Emergent Curriculum

Emergent curriculum is a philosophy of teaching and a way of planning a children's curriculum that focuses on being responsive to children's own interests, with the goal of creating meaningful learning experiences rather than following a curriculum decided entirely in advance. It can be practiced with children at any grade level and prioritizes active participation by students, relationship-building among students, flexible and adaptable methods, student-driven inquiry and play-based learning. The approach is child-initiated, collaborative and responsive to children's needs, and its proponents hold that a teacher's close knowledge of the children is the key to making it work. Planning an emergent curriculum requires ongoing observation of children, documentation of what is observed, creative brainstorming, flexibility and patience, and it starts from observing children for insight into their interests, with content further shaped by the values held for children's learning by the school, the community, the family and the surrounding culture. Classrooms built around emergent curriculum typically use learning centres that expand and support children's learning and encourage independent learning skills, placing the approach within the broader constructivist tradition of building instruction around learners' own developing interests and understanding rather than a fixed, predetermined sequence.