Introduction
Early childhood education has a rich and exciting history. There are many courageous people who improving children’s lives. They changes our insight on children and broader our angle in education and learning through centuries. This revolution is still continuing nowadays.
In order to promote excellence in early childhood NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) creates a DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practice). It is the guidelines that are recommended to ensure high-quality care and education for young children. The DAP gives us a framework to plan and examine our selected curriculum framework(s) are in the best practice.
There are plenty of theories and curriculums help in shaping our early childhood education. Different theories, as well as the different approaches and curriculums have different uniqueness. In this project, the Waldorf Approach is the curriculum to discover. Discussing the possible ways of linking and the framework DAP to Waldorf Approach, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of DAP are the aims of the project.
Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)
DAP is position statement of the NAEYC. It includes broader set of belief and practices that promote excellence in early childhood education by providing a framework for best practice from birth to eight. By researching on child learning development and in the knowledge base regarding educational effectiveness, DAP framework outlines practice that encourages the optimal learning and development of young children. It helps practitioners to make appropriate child development and learning related choices while considering individual differences and needs, as well as social and cultural constructs (Morgan, 2010). Its focuses are to shrink learning gaps and enhance the achievement of all children, establish better connected education for preschool and elementary children, as well as, to acknowledge practitioner knowledge and decision making as crucial to education effectiveness. (NAEYC, 2009; Morgan, 2010)
Developmentally appropriate practice is informed and created from theory and literature about how children develop and learn, especially on the review that gains many well supported generalizations, or principles, for example Piaget, Vygotsky and Multiple Intelligence Theory. DAP mentions about letting the children learn new knowledge via prior knowledge as well as setting and meeting goals that are both challenging and achievable for children are the insights of constructivist theory, Piaget and etc theories. With the considerations and combinations of theory and literature, DAP layouts its framework by emphasizing the three core considerations, twelve principles for decision making of the practitioners and the five guidelines in guiding for best practice curriculum. (NAEYC, 2009)
The three core considerations in DAP that providing knowledge to consider in making decision are all teaching practices should be: (a) appropriate to children’s age and developmental status that allows general predictions about experiences are likely to occur and to be promoted, (b) aligns to children as unique individuals which it is referring to the appropriate responds and implications a practitioner can apply, in order to adapt and respond to the individual variation, and (c) responsive to the children’s social and cultural contexts which it indicates the values, expectations, as well as behavioral and linguistic customs that form their lives at home and in their communities. In order words, allot of effort required from the practitioners in order to understand and to assure the learning experiences in the program or school are meaningful, relevant, and respectful for each child and family. (NAEYC, 2009; Morrison, 2012)
Clearly, the effectiveness of teaching of core consideration in DAP requires high intentionality of the practitioners. Good practitioners are intentional in everything they do, such as setting up the classroom, planning curriculum, applying various teaching strategies appropriately, assessing children, interacting with them, and reciprocal working with their families. Intentional practitioners are purposeful and thoughtful about the actions they take, and enable them to lead their teaching to achieve the goals they are trying to facilitate their children to reach. (NAEYC, 2009)
The practitioners with intentional in their teaching, making decisions based on these researched and practiced beliefs, theories and literatures is the central premise of DAP. There are twelve basic principles outlined in DAP to guide practitioners in making best decision related to children’s learning and development. However, child learning and development has no linear listing of principles that enable righteousness to the complexity of the phenomenon (Morgon, 2010). Thus, it is surely not all-inclusive when the list is comprehensive. Each principle depicts an individually contributing factor; but just as all domains (social, emotional, physical, cognitive) of development and learning are interrelated, as well as, the principles are interconnect (NAEYC, 2009; Morgan, 2010).
Firstly, all the domains of development and learning include physical, social and emotional, and cognitive are important, and they are closely interrelated. Children’s development and learning in on domain influence and are influenced by what takes place in other domains. Secondly, many aspects of children’s learning and development follow well documented sequences and consistent documented progression, with later abilities, skills, and knowledge building on those already acquired. Thirdly, rates of development are varying from child to child, as well as at uneven rates across different areas of a child’s individual functioning. Fourthly, development and learning result from a dynamic and continuous interaction of both biological maturation and personal experience. (NAEYC, 2009)
Fifthly, early experiences have profound effects, both cumulative and delays, on a child’s development and learning; and there are optimal periods certain types of development and learning. Sixthly, development builds toward greater complexity, self-regulation, and symbolic or representational thinking capacities. Seventhly, children develop best when they have secure, consistent relationships with responsive and positive relationships with peers and adults. Eighthly, development and learning occur in and are affected by multiple social and cultural contexts. (NAEYC, 2009)
Ninthly, children are always mentally active in seeking to understand the world around them, children learn in a variety of ways and therefore a wide range of teaching strategies and interactions are effective in supporting all those different learning style. Tenthly, play is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as for promoting language, cognition, and social competence. Eleventh, development and learning are advanced when children are challenged to achieve at a level just beyond their current competency, and also when they have many opportunities to practice newly acquired skills. Lastly, children’s experiences shape their motivation and approaches to learning, such as persistence, initiative, and flexibility; in turn, these dispositions and behaviors affect their learning and development. (NAEYC, 2009)
As mentions from the beginning, guideline for developmentally appropriate practice is the practice that stimulates the optimal learning and development of young children with the grounded both in the research in child development and learning that builds a strong knowledge base regarding educational effectiveness in early care and education. The effectiveness of the early childhood professionals lies on drawing all the principles of child development and learning outlined, the knowledge base on effective practices, as well as the application of the information in their practice. All these core considerations and principles form the guidelines address decisions that early childhood professionals that make in the five key (and interrelated) areas of practice. There are (1) creating a caring community of learners, (2) teaching to enhance development and learning, (3) planning curriculum to achieve important goals, (4) assessing children’s development and learning, and (5) establishing reciprocal relationships with families (NAEYC, 2009). All the key areas of practice, DAP explains their roles, provides guidelines and strategies for practitioners and related parties to facilitate. As for reference, there is a brief summary of the five key area of DAP practice at table 1 that draws a summary on the comparison of DAP Guidelines and Waldorf Education (page 11-13).
In summary, DAP is a guideline for the development of early childhood development. Indeed, it is a useful tool that can be use as a guideline assisting to plan, organize, implement and even to assess for the best practice in early childhood education.
Waldorf Approach
Rudolf Steiner was the founder of Waldorf School. He founded the Waldorf School at Stuttgart in Germany for the children of the factory workers of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company at the invitation as well as the request by that company's director, Emil Molt. Rudolf Steiner accepted the offer, and on September 17, 1919, the free Waldorf School opened its doors and the Waldorf movement began. Today, Waldorf education has developed into an international movement with more than nine hundred independent schools in sixty countries. (Driscoll & Nagel, 2005; Mays & Nordwall, 2004; Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012; Roonarine & Johnson, 2005)
There are numbers of basic principles of Waldorf approach. Firstly, Waldorf approach is set based on Anthroposophy (a philosophy developed by Rudolf Steiner) and understanding of the human being, which is as a being of body, soul and spirit (Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012). In order words, Waldorf approach emphasis on the spiritual nature of humanity and the universe rather than the development of physical, intellectual, social and emotions. Thus “head, heart and hands” are the slogan that Waldorf practitioners strive to transform education into an art that educates the whole child (included social, emotional, spiritual, moral, physical and intellectual) with integrity. Other than that, a wide range of religious traditions, for examples celebrate different festivals of different religions, are included in the Waldorf curriculum that are infused spirituality. (Mays & Nordwall, 2004; Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012; Stephenson, N.A.; Roonarine & Johnson, 2005)
Besides, Waldorf approach emphasizes on respecting for development. Waldorf kindergarten serves children between the ages of 3 to 6 years, consistent with the first 7-year cycle in Steiner’s theory of development (Gestwicki, 2007; Roonarine & Johnson, 2005). Reverence, enthusiasm and protection are the belief and feelings that Waldorf practitioners espouse (Roonarine & Johnson, 2005). They respect children’s process of development and their developmental stages, as well as gives freedom for them to unfold their own pace. In other words, children’s development determines the reaction and the introduction of related curriculum topics by the Waldorf practitioners (Stephenson, N.A.; Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012).
According to the Steiner’s theory of development, children from Waldorf’s early childhood from birth to age of six or seven learn through imitation and example (Gestwicki, 2007). It is consistent with the Waldorf curriculum that children are learned, played and benefit with mixed-age group as this diversity in ages offers the younger children role models, scaffolds from the older one, while the older children learn responsibility and self-regulation which are also crucial moral in Waldorf education. The curriculum consists of imaginative play, fairytales, folklore and fables, imitation, art activities, “real” work such as knitting and baking bread, musical instruments, dance, drama, and awareness of nature, cycles, and seasons. Also, since Steiner believes that young children are working to develop their physical body and their will, so the activities are not academic in nature, but hands-on (Gestwicki, 2007).
In the early childhood years, Waldorf approach stresses on guided free play. It provides extensive time in an environment that is homelike in design, function, and atmosphere, using natural materials, and gives examples of productive work where children can involve, like baking, gardening, and cooking. Other activities include painting, drawing and making wax models also being offered. The goal of the early childhood curriculum is to develop physical coordination, finger dexterity, listening skills, the ability to relate socially in a group, and initiative , as well as play is one of the very important way enables children to develop a sense of community (Gestwicki, 2007). Besides indoor free play, outdoor play periods are also incorporated into the school day, with the objective of offering and creating children’s sensitivity to the nature, weather and the seasons of the year as well as to create love to natural environment. (Gestwicki, 2007; Roonarine & Johnson, 2005)
Furthermore, Waldorf approach emphasizes on Oral language development. It is delivered via songs, poems and movement games. During daily story times, Waldorf practitioners often tell fairytale stories by hearts, as well as puppetry, games, singing, and finger plays. This is movement art and it is usually integrates with spoken texts or music and includes elements of role-play. In general, concepts are first presented through stories and images in order to have better integration of academic instruction and the arts. For example, English is based on world literature, myths, and legends; history includes story of the world’s great civilizations; math includes arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. (Gestwicki, 2007; Roonarine & Johnson, 2005)
Other than that, Eurythmy is also another crucial principle. It is a Greek word that explains beautiful or harmonious rhythm. Eurythmy makes speech and music visible via action and gesture that enables children to foster a sense of harmony and balance (Nordin, 2011). In fact, it is an expressive movement art invented by Rudolf Steiner in cooperation with Marie von Sivers (Nordin, 2011). This performance art is also used in education, primarily in Waldorf education, and it serves as a movement therapy (Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012).
In addition, Waldorf approach focuses on nurturing imagination. For examples, Folk and fairy tales, and legends are integrated throughout the Waldorf curriculum. Besides it enable children to discover the traditions of many different cultures that supporting a multicultural approach in education, it also enrich the imaginative life of the young child and promote free thinking and creativity (Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012). Other than that, many objects found in the classroom are natural materials, such as branches and peddles. Their aims are to encourage connections with nature and the concept of “oneness with the world” (Roonarine & Johnson, 2005; Stephenson, N.A.). These simple materials drawn from natural sources are also use to help children in development through play as they can be transformed imaginatively to fit a wide variety of purposes. For instance, Waldorf dolls are intentionally made simple and open ended in order to let and encourage playing children to employ and strengthen their imagination and creativity. Waldorf approach creates many opportunities and chances exist for creativity and make-believe, as a result of Steiner believed it enhances the development of the will. (Howards, 2006; Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012; Roonarine & Johnson, 2005; Stephenson, N.A.).
Daily, weekly and annual rhythms (routine), including seasonal festivals absorbed from a variety of traditions are the emphasis of the approach too. The examples of daily rhythms include times to come together for daily chores, for stories, for puppetry and for art; while for annual rhythms include celebration of different cultures seasonal and religious festivals (Gestwicki, 2007). The block for around every three to four weeks, Waldorf curriculum unfolds in main-lesson. Interestingly, there is low level of reliance on standardized textbooks in which children create his or her own illustrated summary of the coursework in a book form and they make their own texts, or main-lesson books, for every subject. This enables them to develop deeply into the subject, as well as, it is also an emphasis on social education, with students learn to work in group. (Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012; Gestwicki, 2007)
Besides that, in the early childhood years (in fact until fourth grade), the Waldorf approach does not encourage the exposure to media influences such as television, computers, and recorded music. This is because they believe that these are harmful to children’s development in the early years. (Gestwicki, 2007; Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012)
In order to foster the sense of individuality, self-esteem, and wholeness of Waldorf children, nontraditional approach is the way of assessing Waldorf children’s learning and development. Observation and working hand in hand with parents (establishing relationships with families) are the tools Waldorf use to develop goal for each individual child’s learning, to share a sense of responsibility for the child’s growth and development, and to strive for consistency between the home and school environment. Thus establishing reciprocal relationship, good communication and rapport with families are the element that cannot be separated in order to have effective Waldorf education. For example, Waldorf pratitioners make home visits before the first day of school and parents are welcomed to go into school. (Roonarine & Johnson, 2005)
Waldorf approach provides for diversity and disability. It can be seen from first grade, that the curriculum for all students includes the study of two foreign languages as well as the curriculum integrates the study of different religions and cultures. Thus, children learn respect for people of different from them. In addition, Waldorf approach can cope and enjoy certain level of success with children who have been diagnosed with disabilities like dyslexia. This is because of Waldorf practitioners trained and enable to use different or all of the senses for a child to successfully learn curriculum material, which increases the chances of learning for different types of disabilities and learning styles children. (Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012)
As a summary, there are essential experiences for the healthy development of the young child that are stressed by Rudolf. Waldorf education provides healthy development with love and warmth; an environment that nourishes the senses; creative and artistic experiences; meaningful adult activity to be imitates; free, imaginative play; protection of the forces of childhood; gratitude, reverence and wonder; joy, humor, and happiness; and adult caregivers pursuing a path of inner development (Howards, 2006; Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012).
Waldorf Approach & Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)
The Waldorf approach to early education seems to have its uniqueness that arguably compares very favorably with other well-known models, such as Montessori and Reggio Emilia. Indeed, Waldorf has mostly fulfilled with DAP as set forth by the NAEYC. In table 1 it is a summary manner of the DAP guidelines with Waldorf’s approach. It involves five categories are mentioned in the DAP orientation to the education of young children: (1) creating a caring community of learners; (2) teaching to enhance development and learning; (3) constructing appropriate curriculum; (4) Assessing children’s learning and development; and (5) establishing reciprocal relationships with families. (Roonarine & Johnson, 2005)
First of all, DAP is it primarily helps to save the practitioners’ time, energy and effort in the work has been done by the curriculum designers (Gestwicki, 2007). It enables them to have well understanding on the reason behind the curriculum being designed in short time and react appropriately. From the table, it is clear that some components of the Waldorf approach clearly demonstrate ideas of DAP. For instance, these include the emphasis on play and activity in the early years, integrated curricula and learning through theme study, less pressure on early academics, highly individualized attention, understanding of developmental stage, and emphasis on the whole child (Gestwicki, 2007).
Furthermore, DAP aids the administrators in building confidence and trust on any specific teaching of particular content is taking place where they do not confidence in practitioners’ individual knowledge and skills (Gestwicki, 2007). This is because the framework also depicts the requirements and the attitudes should have in every practitioner in early childhood education.
In general, although there is good correspondence between DAP and Waldorf under the five categories of program characteristics discussed in this chapter, the distant designers may have no knowledge of the particular developmental needs, learning styles, and interests of the specific children in any classroom, or of family or community wishes or needs which actually required the practitioner involved, gained by individual observation, reflection, and assessment (Gestwicki, 2007). For example, DAP guidelines recommend a more differentiated approach to assessment but some constructivist learning approaches do not use traditional way of assessment methods to assess the development and learning status of a child. Waldorf approach assess their children by using the non-traditional way of observation, practitioners and parents involvement that these are their important tools to create deep insights into the child’s development (Roonarine & Johnson, 2005; Nordin, 2011; Nordin, 2012; Driscoll & Nagel, 2005).
Moreover, it is recommended those practitioners are able to develop knowledge and skills, to understand various teaching and learning strategies, and to be able to implement relevant ideas in their planning. Prepackaged materials like DAP may offer a foundation from which to work, resources, and ideas, but cannot provide a final appropriate curriculum (Gestwicki, 2007). This is because of different approaches designed may have their reasons and base which might failed to fulfill some of DAP framework. As can see clearly in Waldorf approach, there is other areas that seem less closely aligned with DAP but are crucial to make Waldorf as Waldorf. These include pratitioner direction, excluding facilitation, an emphasis on celebration of festivals and holidays, examining questions regarding the philosophical or anthroposophy, as well as the discouragement of using media for young children who are below seven years old, (NAEYC, 2009; Gestwicki, 2007; Nordin, 2011; Nordin 2012; Roonarine & Johnson, 2005; Stephenson, N.A).
Lastly, DAP guideline contains the basic concepts or surface level of considering some insights. It fails to appreciate or credit the curriculums that are beyond their standards. In many ways, Waldorf is even over the standards set forth by NAEYC, bringing the basic concepts to new heights through both application and attitude (Roonarine & Johnson, 2005). For instance, NAEYC addresses the whole child as physical, social, emotional, linguistic, aesthetic, and cognitive; but Waldorf defines this wholeness to a deeper level that includes a child’s spiritual and moral development (Roonarine & Johnson, 2005).
Conclusion
DAP framework provides wider view of best practice and implementation guidelines in early childhood education. DAP is a guideline for the development of early childhood education. Indeed, it is quite comprehensive and it is a useful tool that assists in planning, organizing, implementing and even assessing for the best practice in early childhood education.
Waldorf approach started from Germany since 1919. However, Waldorf has remained timeless in its philosophy and it is moving actively and progressively nowadays. Waldorf early childhood education and best practices in early childhood education as generalized in the DAP guidelines are closely aligned. Both are searching for appropriate approach to early childhood education based upon an understanding of child development with the basis of valuing the child as an individual and respecting the importance of childhood.
However, no one theory and no framework suit all. Adjustments still can be happen if the curriculum designed is for the best of the children. The involvement of packaged curricula on the market, with predesigned scripts, activities and other materials, like Waldorf approach, adjustments are needed when administrators and related parties use DAP as a guide to make curriculum decisions. In short, DAP does not mean making things easier for children but it ensures the goals and experiences are suitable for children to learn and build, as well as they are challenging enough for the children to move beyond with interest (Morrison, 2012).
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