Ini tulisan yang menarik dari Professor Elizabeth Jones. Di dalamnya ada definisi yang keren tentang kurikulum. "Curriculum is what happens in an educational environment. It may be prescribed, emergent, or accidental and unidentified..." di bagian lain tertulis begini : "Emergent curriculum focuses on the process of learning. The more standardized the curriculum, the less children’s individual needs are met and the more likely it is that many children will fall behind."

1. Our Proud
Our Proud
Her tage
Charlotte Anderson and Edna Ranck
The
Emergence
of
Emergent
Curriculum
© Julia Luckenbill
Elizabeth Jones
In the late 1960s, Laura Dittman, rich learning environment, and teach- which were designed with great care
professor at the University of Mary- ers focused their energy on observing to support children’s cognitive and
land’s Institute for Child Study and children’s play and recording anec- aesthetic development. In the 1940s
NAEYC’s last volunteer editor of Young dotal notes on notepads kept in their child psychologists such as Arnold
Children, invited me to contribute to a smock pockets (Jones & Reynolds Gesell created child study laboratories
collected work on curriculum planning 2011). We made plans from day to day at universities, taking detailed notes
in early childhood education. I was in response to our observations and on children’s physical and social-
interested, but also confused, as I had reflections on children’s needs and emotional development. In the 1950s
always been by the concept of curricu- interests. The curriculum was set down psychoanalyst Erik Erikson first pub-
lum. In my experience, curriculum was only after it had taken place, not laid lished a theory of developmental stages
what elementary teachers rather than out in advance except in broad terms. that explained in depth the role of play
preschool teachers were supposed to These two focuses—creating the at the stage of initiative, the years from
cover, using prescribed textbooks and physical environment and studying 3 to 5. Each of these thinkers focused
worksheets. the child—characterized the develop- attention on the young child as an
My own introduction to working ment of early childhood education in active, self-motivated learner, deserv-
with children was in a 1950s university the first half of the twentieth century. ing of intensive study in a thoughtfully
lab preschool where adults “set the Maria Montessori pioneered the focus planned environment.
stage” for children’s exploration in a on materials in the physical classroom, And so I offered Laura the title “Cur-
riculum Is What Happens” for the
book. She liked it but insisted on add-
ing “Planning Is the Key.” That was OK
Elizabeth Jones, PhD, is faculty emerita, School of Human Development and
Family Studies, Pacific Oaks College, in Pasadena, California. She began teach- with me, as long as we were clear that
Young Children • January 2009 3
ing young children in Pacific Oaks Children’s School in 1954 and participated planning is done all along the way by
actively in the growth of the college, where she goes on thinking and writing. program staff and not in advance by
Our Proud Heritage is published in the March and November issues of Young expert strangers who have never met
Children and features contributing writers who offer insights on past practice, the program’s children.
knowledge, and leadership in early childhood education. For submission guide-
In the last half of the twentieth cen-
lines, go to www.naeyc.org/yc/columns/ourproudheritage or contact one of the
coordinators: Edna Runnels Ranck at edna.ranck@verizon.net, or Charlotte tury and today, the pressure to teach a
Anderson at charli@charlottephd.com. prescribed curriculum has intensified
This column is available in an online archive at www.naeyc.org/yc/columns. in early childhood education. Across
the United States, the 1960s discov-
66 Young Children • March 2012

2. ests. Its practice is open-ended and
Curriculum Is What Happens self-directed. It depends on teacher
initiative and intrinsic motivation, and
Curriculum is what happens in an educational environment. It may be pre- it lends itself to a play-based environ-
scribed, emergent, or accidental and unidentified. Elementary education com- ment. Emergent curriculum emerges
monly has been characterized by prescribed curriculum, in which specialists from the children, but not only from
rationally determine what first or fourth graders should be taught. Curriculum in the children (see “Sources of Emer-
preschool education more often has been accidental and unidentified. Because gent Curriculum,” p. 68).
preplanned curriculum may be merely arbitrary for the individual child, and Curriculum emerges from the play
because accidental curriculum lends itself neither to evaluation nor to teacher of children and the play of teachers.
education, the importance of developing emergent curriculum models has been It is coconstructed by the children
and the adults and the environment
increasingly recognized. Our knowledge of how to implement this middle way,
itself. To develop curriculum in depth,
in which a curriculum emerges from each teacher’s planful interaction with the
adults must notice children’s ques-
individuals comprising a particular group of children, is limited. Those who are
tions and invent ways to extend them,
skilled at such teaching are often unable to communicate to parents, colleagues,
document what happens, and invent
or the public what intuitively they are doing superbly well (Jones 1977, 4).
more questions. The process is natu-
rally individualized.
In contrast, standardized curricu-
lum comes from unknown experts
ery of Piaget and cognitive develop- an emergent curriculum built on the outside the classroom. It relies on
ment dovetailed with the national strengths of the child. Like the Reg- generalization rather than on an indi-
concern for social equity that led to gio educators, we collected stories of vidual teacher’s creativity and atten-
the creation of Head Start in the mid- emergent curriculum in practice wher- tiveness to individual learners. Indeed,
1960s and an increasing demand for ever we traveled as consultants work- standard curriculum may squelch
accountability. The public asked, “If all ing with teachers in their classrooms. teacher thinking. What it permits is
this public money is being invested in Teachers, we reasoned, learn from linear planning and assessment that
programs for young children, how do each other’s experiences. is responsive to bureaucratic needs in
we know they’re learning?” Preschool The goal of emergent curriculum a large nation with large educational
teachers were expected to follow a is to respond to every child’s inter- systems. In this approach, responsive
curriculum, and children were tested
for mastery. Commercial publishers of
curricula and tests eagerly expanded
their product lines. NEW FROM NAEYC!
My previous interest had been
casual; it was the writing that got me
started on serious investigation of What You Need to Lead an Early
early childhood curriculum. At Pacific Childhood Program: Emotional
Oaks College, I created an adult class, Intelligence in Practice
still in existence, and called it Emer- by Holly Elissa Bruno
gent Curriculum. It let me talk, listen,
To become leaders, early childhood education students
write, and coconstruct an early child- must understand how to build dynamic relationships with
hood education curricular theory that staff, families, and the community, as well as learn all the
made sense to me. facts and figures about early childhood administration.
Bruno skillfully breathes life into previously dry topics
This journey generated a new like regulatory legislation, facilities management, and
NAEYC book in 1994, Emergent Cur- budgeting. The author infuses every chapter with vibrantly
riculum, written with my colleague engaging authentic case studies. What You Need to Lead
is a text students will want to read. ISBN: 9781928896807 • Item #363
John Nimmo, who had pursued his $38.00 • Members: $30.40 20% savings
doctoral research in the preschools
of Reggio Emilia, Italy. Created in the ®
Scan for a
1960s by Loris Malaguzzi, the Reggio preview
Emilia preschool ideal had become
by the 1990s a world-renowned model Order online at www.naeyc.org /store
of the documentation of children’s or call 800-424-2460 option 5 (9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST, Mon.–Fri.)
active learning at play and work and
Young Children • March 2012 67

3. teaching is sacrificed to effi-
ciency, and only outcomes
are measured.
In 1986 NAEYC published
the first edition of Develop-
mentally Appropriate Prac-
tice (Bredekamp), which
acknowledged the impor-
tance of accountability
while continuing to empha-
size child-initiated learning.
However, the pressure for
© Julia Luckenbill
standardization continued
to escalate. Passage of
the No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) Act in 2001 began
a decade of overwhelming
focus on test-based measurement and because one has to, and doing some- Practice.” In Vol. 1 of Current Topics in Early
test-compatible instruction, with reli- thing because one wants to” (Franklin Childhood Education, ed. L. Katz, 1–32. Nor-
ance on behaviorist learning theory wood, NJ: Ablex.
& Biber 1977, 8). In a society focused
Jones, E. 1977. “Introduction: Curriculum Plan-
rather than developmental theory on technology and consumption, the ning in Early Childhood Education.” In Cur-
(Kamii 1985). popularity of this view is understand- riculum Is What Happens: Planning Is the Key,
Behavior modification approaches able (Jones & Reynolds 2011, 91). ed. L.L. Dittman, 4. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
Jones, E., & J. Nimmo. 1994. Emergent Curricu-
to teaching use the metaphor of the Emergent curriculum focuses on
lum. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
marketplace, a system based on pay- the process of learning. The more Jones, E., & G. Reynolds. 2011. The Play’s the
ment rather than giving. These meth- standardized the curriculum, the less Thing: Teachers’ Roles in Children’s Play. 2nd
ods “inevitably produce a dichotomy children’s individual needs are met ed. New York: Teachers College Press.
Kamii, C. 1985. “Leading Primary Education
between work and play, or—more and the more likely it is that many
toward Excellence: Beyond Worksheets and
broadly—between doing something children will fall behind. Children have Drill.” Young Children 40 (6): 3–9.
diverse strengths. Early childhood
educators, granted the flexibility to do
Sources of so, can build on those strengths and Resources
on passionate interests as they help
Emergent Curriculum Curtis, D., & M. Carter. 2011. Reflecting Chil-
children construct genuine knowledge
• Children’s interests dren’s Lives: A Handbook for Planning Your
for themselves and practice empathy
Child-Centered Curriculum. 2nd ed. St. Paul,
• Teachers’ interests and respect for their fellow learners. MN: Redleaf.
In no other way can the inhabitants Jones, E., K. Evans, & K.S. Rencken. 2001. The
• Developmental tasks
of a diverse world learn to share it Lively Kindergarten: Emergent Curriculum in
• Things in the physical Action. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
peaceably.
environment Stacey, S. 2009. Emergent Curriculum in Early
Childhood Settings: From Theory to Practice.
• People in the social environment St. Paul, MN: Redleaf.
• Curriculum resource materials References Wien, C.A., ed. 2008. Emergent Curriculum in
the Primary Classroom: Interpreting the Reg-
• Serendipity—unexpected events gio Emilia Approach in Schools. New York:
Bredekamp, S., ed. 1986. Developmentally
• Living together: conflict resolution, Teachers College Press.
Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood
caregiving, and routines Programs Serving Children from Birth to Age
8. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
• Values held in the school and Franklin, M.B., & B. Biber. 1977. “Psychological Copyright © 2012 by the National Association for the
community, family, and culture Perspectives and Early Childhood Educa- Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints
tion: Some Relations between Theory and online at www.naeyc.org/yc/permissions.
(Adapted from Jones & Nimmo
1994, 127.)
68 Young Children • March 2012