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Guideline 4 — Environments Matter
Young children are constantly generating and testing their ideas and theories about how the world and people work. “Early environments that are not designed with this in mid do children a disservice” (Phillips, 2001). We know that education and care continuously interact over the course of human development. Thus, the quality of a child’s environment— at home and at school —matters.
- Quality environments at school have the following characteristics:
- Clean, neat, organized, and safe spaces;
- Teachers who know how children think, learn, and grow;
- Programs with limited teacher turnover;
- On-going improvement and self-assessment of their program;
- Intentional, well thought out experiences that address standards and goals of learning;
- Experiences that promote children talking about and explaining their ideas to other children and to adults
- Experiences that support children’s interests in reading, writing, counting, and exploring;
- Teachers that honor children’s cultural background, help them build self-respect as well as respect for the culture of others;
- Regular, appropriate assessment that provides and informs teachers, as well as parents, with progress;
- Positive interactions where teachers demonstrate warmth, interest and respect for children (Katz, 2002).
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