Kindergarten

The Kindergarten Year

Last Updated Nov 20, 2008 01:29 AM

The kindergarten year marks a period of rapid change in the ways children think about themselves and the world around them (Bredekamp and Copple 1997; Sameroff and McDonough 1994). This change is influenced by both developmental factors (e.g., age, maturation) and environmental factors (e.g., schooling, home educational activities, family resources). Across this first year of schooling, children will acquire the knowledge and skills that will prove integral to their future success in school and in life. Children enter school demonstrating a vast array of knowledge and skills, some children further along than others (West, Denton, and Germino Hausken 2000). The kindergarten year serves multiple purposes and is geared toward the development of both cognitive and noncognitive knowledge and skills (Seefeldt 1990). And, depending on the child, knowledge and skills develop in different areas and at different rates across this year of school. To enrich the picture of children’s first experience in formal education—the kindergarten year—we need to understand the knowledge and skills children possess as they enter kindergarten and we need to gain insight into how these develop across the kindergarten year. This report attempts to answer two basic sets of questions about children’s knowledge and skill acquisition during the kindergarten year.

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