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Creating Environments for Learning: Birth to Age Eight, 4th edition

Published by Pearson (January 12, 2023) © 2024

  • Julie Bullard University of Montana Western

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For courses in early childhood curriculum (birth to age 8).

Standards and practical strategies

Creating Environments for Learning helps teachers design play-based environments that ensure effective teaching and learning while meeting national and state standards. This resource helps readers understand the outcomes they want to achieve, know how to design an environment to realize the outcomes, and understand their role as facilitators. Emphasis is placed on considering the unique background of each child, with examples and color photos that demonstrate theory, research and possibilities in action.

The 4th Edition provides up-to-date information on research, standards, and play-based learning.

Hallmark features of this title

Real-life situations provide context and meaning

  • Comprehensive content covers each early childhood age group and looks at a wide range of environments.
  • Vignettes begin each chapter, illustrating how research appears in practice.
  • Examples show how to consider individual's needs when designing the environment and curriculum.

Guidelines inspire possibilities

  • Development and curricular outcomes are presented, along with ways they can be integrated into play-based environments. Developmental progression goals are provided for each learning center.
  • Create Your Own sections offer tips for creating inexpensive, age-appropriate, hands-on teaching tools.
  • Environmental Checklists at the end of each chapter provide a way to assess environments and review chapter content.

New and updated features of this title

  • UPDATED: Information on diversity shows ways to effectively work with children who face additional barriers, including children of color, children who have disabilities, and children from low-income families.
  • UPDATED: Sections on designing environments for infants and toddlers assist students in understanding how to provide quality environments for the youngest and most vulnerable children.
  • NEW: Over 50 new photos from a variety of programs illustrate important theories, principles and environmental possibilities. The photos are now labeled, making it easier to refer to them during discussions.
  • NEW: Over 450 new and updated research references help readers make informed decisions and base their curriculum practices on current research.
  • UPDATED: Chapter structure groups and rearranges chapters for a more conceptual learning experience. Environmental challenges are introduced earlier, helping readers approach environmental design in a problem-solving manner. Each learning center chapter now contains a section on the outdoor environment.

The LMS-Compatible Assessment Bank streamlines assignments and grading

  • Learning objective quizzes and application exercises are included in an LMS-compatible packaged file. Questions give students feedback and model responses based on their answers.

Features of Pearson+ eTextbook for the 4th Edition

  • Video Examples, including authentic classroom videos and interviews with experts in the field, expand on principles or concepts in each chapter, helping put the reading into context.
  • The Interactive Glossary lets students quickly build their professional vocabulary as they read.
  1. Understanding the Importance of the Environment
  2. Establishing an Emotionally Supportive and Equitable Environment
  3. Establishing a Context for Learning: Designing Schedules, Transitions, and Routines
  4. Design Considerations and Challenges
  5. Arranging an Effective Environment
  6. Planning a Play-Based Curriculum
  7. Creating Outdoor Environment
  8. Developing Dramatic Play Centers
  9. Developing Visual Art Centers
  10. Developing Music and Dance Centers
  11. Developing Literacy Centers
  12. Developing Physical Centers: Manipulative, Sensory, Indoor Fitness
  13. Developing Block and Building Centers
  14. Developing Science Centers
  15. Developing Math Centers
  16. Integrating Technology
  17. Creating Spaces for Families and Teachers
    18.  

About our author

Julie Bullard is a retired early childhood professor. During over 40 years in the early childhood field, she has been a preschool and elementary teacher, child care director, and Head Start administrator and has taught adults receiving CDAs, associate degrees, and bachelor's degrees in early childhood as well as students receiving master's degrees in curriculum and instruction. Julie has taught higher education coursework both face-to-face and online for over 30 years and was named the Carnegie Professor of the Year for Montana in 2011. She also received the 2015 National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators Outstanding Early Childhood Teacher Educator Award.

Julie has had a passion for the importance of the early learning environment since completing coursework in architecture more than 40 years ago. She also has a special interest in curricular standards and has served on several state and national committees that are working on developing and implementing standards using play-based curriculum. She has served on the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Professional Development Panel, as a national reviewer of early childhood higher education programs, and on an oversight committee for NAEYC/National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) accreditation. Julie served on an NAEYC committee to revise the national early childhood higher education standards. She was on the NCATE Board of Examiners and a reviewer for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation and is on the editorial board for the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education. She has been involved in the development of the Montana early childhood knowledge base, infant–toddler and preschool standards, kindergarten standards, and early childhood and elementary higher education standards. Julie received her doctorate from Montana State University.

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