


































1 
 

 

A longstanding commitment to lab schools and constructivist-based curriculum: one 

university’s story 
 

Gloria Gresham, Linda Black, Kimberly Welsh 

Stephen F. Austin State University 

 

Abstract 

 Stephen F. Austin State University, a 

small regional educational institution located in 

East Texas, has a long tradition of dedication to 

education. Since the inception of the university in 

1923, laboratory schools were a critical 

component of the College of Education. This 

historical case study documents the history of the 

development of the lab schools and identifies the 

curriculum practices demonstrated by those 

schools that led to academic success.  

 

 Alongside the towering pines in deep East 

Texas, Stephen F. Austin State University 

(SFASU) is nestled in a small community that 

exhibits a long history of dedication to education. 

Since 1923, SFASU has instituted laboratory 

schools with the purposes of research and teacher 

preparation. Throughout the years, the laboratory 

schools achieved excellence as reported by 

parents of students who attended the labs and by 

state and national accreditation bodies. This 

excellence was voiced by a parent who described 

the Early Childhood Lab (ECHL), one of the lab 

schools operated by SFASU. 

 

 It was the premier site. We were 

blessed to have it. I knew it at that time; 

I know it today. When you walk into 

another world and think bout your child 

going into care of some kind or school of 

some kind, to think that we had this. It 

was incredible. It was the premier. You 

don‟t do better than what we had.  

 

 Additionally, the ECHL and Charter 

School, two lab schools instituted at SFASU, 

have achieved recognition by state and national 

entities. The ECHL was among the first early 

childhood programs to earn accreditation from the 

more rigorous standards set by the National 

Association for the Education of Young Children 

(NAEYC). The ECHL was also designated as a 

Texas Rising Star Provider, a childcare provider 

that exceeds the state minimum licensing 

standards for child care facilities according to the 

Texas Workforce Commission. In addition, The 

SFASU Charter School has achieved the state of 

Texas accountability rating of either recognized 

(the second highest rating) or exemplary (the 

highest rating) according to the state 

accountability standards since its inception.  

 In order to document the history of the 

development of the lab schools and to identify the 

curriculum practices demonstrated by the schools 

that led to academic success, a historical case 

study of the university‟s lab schools was 

conducted (Merriam 2009). Since the researchers 

desired to attain a deep understanding of the 

practices implemented over time in the lab 

schools, the case study was a method that 

provided “intensive descriptions and analyses of a 

bounded system” (Merriam 2009, 19).  

 Data collection was primarily qualitative 

in nature and focused on interview data and 

document review. Administrators, teachers, and 

parents with knowledge of each lab school were 

interviewed. University artifacts including board 

minutes, photographs, SFASU historical 

accounts, newspaper articles, and records from 



2 
 

the university were examined. The researchers 

gathered additional, informal information through 

conversations with other individuals who had 

memories of and/or involvement with the lab 

schools. The study revealed rich data 

documenting a historical overview of the 

development of the lab schools and curriculum 

practices implemented that were dedicated to 

constructivist-based instruction. 

 

Nacogdoches and a History of Community 

Education 

 On the official SFASU university website, 

university historian, Dr. Jere Jackson, wrote about 

the history of Nacogdoches and the community‟s 

sense of the importance of education early in its 

history. “The sense of scholarship and educational 

responsibility” was instilled in the community by 

the Spanish friars who established the Mission of 

Our Lady of Nacogdoches (Jackson nd., “The 

University Tradition in Nacogdoches”). By the 

1840s, the citizens of Nacogdoches wanted to 

procure a university to provide higher education 

for the students of East Texas. In February 1845, 

the Republic of Texas granted a charter to the 

town of Nacogdoches for a preparatory school to 

be built which was named Nacogdoches 

University and which also taught some college 

subjects. However, over the next sixty years the 

school did not prosper. As a result of financial 

hardship during the Civil War years, changing 

ownership by several entities, and finally the loss 

of the state charter, the school was closed in 1900. 

The vacated building and grounds were deeded to 

Nacogdoches Independent School District (NISD) 

in 1904. By 1906 the citizens were determined to 

re-establish an institution of higher learning and 

town leaders lobbied Texas legislatures during the 

next nine years to establish a normal school for 

the training of teachers (Jackson nd., “The 

University Tradition in Nacogdoches”).  

 Eventually, the argument that East Texas 

lacked a higher education facility as well as a 

normal school persuaded legislators in 1917 to 

create provisions for locating a normal school in 

East Texas (Craddock 1973). Nacogdoches city 

leaders again lobbied the legislature and won the 

rights to establish a teachers college in 

Nacogdoches.  Stephen F. Austin State Teachers 

College opened in September 1923, convening in 

the Old University Building, a stately four-room 

structure that formerly housed Nacogdoches 

University. The location was temporary, and in 

the late spring of 1924, the college moved to the 

Austin Building that currently houses the 

university‟s administrative offices. Subsequent 

changes in name and status came in 1949, when 

the 51
st
 State Legislature, changed the name 

Stephen F. Austin Teachers College to Stephen F. 

Austin State College and in 1969, when the 61
st
 

Texas Legislature approved university status and 

changed the name again to Stephen F. Austin 

State University (SFASU) (Craddock 1973). Even 

though other degree programs have been added, 

teacher preparation was the mission of Stephen F. 

Austin from the inception, and the university 

continues today as a major force in Texas teacher 

preparation.  

 

The History of the SFASU Lab Schools 

From its inception, the College of 

Education at SFASU embraced laboratory 

schools- preschool, elementary, or secondary 

schools attached to universities for the purposes 

of research and teacher preparation. The SFASU 

lab school, the Demonstration School, was one of 

several teacher training centers and laboratory 

schools established throughout the country during 

the 1920s and 1930s as educators experimented 

with ideas of progressive education. The SFASU 

lab schools have always had a two-part mission 

that reflected Progressive educational theory: (1) 



3 
 

to better prepare teacher educators and (2) to 

provide an exemplary instructional program for 

children where theory was modeled for teacher 

candidates. Over the years, the SFA College of 

Education established six lab schools spanning 

the period from 1923 until the present.  

 

The Demonstration School 

 The first lab school was established for the 

1923-24 school term and named the 

Demonstration School (Craddock 1973). 

Craddock (1973) described the purpose of the 

Demonstration School. 

 

As part of the education department, the 

Demonstration School was proposed to 

serve as a practice school for college 

students who planned to be teachers. 

This gave prospective teachers an 

opportunity to put education theories 

into actual practice (13).  

 

 Initially, the Demonstration School 

housed 25 first and second grade children and 

was located in the southwest corner of the Central 

Grammar School (Craddock 1973; Hallman 

2001). In 1924, the Demonstration School moved 

to the newly completed Austin Building‟s lower 

level, and in 1926, relocated to its permanent 

home, the Rusk Building (Hallman 2001). By this 

time, the Demonstration School grew to house 

grades one through seven with a staff to include a 

director, a supervisor, and 10 teachers. The June 

24, 1927, minutes of the SFASU Board of 

Regents documented a description of the school, 

“The first floor provides classrooms for the 

Demonstration School, a small gymnasium, with 

showers, for the students of the Demonstration 

School…” Grades eight and nine were added the 

year after the move to the Rusk building 

(Hallman 2001).  

 A commitment to producing quality 

teachers was evidenced from the beginning. 

Hallman (2001) reviewed a 1923 article from the 

Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel newspaper which 

described the process of using both practice and 

“critic” teachers in the Demonstration School. 

 

 Each room is handled directly by a 

critic teacher who is responsible for the 

children and devotes all her time to 

them. She teaches them except for the 

few minutes each day they are taught by 

practice teachers. All practice teaching is 

done in the presence of the critic teacher 

who is responsible for the instruction of 

her children and the criticism and 

training of the students.  

 

 In 1950, an agreement was reached 

between SFASU and Nacogdoches ISD which 

disbanded the Demonstration School and led to 

student teachers going out into the City of 

Nacogdoches schools to receive onsite training 

(SFASU, “Demonstration School (SFA)”). For a 

brief period of time, this change in practice left 

SFASU with only one lab school, the Nursery 

School. 

 

The Nursery School Lab School 

 In 1936, the College of Education 

implemented a Nursery School. Under the 

direction of the Home Economics Department 

Chair Edna Wilkin, a nursery school was 

instituted in a “beautiful four-bedroom colonial 

house located on the south side of the campus 

called the Home Management House” (SFASU, 

“History of Human Sciences”).  The building was 

made possible due to the creative financing of the 

university‟s first president, Alton W. Birdwell.  

Alton Birdwell “was a member of the Texas 

Board of Normal Examiners [and] traveled 

around the state working with teacher institutes. 



4 
 

He consulted in Nacogdoches on normal schools 

many years before he was first designated 

President of SFA Normal School in 1917” 

(Jackson, “Final Years of the Old University”).  

During the depression year of 1936, money was 

scarce, and the SFASU Board of Regents 

determined that faculty should receive only a 

portion of their summer salaries. President 

Birdwell used the money not paid to faculty to 

build the Home Management House. Later, the 

Daily Sentinel, on May 19, 1948, published an 

article stating that the Nursery School operated in 

the summer as a, “laboratory for the college girls 

who enroll for the course entitled Child Care and 

Training (SFASU “SFA Nursery School”).  

 The Nursery School served infants one 

day per week and toddlers through 4-year-old 

children in a half-day format, with the 

instructional day beginning at 8:30 a.m. and 

ending at 12:15 p.m. This lab school was later 

relocated to the Human Sciences North Building 

and was one of two lab schools serving early 

childhood learners after the Kindergarten was 

implemented (SFASU, “ECHL History and 

Mission”). 

 

The Kindergarten Lab School  

 As an increasingly larger percentage of 

women joined the work force beginning in the 

1960s, the need for adequate childcare for 

families also increased. Additionally, the nation 

as a whole was focusing on early childhood 

education. In the late 1960s, the state of Texas 

created an elementary certification endorsement 

for kindergarten to meet the urgency for early 

childhood educators. The SFASU College of 

Education responded to the critical need by 

instituting a kindergarten program for teacher 

candidates as well as a kindergarten lab school. 

Dr. Eugene Howard, a specialist in early 

childhood, was employed by the university to 

facilitate the creation and implementation of a 

kindergarten program. In 1969, the Kindergarten 

opened for the purpose of preparing teacher 

candidates in early childhood practices. Janice 

Pattillo, the first kindergarten teacher, taught this 

class in the Manse of the local Westminster 

Presbyterian Church. In 1970, in its second year 

of operation, the university purchased an old, one-

room building on Baker Street from the Church of 

Christ and relocated the Kindergarten. The 

Kindergarten remained there until 1974 when a 

new facility was built just north of the Human 

Sciences North building on Raguet Street 

(SFASU, “ECHL History and Mission”).   

 Children in the Kindergarten attended a 

half-day format, mornings only. Later the 

program grew to include two classes, offering 

morning and afternoon sessions, in order to serve 

the growing number of future kindergarten 

teachers. College students seeking a kindergarten 

endorsement observed in a one-hour lab that 

corresponded to course content and also planned 

learning activities and taught the children in the 

lab. In 1974, the new Early Childhood Laboratory 

opened its doors to the expanding early childhood 

program where the Nursery School and the 

Kindergarten were combined to form the Early 

Childhood Laboratory. 

  

Early Childhood Laboratory (ECHL) 

 In 1974, the ECHL opened with Dr. 

Eugene Howard as program coordinator and Ann 

Sartin-Wendell as the first director. Kindergarten 

was offered in a half-day format with morning 

and afternoon sessions. Childcare was provided 

while children were not in the formal 

kindergarten instructional setting. In addition to 

the kindergarten class, the ECHL housed one 

room for infants and another for toddlers. In the 

third year of operation, the kindergarten moved to 

a full-day program with one class of 4 ½ to 6-



5 
 

year-old age groups and another class that served 

3- to 4 ½ year-olds.  Afterschool care began at 

3:00 p.m. and ended at 5:30 p.m. and served 

between 35 and 40 children on a regular basis.  

 From the parents‟ view point, the children 

were successful in the lab school, and many 

wished their children could attend the ECHL all 

the way through their elementary school career. 

To meet this request and offer additional 

opportunities for university students, in l979, a 

primary class was added. According to a former 

ECHL teacher, the primary classroom was multi-

age, serving older kindergarten and first grade 

students. In 1984, the ECHL building was 

expanded to house infants through primary grade 

students.  

 In the fall of 1995, Nacogdoches 

Independent School District (NISD) 

Superintendent James G. Partin and Dean of the 

College of Education, Dr. Thomas Franks 

collaborated and with the approval of the NISD 

School Board and SFASU Board of Regents, 

placed a second grade classroom in the ECHL to 

relieve district overcrowding. Superintendent 

Partin had strong ties to the university where he 

had attended the Demonstration School as a child, 

and the school district was also an active partner 

with the College of Education in other 

educational endeavors. Second grade students 

were bused on a daily basis from Raguet 

Elementary to attend class at the ECHL. Dr. Carol 

Harrison, then principal of Raguet Elementary, 

described the collaboration: 

 

The Raguet campus was running out of 

space when NISD officials began talking 

with SFA officials last spring about the 

possibility of moving one of the public 

school classrooms to the lab. Anytime 

we can do something with SFA, we can‟t 

lose. This is a place where I can send 

teachers for new ideas, and I was 

confident in sending my 22 students 

(Goodrich 1996). 

  

 The merger lasted until the fall of 1998 

when a more complex arrangement between 

SFASU and NISD was instituted, one that had 

multiple goals: to provide area parents a choice of 

educational options for their children, to increase 

opportunities for future teachers to work with 

older children, to demonstrate exemplary 

instructional practices, and to relieve 

overcrowded schools in NISD. 

  

ECHL and NISD/SFASU Charter School 

 Major education reform in the Texas 

Education System occurred in 1995 when the 

Texas Legislature overhauled the Texas 

Education Code (Texas Education Agency 2007) 

enabling the State Board of Education to grant 

charter schools as an alternative to public 

education. During this time, parents of students 

attending the expanded ECHL voiced the desire 

to have their children remain in the lab experience 

beyond the second grade. Former NISD 

superintendent, James G. Partin described parent 

interest and events leading up to the development 

of the NISD/SFASU Charter School Campus: 

 

They [parents] were concerned about 

their children transitioning into a more 

traditional classroom setting in public 

schools. There was parental concern 

expressed to the school district, and 

there was a concern of the public school 

to find a more effective way of teaching 

that would improve performance on state 

assessments. Around this time there was 

the state movement toward professional 

development and technology. A number 

of university personnel and surrounding 

public school districts had been involved 

as placement centers for student teaching 

and other types of field experiences. 



6 
 

Several faculty members and public 

school administrators traveled to San 

Diego State and looked at their 

professional development center. This 

group saw a partnership between the 

public school where a lab setting was 

displayed; university professors and 

public school teachers worked together 

to prepare teacher educators. The 

situation was impressive. As far as the 

parental and public school concern, the 

vision began to develop. What if there 

was a cooperative lab setting that 

provided the training facilities for the 

university students and at the same time 

provide a model of effective teaching 

practices that public school teachers 

could observe first-hand and implement 

in their own classrooms? It was a way of 

improving instruction in the public 

school setting.  

 

 From 1995 through 1997, discussions took 

place between SFASU and NISD administrators 

concerning the implementation of a professional 

development center and university/public school 

cooperative charter that could fulfill the needs of 

both institutions. After much discussion and 

deliberation, the NISD School Board and SFASU 

Board of Regents approved the merger, and on 

August 14, 1998, the NISD/SFASU Charter 

Campus opened as an extension of the ECHL 

with the mission of creating a learning 

environment that would include a constructivist-

based curriculum that would support the vision of 

Early Childhood faculty to foster student 

development of autonomy, openness, problem 

solving, and integrity through a learning centers 

approach.  

Initially, the ECHL and NISD/SFASU 

Charter Campus provided classrooms serving 

children from the two months of age through third 

grade; fourth grade was added next, and finally 

fifth grade was included. According to the Texas 

Education Agency, 84 charter schools were 

operating in Texas in 1998 with the 

NISD/SFASU Charter School being one of those 

schools (Texas Education Agency). The newly 

formed school was under the direction of Dr. 

Mary Nelle Brunson, SFASU Elementary 

Education Early Childhood professor. Brunson 

described the unique position of the SFASU Lab 

School at the time saying, “Nacogdoches, Dallas, 

and Houston are the only cities in Texas that 

currently operate district charter schools.  The 

NISD-SFASU Charter Campus is the only 

university and school district charter school 

collaboration in Texas” (Brunson n.d.). 

 Over the next nine years, district budget 

constraints, as well as a change in the philosophy 

of district administrators, produced a strain on the 

relationship between SFASU and NISD. This 

finally resulted in a suspension of the 

collaboration between the school district and the 

university and led to the establishment of an 

independent ECHL and SFASU Charter School. 

 

ECHL and SFASU Charter School 

 Even though the NISD/SFASU Charter 

campus was successful according to student 

scores and parent opinions, coordinating 

programs and finances between the two entities 

was cumbersome and fraught with differences of 

opinion on major issues.  After much discussion, 

reflection, and research by NISD and university 

administrators, a new course of action was forged. 

Through a joint decision, NISD and SFASU 

officials determined that an open-enrollment 

charter school was the right move. The NISD 

School Board and the SFASU Board of Regents 

approved the request to apply for a university 

charter school from the Texas Education Agency. 

On January 18, 2008, the Texas State Board of 

Education unanimously approved the SFASU 

application for a university open charter school to 



7 
 

begin in the fall of 2008 (SFASU, ”State 

Approves SFA University Charter School”).  

 The opening of a university charter meant 

expansion, and expansion provided the creation of 

a more diverse student population pool, one that 

more closely mirrored the neighboring public 

school population, thus providing a more realistic 

environment for teacher preparation. In July 

2006, the state approved the tuition revenue for 

the construction of a new building that would 

house the ECHL, SFASU Charter School, and 

Department of Elementary Education. The 

building was named the Early Childhood 

Research Center. 

 Moving to a new building would allow 

more interaction between the ECHL and Charter 

School students, university students, and 

Elementary Education faculty and also permit 

university faculty to conduct valuable research 

using the lab school setting. On December 19, 

2008, the SFASU Office of Public Affairs 

announced in an article displayed on the SFASU 

website, that the SFASU Charter School was 

seeking applicants to fill approximately 70 

student openings available for the 2009-2010 

academic year. As stated in this article, “The 

charter school‟s capacity will increase from 154 

to approximately 220 students.” (SFASU, “SFA 

Charter Seeks Additional Students”). 

 The opening of the new Early Childhood 

Research Center took place July 19, 2009. The 

ECHL continued to operate as it had in the 

previous facility, but the SFASU Charter School 

doubled its enrollment in the fall of 2009 offering 

two of each grade level: kindergarten, first grade, 

second grade, and third grade classrooms. 

Children in the ECHL and SFASU Charter 

School were exposed to curriculum grounded in 

constructivist theory as had all children since the 

implementation of the original Demonstration 

School. 

 Constructivist-Based Curriculum 

 Interviews with former lab school teachers 

and students as well as relevant historical 

documents paint a portrait of the influence of the 

grounding principles of Dewey, Vygotsky, and 

Piaget on the curriculum of the lab schools: (a) 

children learn through constructing personal 

meaning based on their past and present 

experiences; (b) they learn through a social 

context; and (c) they develop individually by 

exploring their environment through inquiry 

(Field, 2005; Learning Theories, “Social 

Development Theory,”; Wadsworth, 2003). The 

instructional focus of the lab schools was 

designed to meet the needs of the whole child. 

Though not explicit in the Demonstration School 

and the Nursery School, four personality goals 

(still in existence) were formally articulated when 

the Kindergarten program began in 1969: 

autonomy, openness, integrity, and problem 

solving. One Department of Elementary 

Education faculty member described the intent of 

these curriculum goals: 

  

There was a desire for students to be 

autonomous in terms of their way of 

thinking so that  they trusted their 

thinking and were free to question. We 

wanted to develop openness to  new 

deas and to other people. Integrity not 

just honesty, but we wanted to help 

children develop a sense of values and 

be value-driven so that they reacted to 

problems or situations based on their 

developing sense of values. We wanted 

to develop problem solving or being able 

to have the skills and strategies they 

needed in all the academic areas so that 

they could be self-confident. 

 

 Not desiring to implement a purchased or 

“canned” curriculum but needing guidance in 

planning developmentally appropriate activities 



8 
 

for young children, Dr. Eugene Howard, faculty 

member and coordinator of the Early Childhood 

Program in 1969, created a comprehensive 

document that outlined wide-ranging and specific 

characteristics, skills, and developmental 

milestones; he named it the “Integrated Approach 

Design.” Teachers referred to it as “IAD,” and 

this instrument embraced the program goals of 

autonomy, openness, problem solving, and 

integrity. Some 40 years later, the ECHL 

continues to use the “IAD” as its planning 

footprint. 

Actual documentation of specific 

instructional practices was uncovered beginning 

with the first kindergarten. Artifacts provided 

only a glimpse of the instructional programs of 

the Demonstration School and Nursery School. A 

photograph provided by the East Texas Research 

Center indicated that teachers at the 

Demonstration School facilitated instruction and 

worked among the students. A former 

Demonstration School student revealed that she 

believed effective, creative instruction was 

displayed at this school: 

 

We, as students, had the best of both 

worlds; we had the best teachers 

available anywhere. We were constantly 

being exposed to new theories of 

effective teaching, and we had young, 

attractive practice teachers who were 

lots of fun and who seemed to us to be 

our contemporaries. 

 

 Children learned about their environment 

through interaction and inquiry, indicating that 

the constructivist philosophy influenced the 

instructional practices of the Nursery School. For 

example, a description of the Nursery Lab School 

in a 1948 Daily Sentinel article discussed how 

students were encouraged to experience their 

environment and develop autonomy: 

 

The school gives the child a first 

introduction to the “away from home” 

world and acquaints them with the joys 

and problems of contacts with others 

their own age. It also offers them 

experiences that will promote skills, 

knowledge and satisfaction and helps 

them develop feelings of independence, 

confidence, and success in themselves 

(SFASU, “SFA Nursery School 

Enlarged”). 

 

Interviews with former teachers and 

students articulated that learning centers were an 

instructional delivery approach used to foster the 

four program goals: autonomy, openness, 

integrity, and problem solving. Making choices 

was also instrumental in helping children solve 

problems. A former teacher communicated that if 

a child wanted to go to the art center but there 

were already the allotted number of children in 

that center, he must rethink his plan, choose 

another center, and wait for a friend to leave the 

art center. 

 As the ECHL evolved and changed to add 

the NISD/SFASU Charter School and later the 

SFASU Charter School, the learning centers 

approach remained an important component of 

the instructional program. Learning centers were 

well-defined spaces with organized materials to 

teach content and/or specific skills (Pattillo and 

Vaughan 1992). Multiple centers were provided 

in the classrooms, and centers differed according 

to grade level. Pre-primary centers included art, 

blocks, construction, discovery, dramatic play, 

library, muscle (gross motor), music, and table 

games. Primary centers included art, blocks (first 

and second grade classrooms only), discovery 

(which grew into the science center), handwriting, 

library, math, reading skills, spelling, and social 



9 
 

studies. All center set-ups were based on the 

assessed needs of individual children.  

 In the early years of the Kindergarten and 

the ECHL, literacy was encouraged through 

language experience and key words (Veatch, 

Sawicki, Elliott, Flake, and Blakey 1979), rebus 

charts, and Rug Time. Wanting to provide a more 

constructivist method of learning to read, teachers 

avoided basal readers and phonics-driven reading 

programs. Language experience charts, based on 

the personal stories dictated by children, were 

recorded by the teacher and read chorally. A 

former primary teacher described dictation: 

 

Each child had his/her own spiral 

notebook. On a somewhat regular basis, 

the child would dictate words to the 

teacher who acted as the child‟s 

secretary, recording precisely what the 

child said. It was important for the child 

to see that his/her words could be 

recorded.  

 

Children learned to associate the written word 

with the spoken form (McCormick, 1988).  

 Rebus charts, allusional devices that use 

pictures to represent words, had been used in 

educational settings for quite some time, but the 

teachers of the Kindergarten and ECHL created 

their version of rebus charts and called them 

symbol charts; later the name changed to 

directional guides. Symbol charts directed student 

activity in learning centers to encourage 

children‟s independence; they did not rely on the 

teacher‟s presence. One teacher explained, 

“Rebus charts had been around forever, but we 

took it to a different level so that we could post 

them in the different learning centers to give 

children guidelines. They could turn to the picture 

and print provided to find out what to do.” 

 Students were also instructed in reading 

through large-group time called Rug Time.  

During Rug Time, teachers first used music time 

to introduce children to words through the use of 

song cards. One former ECHL teacher explained: 

 

We created attractive song cards with a 

song title, picture related to the song, 

and the staffed music. When we 

introduced a new song, we‟d ask 

children to look at the picture and tell us 

what they thought the song was about. 

Predicting is an important precursor to 

reading. We‟d show them the title and 

read it. It didn‟t take long for them to 

learn to sing the song or “read” the title 

(and picture) and know what song we‟d 

sing when they saw a particular song 

card.  

 

 Story Time was also a part of the daily 

schedule to encourage children‟s reading. Infants 

and toddlers heard nursery rhymes, looked at and 

labeled pictures, and heard simple stories. Pre-

kindergarten children participated in retelling 

stories, as did kindergartners. First through fifth 

grade students listened to teachers read story 

books, chapter books, and informational text. 

Terminology changed and Story Time became 

Read Alouds. According to Fountas and Pinnell, 

interactive Read Alouds include “a teaching 

context in which students are actively listening 

and responding to an oral reading of a text” 

(2007, 163).  

Literacy instruction at the Charter School 

also included instructional strategies such as 

grand conversations, guided reading, reading 

workshop, and writers‟ workshop where children 

engaged in more authentic reading and writing. 

Fountas and Pinnell (1996) viewed guided 

reading as an instructional setting that allowed 

teachers to work with a small group of children to 

help them learn effective strategies for processing 

text with understanding. Grand conversation was 

a discussion of a book in which students 



10 
 

deepened their comprehension and reflected on 

their feelings during the responding step of the 

reading process (Eeds 2007). Reading workshops 

as described by Bennett (2007) were predictable 

structures that allowed for “deep reading, brilliant 

writing, mind-changing conversations, 

inspirational epiphanies, and connections of knew 

to the known” (9).  

In language arts instruction, 

comprehension strategies such as monitoring for 

meaning, questioning, using prior knowledge, 

determining importance, creating mental images, 

inferring, synthesizing, and using “fix up” 

strategies were encouraged and vertically aligned 

from kindergarten through grade five (Keene and 

Zimmermann, 2007). A Charter School teacher 

reviewed her intent in language arts instruction: 

I want them reading. I want them to feel 

free to choose their own books, to enjoy 

what they want to read, not just what I 

impose on them to read. Also I want 

them to have a variety of books and 

learning experiences.  I think it is 

important to have an opportunity to write 

in different genres. We research. We 

write essays and poetry. We have a 

variety  of ways to learn. 

 Just as important to the whole child‟s 

development were mathematics, science, and 

social studies instruction which also followed the 

constructivist workshop model. Problem solving 

and use of mathematical strategies where students 

used what they knew to solve problems were 

encouraged. Science and social studies followed 

an inquiry process where children observed, 

questioned, hypothesized, designed and 

conducted experiments, compared predicted 

results to actual results, and reflected upon the 

results (Southwest Center for Education and the 

Natural Environment).  

 Kamii games (math games inspired by 

noted constructivist Constance Kamii), as well as 

other commercial games, and teacher-made 

games were located in math centers along with 

data sheets used for recording findings. Creating 

opportunities for cognitive dissonance were 

encouraged. One ECHL teacher described how 

dissonance was created: 

 

We were taught to think about creating 

moments in the simplest ways, to create 

cognitive dissonance.Cognitive 

dissonance [involved] moments where 

things were just not like they are 

supposed to be. When students were off 

balance, they did their best thinking.  

 

 ECHL children‟s explorations in the 

science discovery center were vast; they 

investigated the properties of solids and liquids, 

used their senses to examine objects, cared for 

classroom pets (rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, birds, 

spiders, and fish, to name a few), and often just 

wondered. Older children in the Charter School 

continued to explore and investigate in their 

science centers. Predictions were made, 

experiments were conducted, and results were 

recorded.  

 Social studies for young children centered 

on „self‟ and „family.‟ As children grew older, 

they learned about their community. Read Alouds 

were primarily based on the day-to-day events of 

a young child‟s life involving families, working 

parents, siblings, and eventually the community. 

Dramatic Play set-ups included the home center, 

area restaurants and bakeries, and other 

businesses children frequented. Ice cream parlors 

were always popular. These set-ups provided an 

appropriate venue for children to assume adult 

roles and interact with peers that contributed to 

social competence or social studies. A former 

kindergarten teacher recalled a time when 



11 
 

children were in the “SFA Flower Shop.” The 

teacher placed an order for a flower delivery only 

to be told there was an extra charge for deliveries. 

This information spoke to the kinds of 

experiences children came to school with, 

experiences that helped them make sense of the 

adult world. Older children explored the larger 

world by reading and researching topics of 

interest. One SFASU professor remembered a 

time when she visited a classroom, and students 

were working on their self-chosen research topic.  

The intensity of their [the children‟s] 

focus was astonishing! I walked into the 

fourth grade room classroom and was 

quite impressed with the fervor in which 

students worked. Their investigations 

took them well beyond the typical “read 

the chapter and answer questions at the 

end” approach to teaching. Students 

were digging deeply to become experts 

on their topic, and experts they became. 

Social studies involved students delving 

into subjects they wanted to learn about 

and this was their motivation. These 

students will grow up to be quite the 

researchers. 

Focused student commitment and learning 

through choice and personal experience in all of 

these many activities were evidences of 

constructivist-based curriculum implementation. 

 Conclusion 

 Stephen F. Austin State University‟s 

College of Education has a tradition of 

commitment to teacher preparation fostered by 

connecting content courses to field experiences in 

laboratory schools. This method of clinical 

practice ensured that future teachers participated 

in authentic experiences where research-based 

instruction was guaranteed.  Clinical practice was 

emphasized as a way to reform and improve 

teacher preparation. “The Clinical Preparation of 

Teachers: A Policy Brief” disseminated in 2010 

by the American Association for Colleges of 

Teacher Education (AACTE) required a 

clinically-based approach to teacher preparation 

and encouraged teacher preparation programs to 

require at a minimum 450 hours of clinical 

practice. Since 1923, laboratory schools at 

SFASU have historically served as clinical 

teacher training sites. By 2012, elementary 

education students graduating from SFASU with 

a certification in elementary education, now 

graduate with approximately 650 clinical hours 

devoted to working with children in authentic 

classrooms. Not only do future teachers have 

hands-on experience in working with children, 

but they witness and learn to implement 

curriculum grounded in constructivist theory. 

 The intent of the lab schools at SFASU 

was to also develop learning environments where 

children are the center and to encourage children 

to be autonomous, open to new ideas, problem 

solvers, and people of integrity. The SFASU lab 

schools implemented from 1923 to the present 

day were places and spaces designed for children. 

Sustaining lab schools demonstrated one 

university‟s commitment to educating teachers in 

constructivist curriculum. 

 

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