Early Childhood Education

Research over the last decades on FDI in relation to early childhood education has continued throughout this decade. In agreement with Witkin et al. ( 1977), early childhood researchers ( have considered FDI to be a cognitive style that is bipolar and stable, affecting the way a person thinks, feels, and behaves. FDI influences the way persons perceive and process information and the way they interact with their environments. The overlap in the cognitive, personality, and social domains relates FDI to early childhood education, an overlap that is acknowledged as a cognitive, affective, and sociological phenomenon. FDI appeals to early childhood researchers because of its bipolarity: "each pole has adaptive value under specified circumstances". The characteristics at each end of the pole (i.e., each type of learner) combined with learning situations suggest that any student can succeed under appropriate conditions. Thus, as a practical matter, teachers might match learning situations to children's cognitive styles. It is also the most popular dimension among educators, psychologists, researchers, and individuals in other disciplines. The FDI construct also has been related to cross-cultural contexts as well as such factors as age and sex. The following sections will discuss additional components of FDI in relation to cultural differences, age, and sex.

Organization processes induce differences in the memory of FD and FI persons. FI individuals' abilities for selective attention, encoding, and long-term memory processes are superior to those of FD individuals. Since individuals' cognitive styles affect their learning modes and outcomes, cognitive styles should be considered in all educational aspects. This is important in early childhood education programs because the focus is on teaching concepts instead of facts alone. Clear cues should provide an assortment of teaching aids with social content (e.g., photographs of peers to teach colors or size).

The content of an early childhood curriculum can be identified and its appropriateness justified in many ways. Teachers must include in the content of early childhood education more than a set of skills that enable children to function adequately and meet the demands of schooling. The content of early childhood education requires diversity in the early childhood curriculum in order that all children learn based on their needs and interests.

Cognitive style influences the way in which individual abilities develop. It describes consistencies in the way they use their cognitive processes. In teaching concepts to young children, more obvious and socially oriented strategies must be used with FD children than with FI children. This is a major concern in early childhood education programs because the focus is on teaching concepts instead of facts alone. Cues can be made more obvious by using a variety of teaching aids that have social content. For example, photographs of peers can be used to teach colors or size. In contrast, FI children can learn abstract concepts by themselves without the participation of peers.

The need to articulate the content of early childhood education reflects a need to articulate the content of education at all levels. The National Endowment for the Humanities has recently issued a report criticizing elementary and secondary schools for being too involved with "process" and not involved enough with helping children and youth become deeply knowledgeable of the roots of their cultures. This criticism also might be applied to early childhood education programs. Educators need to define the content of early childhood education as something more than a set of skills that will enable children to function adequately and meet the demands of the curriculum for young children.