Making Kindergarten Classrooms a Place for Young Children to Learn and Grow

For many years, early childhood educators have worried that today’s kindergarten classrooms look too much like the later grades, with teachers lecturing children in large groups, asking them to fill out worksheets and sitting them in rows. Practices like these, however, run counter to research on how young children learn.

In April, New Jersey released kindergarten implementation guidelines to essentially marry the research about how children learn with high expectations for what children are able to learn. Among other things, the guidelines emphasize how teachers should interact with kindergarteners to help them, for instance, develop their ability to self-regulate and problem-solve. The guidelines also describe how schools could support high-quality kindergarten environments.

The guidelines are part of New Jersey’s effort to build a PreK-3^rd continuum. Ellen Wolock, director of the state’s Office of Preschool Education, says that these guidelines are “a giant step toward supporting seamless transitions between pre-K and kindergarten.” Wolock also recognizes that there is more work to do. “We hope at some point we can create similar guidelines for each grade up through the third grade, which is how we define early learning.”

New Jersey is one of the states that has adopted the Common Core standards. And while the guidelines were not created specifically because of the standards, Wolock says they are a perfect companion to ensure that teaching and learning attune to the common standards.

In this podcast, we speak with Wolock about New Jersey’s kindergarten implementation guidelines and how she envisions them being used to improve children’s kindergarten experiences.

Podcast: Making Kindergarten Classrooms a Place for Young Children to Learn and Grow- New Jersey’s Kindergarten Implementation Guidelines

With our guest Ellen Wolock, Director of the Office of Preschool Education, New Jersey Department of Education