Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Curriculum and Development in Early Education [Paperback]

Carol Gestwicki (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0766800318 | ISBN-13: 978-0766800311 | Publication Date: August 19, 1998 | Edition: 2

This book focuses on the best ways to help children develop and learn. It stresses how to implement theoretical understandings in the real environments of the classroom and childcare setting and includes clear discussions and examples of how to implement developmentally appropriate practices in order to nurture the development of the whole child.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The text goes into great depth about each of the target age groups needs for physical, social/emotional, and cognitive/language environments.

The play section is well developed and provides excellent examples and theory

Gestwicki?s DAP is an excellent early childhood text. I think it is better than the text I currently use. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Carol Gestwicki had been an instructor in the Early Childhood Education program at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina, for more than 20 years. Her teaching responsibilities have included supervising students in classroom situations as they work with parents. Earlier in her career, she worked with children and families in a wide variety of community agencies and schools in Toronto, New York, New Jersey, and Namibia. She received her MA from Drew University. She has been an active member of NAEYC for many years, making numerous presentations at state and national conferences. Other publications include more than two dozen articles on child development and family issues, and script-writing and design of 14 audiovisual instructional programs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Delmar Cengage Learning; 2 edition (August 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0766800318
• ISBN-13: 978-0766800311
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,044,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Near-Perfect Supplement To Bredekamp/Copple's Jewel, July 21, 2009

By 

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

This review is from: Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Curriculum and Development in Early Education (Paperback)

For many early childhood professionals, Bredekamp and Copple's DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE (DAP) is the bible for those who teach young children. For others, their breakdown of the concept remains convuluted, complex, and difficult to implement in many school settings. This is the gap that this book heroically attempts to fill...and succeeds on many levels.

As a scholar on homeless young families, I was first familiar with Carol Gestwicki's excellent HOME-SCHOOL RELATIONS. It comes to my delightful surprise to find her having penned this gem. The arrange of the book from the beginning is right on target: by developmental domains.

After a well written first section beginning with defining DAP, connecting it from the start with play, and closing with how both determine curriculum, Gestwicki goes to the all important physical domain taking the reader into the familiar theories and child developmental ideas yet keeping DAP as the underlying context through which to understand each concept. In fact, each section's chapters are arranged developmentally (from infancy to early elementary children). She continues this same approach through the social/emotional section and language cognitive section.

What you ultimately get in this book is a combination of a close examination of DAP, a child development overview, and a curriculum text. Its an amalgamation that truly captures the essence of DAP: teaching from a developmentally perspective, not from a standards-based educational (SBE) perspective.

I would be eager to see how this book works in an early childhood curriculum course. It does not necessarily cover early childhood approaches to the traditional areas (Math, Science, Literacy, etc.), only has a scant one chapter on the familiar curriculum models (Montessori, High Scope, etc.), and does not really cover the conventions of a traditional early childhood classroom (small group, large group, etc.).

Still, DAP is much more than these conventions; this book offers what DAP truly tries to capture: nuturing children developmentally based on their strengths, weaknesses, and cultural background. This can take on many many forms. It begins and ends there that idea.

Not bad....

4.0 out of 5 stars ECE175Textbook, October 13, 2011

By 

bird_007 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Developmentally Appropriate Practice (Paperback)

I am very happy with the book. The only problem with it was the mail person just shoved it in the mailbox ripping the package and damaging the top right corner of the book. The book was otherwise in perfect condition and has been getting me through my class very well so far.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bible for child care professionals. A must read!, February 21, 2011

By 

Bridgette H. "bridgetokindergarten" (Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Developmentally Appropriate Practice (Paperback)

A terrific reference. Anyone who wants to be the best child care teacher they can be should own this book. It's my Bible for developing and maintaining my developmentally appropriate teaching style.