Realizing the Dream: Designing Opportunities for Intellectual Engagement in Urban First-Grade Classrooms

• In Event: Early Childhood Science

Abstract

Through the accountability and testing movement, primary education mainly regarded narrow academic goals and subject-matter knowledge as the outcome of schooling despite research indicating child development and intellectual growth as goals of early-years education. Children within low-income communities typically face lowered expectations for academic and intellectual growth. This paper documents the curriculum design and learning processes that create intellectual engagement opportunities for urban first graders through a 4-week interdisciplinary unit on dinosaurs. Pre-post data on students’ perceived knowledge and skills as well as their intellectual engagement are analyzed. Results indicate that students successfully engaged in cognitively and academically demanding tasks for building intellectual growth that may not be available in traditional textbook-dependent curriculum and instruction aligned with PAARC testing.

Authors

• Zeynep Isik-Ercan, Rowan University

• Corine Meredith Brown, Rowan University

• Serhat Ercan, Sinop University