Lilian G. Katz taught at the University of Illinois for more than three decades—from 1968 until the year 2000. To celebrate all that she contributed to those who work with children during those 32 years, we decided to organize a symposium and, in the time-honored scholarly tradition, to produce a small volume to mark the event. After deciding on three major areas of Lilian's contributions to early childhood education—curriculum, teacher education, and the dissemination of information—we sent out a call for papers, anticipating the selection of 12 to 15 speakers and a small gathering of colleagues and friends.

The response of colleagues around the world and students past and present changed our plans. We were faced with an overwhelming number of people who wanted to honor Lilian and celebrate her years of teaching and lecturing. We knew that Lilian would not want to exclude anyone, and so we expanded the symposium to include the many people who wanted to be part of the celebration.

These proceedings cannot capture everything that took place during the symposium, but the papers do provide some insights into Lilian's profound influence on the field of early childhood education. In this set of papers presented at the symposium honoring Lilian Katz, Issues in Early Childhood Education: Curriculum, Teacher Education, and Dissemination of Information (November 5-7, 2000, Champaign, Illinois), we are pleased to present essays, reports of research, opinion papers, and project descriptions that reflect her scholarly interests.

This introduction is divided into three parts. In the first section, we provide a brief biography of Lilian Katz. The second section provides an overview of her contributions to the field of early childhood education. The third section discusses the framework for the papers presented at the symposium.

A Brief Biography of Lilian Katz

It seems fitting, before presenting the papers in this publication, to include some biographical information about the individual being honored. Lilian Gonshaw Katz was born to Joseph and Eva Gonshaw in London, England, in 1932. Lilian and her twin sister Anita also had an older sister, Ellen. The families of both parents had fled from Eastern Europe—her father's family from Poland at the end of the 19th century, and her mother's family at the beginning of the 20th century, to escape persecution of Jews. Joseph, the youngest of many siblings, was born and grew up in England. Her mother's family fled from Russia to Paris, where Eva grew up. As a young woman Eva met Joseph on a visit to relatives in England and later married him.

As was true of all families in England, the Gonshaws were profoundly affected by the Second World War. Three days before war was declared in 1939, the twins and older sister Ellen were evacuated to the countryside—to different villages—in anticipation of the bombing of London. Lilian and her twin were sent to the tiny hamlet of Beachingstoke, Wiltshire, in the Salisbury Plain, where they spent two-and-a-half years at a formative time in their lives. "We were treated with healthy neglect during those years," says Lilian. "All that was expected of us was to say our prayers, eat what we were given, and move our bowels!" The woman who took care of Lilian and Anita died very suddenly in March of 1942. By that time the Blitz was over, so their mother brought them back to London. Within a short time, however, London was attacked by V1 and V2 rockets, called "pilotless planes." The whole family moved north to Manchester and stayed there for about three months, until the danger had passed.

Joseph Gonshaw was a tailor. He would have preferred more interesting work, but family circumstances and social conditions in his youth made alternative choices impossible. One of his deep lifelong interests was music. As young children in a musical family, Lilian and Anita learned to play the violin and piano. The twins won scholarships to the Trinity College of Music in 1943, where they took lessons in a variety of musical subjects every Saturday for five years. Each scholarship was accompanied by a "free place" at a nearby grammar school, the Burlington School for Girls (founded 1699), where they began their formal education.

At the end of the war, older sister Ellen married an American soldier. She joined him in the United States after the war as a "G.I. Bride." Soon after settling with her husband in New York, she began encouraging the rest of the family to come across the ocean. Eva, who had family in Chicago and California, was in favor of the move.

And so the family emigrated to the United States in 1947, settling in California after several months in New York and a short stop in Chicago. Lilian's father found work as a tailor doing "piecework." Lilian attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Los Angeles, while her twin went to a different high school where she could continue her education as an artist. Lilian enjoyed her time at Wilson High. The high school, located in East Los Angeles, was culturally diverse even in the late 1940s, including Hispanic and Mexican children, whose parents worked in the nearby orange groves, and children from the Jewish ghetto in Los Angeles. It was a lively community in the late 1940s, characterized by much optimism about the future.

Then, very suddenly, her father died at just 50 years of age. Lilian was not quite 18 and getting ready to graduate from high school. She was voted one of two girls "most likely to succeed" by her graduating class of 1950. During her last two years of high school, she and her twin worked after school as bookbinders for about 30 cents an hour. Times were difficult for the family, and Eva's extended family helped the Gonshaws.

Looking back over the tumultuous early life of Lilian Katz, it is not difficult to identify some life-shaping events. The trauma of separation from her family, becoming an immigrant to this country after wartime with all its hardships, and her father's early death are perhaps the most obvious life-shaping events in her childhood.

Yet another of these events occurred during Lilian's senior year in high school. One of her teachers sent two essays that Lilian had written to someone she knew and believed could help her. This person sent the essays on to his sister-in-law, Susan Harrison Johnson, an Indiana Quaker who had been a member of the first graduating class from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Johnson was one of the founders of Whittier Academy (later Whittier College) in Whittier, California, where she taught Latin and Greek for many years. (She was also a great baseball fan.)

Susan Harrison Johnson asked to meet Lilian. She never asked about Lilian's background or her religion. She simply said to her, "If thee is admitted to Whittier, I will pay for thy tuition." She made sure that Lilian knew the best professors and enrolled in the best classes. She invited Lilian to live with her in return for some minor household duties. Mrs. Johnson was 88 years old when Lilian met her. Following her death a few months later, Lilian learned that Mrs. Johnson had helped pay college expenses for more than 50 talented young women over her many years in the Whittier community. Lilian learned a great deal from this remarkable woman. "What you are speaks more loudly than what you say" is one of the many lessons she absorbed from her time among the Friends (Quakers). Many of the ideas in the "Last Class Notes" in this publication reflect what she learned from them.

Lilian stayed at Whittier for two years. During this time, she studied international politics and French and German. After her sophomore year, a friend invited Lilian to her home in the San Francisco bay area for the summer. There she met Boris Katz at a dance at the San Francisco International House. Boris was also an immigrant to the United States. He had fled Russia with his family as a boy of 8 years old. They journeyed by railroad to Shanghai, China, in 1931, where his father worked making ties for many years to support his family. The Katz family was unable to leave Shanghai for 16 years, while Shanghai was occupied by Japan. By 1947, however, it was clear that his family had to leave. Boris came to the United States on a student visa and attended college at the University of California at Berkeley where he studied civil engineering; his father and aunt followed him to the United States (his mother had passed away while the family lived in Shanghai).

Lilian felt that she and Boris had much in common, even though they had arrived in San Francisco by very different routes. Although she was engaged to someone else at the time (a Viennese exchange student), within three months, Lilian and Boris had married. She continued with her college studies at San Francisco State College without completing a degree until her first child Daniel was born in September of 1954. Surely her marriage and starting a family was another life-shaping event! Stephen and Miriam joined the family in 1956 and 1957. Memories of having three preschoolers at one time helped Lilian appreciate the common predicaments parents face.

When Dan reached preschool age, Lilian enrolled him in a cooperative nursery school at Visitation Valley Cooperative Nursery School in San Francisco. Following the family's move from the city to the peninsula, she continued her participation in parent cooperative nursery schools during Steve and Miriam's nursery school years. Later, she served as president of the Parent-Child Study Center, the parent-cooperative that Steve attended. Finally, she founded the Carlmont Parents Nursery School in San Carlos close to their home, where Miriam spent her nursery school years. Lilian worked one morning each week at the co-op and continued until Miriam, her youngest child, entered kindergarten. Her work at these co-ops sparked her interest in early childhood education.

By the time her youngest child had enrolled in kindergarten, Lilian had decided to go back to school, but not to continue her studies in modern languages and international politics. She wanted to take a course at San Mateo Community College in early childhood education. Dr. Mary Lane, who taught the course, encouraged Lilian to finish her undergraduate degree and become a co-op teacher. Lilian says she knew immediately that becoming a co-op teacher was what she wanted to do, but she also knew that she didn't really know enough to teach young children well.

She met with Dr. Edith Dowley, the director of the Stanford University Nursery School, hoping to get help in enrolling in a class on nursery teaching methods. Dr. Dowley discouraged her because Lilian had no undergraduate work in psychology and no degree. When Lilian reported her discouraging experience at the Stanford Nursery School to her mentor, Dr. Lane sent her to Professor Fanny Schaftel, a professor in the School of Education at Stanford University, who in turn sent her to Professor Pauline Sears. Dr. Sears quizzed her for over two hours. At the end of that meeting, Dr. Sears advised her to complete her bachelor's degree. Then she said, "We don't have a master's program so you'll have to do a Ph.D., and I'll get you a fellowship." With the help of a Newman Foundation Fellowship for immigrants and other fellowships, Lilian was able to complete her Ph.D. degree at Stanford in four years.

As Lilian describes it, when she began graduate work at Stanford University, she felt that she "had been living through a famine and had just arrived at a banquet!" She did well in her studies and received an award for the outstanding dissertation of the Stanford School of Education of 1968. When she was offered the position of Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Katz family decided to move to the Midwest.

In her third year as a junior faculty member in 1970, Lilian was asked by Dean J. Myron Atkin to "take over" the ERIC Clearinghouse on Early Childhood Education. "Just give it a try," said Mike, "We'll support you." She continued as a professor at the University of Illinois for 32 years, officially retiring from the professorship in August of 2000. She remains the co-director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.

While university teaching occupied much of her time in these years, her career as an international consultant gathered momentum as well. In August of 1974, she was asked by UNESCO to conduct a preschool teacher-training seminar in Barbados. Lilian describes her first overseas experience there as a major influence in understanding the challenges involved in learning how others define their situations, problems, and solutions. Since that first visit, she has worked extensively with early childhood educators there and on 11 other Caribbean islands. Lilian believes that she continues to learn more from each trip to the islands.

Another major influence on her career began in the early 1980s, when she worked closely with her colleague Dr. James Raths. They offered a seminar on research on teacher education together, conducted research with a group of students in the Research on Teacher Education Unit in the College of Education, made presentations at conferences, published papers, and together edited several books on teacher education. Lilian describes Dr. Raths as a major supporter of her work and an important influence on her ideas and teaching. Some of his interesting and provocative ideas can be read in his paper in this volume.

The Impact of Lilian Katz on Early Childhood Education

Lilian Katz has demonstrated leadership in the field of early childhood education in the United States and around the world in ways almost too numerous to mention here.

She has been a frequent contributor to the early childhood literature. Lilian has authored more than 150 publications, including articles, chapters, and books about early childhood education, teacher education, child development, and parenting (see the Katz bibliography in this volume). The book Talks with Teachers of Young Children. A Collection (1995) is a compilation of her best known early essays and several recent ones. In 1989, she wrote Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach (with S. C. Chard), a book that continues to influence the education of preservice and inservice teachers in early childhood education and is credited with playing a major role in reviving interest in project work in early childhood education. A second edition of Engaging Children's Minds was published in 2000. Another major work on the Project Approach, titled Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years (with J. H. Helm), was published early in 2001. Her publications alone guarantee Lilian Katz a place among the most influential early childhood educators of this era.

Other professional contributions abound. Following several years of work on a series titled "Current Topics in Early Childhood Education" (Ablex Publishing), Dr. Katz founded Early Childhood Research Quarterly and served as editor-in-chief during its first six years of publication. She is currently chair of the editorial board of the International Journal of the Early Years published in the United Kingdom. Most recently, Dr. Katz became editor of another journal, Early Childhood Research & Practice (http://ecrp.uiuc.edu), which began publication in early 1999 as the first peer-reviewed, Internet-only, journal in early education.

She also was one of the founders of the Illinois Association for the Education of Young Children and served as its first president. In addition, she served as vice president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) from 1986 to 1990 and later was elected president of NAEYC, serving from 1992-1994.

Dr. Katz has guided the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE) for more than 30 years. This role has contributed to her scholarship on the principles of practice and the dissemination of education-related information to diverse audiences. As part of both the culture of research and the culture of practice, her work has been influential in both of these areas. She has often described her dissemination role as that of translator and interpreter between researchers and educators.

In addition to her record of influential publications, Lilian has played an important role in the development of the contemporary field of early childhood education. She literally "wrote the book" on professionalism in early childhood education, as the first person to write about ethical issues in the field (Katz, 1977). She served on the NAEYC Commission to Revise the Position Paper on Developmentally Appropriate Practices (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). In a time of great emphasis on academic achievement and accountability, she continues to be a strong voice in support of the importance of the development of social competence in the early years.

Lilian has long been an active (as well as a reflective) voice in early childhood education. Long ago, she served on one of the first groups that met to design the CDA credential. She was also involved in the Planned Variation Experiment of Head Start. Most recently, she was asked by the National Academy of Sciences to serve on a committee to take part in the task of sorting out the issues related to early childhood pedagogy (Bowman, Donovan, & Burns, 2001).

Over the years, much of her energy has been devoted to early childhood teacher education. As one of her colleagues has written,

Much of her contribution is based on her own work with teachers of young children, in their classrooms and hers. Wherever she is, whether before an audience of thousands or sitting at a table in an Italian coffee bar, Lilian manages to imbue her stories about children with her own questions about the role of adults in children's lives. Her curiosity, her perseverance, and her openness to new ideas and understandings have contributed to her role as a leader and a visionary in the field. (Rebecca New, personal communication, 2000)

The many students to whom Lilian has been a mentor in her 32 years of teaching have benefited from her guidance, her honesty, and her generosity. She has mentored students from around the world and continues to demonstrate her commitment to the professional development of her students, to beginning teachers and faculty, and to her colleagues.

Well known around the world as an early childhood leader and role model, Lilian continues to observe early childhood professionals at work in other countries and to speak at international conferences, symposia, and workshops. These events allow her to learn about and share information on the early childhood practices she observes in other cultures, such as those in Reggio Emilia, Italy. She has lectured in all 50 U.S. states and in 43 countries, and she has held visiting posts at universities in Australia, Canada, England, Germany, India, Israel, the West Indies (Barbados campus), and many parts of the United States. In 1997, she served as Nehru Professor at the University of Baroda in India.

She is the recipient of numerous honors, including two Fulbright Awards (India and New Zealand), an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt.) from Whittier College in Whittier, California, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Göteborg University in Sweden.

Lilian Katz's scholarly work in such areas as the distinctions between mothering and teaching, parenting preschoolers, children's social development, teacher growth and development, dispositions as a goal of education, the differences between self-esteem and narcissism, mixed-age grouping, and the Project Approach have substantially enriched the knowledge base of our field. She continues to reflect on the conventional wisdom of our field and to take issue with our most dearly held preconceptions. Few others of her generation have contributed so much to the development of the field of early childhood education.

The Papers in This Volume

The contents of this volume are divided into 11 topical strands. The strands echo some of Lilian's major areas of interest throughout her long career and reflect her impact on those individuals who make up the field of early childhood education—teachers, researchers, policy makers, and teacher educators. The strands are:

• Celebrating the Project Approach
• Designing Curriculum for the Early Years
• Preparing Teachers to Work with Diverse Populations
• Preparing Teachers for the Changing Early Childhood Classroom
• International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education
• Enjoying the Diversity of All Classrooms
• The Project Approach Revisited
• School Change
• Dispositions as Goals in Early Childhood Education
• Preparing Teachers for the Project Approach
• On Communication and Dissemination

Celebrating the Project Approach

In this strand, the first paper is by Mary Jane Elliott, a teacher in a preschool in Hong Kong. Lilian first went to Hong Kong in the 1980s, invited by UNICEF to do a week-long seminar on the Project Approach, and Mary Jane was one of the teachers who attended the seminar. "There is no assurance that busy and happy children are learning anything!" stated Lilian at the seminar. "I left that seminar feeling wounded, but energized, knowing my teaching would never be the same," writes Mary Jane. One of Lilian's favorite anecdotes about the power of the Project Approach is recounted in this paper, in Mary Jane's description of her students' learning during their attempts to measure the height of the building in which the Hong Kong International School is located.

The second paper in this strand is by Sylvia Chard, Lilian's long-time student, friend, and colleague. Lilian and Sylvia have worked together for many years on the Project Approach, most notably as co-authors of Engaging Children's Minds (1989, 2000). She reports on the work of two groups of teachers who implemented the Project Approach after inservice and preservice training. Quotes from the teachers suggest, again, the power of the Project Approach in changing teachers' ideas of what young children are capable of doing and learning.

The third paper, prepared by teachers from Fredericton, Canada, where Lilian visited in 1992, concerns documentation of children's projects. Anne Hunt, Pamela Nuttall Nason, and Pam Whitty have focused primarily "on Katz's intention that 'the major goal of education is to engage the mind of the learner, aesthetically, morally, and spiritually.'" The teachers learned the importance and centrality of documentation when they realized that "the very act of trying to make visible what one knows is what prompts the search for deeper understanding…."

Designing Curriculum for the Early Years

Diane Trister Dodge and Toni Bickart start this section of papers by describing three curriculum frameworks that respond to the developmental stages of infants and toddlers, preschool and kindergarten children, and children in grades one through three. The authors also stress the importance of curriculum implementation, professional development, and involving families if we are to carry out our commitment to developing high-quality early childhood programs.

Lisa Rosenthal, Andrea Michaelson, and Laura Weishaupt discuss ways to develop critical thinking skills and creativity while meeting educational standards and maintaining learning goals. Like Lilian, these teachers believe that it is possible to meet both kinds of goals in high-quality early education programs.

Janey Marquez and Gloria McGinty, trainers in a Head Start program in Arizona, took the opportunity of writing this paper to reflect on teacher change. They describe the effect of Lilian Katz's visit to Southwest Head Start to provide training in the Project Approach. According to a teacher's account quoted in their paper, Lilian asked, "How do you apply what your children are interested in into your curriculum?" leaving the teacher speechless, but, in that teacher's words, "I began observing the children in my class more closely and asked open-ended questions about their interests." Developing and implementing training, the authors stress, is hard work, but perseverance can help us "grow teachers" who see educating children as a powerful occupation.

Preparing Teachers to Work with Diverse Populations

As the children in early childhood programs become more diverse, sensitivity to differing cultures among early childhood teachers becomes increasingly important. The first paper in this section, by Jeanne Helm, recounts a diversity-sensitivity workshop that changed the climate in an early childhood teacher education classroom in a community college.

The second paper in this section makes clear that there are many approaches to increasing early childhood teachers' sensitivity to the cultural and linguistic differences of their students. Cheryl Van Hook discusses the range of research focusing on the preparation of teachers to work in multicultural settings. She describes a developmental model depicting stages of cultural sensitivity and discusses using that model by applying the DMIS (Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity), a model that may be used with preservice teachers to assess the effectiveness of multicultural course content and methodology.

The final paper in this section is a case study of the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit, by a former student of Lilian Katz, Navaz Peshotan Bhavnagri, with Sue Krolikowski and Thrity Vaswani. This case study documents the effectiveness of the Detroit International Institute in collaborating with other agencies to promote the well-being of culturally diverse immigrant children and families through interagency collaboration.

Roundtable I

Three papers were presented during the first Roundtable session. Patricia Ragan discusses a collaborative, site-based early childhood teacher preparation program at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay that is a harbinger of the future of early childhood teacher education. She describes the traditional course (on-site) and the online core modules, field-based faculty mentors, and performance-based assessment tools used to measure preservice teacher outcomes. The second paper, by Naama Zoran, discusses the "inner voice" of the teacher and its relationship to teacher quality, focusing on how deliberation and critical reflection are employed to improve practice in a two-year early childhood teacher education program in which early childhood teachers meet every two weeks to discuss and reflect critically on their practice. The third paper, by Daungvan Bunnag, examines the classroom implementations of two teachers, compares them with Maria Montessori's original principles, and finds that they contained the essence of the Montessori method.

Preparing Teachers for the Changing Early Childhood Classroom

In the first paper in this strand, Carol Keyes cites Lilian's model of the distinctions between parent and teacher roles as she discusses a general theoretical approach to understanding teacher-parent partnerships. Her approach draws from the ecological systems perspective as well as from a social system perspective.

Nancy File and Dominic Gullo report on a study examining preservice teachers' beliefs about primary classroom practice, finding some interesting differences between students focused on early childhood education and those focused on elementary education.

Darlene DeMarie discusses how she was drawn to the experimental approach in her own teaching, based on her preservice education and experience. As support for her own experimental approach, Dr. DeMarie states that Lilian Katz "recommended that when we try to help others with their teaching we phrase suggestions in experimental form." Although she learned the experimental approach outside her education classes, DeMarie suggests that students should find support for an experimental approach from their preservice education programs.

International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education: Barbados and Mexico

A symposium for Lilian Katz would not be complete without an international focus. Edith Cisneros-Cohernour, Astrid Cisneros, and Robert Moreno focus on Mexico, and Barbara Parris focuses on Barbados, to provide that perspective in discussions of curriculum reform and its challenges, and teacher-education reform, in their respective countries.

Enjoying the Diversity of All Classrooms

Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, two doctoral students of Lilian Katz, presented an analysis of some of the pitfalls and possibilities in choosing multicultural literature to use with young children. Their thought-provoking analysis of some popular children's literature will be of interest to teachers.

Tamar Jacobson provides an ethnography of an anti-bias support-supervision group for teachers of young children. This support group provided an opportunity to support teachers interested in making some changes in their personal and professional lives by challenging their biases.

Beverly Clark stresses that there are no negative effects for children who are truly bilingual. She urges teachers to provide support for language learning and interaction. "Through the child's own talk and interactions with others, their own ideas take shape, and they have the opportunity to explore what other people are thinking and go beyond their own personal experience," states Clark.

Roundtable II

Three papers were presented as part of the second Roundtable session. Teresa Vasconcelos discusses an ethnographic study of the practice of one Portuguese kindergarten teacher whom she observed throughout most of two years. Tom Drummond describes the concept of "Enterprise Talk"—a practical guide for talking to children in times of difficulty, and responding with effective positive statements, which becomes an instrument for integrity and authenticity in the early childhood classroom. Patricia Steinhaus describes a study that attempted to integrate the differing perspectives of reading specialists and early childhood specialists by exploring the role that language plays as an instructional strategy.

The Project Approach Revisited

Current interest in the Project Approach is high. We received so many submissions on the Project Approach that the papers on this topic were divided into three sections (see the first section, "Celebrating the Project Approach," and the section on "Preparing Teachers for the Project Approach"). Sallee Beneke describes the importance of documentation in a lab school setting and explains how documentation can also be a useful teaching tool for early childhood teacher educators.

In this part of the conference, Ann-Marie Clark, a former student of Lilian, discusses the Project Approach as an "avenue of engagement" for the child that fosters curiosity, creativity, and communication. "As Dewey reminded us, the purpose of education is to develop in each child the dispositions necessary to become a lifelong learner," states Ann-Marie Clark. Betty Leibovich also discusses the Project Approach and its role in early education. Eunju Yun discusses the Project Approach as a component of "meaningful life," reminding us that "a project may resemble a 'real-life situation' more than play or systematic instruction does."

School Change

School change can take many forms. Karen VanderVen starts the first paper in this section by quoting from a presentation Lilian made to the Pittsburgh AEYC: "Let's call a one-year moratorium on dinosaurs." Her paper discusses "the legacy of Lilian Katz in a proposal for a 'Katzian Early Childhood Teacher Preparation System.'" Her paper deals with (1) translating available empirical and theoretical knowledge into effective practice, and (2) gleaning from Lilian's work ideas for a model of teacher and caregiver preparation that would yield the best possible practitioners.

Shareen Abramson discusses professional development as a catalyst for program change following two visits from Lilian Katz (in 1997 and 1998) to Fresno, California, crediting Lilian with the model for professional development that gave direction to the local professional development programs that the center now sponsors.

Ellen Dodge, Barbara Dulik, and Jon Kulhanek discuss philosophical change in early childhood programs, using as an example the case of their own school's process of change. This engaging account documents the transition from a teacher-directed program to an emergent, child-centered philosophy among staff, parents, and children.

Roundtable III

The third Roundtable began with a paper by Sara Wilford on the connections between literacy goals and other aspects of early childhood classrooms in which play is valued and literacy is fostered. Claudia Shuster synthesizes research on children's emotional development and the development of their emotional intelligence. Her paper includes a discussion of specific scaffolding strategies teachers can use to support students' emotional development. Dong Hwa Choi explores the effects of social skills training, finding a significant improvement in maintaining positive play relationships with peers.

Dispositions as Goals in Early Childhood Education

The disposition to be intellectually curious can be fostered and supported by high-quality curricula. Lucia French, Kathleen Conezio, and Marylou Boynton describe the ScienceStart™ curriculum in the first paper of this section. The power of the curriculum to engage young children at the same time that standardized tests show rapid growth is discussed.

Debbie Noyes writes about developing the disposition to be a reader and the role of teachers in encouraging this disposition, drawing from Katz's work on dispositions. The paper explores the characteristics of learning environments for young children at home and school that support early literacy and the disposition to read.

Cathleen M. Kearn proposes the merging of Katz's work on children's social competence with Vygotsky's concept of scaffolding, drawing from Katz and McClellan's work on fostering children's social competence. She stresses that early childhood educators have a special responsibility to intervene when children are very young to help them learn to regulate their own behavior.

Preparing Teachers for the Project Approach

In this third section on the Project Approach, the focus is on preservice and inservice teacher education. Lorraine DeJong discusses how project-based learning can help early childhood preservice teachers to acquire a knowledge base that can strengthen their effectiveness as teachers of young children.

Kathleen Glaser discusses how, through staff development following a presentation by Lilian in Orlando, Florida, in 1993, the Hollywood Elementary School in southern Maryland implemented developmentally appropriate practices, multiage grouping, and project learning. The paper highlights the "challenges and joys" of Hollywood Elementary's growth as a professional learning community.

Gera Jacobs describes a long-term project undertaken by students in an early childhood education course at the University of South Dakota. In the course of this project, students chose to investigate kindergarten scheduling; interviewed parents, teachers, and children; used spreadsheets to analyze the results; and as a final product, presented their findings at the university undergraduate research showcase.

On Communication and Dissemination

The effective dissemination of information has long been a topic of interest to Lilian Katz, in part because of her association with the ERIC Clearinghouse. In her writings on this subject, she has examined the roles and perspectives of participants in the production, dissemination, and reception of information. After an interesting discussion of communication theory, Karen Peterson discusses how difficult it is to sort through the information on early childhood education. It is in the role of "pilot" that the "invisible mentor" is most influential in women's learning and in helping them develop a conceptual framework for early childhood learning.

Roundtable IV

The fourth and final Roundtable consisted of three papers. Mary Jo Graham and Steven Banks present the results of a one-year qualitative study of 12 preschool children concerning their initial computer use. Barbara Lowenthal discusses the effects of abuse and neglect on the neurological, psychological, and cognitive development of the young child, concluding that we must all advocate for preventive efforts and efforts that promote resilience in the young victims of abuse. Riyo Kadota, Tess Bennett, and Dawn Thomas present the findings of a survey of Early Head Start programs in Region V (Midwest region) in four areas. Major findings of the survey identified teenage parenting as one of the highest areas of concern.

Looking Back—And Looking Ahead

James Raths' presence at the symposium—and his paper—reminded us of Lilian's early work with him as co-editors of the series "Advances in Teacher Education" from 1984-1991. He speaks about research that suggests teacher candidates' beliefs about teaching, learning, assessment, and related issues are quite strong and serve as filters to "keep out" ideas they learn in teacher education classes. He reminds us that teacher educators are convinced that many times their efforts are overshadowed by the qualities and characteristics that teacher candidates bring to the program and by the powerful influences of the school culture into which new teachers are usually promptly acculturated.

Finally, in "Last Class Notes," a series of notes summarizing important points developed over more than 30 years of teaching a graduate course titled "Early Childhood Curriculum Trends and Issues," Lilian Katz sums up what she hopes students in her classes will remember from her teaching. It is fitting for this paper to be last in the proceedings. It contains many lessons for us all.

Conclusion

What cannot be captured in this volume are the comments and support of colleagues at the presymposium dinner and other gatherings during the course of the symposium: Dean Susan Fowler and Violet Harris, chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, welcomed attendees and shared their own "Lilian stories"; Stacie Goffin eloquently toasted Lilian and spoke of her many contributions to the field; Rebecca New "roasted" her and described her long-standing correspondence with Lilian on issues of mutual interest and, at times, disagreement; Lilian's colleagues from Barbados offered a wonderful video collage from friends in the West Indies; Barbara Willer, deputy executive director of NAEYC, made a brief presentation; and many other friends reminisced informally with Lilian. Her children also played a role by providing a skit about Lilian (as the reluctant traveler), and her son Steve played the cello for the assembled group.

We thank all who traveled to central Illinois to celebrate her remarkable career with Lilian, and we hope the present volume captures the flavor of the symposium. Of course, those who know her well are not surprised to learn that Lilian has not really retired but continues to explore old—and new—areas of interest!

Dianne Rothenberg
Co-Director
ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education

Acknowledgments

Our thanks also go to the organizations and individuals who helped to support the symposium: Scholastic Early Childhood Publications, Rigby Publishers, Sesame Street Workshop, and Diane N. and Sonia A. Weissman.

References

Bowman, B. T., Donovan, M. Suzanne, & Burns, M. Susan (Eds.). (2001). Eager to learn: Educating our preschoolers. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. (ERIC Document No. ED447963)

Bredekamp, S., & Copple, C. (1997). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs (Rev. ed.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. (ERIC Document No. ED403023)

Helm, J. H., & Katz, L. G. (2001). Young investigators: The project approach in the early years. New York: Teachers College Press. (ERIC Document No. ED448856)

Katz, L. G. (1977). Ethical issues in working with young children. Champaign, IL: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. (ERIC Document No. ED144681)

Katz, L. G. (1995). Talks with teachers of young children: A collection. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. (ERIC Document No. ED380232)

Katz, L. G., & Chard, S. C. (1989). Engaging children's minds: The project approach. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. (ERIC Document No. ED407074)

Katz, L. G., & Chard, S. C. (2000). Engaging children's minds: The project approach (2nd ed.). Stamford, CT: JAI Press. (ED456892)

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