top of page

Knowledge in the field

Jean Piaget stated, “Children are little scientists who constantly create and test their own theories of the world. They are not empty vessel to be filled with knowledge but instead are active builders of their own knowledge."

Reference:

Darla Ferris Miller, 2013, Positive Child Guidance, Cengage Learning, (p. 26)

 

Piaget had a beautiful view of children. He believed that children were individuals who had the ability to construct their own knowledge through their experiences and play. In fact his play based philosophy has been implemented in early childcare settings throughout the entire world. I completely agree with Piagets philosophy which is also called the emergent curriculum. Research has confirmed that children do learn a great deal more through play then in teacher directed classrooms.

 

Vygotsky believed that social and cognitive development were inseparable.  One of his most important concepts are zone of proximal development (ZPD). “Vygotsky defined this as the distance between the most difficult task a child can do alone and the most difficult task a child can do with help. He believed that a child on the edge of learning a new concept can benefit from the interaction with a teacher or classmate.”

Reference:

Carol Garhart Mooney, 2013, Theories of Childhood, RedLeaf Press, (p. 101 )

 

It is evident that social and cognitive learning build on one another. Children spend a tremendous amount of time at school. They learn and grow through their experiences with their peers and teachers. When they struggle with a task, they are in ZPD, thus educators assist the child by scaffolding. Scaffolding gives the child just enough help, so they can do it themselves next time. I have found this method to be very effective as it gives the child a boost and builds autonomy. When children are successful at tasks they feel confident and are able to further build on their skills.

 

Miller states that “before self-control develops, children are totally impulsive in following their feelings and desires.” Therefore it is expected that young children will explore their environment as much as they can and will experience different moods. Miller says they have created three ground rules and “recommends redirecting or interrupting any child behaviour that risks his or her safety or anyone else (safety), infringes on the rights of others (respect), or involves mistreatment of objects or living things (be responsible)."

Reference:

Darla Ferris Miller, 2013, Positive Child Guidance, Cengage Learning, (p. 233 )

 

I completely agree with Miller. Young children's brains are in the process of developing, they do not have the mental thought process that adults have. Therfore, it is important to understand why children behave the way they do. However, as Miller mentions there are three ground rules. If a child's behaviour infringes on safety, respect or responsibility, the the educator has to intervene to stop the behaviour or redirect it.

 

My Reflection

As a future ECE I think one of the most important skills are the ability to reflect. As lifelong learners we keep our minds open to new ideas, concepts and techniques. It is through deep reflection that we learn to dig deeper which encourages complex thinking. This in return gives us insight on our habits and strategies that we need to improve and allows us to become effective educators.

 

For example, sometimes we plan an activity for the children in the classroom and it ends up being unsuccessful. It does not attract many children and the ones that do participate do not seem to be too interested.  This would be the ideal time for me to reflect on why the activity was not successful. Questions to ask could be: Why did the activity not attract many children? Was the activity and materials developmentally appropriate? Was the activity based on the children’s interest? Were the luring strategies effective? What did the children struggle with?

 

This reflection incites critical thinking which enables me to evaluate the activity experience from an unbiased perspective. Perhaps the activity needs to be modified, adapted or is just not developmentally appropriate. In the future I would be mindful that all my activities should be based on children’s interests.

 

I have had quite a bit of experience working with young children in my filed placements and volunteering in schools. I try to make it a habit to reflect on my language, my relationships and experiences with the children. I am constantly trying to find ways to improve myself in any way I can.

 

I feel that I have a natural connection with children. I really enjoy being at their level, laughing, telling jokes and being a play partner to them. However there are times that when children need to be redirected or told that their behaviour must be stopped because it is hurting a peer. When I first started working with children I found that when I would tell a child to stop hitting another child, they would not take me seriously. Over a period of a few weeks when the same situation would come up I would continue to use the same techniques but was unsuccessful. I looked around at the other ECEs and teachers in the classroom and knew there was something that I was not doing right. In our Reflections class we learning the importance of reflecting on our actions. We were assigned some chapters to read for that class from called “Don’t Get So Upset!” by Tamar Jacobson. When I read the chapter 'We Use Discipline Not Punishment', I found the answers to my problem. My discipline strategies were poor, I didn’t always have a consistent, and serious tone while redirecting the children. This is why they didn’t always take me seriously.  I didn’t always give relevant consequences when the children were being unsafe. Thus the children would continue their unsafe behaviour. And most importantly I didn’t always follow through when speaking to the children. So the children would listen temporarily but when they would see that I am no longer paying attention they would continue their unsafe behaviour. As a result of reflecting on my experiences I discovered where I needed to improve my strategies. Now I can definitely say that, when needed, my discipline strategies have become more effective.

Follow me

© 2016 by Shabana Rashid
 

Call

T: 123-456-7890   F: 123-456-7890

  • Facebook Clean
  • Twitter Clean
  • White Google+ Icon
bottom of page