Thoughts on the HighScope Approach

What is HighScope?

HighScope or High/Scope came out of the 1962 Perry Preschool study and was founded in 1970 by psychologist David Weikart. Weikart based the HighScope curriculum on child development theory and research, originally drawing on the work of Jean Piaget and John Dewey. The curriculum was further developed to incorporate Lev Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and Jerome Bruner's related strategy of adult scaffolding. This method emphasizes the role of adults to support each child at their current developmental level and help them build upon it, under a model of "shared control" where activities are both child-initiated and adult-guided. The adults working with the children see themselves more as facilitators or partners than as managers or supervisors. HighScope curriculum is centred on the ideas of active participatory learning and plan-do-review.

Plan-Do-Review

Children make choices about what they will do, carry out their ideas, and reflect on their activities with adults and peers. By participating in the plan‐do‐review process, children gain confidence as thinkers, problem‐solvers, and decision-makers. Learning how to act with intention and reflect on the consequences of their actions. Abilities that will serve them well in school and throughout their lives.

Active Participatory Learning

Weikart posits active participatory learning needs five ingredients: materials, manipulation, choice, child language and thought, and adult scaffolding.

1. Materials - these must be able to appeal to the children's senses and be used in a variety of ways.

2. Manipulation - Children need to be able to combine, manipulate, examine and transform the materials and ideas.

3. Choice - Children choose materials and play partners, contribute ideas and plan activities. The elements of choice engage them as they choose to do this.

4. Child language and thought - Children describe what they are doing and their understanding of it. Communication can be verbal on non-verbal. This is present during the whole Plan-Do-Review aspect of the theory with the review time allowing for reflections and changes in their thinking as they take in new knowledge.

5. Adult scaffolding - Adults support the children and challenge them to take their ideas further and encourage them to develop creative problem-solving skills.

Themes and Topics

Each month is allocated a multidisciplinary theme that teachers are required to create a mind map for and expand on areas that their students will find interesting. From here the teacher needs to find four topics within the theme that will be taught over the four weeks of that month. Themes can be predefined by the school or can be up to the teacher to decide. Throughout the year teachers assess students with a HighScope "Child Observation Record" or "COR". Teachers are expected to write anecdotal notes daily about each student. Ideally, the teaching team will meet on a daily basis to plan for the next day. It is assumed that there will be no other curriculum needed with the HighScope curriculum. Teachers are expected to be so tuned in to their students that they can incorporate skill-building in all areas of development into their daily plans.

HighScope’s Six Steps of Successful Conflict Resolution

HighScope teachers are taught to scaffold children’s understanding of conflict resolution by following the six steps below.

1. APPROACH CALMLY, STOPPING ANY HURTFUL ACTIONS

1.1. Place yourself between the children, on their level

1.2. Use a calm voice and gentle touch

1.3. Remain neutral rather than take sides

2. ACKNOWLEDGE CHILDREN’S FEELINGS

2.1. “You look really upset”

2.2. Let children know you need to hold any object in question

3. GATHER INFORMATION

3.1. “What’s the problem?”

4. RESTATE THE PROBLEM

4.1. “So the problem is …”

5. ASK FOR IDEAS FOR SOLUTIONS AND CHOOSE ONE TOGETHER

5.1. “What can we do to solve this problem?”

5.2. Encourage children to think of a solution.

6. BE PREPARED TO GIVE FOLLOW-UP SUPPORT

6.1. “You solved the problem!”

6.2. Stay near the children

HighScope’s Strengths

- Emphasizes problem solving skills. Social and emotional development is a large part of the High Scope method nurturing valuable skills children will use throughout their lives. HighScope addresses conflicts as learning opportunities tackling them through a series of steps, where teachers encourage children to carry out conflict resolution steps independently

- Children are encouraged to use all senses with most activities encompassing the use of multiple senses at once as High Scope activities aim to achieve active, hands-on learning

- Developmentally appropriate activities encourage education through movement as HighScope acknowledges in early years, children naturally like to move, sing and play

- Develops decision making skills as children have the opportunity on a daily basis to choose what they want to do and how they would like to learn

- In choosing their own activities, children are simultaneously growing their independence

- Children are encouraged to further explore what activities interest them, with the helpful support of their teachers cultivating their curiosity

- Crucial communication and social skills are formed through interactions in a group setting including small and large group experiences and activities

HighScope’s Limitations

- The High Scope curriculum is fairly strict in what activities and materials can be used. This limits the teacher’s autonomy and may exclude activities and instructional methods that are considered developmentally appropriate, but do not fit the HighScope model

- The COR assessment can be time consuming taking teachers attention away from other important tasks

- Training can be expensive for staff

- Many HighScope schools claim the name and follow some of the guiding principles of the HighScope curriculum but are not accredited meaning standards vary wildly

Effectiveness of HighScope

A study was done on the effect of allowing students to work on HighScope projects where they follow the plan-do-review approach to learning central to HighScope. As well as the plan-do-review it was coupled with home visitations by the teacher for about 1.5 hours per visit to improve parent-child interactions at home. The results showed that the approach was effective in improving students’ potential to graduate high school, increasing their earnings potential, increased the level of college applicants, and significantly decreased the likelihood of the child committing a crime.