Constructivist Early Childhood Essay

DeVries et al. (2002) Developing constructivist early childhood curriculum: practical principles and activities. Teachers College Press: New YorkGagne, Robert. (1968). Contributions of Learning to Human Development. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. (75): 3.

According to Anthony & Walshaw, (2009) within a constructivist view, it is a teacher’s role to facilitate the learning of a child by providing a resource rich environment from which they guide a students learning. A student within a constructivist-learning environment must become engaged in the learning process by becoming a researcher, identifying a problem, collecting and analysing data and formulating a conclusion. This process of engagement provides a student with endless opportunity to develop his or her own understanding and knowledge. An educators ability to understand this learning theory as a process of construction and development provides a conceptual framework from which to build a teaching practice.

Constructivist teaching. Muijs and Reynolds (2005) interpreted that the principles of constructivist teaching consider all learners construct knowledge for themselves, rather than absorbing knowledge directly from the teacher. This means that every pupil will learn something slightly differently from a particular lesson given. The assumption that pupils are active knowledge constructers has several consequences. For examples, the learners need to be active in order to construct knowledge or to learn effectively, teaching is about helping children construct their own meaning rather than training them to get the right answer without the actual understanding of the concept, and pupils learn best when new lessons are clearly related to what they already know,

“In the early childhood classroom, teachers work to achieve a balance between children’s self-initiated learning and adult guidance or support” (“Unit 7 Lecture,” 2015). With that said, I feel that this can be accomplished a few different ways. First, the teacher needs to understand what a child is capable of doing. This can be done through assessments, observations, and getting to know the student. Another thing that a teacher can do is provide the student work through scaffolding (this is probably my favorite teaching method). “Scaffolding refers to a process in which teachers model or demonstrate the problem-solving process, then step back and offer support as needed” (Firestone, 2015).

Teachers are under a great amount of pressure to meet mandated academic benchmarks and goals, starting at even the earliest grade levels. They struggle to provide an environment for learning that is “evidenced based” and “adequately prepares children to succeed” (Burnett 146). Despite this pressure put on early childhood education teachers and students to keep up, research shows that children flourish in a play-based, discovery centered environment. In an article for The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Sarah Burnett states that the constructivist theory, first proposed by scientist Jean Piaget, is recognized by many early childhood education organizations as the “most appropriate and effective avenue through which children learn” (147).

developed by the Child Development Division, California Department of Education. This publication was edited by Faye Ong,

3.1 and 3.2 It is important to ensure children and young people are protected within the work setting :

For my second practice observation, I watched an 18-month old boy, who I will be referring to as B. The setting takes place in a classroom where two other children are present, two teachers are there as well, and plus the observers. The room had a dramatic play center because it had a dress-up center and kitchen center. It also had a block center. I observed by watching a 5-minute video from 5:40-5:45 p.m. on January 27th, 2018. B played with a ramp, blocks, bottles, balls, etc. He played with a lot of toys in this short video.

This child observation will draw on a child developmental theory to discuss the activities of the child I have observed. I will comment on the child’s physical growth and development, cognitive abilities, health, social relationships and emotional wellbeing. I will also look at the child’s interaction with other children and adults , in order to appreciate the child’s development and account for differences and similarities as proffered by my chosen theory of Attachment.

Chapter eight is about promoting communication and language development in early childhood education. Early communication is mostly non-verbal. Communication goes beyond the words we use; it develops with the use of gestures, facial expressions, hand movements and positioning of our body. Some of the first displays of communication by infants include, smiling, fussing and looking at an area, person or object. Later, communication extends to give signals such as pointing, reaching and body movements to indicate a want or need. The primary functions of early communication are behavior regulation, social interaction, and calling joint attention. Students with visual impairment and other disabilities are at risk for developing communication and

1. My niece fits into the infancy stage. She is not even a year old. I can see the oral-sensory mode with her. She is constantly taking in the world around her by trying new things with her senses and trying to put things in her mouth. At this stage she is experiencing basic trust vs mistrust. She is trying to trust the world and the people around her. I see this as the basic issue. Hope is another issue that is present. I believe with the help of her supportive parents she is being to develop hope and not withdrawal. She is very open and not withdrawn in any setting. Understanding her basic concerns of trust and mistrust helps me better understand her needs. Although she cannot talk yet, I can use this information to better connect with her

I will be applying the theory of Constructivism/Cognitive Development with an example from my own experience. Our program is made up typically of children of various age groups from infants to preschool. Personally I have never had a problem with this type of environment as I see the advantages of having older peers that may be more knowledgeable in an area than my younger children. This type of environment allows the younger children to experience his environment by observing older peers incorporating it into his learning. For example an older child plays with a doll and takes a bottle and pretends to feed her baby covering her doll with a blanket. After watching this type of

Constructivism. I believe that learning situated in physical and social contexts. Children learn by doing, by solving problems and by communicating with people around them. Constructivism maintains that children think differently and will interpret and construct the world in different ways (Maloy, 2015). Thereby, learning occurs when children are given chances to experience and interpret the world around them in their own ways. Providing children with opportunities to engage in authentic activities is essential in their cognitive development (McDevitt et al, 2013). Authentic activities include a wide range of hands-in practices such as building a bridge by blocks and experiences to build up concept learning such as visits to libraries, banks and museums. When children are playing around with concrete objects like rods, wood blocks and clay, they manipulate, act, touch, see and feel things. In this process, children learn about colors, shapes and textures as well as practicing their fine motor skills. Moreover, Gage and Berliner (1998, as cited in Marsh, Clarke & Pittaway, 2015a) argued that children who have not been giving chances to manipulate concrete objects might find it challenging to understand addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Early childhood education is a program that benefits children from ages three to five. During early childhood education children develop many different characteristics. Early childhood education also benefits a child’s social development, emotional development, physical development, and cognitive development. Science research has proven that learning and mental development begins right after the child is born. Their first 3 years of life is when the essential brain and neural development occurs. The purpose of early childhood education is to prepare young children for their transition into elementary school. My philosophy of education is inspired by Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori, and Howard Gardner.

There are five identified central tenets of constructivism as a teaching philosophy: Constructivist teachers seek and value students’ points of view. This concept is similar to the reflective action process we call withitness, in which teachers attempt to perceive students’ needs and respond to them appropriately; Constructivist teachers challenge students to see different points of view and thereby construct new knowledge. Learning occurs when teachers ask students what they think they know about a subject and why they think they know it; Constructivist teachers recognize that curricula must have meaning for students. When students see the relevance of curricula, their interest in learning grows; Constructivist teachers create lessons that tackle big ideas, not small bits of information. By seeing the whole first, students are able to determine how the parts fit together; Constructivist teachers assess student learning in daily classroom activities, not through the use of separate testing or evaluation events. Students