ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on strategies teachers that can use to ensure all children’s development and learning needs are met. It discusses trends in early childhood education demographics affecting views of children, curriculum, and teaching. The chapter considers several elements of the changing landscape of early childhood education and development. The diverse experiences children have within their family, economic, cultural, and linguistic milieus have significant consequences that affect actual and perceived developmental trajectories and characteristics of children. Exploratory learning opportunities are important for children for many reasons. These kinds of learning experiences are particularly significant within learning environments for a diverse group of learners. Despite evidence demonstrating that the arts can have long-lasting beneficial effects on children’s academic achievement and development, there has been a continual decline in arts education in the early years of schooling. The chapter focuses on the changes in early childhood curriculum trends and the presumed reasons for them.
