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Early Childhood Environmental Education Rating Scale

The Early Childhood Environmental Education Rating Scale (NAAEE 2011), authored by Yash Bhagwanji, provides a collaborative tool for educators and others to discuss their early childhood environmental education program goals, consider strengths and areas of needed improvement, and chart a future direction for development. The Early Childhood Environmental Education Rating Scale is easy to use while also encouraging deep discussions about program philosophy, design and implementation. Building off of NAAEE’s Early Childhood Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence, it is a much welcomed addition to the early childhood environmental education tool kit.

 The Early Childhood Environmental Education Rating Scale (ECEERS) is a formative evaluation tool designed to assist programs in improving their environmental education curriculum.

Whether you work with a center-based child development or family day care center, this tool can help you make needed improvements in the quality of activities, experiences, interactions, and instruction concerning the world of nature and its value in society. Environmental education centers, too, may benefit through improvements in curriculum that better respond to the abilities, interests, learning styles, and motivations for learning of young children.

 Based on six key characteristics of high quality early childhood environmental education programs (North American Association for Environmental Education, 2010), the procedures for using the rating scale emphasize a collaborative approach in evaluation, through the sharing of differing perspectives (as represented by program board members, administrative officials, teaching staff, family members of the children participating in the program, and community partners), and the development of consensus in the rating of each specific guideline or recommendation. The rating scale is designed as a self-assessment tool requiring open and honest conversations. The process can be personally satisfying for the individual team members involved and, with ongoing evaluation utilizing the rating scale, can lead to program success over time.  Download your copy of the PDF:

Early Childhood Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence

Early Childhood Environmental Education Rating Scale

Environmental education in early childhood is a holistic concept that encompasses knowledge of the natural world as well as emotions, dispositions, and skills. Early Childhood Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence (NAAEE 2010), the newest addition to the continuing guidelines series, contains a set of recommendations for developing and administering high-quality environmental education programs for young children from birth to age eight, with a focus on ages three to six. These guidelines provide a tool that can be used to ensure a firm foundation for new programs or to trigger improvements in existing ones. The overall goal of these guidelines is to chart an appropriate and positive process whereby educators can start young children on their journey toward becoming environmentally responsive youth and adults.

The guidelines identify six key characteristics of high-quality early childhood environmental education programs. For each of these characteristics, guidelines are then listed that early childhood programs should follow. Finally, each guideline is accompanied by several indicators listed under the heading “What to look for.”

The guidelines provide direction yet offer flexibility in shaping content, technique, and other aspects of program delivery. These guidelines can be used to offer a way of judging the relative merit of different programs, provide standards and benchmarks for new programs, and supply a set of ideas about what a well-rounded early childhood environmental education program might be like.

TO ORDER YOUR PRINT COPY
You can download a PDF copy of the guidelines here (see below) for free. If you would like to purchase your own hard copy of this publication or any of the other NAAEE publications, go to http://www.naaee.net/publications.

DOWNLOAD PDFs of EARLY CHILDHOOD EE GUIDELINES
Early Childhood EE (Complete) Oct 2010

Early Childhood EE Guidelines Slide Show

Summary of Early Childhood EE Guidelines (One Page)