Emergent Curriculum
 (short blurb) Emergent curriculum is an approach that permits learning activities to grow
out of children’s interests, actions or unexpected events. True emergent curriculum
develops from teachers working with young children to explore what is relevant,
engaging and personally meaningful to children. Emergent curriculum is essentially a
planning model that is a component of a more comprehensive developmentally
appropriate program that’s goal is to support the development of the whole child.
 (In-depth description) Emergent curriculum is essentially experiential in nature, teachers
observe and interact with young children and use their knowledge of the children in their
care to expand on children’s interests. Children’s thought processes are what give
direction to the curriculum. Some curricular aspects that are unique to this approach
include:
o Absence of pre-planned themes: In this model teachers do not plan any kind of
in-depth curriculum until they have had enough time and experience with their
children to determine their interests and needs
o Teachers modify plans on a regular basis: once plans have been made they are
never set in stone. Teachers continuously adapt the curriculum in response to
things that happen during the course of their day with the children.
o Webbing: planning and thinking about what and how to study happens with
children in a group planning process called webbing.
o Documentation: children’s learning and development is assessed based on
documentation. Teachers collect samples of children’s work, take photographs
and write anecdotal records, then use this information to assess children’s
development based on their individual potential.
 History and Major Theorists
o Betty Jones coined the term “emergent curriculum” in 1970 in the introduction of
the NAEYC publication Curriculum Is What Happens. Emergent curriculum is
constructivist in its perspective and is informed by the work of Jean Piaget, Lev
Vygotsky and John Dewey.
 Considerations for teachers
o Would I need any special training or experience beyond my child development
units to work in a school with this philosophy?
 To use emergent curriculum a teacher need only to understand the
philosophy and be willing to continue to explore, record and modify daily
with the children in their classroom. A flexible, open approach and a
deeply ingrained understanding of developmentally appropriate practices
are a plus.
 If I visited a school with this philosophy, what would I see?
o A school that participates in emergent curriculum would be hardly discernable
from any other constructively oriented school on the surface. At some point each
day or several days, you would see the children and teacher discussing and
planning together what they have learned and what they want to explore about
their topics of interest next. Children would be engaged in a variety of activities
both in small and large groups, teachers would be observing, documenting and
interacting with children.
 Resources
o Books
 Hart, L. The Dance of Emergent Curriculum
 Jones, B and Nimmo, J. Emergent Curriculum
 Jones, B ET. Al. The Lively Kindergarten: Emergent Curriculum in Action
o Articles
 See the archive for Young Children, the journal for the National
Association for the Education of Young Children for a large collection of
articles about emergent curriculum at http://journal.naeyc.org
o Web links
 Associations
 The National Association for the Education of Young Children.
www.naeyc.org