Assignment: "Free Choice Learning Center Plan" APA Style

Please read them all

"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood." - Fred Rogers

Your task here is to describe how you would set up a free-choice or open-ended learning center, then describe the learning that could occur in that center, and the benefits of free choice learning centers. Under high-stakes testing, the open-ended learning centers of the past (blocks, Legos, pretend play materials, science materials for exploration and experimentation) have often been replaced by narrow skills-based activities (identifying the beginning sounds of words, completing math problems). Although these skills-focused activities are often called "learning center activities," they are not what I mean here by "learning centers."A "learning center" also does not mean stations that are set up with specific instruction for what children are to do. So, your task here is to choose materials that would be interesting for children to explore, use, and play with, NOT materials designed for teaching specific knowledge or skills, and not preplanned teacher activities. Also please avoid pseudo-play materials (Phonics Fishing) and pseudo-games that are designed primarily to teach specific facts or skills.

1) Describe your plan for one open-ended learning center in a preschoolor kindergarten classroom, including a list of materials that would be in the center and how they would be arranged. Include a diagram. (This is NOT a whole classroom, just one learning center within a classroom. This is also NOT a "station" the teacher set up to teach particular knowledge or skills.)

2) Explain how open-ended learning centers help children meet each of 6 basic psychological needs (how centers in general accomplish that, not how your specific center does that). (The basic needs are described in the "Basic Needs" handout, found on the 2nd and 3rd page of this file.) For each one of these six basic needs, provide a separate explanation for how centers help children meet that need (i.e., "Centers help children meet their need for autonomy by ... "). That's six explanations so far. Also, explain in your own words why meeting these needs is important for children's healthy development and learning.

3) Provide a developmental rationale for the materials in this learning center. That is, first say why these materials are appropriate for kids this age and fit the characteristics and interests of kids this age. Do NOT state what they'll learn from the center, but instead explain the match between the center materials the characteristics and interests of kids this age.

4) For each of three different materials in the center, turn in a list describing ...

a) what the material is,
b) how children might use the material,
c) what children might learn from using material that way, and
d) two benchmarks or grade-level indicators children might move closer to reaching if they used the materials in the ways that you predicted.
(In the end, you'll have three separate a,b,c,d lists for #4)

Basic Psychological Needs of Human Beings

(Note: Use this information to help yourself become a great teacher/parent.)

Understanding and meeting children's basic needs is one of the most important components of being an effective teacher or parent. Healthy development and learning depends on the degree to which children's basic needs are met, and depends on the degree to which children's basic needs are met in an appropriate way.

Just as living things have basic biological needs that are essential for healthy physical development, humans also have basic psychological needs that are essential for their physical and psychological development, and for learning. When children's basic needs are met, they function better, are happier, and healthier, more easily remember what they learned, and interact with others in more appropriate ways. When children's needs are not met in an appropriate way, children act out, have learning and behavioral problems, and seek inappropriate ways to get their needs met (misbehaving, bullying, gangs, etc.).

Traditional K-12 schools are generally not organized to meet children's basic psychological needs, and even Pre-K is being pressured in ways that causes us to lose sight of children's real needs. Thus, it takes a caring teacher-and sometimes one who is willing to operate outside of the mandated curriculum or school structures-to ensure that children's basic psychological needs are met.

I am also going to suggest that basic physical and psychological needs are the REAL "basics" of education, and are more "basic" than academic basics are (the 3 Rs). Thus, if we are trying to instruct children in academics but have not ensured we've met their basic physical and psychological needs first, we're doing education backwards. Basic needs are a higher priority.

* Children's basic physical needs include food, shelter, clothing, and physical safety.

*Children's basic psychological needs include Psychological Security, Autonomy/Freedom, Belonging/Relatedness, Competence, Power, and Enjoyment/Fun. Each is explained below:

Psychological Security: You know what is expected of you and expect to be treated with respect and care, and feel no risk of being humiliated, ostracized, made to feel stupid or incompetent, etc. Bullying is a problem for many reasons, one of which is that it undermines feelings of psychological security. A caring community helps us meet our security needs.

Autonomy/Freedom: You feel like you have meaningful choices, and that you are freely choosing to do the things you are doing (not being coerced by others). Controlling language, feedback, rewards and punishments all undermine feelings of autonomy/freedom. We support autonomy/freedom through providing meaningful choices, through giving reasons for limits and expectations, through showing we understand kids' perspectives and feelings (even when they are unhappy about things), and by reducing the use of controlling language.

Belonging/Relatedness: You feel like you belong, you are part of a group, others care for you and care about what happens to you. Exclusive cliques and being left out interfere with meeting this need, as does an impersonal climate, or one where we always work alone. Compared to cooperation, competition also interferes with meeting this need, because it sets up some people as opponents and interferes with empathy for others. True cooperative learning, group activities, and a caring community help kids meet this need.

Competence: You feel like you are capable of meeting physical, intellectual, social, and moral demands and expectations. You feel a growing sense of skill. When things are persistently too hard or too easy, that interferes with meeting this need, as does standardized curriculum-which by definitions is too hard for some kids and too easy for others. Curriculum that is not valued or seen as relevant by learners does not support feelings of competence (Even if the teachers value it, if kids are thinking "Who cares?" learning skills you don't value doesn't boost your feelings of competence.) Appropriate challenges helps us meet this need, and since children have varied abilities in every area, this requires a wide range of materials and substantial individualization of curriculum.

Power: You feel you have the ability to influence others and events. This does mean children "run the show," but that education is responsive to their interests and abilities, just as democracy is responsive to people's votes, and allows people substantial room to shape their own lives. Authoritarian parenting and teaching interfere with kids feeling a sense of power, as does standardized curriculum. Children feel power if they meaningful and regular choices and if adults are responsive to their interests and reasonable requests.

Enjoyment/Fun: You know what fun is, and includes things like roller coasters, dancing, water slides, etc. Enjoyment is slightly different, as we enjoy many things that we wouldn't call "fun." For example, I enjoy mowing the lawn, painting rooms, cleaning the house, and writing, although I rarely go "Yeee-haaa!" as I am doing them. We often enjoy mastering new challenges, and this is one way in which intrinsic motivation drives children to develop new skills, even without and teaching. Curriculum that is standardized, unrelated to kid's questions and interests, and simply dull busywork undermines enjoyment. Variety, challenge, real-world connections, and hands-on/experiential learning all support enjoyment, as does choice and opportunities to interact with other learners and participate/share ideas.