Early Childhood Education
Doctoral Comprehensive Examination Education
Week 10 Assignment: Written Examination Format
Learning Outcomes
Question Number 3.0
Apply relevant theory and research from student’s specialization coursework to real life situations to solve specific problems and discuss implications.
In recent years there have been several concerns regarding the early childhood education and the values and practices that are to be emphasized during this particular learning stage of the child’s development. Among some of the major problems assailing pre-school going children have been largely concerned with their health and this is one of the areas that many of the nations have had to addressed to best suit their environment (Anderson, 1987). Some of the frequently faced situations among the early education facilitators globally are:
a. Immunization against third world afflictions
b. Poor nutrition in the home setting due to various reasons like socio-economic circumstances
c. Number of siblings and spacing between births
d. Childhood obesity
e. Participation in outdoor activities
f. Lack of physical and mental agility due to too much exposure to television
g. Poor social interactive skills
Picking up just a few of these physical, mental and behavioral deficiencies the facilitator for early childhood education has his or her hands full literally. Taking the various aspects of obesity, outdoor activities and socially interactive skills one at a time it is possible to explore the research base of each regarding the statement of the problem and the steps taken for its amelioration.
Several scholars (Mc Dowall, 2013) have studied these problems in different geographical locations and have come up with certain tailor made solutions for their particular area. The varying methods utilized by educators of the early childhood education programs have been examined and three of them are being presented in the following.
As this area of study has been the precursor of elaborate debate on the academic plane for over the past few decades it is essential to grasp at the underlying thread of care and education to be imparted through any given approach or a combination of approaches for the target population of young learners. Over-all the child-centered approach is the one that is given full credence. Any bias pertaining to the care delivery is detected and eliminated. These information modules are most often child centered (Apel, 2010). However, sometimes there is the danger of the adult perspective creeping in and the messages becoming more mature. There is a need then to re-structure the messages to ensure that there is no dearth of information for the child to pick up and utilize according to his or her genius.
In the case of the children who are content with a sedentary habit and do not have the desire to participate in strenuous activities on their own there is the ever present threat of childhood obesity. The sedentary habit is not normal to children and this has been brought on with the onset of their attraction with the television programs that are made for providing hours of entertainment to them through cartoons and such like. In recent years there have been concentrated efforts on encouraging outdoor activities like the running and other athletic events besides also trying to bring about a revival of the traditional games plyed by children since ages (Cunningham, 1995). Some of these games are ‘peek-a-boo’; hide and seek, blind man’s buff; hop scotch, cat’s cradle etc., besides the happy indulgence of sing along activities like ‘ringa ringa roses’ and ‘Old Macdonald had a farm e I e I o’ besides several others.
Marsden and Weston [2007] questioned the inherent purpose of the early childhood education when they asked ”Should it not be the social, emotional, cultural and development needs of the children themselves that provides the starting point from which to develop a philosophy for their early year’s physical education?” This is a recent line of thought that has made the educators begin thinking about how they are to motivate the children who come from homes where they are habitually planted before television sets and made to watch all forms of programs. No doubt some of the programs would be most informative and promote the learning process but the underpinnings of the child’s sedentary habit and lack of physical activities are all to apparent. There is a dire need to have these information capsules supplemented with well planned physical activities. According to Pickup, Haydn-Davies and Jess [2007], “a better staring point may be to build on the broader role of movement in the lives of children, using play and the seemingly natural desire of young children to move with interactive, collaborative, physical and multi-sensory approaches to learning”. In fact there were several other childhood education professionals who had expressed their growing concern on this matter and there is a large body of research oriented debate focused on the growing lack of physical activity among the children less than five years old.
Increasingly there are professionals who are considering the significance and presence of physical activities in the regular curriculum of the little scholars and an essential part that was absolutely non-negotiable. Many of the educators contributed towards the preparation of coordinated schedules and course curricula that gave a significant position to the activities that gave ample exposure to the movement of limbs, exercise of the vocal cords and also involved rigorous physical and motor skills among the young wards. While from earliest times the theorists have been giving greater credence to the information inputs, the current program planners have become seized with the problems of the newer technological age where the outdoor activities are not as plentiful as they used to be earlier (Apel, 2010). These little children are no longer prone to romp about in gardens and parks accompanied by their older siblings. They are more likely to be sitting safely ensconced in their homes and watching cartoon shows on television.
To bring about any change is definitely a daunting task (Barnett, 2004). When it became apparent that the lack of activity of the young children was becoming habit forming and there was a larger probability that this habit would lead to worse situations where the children may become prone to childhood obesity. In several places this has started becoming a looming concern among educators of early childhood education. A large part of the world has reported young children forming habits that have carried on to their youth and adulthood. These habits have resulted in lethal manifestations like diabetes, obesity, all forms of allergies and sensitivities, heart conditions and several other physical and mental conditions. Almost two to three generations were to suffer the consequences of this sedentary habit till there was the general awakening to the fact that there was much wrong with the practices and habits of the children which had transcended into the lifestyle of the youth and in turn into the habits of the middle aged population.
As a result of these concerns many of the educators (Cunningham, 1995) who were dealing with early childhood education programs began working into their routines certain exercises and practices which they felt could help the young minds obtain the message that physical activities, especially outdoor activities could bring them much joy and adventure. It would reawaken within them the creativity and imagination which they were having to utilize only in within the enclosed confines of their homes.
The above two research oriented outcomes highlighted the two facts of reduced physical activity and heightened compromising on health with a large invitation to obesity during the childhood years as well in youth and later life (Barnett, 2004). The proposals for a corrective response to the problems were a series of programs that were launched sporadically all over the world to contain the growing dangers of childhood inactivity. Thus, an aberration that had crept in the socialization process of the little children could be corrected at the early childhood education stage in the learning environment through the efforts of dedicated educators. These trained and concerned educators facilitated the program and guided the young minds to pick up healthy habits of sustained physical activity and exercise. Therefore, all over the world now there are classes that are suited to the needs of the little children. They may be rooted in yoga, calisthenics, aerobics, tai chi or even athletics, skating and hoopla swinging.
The generally accepted ideas of the eighteenth century dwelt on the overall growth of the child but gave great significance to the role of the parents and the home situation in framing the child’s motor and mental skills (Apel, 2010). With the passage of time there were a a number of areas in which the world progressed and the fall out was that it had certain sinister ramifications for the budding young children who were below five years of age. It was opportune indeed that the children were closely observed and the negative impact of the progressive technological inputs became only to apparent. The educators were quick to delve into the root causes of the problem and come up with the real reasons that were in fact afflicting the young. This was very timely because the ruin of future generations of young could be easily prevented.
Bruner and Haste [1987] contributed greatly towards the third most important research finding of the early childhood education. Their objective was to give to the child the ability to reconstruct “their own views of the world” rather than be dependent upon the adult guided visions presented to them in the home and outside environments. They advocated an open and healthy form of presenting situations to the young minds so that they could be motivated to think openly and freely. They also propounded the general truth that the imagination and creativity of the child should be given free reign. For example if a child wanted to paint a sunflower red he or she should not be checked . They should be encouraged to give substance to their thoughts through vocalizing their thought, painting pictures or even making up stories. Many children tend to be silent spectators of scenarios and then give vent to their creativity by drawing vivid and highly illustrative pictures of their experiences (Mc Dowall Clark, 2013).
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When given an environment where they can be free to express themselves the children tend to develop along the lines of their inherent genius. Smith [1993] was of the firm belief that the young minds should be provoked into “reconstructing tasks through their own understanding.” The children were most overwhelmed by the lack of any bindings. They could indulge themselves to the fullest in all forms of activities. The truest success of the program was observed when the children participating in it were seen to be having a good time but the learning process was on full time. The children were picking up subtle information messages and learning them all the time that they were participating in the educational program.
Development of Professional Programs
The development of a successful program entails the ability to be able to grasp the needs of the target group, in this case the young minds of the pre-school going children. These minds have been successfully picking up information from their immediate environments. They are easily impressionable and quite easily absorb all forms of messages on the basis of their presentation to the easily impressed youngsters. It was the ability of the program formulators to be able to understand the actual lacunae that were probably being felt but could not as easily be projected to the young learners (Mc Dowall Clark, 2013). It was the genius of the professionals that could bring about the making of such programs that were seemingly tailor made to the needs of the young learners. Once these programs of early childhood learning had been pilot tested in one location they were administered at various other places where there was fine tuning and finally they decided to go ahead and administer a program that was both efficient, effective and learning intensive in every way.
Experimentation with early childhood learning groups has brought out the relevant features that make for successful imparting of education (Cunningham, 1995). These features are as follows:
i. All the learning among the pre-school going children should be done in small manageable groups so that the messages are easily understood visually, verbally and through gestures.
ii. The ration between the number of learners and the number of teaching members should be high. In case there are few teachers and many more learners then the messages or the education being imparted may get diluted and lost. Thus, the outcome would not at all be satisfactory as only some would obtain the entire productive import of the lessons being taught.
iii. Trained staff is an essential part of the early childhood education programs. Any personnel that is not trained and is given to impart information may do so in a manner which is out of sync with the established curriculum and format of coursework. Thus, even an untrained substitute teacher can upset the entire smooth running and easy setting of the class room and non class room learning experiences of the early childhood learners. They would not be given the information in the required format which would confuse and bewilder the young learners.
iv. A painstakingly prepared curriculum that is tailor made to the learning needs of the young learners is a singular significant constituent of the program that can bring about the success or failure of the entire early childhood education imparting exercise. The curriculum takes into consideration the socio-economic backgrounds of the learners as well as their language and learning ability pace. Very often the curriculum is an aid that helps the teacher facilitates the experimental abilities of the children. The early childhood education uses the curriculum as an essential tool and therefore is largely dependent upon its being precise, detailed and supplemented by a number of experimental situations that provoke the young learner to think, comprehend, remember similar situations and record them. It is also vital for helping the young learners remember their mistakes.