Harold E. Jones Child Study Center
Encyclopedia
The Harold E. Jones Child Study Center is a research and educational institution for young children at the University of California, Berkeley
. It is one of the oldest continuously running centers for the study of children in the country. The Jones Child Study Center has a special relationship with the Institute of Human Development as a site for research, training and outreach to the community, parents, and teachers. The Institute of Human Development's fundamental mission is to study evolutionary, biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors that affect human development from birth through old age. Research
conducted at the Institute of Human Development and the Jones Child Study Center is interdisciplinary: psychology
, education
, social welfare, architecture
, sociology
, linguistics
, public health
, and pediatrics
. The primary audiences for the findings include scholars and parents. Faculty, postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students observe and test children attending the preschool for their research projects. Undergraduate students in Early Childhood Education
may also gain experience in the classrooms as teachers' assistants.
The Jones CSC preschool has an outdoor play area that is accessible virtually all day long via sliding doors and partially protected by an overhead canopy. Catherine Landreth, a former director of the school and designer of the building, worked with Joseph Esherick
to create a space where the development of children would be highlighted. This included the careful planning of ceiling heights and placement of activity centers. In most other preschools, the ceilings tend to be low which emphasizes the height of adults in relation to children. Esherick and Landreth believed that a higher ceiling would shift the observers' focus from the height differential of the people occupying the space to the activities taking place. The activity centers were constructed to keep the children engaged by placing items at the child's eye level. Landreth wanted a place that did not impose learning but encouraged them to engage in activities that interests the child. The guiding philosophy behind the preschool is that a child's environment can positively affect development.
The Jones CSC is also the home to the Greater Good Science Center
, which is an interdisciplinary research center concentrating on the scientific understanding of social well-being. Research from neuroscience
, psychology, sociology, political science
, economics
, public policy, social welfare, public health
, law
, and organizational behavior study the social and biological roots of positive emotions and behaviors. The Greater Good Science Center's website and publications make research accessible to the general public. The Center produces a quarterly magazine, Greater Good magazine, that addresses research in the social sciences related to compassion in action.
Foundation. Initial research studied the factors that affect human development from the earliest stages of life. These early projects were to be longitudinal studies, following the lives of subjects over the course of their lifetime. The mission for the Institute of Child Welfare was to provide a quality nursery school for children while giving scholars and students easy access to a young population for observation and research. The Institute of Child Welfare was one of the first interdisciplinary centers in the United States
for research on child development
.
In 1960 the nursery school
moved to its current location from the original site on Bancroft Way and was named for Harold E. Jones, the Director of the Institute of Human Development from 1935-1960. The current facility was designed by University of California, Berkeley architect Joseph Esherick in collaboration with Catherine Landreth, to meet the educational and physical needs of young children as well as to support research on early childhood.
.
The Jones CSC holds the Susan Solomon curated exhibition "Making Spaces for Small and Young Children to Play." This is a 20 panel (each measuring 20 inches by 48 inches) display of innovative space for children to play. This exhibition was the preliminary research for Soloman's 2005 book American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space.
Jones CSC research finds that children as young as three and four years old have their own established social patterns and ways of behaving. This peer culture is expressed most vividly during play through the primary grades and even beyond. William Corsaro, a sociologist who has studied preschool and elementary age children in classrooms from different cultures, finds two themes of this first peer group:
So it is not just that early childhood education teachers like children to play because children learn when playing, but that the children themselves want to affiliate in play with each other. A second strong desire in the early years is that children want to figure things out for themselves.
Children's development at the Jones Child Study Center is cultivated by spatially defined learning centers, where small group child-generated play experiences happen in a two-level indoor playhouse, several sand-and-water stations outside, spacious and varied large motor opportunities, as well as activities in aesthetics
, mathematics
, science
, literacy
and language
-all accessible both indoors and out.
Due to its architectural design, the Jones Child Study Center establishes a social ecology
for learning where children, alone and in small groups, use defined indoor and outdoor areas. Each area, or ecology, is not only a particular place in the classroom
or play yard, it also conveys a set of social expectations for the kind of things children will do at the site. That is why it is sometimes referred to as a social ecology. Based on Jones Child Study Center research, an ecology is defined by:
An ecology encourages learning by focusing children's curiosity and initiative on specific learning experiences.
Since 1993, the University Preschool at the Jones Child Study Center has been run by the Early Childhood Education Program, which oversees seven other campus childcare sites. Currently, the program offered at the Jones CSC is a full day, year-round program for children ages 2 years nine months to 5 years old. Priority is given to University of California, Berkeley faculty and staff.
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. It is one of the oldest continuously running centers for the study of children in the country. The Jones Child Study Center has a special relationship with the Institute of Human Development as a site for research, training and outreach to the community, parents, and teachers. The Institute of Human Development's fundamental mission is to study evolutionary, biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors that affect human development from birth through old age. Research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
conducted at the Institute of Human Development and the Jones Child Study Center is interdisciplinary: psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, social welfare, architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
, and pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
. The primary audiences for the findings include scholars and parents. Faculty, postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students observe and test children attending the preschool for their research projects. Undergraduate students in Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education
Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children by people other than their family or in settings outside of the home. 'Early childhood' is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling - five years in most nations, though the U.S...
may also gain experience in the classrooms as teachers' assistants.
The Jones CSC preschool has an outdoor play area that is accessible virtually all day long via sliding doors and partially protected by an overhead canopy. Catherine Landreth, a former director of the school and designer of the building, worked with Joseph Esherick
Joseph Esherick
Joseph Esherick was an American architect.Esherick was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1937, Esherick set up practice in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1953 and taught at University of California, Berkeley for many years...
to create a space where the development of children would be highlighted. This included the careful planning of ceiling heights and placement of activity centers. In most other preschools, the ceilings tend to be low which emphasizes the height of adults in relation to children. Esherick and Landreth believed that a higher ceiling would shift the observers' focus from the height differential of the people occupying the space to the activities taking place. The activity centers were constructed to keep the children engaged by placing items at the child's eye level. Landreth wanted a place that did not impose learning but encouraged them to engage in activities that interests the child. The guiding philosophy behind the preschool is that a child's environment can positively affect development.
The Jones CSC is also the home to the Greater Good Science Center
Greater Good Science Center
The Greater Good Science Center, located at the University of California, Berkeley is an interdisciplinary research center devoted to the scientific understanding of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior. By studying individuals and their relationships,...
, which is an interdisciplinary research center concentrating on the scientific understanding of social well-being. Research from neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
, psychology, sociology, political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, public policy, social welfare, public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
, law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, and organizational behavior study the social and biological roots of positive emotions and behaviors. The Greater Good Science Center's website and publications make research accessible to the general public. The Center produces a quarterly magazine, Greater Good magazine, that addresses research in the social sciences related to compassion in action.
History
The Institute of Human Development and the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center were originally named the Institute of Child Welfare, established in 1927 by psychology professor Harold E. Jones and Rockefeller Foundation representative Lawrence Frank with support from the Laura Spelman RockefellerLaura Spelman Rockefeller
Laura Celestia Spelman Rockefeller, , , was a philanthropist, the namesake of Spelman College, founded to educate black women in the South, and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, and the wife of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil...
Foundation. Initial research studied the factors that affect human development from the earliest stages of life. These early projects were to be longitudinal studies, following the lives of subjects over the course of their lifetime. The mission for the Institute of Child Welfare was to provide a quality nursery school for children while giving scholars and students easy access to a young population for observation and research. The Institute of Child Welfare was one of the first interdisciplinary centers in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for research on child development
Child development
Child development stages describe theoretical milestones of child development. Many stage models of development have been proposed, used as working concepts and in some cases asserted as nativist theories....
.
In 1960 the nursery school
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
moved to its current location from the original site on Bancroft Way and was named for Harold E. Jones, the Director of the Institute of Human Development from 1935-1960. The current facility was designed by University of California, Berkeley architect Joseph Esherick in collaboration with Catherine Landreth, to meet the educational and physical needs of young children as well as to support research on early childhood.
Research contributions
Research conducted at the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center has contributed to the field of child development. The scope of the research spans many domains of mental and social functioning. A few examples of work include:- The development and restandardization of the Bayley Scales of Infant DevelopmentBayley Scales of Infant DevelopmentThe Bayley Scales of Infant Development is a standard series of measurements originally developed by psychologist Nancy Bayley used primarily to assess the motor , language , and cognitive development of infants and toddlers, ages 0-3...
. These infant scales became the accepted standard for behavioral and motoric assessment of infants and young children. Nancy Bayley, an original member of the research staff of the Institute, was the first administrator of the Jones Child Study Center. - Longitudinal studies predicting psychological functioning in later life from early competence, socioemotional development, and profiles of personality dispositions. Examples of such longitudinal studies include the work of Jack and Jeanne Block, and Diana BaumrindDiana BaumrindDiana Blumberg Baumrind is a clinical and developmental psychologist.Baumrind was born into a small Jewish community in New York City, the first of two daughters of Hyman and Mollie Blumberg. She completed her B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy at Hunter College in 1948, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in...
. - Research on the acquisition of language by Dan SlobinDan SlobinDaniel Isaac Slobin is a Professor Emeritus of psychology and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Slobin has made major contributions to the study of children's language acquisition, and his work has demonstrated the importance of cross-linguistic comparison for the study of...
and Susan M. Ervin-TrippSusan M. Ervin-TrippSusan M. Ervin-Tripp is an American sociolinguist and is currently a professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley. She has conducted research on child language acquisition and bilingualism among children, and has made contributions to the fields of linguistics, psychology, child...
. Their works address how languageLanguageLanguage may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
is acquired and the developmental interactions between linguistic skills and conceptual and social skills. - Research on the "theory of mindTheory of mindTheory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own...
," from Alison Gopnik, focuses on the development of young children's comprehension about self and others. Her work on the "theory theory" asserts that the world is understood by young children in terms of causal relations between people and objects. Furthermore, it children behave like active scientists in their approach to understand the physical and social environments around them. - Research on the psycho-physiology of stress in middle childhood and its relation to childhood health and psychological functioning by Thomas Boyce and Abbey Alkon. Their work examines differences between children in behavioral and biological (e.g. cardiovascular, autonomic, immunologic) responses to psychological stressors in the laboratory and in response to stressful life situations such as the child's entrance to kindergartenKindergartenA kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
. This work analyzes the difference between children who are vulnerable to stress and children who seem to be resilient in that they adapt well in spite of highly stressful home or school environments. - Research on the development of mathematical thinking and the environments that support it in early childhood by Prentice Starkey and Alice Klein. Their research (a)identifies socio-economic and cross-culturalCross-culturalcross-cultural may refer to*cross-cultural studies, a comparative tendency in various fields of cultural analysis*cross-cultural communication, a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate...
differences in the breadth and extent of children's mathematical knowledge prior to entry in elementary schoolElementary schoolAn elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
, (b)studies the mathematical-learning environments of young children at home and in preschool classrooms, (c)developed a research-based mathematics curriculum for use in preschool classrooms and at home, and (d)conducted intervention research to determine the effects of their pre-kindergartenPre-KindergartenPre-kindergarten refers to the first formal academic classroom-based learning environment that a child customarily attends in the United States. It begins between the ages of 3-5 depending on the length of the program...
curriculumCurriculumSee also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
on children's readiness for school mathematics. Both low-and middle-income children's mathematical development was significantly enhanced by this curriculum relative to comparison groups of children. - Reports by Jones CSC researchers from videotaped observations of children's play provide evidence of consistent patterns in children's language and behavior that are particular to peer play culture. Research on the classroom and playground finds that young children's play interactions and learning follow a stable and predictable progression organized into initiation, negotiation, and enactment phases.
Archive
The Jones Child Study Center holds archival materials on early child study and assessment at the University of California, Berkeley, including child observation reports from the 1930's and 40's, the original Bayley Scales Infant Development Kit, used to measure the cognitive, motor and behavioral developments of infants, and children's dictated narratives. Additional archival materials are stored at the University of California Bancroft LibraryBancroft Library
The Bancroft Library is the primary special collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired as a gift/purchase from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity...
.
The Jones CSC holds the Susan Solomon curated exhibition "Making Spaces for Small and Young Children to Play." This is a 20 panel (each measuring 20 inches by 48 inches) display of innovative space for children to play. This exhibition was the preliminary research for Soloman's 2005 book American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space.
Educational contributions
The Harold E. Jones Child Study Center has provided educational programs for pre-school age children for more than six decades. The curriculum was originally modeled after England's nursery schools. These programs have evolved over the years to meet changing social demands and to incorporate the ever-increasing knowledge of optimal environments for the development of young children, but the commitment to serving children has remained the highest priority of the school since its inception in 1928.Jones CSC research finds that children as young as three and four years old have their own established social patterns and ways of behaving. This peer culture is expressed most vividly during play through the primary grades and even beyond. William Corsaro, a sociologist who has studied preschool and elementary age children in classrooms from different cultures, finds two themes of this first peer group:
- a strong desire to play and "be friends" with other playmates, and
- a drive to challenge authorityAuthorityThe word Authority is derived mainly from the Latin word auctoritas, meaning invention, advice, opinion, influence, or command. In English, the word 'authority' can be used to mean power given by the state or by academic knowledge of an area .-Authority in Philosophy:In...
and gain control over their lives.
So it is not just that early childhood education teachers like children to play because children learn when playing, but that the children themselves want to affiliate in play with each other. A second strong desire in the early years is that children want to figure things out for themselves.
Children's development at the Jones Child Study Center is cultivated by spatially defined learning centers, where small group child-generated play experiences happen in a two-level indoor playhouse, several sand-and-water stations outside, spacious and varied large motor opportunities, as well as activities in aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
and language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
-all accessible both indoors and out.
Due to its architectural design, the Jones Child Study Center establishes a social ecology
Social ecology
Social ecology is a philosophy developed by Murray Bookchin in the 1960s.It holds that present ecological problems are rooted in deep-seated social problems, particularly in dominatory hierarchical political and social systems. These have resulted in an uncritical acceptance of an overly...
for learning where children, alone and in small groups, use defined indoor and outdoor areas. Each area, or ecology, is not only a particular place in the classroom
Classroom
A classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations...
or play yard, it also conveys a set of social expectations for the kind of things children will do at the site. That is why it is sometimes referred to as a social ecology. Based on Jones Child Study Center research, an ecology is defined by:
- the kinds of available materials, objects, people, space, and time,
- the kinds of activities children naturally enjoy doing with these materials in this area,
- the kinds of social interactions that occur in the area, and
- a shared history of how they played in this area in the past
An ecology encourages learning by focusing children's curiosity and initiative on specific learning experiences.
Since 1993, the University Preschool at the Jones Child Study Center has been run by the Early Childhood Education Program, which oversees seven other campus childcare sites. Currently, the program offered at the Jones CSC is a full day, year-round program for children ages 2 years nine months to 5 years old. Priority is given to University of California, Berkeley faculty and staff.