987). Designing Preschool Classrooms to Support Development. In: Weinstein, C.S., David, T.G. (eds) Spaces for Children. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5227-3_8

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