How might we create the ideal preschool curriculum to

maximize cognitive development in children at a young

age?
Proposal FE51
By: Kshitij Kothari, Martine Therese Bjorneboe-Ohra, May Wang and Menal Bokhari

PROPOSAL FE51
 The OpenIDEO describes how there is much room for improving the quality of childcare,

and that “new solutions are needed” to provide “optimal learning environments… during this period of

prime brain development”(G. C., & M., 2018). In preschool, children grow socially and emotionally,

developing a foundation for skills that they will build upon as they grow older (Education.vic.gov.au,

2018). Furthermore, high-quality preschool curricula have several economical advantages on both the

state- and federal level (NEA, n.d.).1 The purpose of the project is shown through the diagram.2

Purpose
Maximizing
cognitive
development in
children

Guiding
Principles
Goal Embracing
Develop a Values diversity and new
curriculum for Collaboration, ideas. Also, being
teachers to follow Creativity , open minded
in pre-schools Curiosity,
empathy and
personal
responsibility

The purpose of this project is maximizing the cognitive development in children. The goals set by us focus on designing a curriculum for teachers to follow
that will help in cognitive growth in children. The curriculum aims to target preschoolers because research has proven to show that half of the child's IQ is
reached when he turns 4. (Irimia R 2006) Our values will be concrete which we will stick to regardless of them benefitting us. Our values include
collaboration, creativity, curiosity, empathy and personal responsibility. Our guiding principles will be something we adhere to while achieving our goals
which is to be open-minded and embrace diversity and new ideas when exposed to them.This goal helps in achieving the future envisioned by us where
children can reach their maximum cognitive abilities by the time they reach 4.

1 #context: Provided relevant context to understand the underlying big question that will be targeted by us, helps in
understanding why the topic is important to address.
2 #Purpose: Identified the goals, values and guiding principles that our group will work on to target the underlying big
question which is the purpose.

PROPOSAL FE51
 Our curriculum will be broken down into categories including relationships between teachers

and children, activities to enhance cognition, and mindfulness. While this is part of the solution, it is

important to bear in mind that other components also play a vital role in cognitive development.

Similarly to how Minerva structures their foundation year around the HCs, we want break

the aforementioned categories down further to create areas of study to increase cognitive development

in children. One example would be Mindfulness or Creativity, and several activities will be designed as

part of these areas. 3

These decisions are based on strong inductive reasoning. Our research from last semester lay

the foundation for the choice of categories and later what areas of study we will create. Furthermore,

we have seen the effectiveness of the Minerva curriculum, and we believe that the core values and

principles can be generalized to other educational institutions. However, we need to be careful to avoid

biases and take into consideration that many other factors influence cognitive development, such as

children's’ socio-economic backgrounds. 4

3 #breakitdown: We effectively explain how and why we will break down our research question into four tractable
components or topics, to reach our goal. However, we also critique our composition and mention that we will not provide
the full solution.

4 #induction: Identified type of inductive reasoning which is generalization, the strength of induction and mentioned biases
and other factors that need to be taken into consideration as well.

PROPOSAL FE51
 Currently, the team possesses an academic understanding of the specific areas of focus that

each member focused on last semester. As we move ahead, we would need to conduct background

research on how kindergartens are established, on the practical constraints and considerations of this

area that should be accounted for in our suggestions, and the methods that current organizations are

employing to fill this gap in education.

We reached out to Sara Draffin who works in Business Development and Partnerships at

IDEO U in IDEO for an informational interview. She introduced us to resources that informed our

understanding of the practical and implementable aspect of the topic. We are currently waiting for her

to refer us to colleagues with better expertise in the area so we receive more specific feedback on our

focus and design.

The division of labor is compartmentalized according to the various aspects of our project:

Our field visits to schools, kindergartens and creativity museums will be delivered by all of our

members to gain a holistic understanding. May Wang is responsible for the outreach to different

organizations; Martine Ohra is responsible for animation and school design research; Kshitij Kothari is

responsible for research on the cognitive aspects of learning and development and curricula design;

and May & Menal Bokhari is responsible for developing tools of training for the teachers and

animation design for the final presentation. We will draw upon several HC’s in the construction of our

PROPOSAL FE51
final project, including #carrotandstick (positive reinforcement), #gapanalysis, #audience, and

#optimizations. 5

5 #Professionalism: Double spaced, 12 Times New Roman, made it look professional, paragraphs are indented along with
references. Footnotes are clear and precise. Added a diagram to convey a message better.

PROPOSAL FE51
 References:

Investments, G. C., & M. (2018, January 23). Early Childhood Innovation Prize. Retrieved March 11,

2018, from https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/ecprize/brief

Education.vic.gov.au. (2018). About Kindergarten. [online] Available at: http://

www.education.vic.gov.au/childhood/parents/kindergarten/Pages/about.aspx

[Accessed 12 Mar. 2018].

NEA. (n.d.). Research on Early Childhood Education. [online]

Available at: http://www.nea.org/home/18226.htm

[Accessed 12 Mar. 2018].

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