Developmentally Appropriate Practice (in Early Childhood Programs, Serving Children from Birth through Age 8) [Paperback]

Carol Copple (Editor), Sue Bredekamp (Editor)

Book Description

| Publication Date: 2009 | Edition: 3rd Revised

Since the first edition in 1987, NAEYC's book Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs has been an essential resource for the early childcare field. Now fully revised and expanded, the 2009 version comes with a supplementary CD containing readings on key topics, plus video vignettes showing developmentally appropriate practice in action. Based on what the research says about development, learning, and effective practices, as well as what experience tells us about teaching intentionally, DAP articulates the principles that should guide our decision making. Chapters describe children from birth through age 8 in detail, with extensive examples of appropriate practice for infant/toddler, preschool, kindergarten, and primary levels.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: National Association for the Education of Young Children; 3rd Revised edition (2009)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001LIRGGG
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transformatively Leading and Trailblazing Into The Next Decade, December 18, 2009

By 

Reginald Williams (Orangeburg, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Developmentally Appropriate Practice (in Early Childhood Programs, Serving Children from Birth through Age 8) (Paperback)

With each new edition, this landmark title has served as the compass within the early childhood education professional discipline by deftly adjusting the lens and paradigm of knowledge, skills, and theory to accurately reflect how the succeeding generation of young children must be holistically nurtured. The first edition in 1987 introduced the concept (known implicitly if not explicitly within early childhood circles) of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) to the greater education society and took a somewhat controversial, but evidence-supported, position squarely within the child development/constructivist/outcome-based theoretical camp rather than in the camp of behaviorisim, information processing, and standard-based education. With DAP squarely engrained within professional educational knowledge and ideology worldwide, the second edition (printed in 1997) took a pluralistic, global, and multicultural perspective by molding the concept of developmentally appropriate practice into a three-dimensional approach to early childhood education highly dependent on the context where it is implemented, the culture of the educational workplace/staff, and the background the the children being taught. A decade later, teaching young children has changed significantly. The results of decades-old, large-scale longitudinal studies grounded in the same constructivist theory as DAP(Abecedarian, Perry Preschool, Chicago Longitudinal, etc.) and the results/personal ancedotes of smaller scale uses of certain curricula models (High/Scope, Creative Curriculum, Montessori, Reggio Emilia-inspired curriculum, etc.) have forced experts to take a more informed and critcal eye examiniation of developmentally appropriate practice.

Consequently, the timing of this third edition may be near-perfect. In a nutshell, this book is a treatise on realigning DAP from being on the other extreme of the child development-based (or outcome-based)/standard-based education continuum to moving a little closer to the center. It argues that culture, child development, background, interests, strengths, and weaknesses still form the rock solid foundation of how to teach children, but that they only serve as reference points...as the fulcrum by which educators can balance the shades of other educational approaches. Even though this third edition in no way surrenders the solid positional philosophy on DAP, it does not use a "we" verses "them" approach to seeing other viewpoints to early childhood. In other words, it does not argue for an exclusionary, oppressive view of other (more global) ways to nuture children as if DAP is THE only way to properly and effectively guide children. On the other hand, it takes the engagement approach by tackling several ideas (the possible positive connections between direct instruction and academic achievement shown through some research studies)and offering to take a more intersubjective, less defensive stance where it exhorts its preimience as the best of many algorithms for successfully and appropriately cultivating young children physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively.

In the end, Copple and Bredekamp's third edition (which should be on every early childhood professional's desk or computer workstation) of DAP will do what the previous two editions have done: it will spark vigorous debate, disagreements, changes in teacher training, and changes in how we view young children as learners.

From the beginning, developmentally appropriate practice has been somewhat of a mysterious puzzle of generalities and ideas prone to multiple interpretations. Fortunately, this third edition takes yet another step in cutting through the haze: direct teaching and active/hands-on learning where kids construct their own knowledge may not be like oil and water as much as we thought they were.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great transaction, September 27, 2010

By 

LaMomForce - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Developmentally Appropriate Practice (in Early Childhood Programs, Serving Children from Birth through Age 8) (Paperback)

Everything was very smooth. The book was in great condition, and the shipping was way faster than expected.