HIGH/SCOPE APPROACH

The High/Scope Educational Research Foundation is a nonprofit organization

that sponsors and supports the High/Scope educational approach. The program
is based on Piagets intellectual development theory. High/Scope provides
broad, realistic educational experiences geared to childrens current stages of
development, to promote the constructive processes of learning necessary to
broaden emerging intellectual and social skills (High/Scope Educational
Research Foundation, 1989).

Fundamental Principles of High/Scope Approach

High/Scope is based on three fundamental principles:

1. Active participation of children in choosing, organizing, and evaluating

learning activities, which are undertaken with careful teacher observation
and guidance in a learning environment replete with a rich variety of
materials located in various classroom learning centers
2. Regular daily planning by the teaching staff in accord with a
developmentally based curriculum model and careful child observations
3. Developmentally sequenced goals and materials for children based on
the High/Scope key experiences (High/Scope Educational Research
Foundation, 1989)

Basic Principles and Goals of the High/Scope Approach

The High/Scope program strives to

develop in children a broad range of skills, including the problem solving,

interpersonal, and communication skills that are essential for successful living in a
rapidly changing society. The curriculum encourages student initiative by
providing children with materials, equipment, and time to pursue activities they
choose. At the same time, it provides teachers with a framework for guiding
childrens independent activities toward sequenced learning goals.

The teacher plays a key role in instructional activities by selecting appropriate,

developmentally sequenced material and by encouraging children to adopt
an active problem-solving approach to learning....This teacher-student
interactionteachers helping students achieve developmentally sequenced
goals while also encouraging them to set many of their own goalsuniquely
distinguishes the High/Scope Curriculum from direct-instruction and child-
centered curricula (High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 1989).
The High/Scope approach influences the arrangement of the classroom, the
manner in which teachers interact with children, and the methods employed to
assess children.

The Five Elements of the High/Scope Approach

Teachers create the context for learning in the High/Scope approach by
implementing and supporting five essential elements: active learning, classroom
arrangement, the daily schedule, assessment, and the curriculum (content).

Active Learning
The idea that children are the source of their own learning forms the center of
the High/Scope curriculum. Teachers support childrens active learning by
providing a variety of materials, making plans and reviewing activities with
children, interacting with and carefully observing individual children, and
leading small- and large-group active learning activities.

Classroom Arrangement
The classroom arrangement invites children to engage in personal, meaningful,
educational experiences. In addition, the classroom contains three or more
interest areas that encourage choice.

The classroom organization of materials and equipment supports the daily

routinechildren know where to find materials and what materials they can use.
This encourages development of self-direction and independence.

The teacher selects the centers and activities to use in the classroom based on
several considerations:

Interests of the children (e.g., kindergarten children are interested in blocks,

housekeeping, and art)
Opportunities for facilitating active involvement in seriation, number, time
relations, classification, spatial relations, and language development
Opportunities for reinforcing needed skills and concepts and functional use of
those skills and concepts
Arranging the environment, then, is essential to implementing a programs
philosophy. This is true for Montessori, High/Scope, and every other program.

Daily Schedule
The schedule considers developmental levels of children, incorporates a sixty- to
seventy-minute plan-do-review process, provides for content areas, is as
consistent throughout the day as possible, and contains a minimum number of
transitions.
The plan-do-review process is an important part of the High/Scope approach
and is one worthy of your particular attention. The plan-do-review is a sequence
in which children, with the help of the teacher, initiate plans for projects or
activities; work in learning centers to implement their plans; and then review
what they have done with the teacher and their fellow classmates.

Assessment
Teachers keep notes about significant behaviors, changes, statements, and
things that help them better understand a childs way of thinking and learning.
Teachers use two mechanisms to help them collect data: the key experiences
note form and a portfolio. The High/Scope Child Observation Record is also used
to assess childrens development.

Curriculum
The High/Scope curriculum comes from two sources: childrens interests and the
key experiences, which are lists of observable learning behaviors. Basing a
curriculum in part on childrens interests is very constructivist and implements the
philosophies of Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky.

A Daily Routine That Supports Active Learning

The High/Scope curriculums daily routine is made up of a plan-do-review
sequence and several additional elements. The plan-do-review sequence gives
children opportunities to express intentions about their activities while keeping
the teacher intimately involved in the whole process. The following five
processes support the daily routine and contribute to its successful functioning.

Planning Time
Planning time gives children a structured, consistent chance to express their
ideas to adults and to see themselves as individuals who can act on decisions.
They experience the power of independence and are conscious of their
intentions. This supports the development of purpose and confidence.

The teacher talks with children about the plans they have made before the
children carry them out. This helps children clarify their ideas and think about
how to proceed. Talking with children about their plans provides an opportunity
for the teacher to encourage and respond to each childs ideas, to suggest
way to strengthen the plans so they will be successful, and to understand and
gauge each childs level of development and thinking style. Children and
teachers benefit from these conversations and reflections. Children feel
reinforced and ready to start their work, and teachers have ideas of what
opportunities for extension might arise, what difficulties children might have, and
where problem solving may be needed. In such a classroom, children and
teachers are playing appropriate and important roles.
Key Experiences
Teachers continually encourage and support childrens interests and
involvement in activities that occur within an organized environment and a
consistent routine. Teachers plan for key experiences that may broaden and
strengthen childrens emerging abilities. Children generate many of these
experiences on their own; others require teacher guidance. Many key
experiences are natural extensions of childrens projects and interests.

Work Time
This part of the plan-do-review sequence is generally the longest time period in
the daily routine. The teachers role during work time is to observe children to
see how they gather information, interact with peers, and solve problems, and
when appropriate, teachers enter into the childrens activities to encourage,
extend, and set up problem-solving situations.

Cleanup Time
During cleanup time, children return materials and equipment to their labeled
places and store their incomplete projects, restoring order to the classroom. All
childrens materials in the classroom are within reach and on open shelves.
Clear labeling enables children to return all work materials to their appropriate
places.

Recall Time
Recall time, the final phase of the plan-do-review sequence, is the time when
children represent their work-time experience in a variety of developmentally
appropriate ways. They might recall the names of the children they involved in
their plan, draw a picture of the building they made, or describe the problems
they encountered. Recall strategies include drawing pictures, making models,
physically demonstrating how a plan was carried out, or verbally recalling the
events of work time. The teacher supports childrens linking of the actual work to
their original plan.

This review permits children to reflect on what they did and how it was done. It
brings closure to childrens planning and work-time activities. Putting their ideas
and experiences into words also facilitates childrens language development.
Most important, it enables children to represent to others their mental schemes.

Providing for Diversity and Disability

The High/Scope curriculum is a developmentally appropriate approach that is
child centered and promotes active learning. The use of learning centers, active
learning, and the plan-do-review cycle, as well as allowing children to progress
at their own pace, provides for childrens individual and special needs.
High/Scope teachers emphasize the broad cognitive, social, and physical
abilities that are important for all children, instead of focusing on a childs
deficits. High/Scope teachers identify where a child is developmentally and
then provide a rich range of experiences appropriate for that level. For
example, they would encourage a four-year-old who is functioning at a two-
year-old level to express his or her plans by pointing, gesturing, and saying single
words, and they would immerse the child in a conversational environment that
provided many natural opportunities for using and hearing language
(Educational Programs: Early Childhood, 2007).

Many early childhood programs for children with special needs incorporate the
High/Scope approach. For example, the Regional Early Childhood Center at
Rockburn Elementary School in Elkridge, Maryland, operates a full-day multiple-
intense-needs class for children with disabilities and typically developing peers
and uses the High/Scope approach. The daily routine includes greeting time,
small groups (e.g., art, sensory, preacademics), planning time (i.e., picking a
center), work time at the centers, cleanup time, recall (i.e., discussing where
they worked), snacks, circle time with stories, movement and music, and
outside time (Regional Early Childhood Center, 2007).

Further Thoughts
The High/Scope approach represents one approach to educating young
children. Whereas Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Waldorf are European based
in philosophy and context, High/Scope puts into practice the learning-by-doing
American philosophy. It builds on Deweys ideas of active learning and
teaching in the context of childrens interests.

High/Scope is widely used in Head Start and early childhood programs across
the United States; High/Scope research has demonstrated that its approach is
compatible with Head Start guidelines and performance standards.

There are number of advantages to implementing the High/Scope approach:

It offers a method for implementing a constructivist-based program that has its

roots in Deweys philosophy and Piagetian cognitive theory.
It is widely popular and has been extensively researched and tested.
There is a vast network of teacher training and support provided by the
High/Scope Foundation.
It is research based and it works.
As a result, the High/Scope approach is viewed by early childhood practitioners
as one that implements many of the best practices embraced by the profession.