Concentric Circles: Nurturing Awe and Wonder in Early Childhood
A Foundational Approach

Elma Ruth Harder
in consultation with
Muzaffar Iqbal

ISBN 0-9738744-1-4
Paperback, pp. 316

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Table of Contents                       Introduction to the Book                 What is it about?

Concentric Circles--Nurturing Awe and Wonder in Early Childhood provides a clear and practical approach to planning, organizing and facilitating the learning experience for young Muslim children. Useful for the home-schooling parent and the classroom teacher, the book is based on a uniquely Islamic approach to learning called transformative learning. This approach was first used by the Prophet of Islam, the best of teachers, to impart knowledge to his Companions and since then it has been used by generations of Muslim educators. In this approach to learning, the most important asset of the child is his or her fitrah, the innate nature, and both the child and the parent/teacher are considered to be learners. The handbook seamlessly integrates faith and learning through a process that transforms the learners by drawing their attention to the three realms from which the Qur'an draws its material: the cosmos, the nafs and the human story. The handbook covers subject areas thematically and has an inner coherence in its methodology as well material. Concentric Circles emphasizes both informal and structured activities to help young children develop an understanding of basic concepts and provides tools to facilitate a process of learning that is conceptually rich and pedagogically strong.

This book can be used as a tool to guide your learning and teaching, and to revisit your orientation and infuse it with the Qur'anic worldview. It can serve as a springboard of teaching ideas, a resource book to direct the process of planning the learning experience, and as a route to ponder reflective questions about our experience as facilitators of learning.

What is the purpose of this book?
provide an Islamic approach to learning
focus on learning that is transformative in nature
encourage those who teach and learn to reflect and reassess
the 'what', 'why', and 'how' questions of education

In what ways will this book help us?
re-affirm our Qur'anic worldview
clarify our orientation and be committed to it
decide what to learn
decide how to learn
develop integrated thematic units
become flexible in adopting, adapting, and extending ideas
reflectively assess what we teach and learn
reflectively assess how we teach and learn
be filled with wonder and awe

What do we need?
a desire to be rooted in the Qur'anic worldview
the belief that we are each on a journey of lifelong learning

 

A Publication of the Muslim Education Foundation, printed and distributed by Al-Qalam Publishing