Sharon Lynn Kagan, an expert on early childhood education, asserted that "the ABCs for the 21st century for schools are pedagogy, outcomes, and families." Of these, pedagogy must be our first priority, said Kagan, a senior associate at Yale University's Bush Center on Child Development and Social Policy.
Improved pedagogy can be seen in classrooms that "capitalize on youngsters' developmental strengths," Kagan said. "In no case should these environments be free-wheeling; indeed, developmentally appropriate practice is not about letting kids do whatever they want, whenever they want it. It is about taking cues from children, building in structured learning opportunities, providing opportunities for exchange and for dialogue."
In such environments, Kagan said, teachers must uphold outcomes not only for children's cognitive learning, but for their social and emotional development, their use of language, their approaches to learning, and their physical and motor development as well. "And because young children are inextricably linked to their families, we are also talking about the nature of child and family conditions, and the degree to which young children have access to services," she added.