Subarea 1 of the early childhood content test focuses on Child Development, Learning and Assessment.
Knowledge of Child Development is very relevant to the work of early childhood educators. Knowing the ages and stages of specific developmental milestones, particularly within infancy and the preschool years, is key as this will come up in several questions within this section. Review these resources:
Learning relates not only to theories of cognitive development and the understanding that young children learn best through hands-on, concrete materials and content that develops meaningfully from young children’s prior experiences. It also refers to the ways in which teachers set up their learning environments to support socialization with peers, to guide children in becoming self-directed, independent learners, and to support higher level thinking skills.
To support your review in this area, Piaget and Vygotsky are two theorists to be familiar with.
Understanding of the developmental progression of English Language Learners (ELLs) in early childhood classrooms is also addressed in Subarea 1. Be familiar with the Stages of Second Language Acquisition.
Assessment refers to both the formal and informal methods of gathering information about the children we teach- what they know and can do at a given point in time. The purpose of assessment is to effectively develop and plan for ongoing educational activities that are targeted to the needs of our specific students.
Become familiar with the uses and types of assessments such as developmental screenings, diagnostic assessments, observation, anecdotal notes and portfolio-based assessment. View a reference document of assessment terms here.
Now, let’s turn our attention to reviewing select practice questions related to Child Development, Learning and Assessment.