Abstract
Creating a multimodal nurturing environment that promotes learning is one of the most important considerations for teachers when planning a curriculum. This chapter focuses on ways to empower preservice teachers to design a quality learning environment for young children. Carefully prepared environments nurture critical thinking skills. They are designed in a provocative kind of way to encourage a child to learn and can entice a child to look and ponder and become engaged in discovery, problem solving, and creative thinking. Two approaches of preparing preservice teachers to think about the learning environment as the third teacher are shared with implications for teacher preparation programs. One approach was to provide a theoretical foundation along with a hands-on experience where students had the opportunity to design an environment as a third teacher. The second approach involved students in discussions to form a theoretical foundation, similar to the first approach, but they did not have an opportunity to design an environment.
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Danko-McGhee, K., Slutsky, R. (2017). Empowering Preservice Teachers to Design a Classroom Environment That Serves as a Third Teacher. In: Narey, M. (eds) Multimodal Perspectives of Language, Literacy, and Learning in Early Childhood. Educating the Young Child, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44297-6_13
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