A Preschool Mediational Context: the Bright Start Curriculum

Working from information processing theory and research, the authors identify several basic processes that underlie cognitive development and that are capable of providing the foundation for cognitive and metacognitive approaches to early education. These include: increased processing efficiency; expansion of working memory capacity; automatization of cognitive processes (to lessen demand on working memory capacity); hierarchical structuring of concepts; educating and controlling attentional processes that help one to gather information. Further needs include accession to the concrete operatory stage, development of intrinsic motivation, and a metacognitive awareness and focus. Proceeding from that basis, the authors present a set of guiding principles for the development of a cognitive early education program, generalizing on Piaget's stages concepts of cognitive development, Vygotsky's social-historical approach, Feuerstein's concepts of structural cognitive modifiability and mediated learning experience, Haywood's transactional perspective on human ability, and E. J. Gibson's research on children's perception of distinction features of stimuli. The resulting curriculum, Bright Start, consists of a systematic theoretical base, a mediational teaching style, seven cognitive/metacognitive instructional units, a cognitive-mediational system of behavior management, and a program of parent participation. The instructional units are addressed to self regulation, quantitative relations, comparison, role taking, classification, sequence and patterns, and distinctive features. The curriculum is described in detail. Studies of the effectiveness of Bright Start reveal positive and durable effects on IQ, intrinsic motivation, ability to function academically in "mainstream" classes, cognitive development itself, and subsequent school achievement.