292 16 AGI Preschool
Centers are also designed to cross-develop related skills. A “manipulatives center,” for ex- ample, provides physical objects such as drawing implements, toys and puzzles, to facilitate development of motor manipulation, visual discrimination, and (through sequencing and clas- sification games) basic logical reasoning. A “dramatics center,” on the other hand, cross-trains interpersonal and empathetic skills along with bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, and musical skills. Other centers, such as art, reading, writing, science and math centers are also designed to train not just one area, but to center around a primary intelligence type while also cross-developing related areas. For specific examples of the learning centers associated with particular contem- porary preschools, see [Nie98].
In many progressive, student-centered preschools, students are left largely to their own de- vices to move from one center to another throughout the preschool room. Generally, each center will be staffed by an instructor at some points in the day but not others, providing a variety of learning experiences. At some preschools students will be strongly encouraged to distribute their time relatively evenly among the different learning centers, or to focus on those learning centers corresponding to their particular strengths and/or weaknesses.
To imitate the general character of a human preschool, one would create several centers in a robot lab or virtual world. The precise architecture will best be adapted via experience but initial centers would likely be:
e a blocks center: a table with blocks on it
e a language center: a circle of chairs, intended for people to sit around and talk with the robot
® a manipulatives center: with a variety of different objects of different shapes and sizes, intended to teach visual and motor skills
e a ball play center: where balls are kept in chests and there is space for the robot to kick the balls around
e a dramatics center: where the robot can observe and enact various movements
16.3 Elements of Preschool Curriculum
While preschool curricula vary considerably based on educational philosophy and regional and cultural factors, there is a great deal of common, shared wisdom regarding the most useful topics and methods for preschool teaching. Guided experiential learning in diverse environments and using varied materials is generally agreed upon as being an optimal methodology to reach a wide variety of learning types and capabilities. Hands-on learning provides grounding in specifics, where as a diversity of approaches allows for generalization.
Core knowledge domains are also relatively consistent, even across various philosophies and regions. Language, movement and coordination, autonomous judgment, social skills, work habits, temporal orientation, spatial orientation, mathematics, science, music, visual arts, and dramatics are universal areas of learning which all early childhood learning touches upon. The particulars of these skills may vary, but all human children are taught to function in these do- mains. The level of competency developed may vary, but general domain knowledge is provided. For example, most kids won’t be the next Maria Callas, Ravi Shankar or Gene Ween, but nearly all learn to hear, understand and appreciate music.
Tables 16.1 - 16.3 review the key capabilities taught in preschools, and identify the most important specific skills that need to be evaluated in the context of each capability. This ta-
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