My ECE Assignments : Tracking my ECE Course Grades - Part 2..

To round off this topic of grades from my ECE course assignments, here's the final modules grades, which will again give you a good sense of the results you can expect for these assignments:

ECE Course: Specialist Diploma in Preschool Education (SDPE)

Results : DPT modules

11. Language Arts for Young Children : B+
12. Science for Young Children : B+
13. Math for Young Children : B+
14. Creative Arts : Arts B+
and Music : A
15. Children’s Play : B
16. Educational Psychology : A
17. Integrated DAP : A
18. Practicum #2 : A+

Results : DPL Modules

4. Supervision in the Use and Organisation of EC Resources : A
5. Leadership Studies : B
6. Practicum #3 : A

Refer to earlier posting for Part1 of the ECE modules grades (click below):

http://childrenareourfutureteachthemwell.blogspot.com/2009/03/tracking-my-ece-course-grades.html

My ECE Assignments : Practicum #3, Vocational Placement

"My ECE Assignment" series is meant to demystify ECE and make it a more pleasurable endeavour for those of us who are willing to commit to it :

Practicum Task : Evaluate Leadership Roles

(1) Record a personal statement (based on literature) about your understanding of leadership. What, to you, is leadership? What, if any, are the differences between leadership and management? What, based on your readings, are the characteristics of modern leaders?

My personal statement on leadership:
Leadership is an attribute of a person who shows the ability to lead others into change. People with leadership skills are therefore essentially change-agents. They are able to directly or indirectly influence others into accepting or following a new direction.

Anyone can thus be in a leadership position, not just people who are appointed and entrusted with specific organizational responsibilities.

The leading management guru, Tom Peters, best describes leadership (Winston Churchill Leadership Website, 2009) when he said,

“Leadership is a confidence game. Act the part”.

He also has this to say of leaders,

“Be a dealer in hope - keep an eye out for Grand Possibilities. Inspire others by throwing down a Great Challenge”.

Modern leaders therefore inspire confidence in people, and engender belief within oneself. One can see this vividly in our local context, where Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, continues to inspire confidence in his constituents and the general public. He is the embodiment of all the characteristics of what a modern leader should hold : charismatic, influential and a pillar of integrity.

Differences in leadership and management can best be contrasted in the following 5 ways by viewing what managers and leader do (Sciarra & Dorsey 2002):

i) Managers accept responsibility, while leaders seek responsibility.
ii) Managers minimize risks, while leaders take calculated risks.
iii) Managers delegate cautiously, while leaders delegate enthusiastically.
iv) Managers view workers as employees, while leaders view workers as potential followers.
v) Managers administer, while leaders innovate.

Looking at management and leadership from the viewpoints above, the differences between them are therefore quite evident.

(2) Throughout your practicum reflect on the 14 leadership roles and record examples of how you and your senior teacher demonstrate your leadership roles.
i) Role Model
Teacher M, as the centre supervisor, takes punctuality seriously. She always made sure that she is in the centre 10 minutes before her expected starting time. Such role-modelling on her part demonstrates to her staff that this service we provide to parents is very important and punctuality should not be taken for granted.

ii) Influencer
I made it point to converse with the children in my class, during this practicum, in grammatically proper English. This reinforces the importance of proper conversational English to the children, and being highly impressionable themselves, I know this will rub off on them, over time.

iii) Mentor
Teacher M had taken upon herself to be my mentor during this practicum. She ensured that a routine of having a 20-minute meeting before the day begins, and before the day ends, with me was in place. This gave me precious time alone with her to share my views with her, and more importantly, for her to share her experience as a supervisor with me.

iv) Coach
Teacher M provided excellent coaching to me when she showed how she utilized the various IT systems to administer her day-to-day role as a supervisor of a childcare centre. She took particular care in helping me understand the need to update the CCLS system regularly, as required by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.


v) Manager
The centre director showed her managerial skill and demonstrated leadership when she spoke directly to the parent of one of the students in my class who was showing signs of succumbing to the HFMD disease. I was in her office when she confidently spoke to the mother of the child over the telephone that even though this incident was disruptive to her work schedule but that HFMD was a serious disease and that she should come down to fetch and give relief to her child, by seeking immediate medical advice. The mother came within 30 minutes. The following day, the child was confirmed as having HFMD. It showed the importance of managing the centre with speed and with patience.

vi) Collaborator
I acted in my role as a collaborator when I worked with Teacher M to prepare for a new nature corner involving a new rabbit, for the children. We had to bring the rabbit for proper medical treatment at a local clinic, before purchasing a pet cage for it. After preparing some common information about rabbits for other teachers to use, the children in the centre took turns over the next 2 days to view, hold and play with the rabbit, thus initiating a new experience of nature for the children.

vii) Networker
The centre took the step of engaging with the Town Council, at the suggestion of Teacher M, to utilize the neighbourhood spice and vegetable garden for the benefit of the children. Permission was granted for the children to visit the garden monthly, with the added bonus of having a Town Council member present to personally show the children the various highlights of the garden. Such networking was valuable to the centre.

viii) Challenger
I took the initiative to bring my observation to Teacher M that the front door of the centre seemed to be left unlocked for most of a typical day. I shared my view that this might pose a potential safety issue for the children, especially if due to various reasons, unwanted visitors enter the centre and abducted a child. My view on this matter was acknowledged as a good one by the management.

ix) Team builder / Team player / Team leader
As a team player, I participated with the whole team when we were required to clean and sanitized all the classrooms, learning materials and mattresses, when we learnt that HFMD had infected one of the students in our class. This was done during the nap time of the children, and we stayed over at the centre till 7.30pm that day to ensure that the job was properly executed.

x) Decision maker
When it came to light that the venue of a field trip had to be changed due to unforeseen circumstances, Teacher M exhibited her leadership skill as a decision-maker when she took the decision to divert the field trip to a new venue, even though there was less than 3 days left to the actual field trip day. She could have cancelled the field trip, as recommended by a few teachers, but she decided to continue with it but to another venue, in the interest of the children. I appreciated her leadership skill in this instance.


(3) Conclude with a paragraph as to what you see as being the challenges that exist in the provision of effective leadership in the Singaporean early childhood settings.

The main challenge that exist in the provision of effective leadership in early childhood settings here is tied to the perception held by many parents and the public at large about what childcare centres really mean to them.

Childcare centres still carry the connotation of child-minding to many. As such, early childhood education as a professional field on its own, suffers from a lack of understanding and more importantly, lack of respect by the general public.

As a consequence, leadership in the field of early childhood education here holds little traction and currency within the corridors of power, which in turn leads to this cycle of disinterest, apathy and lack of leadership, in that order.

The other challenge stems from the heavy workload of preschool teachers today, especially in childcare centres. All childcare centre educators are literally swamped with the day-to-day needs of running their classes well that they simply have no extra leeway, in terms of time and resources, to innovate, be creative and to initiate new teaching methodologies in class.

Leadership within their own classroom context thus takes second stage, while daily needs take centre stage.


References:

1. Sciarra, D.J. & Dorsey, A.G. (2002). Leaders and supervisors in childcare programs. Albany, N.Y. : Delmar Thomson Learning.

2. Winston Churchill Leadership Website [Online database]. Retrieved April 22, 2009 from World Wide Web : http://www.winston-churchill-leadership.com/peters-definition.html

My ECE Assignments : Practicum #2, Vocational Placement

"My ECE Assignment" series is meant to demystify ECE and make it a more pleasurable endeavour for those of us who are willing to commit to it :

Lesson Plan #1 – Subject area : Language Development
(A) No. of children : 12
(B) Age Group : K2
(C) Date : 19 March Time: 10.30am Duration: 40 mins
(D) Theme : Stories and rhymes make learning come alive!
(E) Prior Knowledge :
The children have learnt to spell words up to 5 letters long before.
(F) Lesson Objectives:
1. Children will be able to listen and speak the opposite words (antonyms) of “young”, “old” and “asleep”, “awake”.
2. Children will be able to spell these 4 words.

(G) Materials :
1. Large canvass mat and portable whiteboard
2. “Jack and the Beanstalk” tall-book.
3. Walking stick and a baseball cap
4. Journal book, and pencils for each children

(H) Tune-in Activity (Steps):
1. The K2 children will be asked to put on their shoes, and prepare to be taken out of the Centre, in an orderly fashion of 2 rows.

2. The class teacher will be bringing along a large canvass mat for the children to sit on.
He will ask 2 children to volunteer to carry the canvass, the walking stick and baseball cap.

3. All the children will be seated in front of the Centre’s side-wall painting, under the shelter of a walkway, and will be asked by the teacher to imagine why they have been brought to this area to sit, instead of being in the centre. Their responses will be noted by the teacher and acknowledged.

(I) Main Lesson (Steps):
1. The class teacher will initiate the beginning of a story-telling session, the story being “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Both the writer and publisher of the story will be mentioned to the children.

2. The children will see the character of Jack ‘coming alive’ when the teacher points to the wall-painting.

3. As the teacher talks through the story, both the pictures in the book and on the wall painting will be used to stimulate and capture the interest of the children.

4. When the first run of the story-telling finishes, the teacher will now ask the children to listen and speak out the words “young”, “old”, “asleep” and “awake” from the second run of the story-telling.

5. This time, as the four words are told as part of the story (and emphasized by the teacher for each word), the teacher will also write these 4 words on the whiteboard by her side.

6. The teacher will then ask 2 boys to stand by his side at the front. The teacher will ask one boy to hold the walking-stick and ask him to walk like the old giant in the story, while the other boy puts on the baseball-cap to show that he is a boy.

7. Another 2 girls will be asked to volunteer to show the class what “asleep” and “awake” mean to them, and act it out.

8. The children will now be asked to take out their own journals and be prepared to spell the 4 words. The teacher will say the 4 words one by one, while the children writes them down on their journal. When they have finished, they will hand the journals to their teacher for marking.

(J) Closure :
1. To round out this learning experience, the children will be asked by the teacher if there are volunteers who wants to act as the four main characters of young Jack, his mother, the old giant and the beanstalk.

2. They will re-enact the scenes, as they see fit, for the next 7 to 8 minutes, before wrapping up and returning to their class.

(K) Follow-up :
1. At the end of the day, before the children finish their formal lessons, the children will be asked by the teacher if they remembered who fell asleep in the castle, and what happened to young Jack when the old giant was awake. This will reinforce the learning of these 4 words by the children.

2. They will be asked what is the opposite of “old”, and the opposite of “awake” to reinforce their learning.

Lesson Plan #1 : Reflection and Evaluation :

Q1 : What new learning has occurred for the children?
It was clear to me that the children were interested in the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk”, even though some of them have heard about it before. This allowed me to achieve my learning objectives of them listening, speaking and writing the 4 focus words.

Q2 : What part of the physical environment would need to be changed, and why?
The children took to the task of moving outside of the class to the side walkway of the centre with much delight. The walkway was a public area, and as such, there were some distractions when several people from the neighbourhood stopped briefly to watch the story-telling.
But by and large, the children were focused on their tasks at hand, including the period when they were required to write the words on their journal. So, space and materials supported the attainment of the lesson objectives well. What can be changed would be allocating more time to this lesson, from 40 minutes to 45 minutes to allow more time for the children to perform their play-acting, which they enjoyed.

Q3 : Which teaching strategies supported the children, and which need to be reconsidered?
The use of a story like “Jack and the Beanstalk” clearly supported the children’s learning. They were remained interested throughout the story itself. The use of props such as the walking stick, the baseball cap and the impromptu play-acting by the children added to their learning experience, as a whole.


Lesson Plan #1 : The Next Step

The children have learnt to spell 4 words as a result of this lesson plan. But I believe they learnt more than that. What stood out for me were 2 things:
1. the use of story-telling as the “vehicle” to reach out to the children was a successful endeavour. In this case, it helped me to bring the children to the point of achieving my lesson objectives with ease simply because they were interested in listening to the story.

2. that play-acting by the children drew out the usually silent children from their shells. I believe that because they were seeing their peers having so much fun with the play-acting, they too were drawn into this activity. They too were laughing side by side with their peers.

The next step for me would be to use this experience of story-telling and games to reach out to the children in what would be typically regarded by teachers as more “serious” subject areas such as science and math.

Student Self Evaluation

(1) Professional Knowledge and Behaviour:
Q : Have you provided a positive role model for children? Provide a brief example.

I have provided a positive role model for the children by constantly using proper English words and sentences when conversing with them. I find that the children are easily swayed by the way English as a language is used by their peers and their parents at home. It is therefore not surprising to find them using localized English frequently, and in my view, excessively by most of them.

I am of the opinion that preschool teachers need to ensure that the children in their classes do not fall into the easy ‘trap’ of using colloquial English when in school, both in conversations or when words and sentences are being constructed by them. When the children get older, this form of colloquial English will become even more difficult to change in their conversations and in writings. It is therefore the role of the preschool teacher to ensure that English is properly used and spoken in school, and at all times to instill its proper usage by the children.

Q : How well am I applying my knowledge of the theories of child development in the classroom?

I believe I have applied my knowledge of the theories of child development well in the classroom during this practicum.

From the beginning, I had wanted to inject play into my lesson plans, realizing the significance of play in teaching our children, as noted by Parten (Dockett, Fleer, 2002). For example, I took the initiative to bring all the children out of their classroom environment in one of my lessons on the subject area of language, and asked them to role-play the story of Jack and the Beanstalk in front of a large painting of one of its scenes in this story. Clearly, the children enjoyed that role-play as one of them took the role of the “Giant” and spouted loudly, “Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum”.

I was also able to scaffold the children’s understanding of the scientific concepts of sinking and floating, thus applying the theory espoused by Vygotsky (Mooney, 2000). The children were perplexed to find that a small grape actually sinks in water, while a larger orange floats. It was through my explanation of density that they were able to see why that was so, thus helping them to extend their own knowledge, through the guidance of an adult like me. The theory of ZPD, as stated by Vygotsky, was well on display then.


(2) Interactions with Children:
Q : How do I demonstrate appreciation of children’s effort?

I demonstrated appreciation of children’s effort by doing the following:
a) I acknowledged all their answers by writing them down on the whiteboard, when I asked them for answers to questions, or opinions on various matters.

b) I praise their role-playing efforts, regardless of how they actually performed their role-plays. Some of the children even extended the stories in their own ways. For example, one of them wanted to turn the axe into a laser gun to shoot down the Giant in the Jack and the Beanstalk story, instead of cutting down the beanstalk. I thought that that was indeed a creative display of the mind of that child.

c) I put up their drawings on the display areas within the class to acknowledge their individual efforts. I ensured that they are put up at their eye-level, and not at that of an adult’s, to allow them to see the fruits of their labour as well as their peers.

d) I openly praise any child that showed their efforts to help another peer of theirs, from the simple task of assisting another with putting away their toys, to bringing an eraser to the reach of another child.

e) I openly acknowledge the children whenever they displayed hygienic behaviours when performing their toileting needs, such as flushing the toilets immediately after use, or washing their hands with detergent and drying them carefully before returning to their classroom.


Q : How well do I interact with young children? Provide an example of your communication with young children in which you feel you interacted positively.

I believed that I interacted with the children very well. An example would be the day when a rabbit was brought into the Centre. Instead of getting them to gather round the rabbit to view it, I took the opportunity to turn it into a ‘teacheable moment’ by first asking them if they have pets at home, what they are and the names of their pets. I then asked them if a rabbit can be a pet, whether a rabbit is a mammal and the food that it eats. It was at this moment that I then brought the rabbit in, to show it to them, right in front of their very eyes, as they sat in a semi-circle. The delight on their faces clearly showed how much they enjoyed the occasion.


(3) Communication:
Q : How well do I interact with colleagues?

I interacted with my colleagues well. I had a healthy respect for all of them, not just the teachers but the cook and the cleaner, because I realized the difficult and challenging jobs that each of them had to discharge, every single day. I specifically interacted well with the class teacher, Teacher S because from the start of my practicum, she showed warmth in receiving me and more importantly, she showed a high level of care and concern for her class children, which I appreciate greatly and will try to replicate the same when I begin my own career in a preschool.

Q : How do I demonstrate positive working attitudes?

I demonstrated positive working attitudes by being 10 minutes early to work every day, which was an easy first step to make. That gave me the opportunity to meet some of the parents of my class children who drop their children off earlier than others. This was, in itself, a bonus for me. Having the chance to meet more of the parents gave me additional confidence in dealing with matters involving parents in the future.

I was always eager to learn, especially from Teacher S. I took the initiative to assist her in her lessons by asking her at the beginning of the day what were the things that I could do to help with her lessons. She was a willing partner in helping me understand all that I wanted to know to be a professional early childhood educator, like her. Whenever I was taking on her class with my own lesson plans, she took the initiative to provide feedback, both good and bad, on how I performed on that day with the children. I was therefore very appreciative of her personal efforts.

With the children, I was always mindful of the need to be respectful to them, and in return, I expected respect from them as well. I believe that this positive atmosphere would rub off to the children and in so doing, afford them the environment to learn optimally.


References
1. Dockett, S & Fleer, M. (2002), Play and pedagogy in early childhood : Bending the
rules. Harcourt, Australia.
2. Mooney, C. G. (2000), Theories of Childhood, p.93 . Readleaf Press, Division of
Resources of Child Caring, 450 N, Syndicate, Suite 5 St Paul, MN 55104.

My ECE Assignments : Practicum #1, Vocational Placement

"My ECE Assignment" series is meant to demystify ECE and make it a more pleasurable endeavour for those of us who are willing to commit to it :

Module : Practicum #1, Vocational Placement

Observation #2 : Photographic Documentation
Time and Duration: 9.40am, 15 minutes
Setting: N2 classroom and Shakespeare Corner

Context and Narrative on Photographic Documentation:
L (4.3) was gathered together with his 6 other classmates in their N2 classroom. They were tasked by their teacher to colour a worksheet with a picture of a clown on it.

The children were seated around a table, and L (4.3) was together with 4 boys and 2 girls. His teacher was keeping an eye on all the children but was spending more time at the area closer to L (4.3).

After about 6 minutes into the observation, L (4.3) was asked to move from their current classroom area to a new area by the Shakespeare Corner. They were there for the next 15 minutes until the teacher called for the children to put their colour pencils and containers away, and be prepared to move back to their N2 classroom.

Interpretations:
Physical
L (4.3) appeared to have developed his fine motor skills well. At his age of 4 years and 3 months, his development in this area of fine motor skills was in line with his milestones (Bredekamp & Copple 1997, p. 105). He was able to use the pincer grip well, as he held his colour pencils to colour within the lines of the picture most of the time.

Intellectual and Linguistic
L (4.3) exhibited his development in the intellectual domain when he pointed out to his teacher that his classmate was doing his colouring in the wrong way, according to L (4.3)’s view. In other words, he was able to understand the teacher’s instructions and at the same time, able to perceive his classmate’s work as being incorrect. This fits in well with the theory expounded by Piaget, when he said that children at the age of 4 are in their “Preoperational Stage” and therefore, are expected to form ideas from experiences ( Mooney, 2000).

L (4.3)’s language skills can be better for his age group. When he said to his classmate, “No, I hit you”, it showed the level of linguistic development that he had achieved so far. According to Schickedanz., Schickedanz, Forsyth, Forsyth (2001) , he should be at a more advanced stage than his current development on language skills.

Emotional
L (4.3) had shown that he was prone to being angry. He showed this whenever he did not get his way, or if a classmate was viewed as provoking him. This was typified by his reaction to a classmate who accidentally covered his worksheet, while he was colouring. According to the theory described by Dr Howard Gardner (Campbell, Campbell, Dickinson 1999), L (4.3)’s interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence were lacking. Not being able to self-regulate and self-control would be a potential problem for L (4.3) when he grows older.

Social
L (4.2) had shown that his social skills could be improved. When he was asked to move to a new area, he was unhappy with the change and showed his displeasure by snatching at the colour pencil containers that were held by another boy. His forceful nature had caused others to stay away from him, especially the girls. Such an aggressive disposition would become an issue for him, if left unchecked (Schickedanz , Schickedanz, Forsyth , Forsyth, 2001).

Observation #5: Work Sample
Time and Duration: 11.40am, 16minutes
Setting: K1 Classroom

Context: A (5.2) was given the task of completing a worksheet. It consisted of sentences with a word blanked out, for the children to fill in. They were then required to colour the pictures that were aligned to these sentences. All 12 children were seated by their tables, six to each table.

Narrative of Work Sample:
A (5.2) sat together with 2 other girls and 3 boys by a table. Her teacher asked for everyone to be quietly seated, while she passed six worksheets to A (5.2), who took one and handed the rest to the girl, L, seated next to her. A (5.2) was smiling when she first saw the worksheet and said to L, “Look , rabbits”, while pointing to a picture with 2 rabbits on it. L giggled with her.

A (5.2) was then given instructions by her teacher. She was told to read the sentences, complete them by filling in the missing word, and then to colour the pictures. A (5.2) focused on her work at hand by starting with the first sentence. She looked towards L, wanting to see if L had written the first missing word. She didn’t see L writing the word and looked back to her own worksheet. After 5 seconds, she filled in the first missing word. She looked up and realised that L had also written the same word. She flashed a smile and went back to completing the next sentences.

At one point, A (5.2) said to L, “ Do you know what this word is?”, pointing to the word “pretty”. L said she did not know. A (5.2) then stood up, walked over to her teacher and asked, “What word is this, teacher?”. Her teacher then prompted her by using the “Per” phonetic sound of the letter “p”. She then guided A (5.2) with the letter “r”, and so on, until the word was properly pronounced by A (5.2).

A (5.2) then walked back and told L, “It is [pretty]”, and smiled. A (5.2) completed the rest of the sentences, and began colouring the 5 pictures beside each sentence. She started colouring the rabbits first, and then went back to the first picture. Her colouring was not within the lines of two out of the 5 pictures, while the rabbits were coloured fully within the lines, in green.

Interpretations:
Physical
A (5.2) appeared to have developed her fine motor skills well, as shown by her good pincer grasp, when holding her pencil. This would have to be expected of her at her current age of 5 years and 2 months old, and in fact supported by expected milestones in her physical development, according to Bredekamp & Copple (1997). But when she seemed hurried, she was not colouring her pictures within the lines as well as she could.

Intellectual and Linguistic

A (5.2) was able to follow the instructions of her teacher well. She finished her sentences on her worksheet without much effort, showing that she understood verbs. She however needed assistance from her teacher with a more difficult word. The good thing was that she was spontaneous in asking for help from her teacher.

She was conversing with her friends using relatively good grammar in her sentences, which pointed to her good development linguistically.

Emotional
A (5.2) appeared to have a happy disposition. She smiled frequently and did not show any part of her temperament that was out of the norm. This made her an easy and likeable classmate to be with.

Social
A (5.2) worked well amongst her classmates. She appeared to have no hang-ups working along side either girls or boys. She appeared to particularly enjoy sitting beside and working with her classmate, L.

Observation #8 : Anecdotal Record
Time and Duration: 10.25am, 15 minutes
Setting: Dramatic Corner

Context: A (5.2) was given free play time at the Dramatic Corner with her 11 classmates. While her teacher was sitting on the side making observations on her class children, A (5.2) was playing with her plastic cup and saucer set, together with a boy, D.

Observations:
A (5.2) was seated against the wall. She had a plastic cup and saucer set with her, and pretended to make breakfast for her and her classmate, D. She included another play piece, in the shape of a fried egg and was making the “Shhee, shhee” sound to imitate the cooking of the fried egg.

She told D, “Breakfast is ready, D. You can come me and eat now”. She served the fried egg on a plate and pretended pouring Milo into the cup. When finished pouring, she said “There, drink”. D was happy to see A (5.2) serving breakfast to him and gave his thanks. A (5.2) joined him in eating, while making the “Chomp, chomp” sound.
Another girl came over to pick up A’s (5.2) cup and saucer, but A (5.2) did not react negatively to her. A (5.2) stood up and got hold of another play set of cup and saucer from the main kitchen play area.

While at the kitchen area, A (5.2) watched another girl, S cooking and asked “Is this breakfast?”. S said no but this would be lunch for the teacher. A (5.2) smiled and said to S, “Oh, can I cook with you?”. S agreed to the request and showed A (5.2) a ladle piece, and then asked A (5.2) to stand beside her and cook like her. A (5.2) flashed a big smile and moved beside S, and began cooking together.

A boy came over and tried to grab hold of the frying pan that S was using, and A (5.2) said to the boy, “Hey, that’s not yours!”, and both A (5.2) and S then said loudly for the boy to go away and play somewhere else. The boy noticed he was outnumbered and moved away from the 2 girls. Both girls giggled, as they began to finish their cooking and prepared to serve their food for the teacher.

Interpretations:
Physical
A (5.2) displayed her gross motor skills as she moved from area of the Dramatic Corner to the next with ease. She squatted down and stood up twice during her play, which showed that her large muscles of her legs were well developed. This was in line with her physical development at her age (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997).

Intellectual and Linguistic
A (5.2) was able to make pretend play a part of her daily interactions with her classmates, both when making breakfast and when cooking at the kitchen. This was in line with Jean Piaget’s Theory of the 4 Stages of Cognitive Development of a child (Mooney, 2000). Piaget’s theory expounded the notion that a child at the Pre-operational Stage would exhibit an ability to make mental representations, which were the cornerstones of pretend play.

A (5.2) showed good linguistic skills for a child of 5 years of age. Her sentences were grammatically correct most of the time. This coincided with her developmental milestones, according to Bredekamp & Copple (1997).

Emotional
A (5.2) showed her ability to control her emotions when one of her classmates snatched a toy away from her play area. She did not pursue the matter with him further, except to indicate her displeasure over the incident. Such self-regulation on her part showed her emotional development level her age of 5 (Schickedanz., Schickedanz, Forsyth, Forsyth, 2001).

Social

A (5.2) was socialising with her classmates well. She did not show a preference to play with girls only, as her time with classmate D showed. Her interpersonal intelligence was also on display as she moved from one group of classmates to the next, during her time making breakfast and the time cooking at the kitchen. She talked and socialised well with her classmates. This, according to Dr Howard Gardner, showed she had very good interpersonal intelligence (Campbell, Campbell, Dickinson 1999).

Reflections
6. Reflections on Tuesday, 23 September 2008.

The day started with an incident pertaining to the health of an N1 child. She was screened at the entrance for her temperature and checked for symptoms of HFMD, a daily procedure which this centre had instituted 18 months ago. The N1 child had a higher than normal temperature. Compounding that were blisters on her palms, as well as several ulcers in her mouth. Her father was told that his child needed to be taken to the nearest clinic for a doctor to examine her more thoroughly. He refused to do so, and said that he had to leave for his office matters, despite the centre supervisor’s best efforts to reason with him.

The child was brought to the office instead of her class, and isolated. It was decided by the supervisor that the child needed to be examined by a doctor as soon as possible. A call was made to her father to seek his permission for the centre to bring his child to see a local clinic doctor nearby. He agreed.

I decided to volunteer to bring this N1 child to the doctor, and the supervisor agreed to this task for me. After a 20 minute wait, the doctor confirmed that the child had HFMD. He wrote a note to her parents, requesting that their child be isolated at home for the next 7 days. I brought the child back to the centre, and related the doctor’s prognosis to the supervisor, who immediately called the child’s father to have his daughter brought. After 30 minutes, the child’s mother came to fetch her home.

My first instinct was to feel sympathy for the child, which I did. But when I heard from the supervisor that the child’s father did not mutter a word of appreciation for the centre’s initiative to bring his child to be examined by a doctor, I felt indignant. Why would a parent compromise his child’s health for his job’s requirements, I thought. And would it not be reasonable to expect a word of appreciation from this parent for the out-of-the-norm effort put in by the centre for his child?

As I thought about it more, I rationalised that the father might have felt angry that the centre had inflicted the HFMD virus on his child. In that instant, I realised that what the father did was understandable, but not excusable. His child’s health ought to be the first priority of his day, and not his job.

I also realised too that childcare centres of today carried a huge responsibility, not just for the education of a child but also the potential exposure of deadly illnesses such as HFMD to the children in the centre. It was therefore incumbent upon a teacher in the centre to ensure that the probability of an occurrence of such deadly illnesses to the children be minimized as much as possible, if not totally prevented from happening in the first place.

My ECE Assignments : Supervision

"My ECE Assignment" series is meant to demystify ECE and make it a more pleasurable endeavour for those of us who are willing to commit to it :

Module: Supervision
Individual Assignment: Case Study Project – Mechanics of Supervision

1. Profile of Supervisee
a) Name : Teacher J Age : 31

b) Period of Knowing the Teacher : 13 months

c) Adult Development Stage : Stage 6 - Intimacy vs Isolation

d) Teacher Development Stage : Stage 2 – Consolidation

e) Needs of the Teacher:

As an adult, J is looking at establishing a stronger sense of self. She relates strongly to her role as an early childhood educator. As a parent herself, she seemed intent on making a success of both her roles as a parent and as an educator. This seems to be her primary need, at the moment.

As a teacher, J seeks to consolidate her experiences she has gained over the past 3 years working in a childcare centre environment. She believes she has the skills to focus on individual students and help them in furthering or accelerating their individual developments.

2. Plan – The Model

a) Introduction

Teacher J is grappling with the issue of managing a specific focus child in her class. The child, M (5.3) has been exhibiting behaviours that she regards as aggressive. M bites, kicks and punches other children in his class. His behavior has caused frequent disruptions to J’s class lessons. More importantly, it has caused the parent of 1 of the children affected by M’s (5.3) behaviour to lodge a formal complaint to the Centre. The affected child has described to her parent about M’s (5.3) unruly behaviour towards her in class.

b) Objective of Plan

To provide J with the support necessary to better manage M (5.3) in her class environment so that disruptions to her lessons are minimized, and M (5.3) can be put on a path of more acceptable behaviours in class.

c) Short-term goals

i) To give J an objective view of her lesson delivery in class and of M’s (5.3) behaviour through my observations, as her supervisor.

ii) To give her the support necessary to manage M (5.3) better in class.

d) Long-term goal

i) To bring about a positive change in the behaviour of M (5.3) that will be for the long term.

e) Process and Strategies

i) To observe J’s class, when M (5.3) is present, for 30 minutes.
ii) To provide a lesson observation record of a typical class she is teaching..
iii) To provide feedback to J, and draw up an action plan to meet both the short-term and long-term goals.
iv) To involved the parents of M (5.3) if his behaviour has not improved after 4 weeks of closer observations.

3. Self Evaluation

a) Reflecting the Supervisory Process

The supervisory process that I have deployed here gave a methodical way of dealing with a specific issue that a teacher was facing, in this case, managing the challenging behaviours of a focus child, through a lesson observation.

The process enabled both the teacher and I, as her supervisor, to be clear about our objective of the plan. Both short-term and long-term goals were discussed and clarified. More importantly, they were agreed to. This process gave me the sense that the teacher was committed to meeting the goals, precisely because they were jointly discussed and documented. The teacher had a stake, as it were, in making sure that the goals were met.

However, what made this process a little more challenging for the both of us, was the factor of time. Or the lack of it, to be precise. Within the rigours of a typical day, the time available for following up on the observations and analyses was the most pressing. But with both of us taking a committed stance to wanting to make a positive change for the focus child, M (5.3), this supervisory process lent itself well to managing issues of this nature.

b) Beliefs and Values as a Supervisor

As a supervisor, I carry these 3 beliefs and values:

i) that a teacher will always want to do her best for the children in her class if given the right environment and the right level of support. By environment, I mean both the physical and emotional aspect of the environment within a preschool. By support, I refer to the support from the management. If both of these conditions are made available to the teacher, it is my belief that the teacher will deliver her best work.

ii) it is incumbent upon the teacher to act as the “first-port-of-call” for the children in her class. By this, I mean that the children must view the teacher as the first sanctuary when they feel that they are in trouble, when in school. This puts the teacher’s role as that of a counselor, as well as her primary role in teaching.

iii) as a supervisor, I value honesty and character on the part of the teacher. This means that the teacher has to be truthful in situations where conflicts between them and the parents, or their colleagues have arisen. Only then will the real character of the teacher be brought to the fore. As a supervisor, I understand the daily pressures of delivering the duties of a teacher in an early childhood education setting. But the honesty from a teacher must never be compromised.

c) Strengths and Weakness as a Supervisor

Strengths:
I view my clarity in communicating the goals of a project as my strength. As part of management, clear communications to staff members is a very important job requirement for a supervisor. This will allow for common objectives to be relayed to the staff succinctly and as accurately as possible so that everyone in the team is fully synchronized to achieve those common objectives.

Being a supervisor for only 1 year, my level of experience in the supervisory field is relatively low. This, I regard, as my weakness. There are numerous challenges in supervision that I have yet to experience, or significant challenges to overcome in the course of being a supervisor. These challenges could be a parent-centred or an administrative issue that may impact the entire centre. As such, a lengthier period as a supervisor will stand me in good stead.

e) Changes in the Future

A change that I would like to see happen in the future is in providing more proactive support for the teaching staff in my team. Instead of acting on a specific complaint from a parent, I would like to embark on a quarterly review of each teacher that involves in-class observations by me, as their supervisor.

This will enable a proper assessment to be made of the teacher’s challenges in class on a typical day. This action would enable me to detect the presence of an overly aggressive child in a class and determine if a teacher requires assistance in managing that child, therefore pre-empting another case of a parent lodging a formal complaint.


4. Appendix

(A) Journal of Meetings with Teacher J

(B) Observation Record of Teacher J

Appendix (A) : Journal of Meetings with Teacher J

(1) Monday, 22 February ( 9.10am – 9.40am)

Acting on the formal complaint of a parent that his child (T) was being intimidated by another child, M (5.3) in class, I decided to call Teacher J into the office for a discussion on what had actually happened.

I started by letting her know that the purpose of the meeting was to understand the circumstances that may have caused a parent to lodge a formal complaint.

Teacher J seemed apprehensive at first, but I assured her that I was there to assist her with the issue at hand, that is, addressing the parent’s complaint.

I described the nature of the complaint in full to her. She agreed that M (5.3) had been showing behaviours that were aggressive. She felt she had tried her best to manage M (5.3). She described an incident last week when she caught M (5.3) pushing T away from taking hold of a wooden block, thus causing her to cry. Teacher J intervened and asked M (5.3) to apologized to T, which he did. On a typical day, M (5.3) would display his aggressive behaviour at least twice. Teacher J had used various tactics to manage M (5.3) including getting him to sit next to her so that she could keep a close eye. That seemed to work, but after 2 minutes or so, M (5.3) would play up again by moving away to another area of the class, thus disrupting the class lesson when Teacher J had to respond to M (5.3).

I told Teacher J that I would like to observe her class, and with an independent eye, give her my own observations. The idea was to give her a possibly different perspective on M’s (5.3) behaviour and also J’s own class management techniques. From there, we can then discuss what other methods we could implement to provide positive guidance to M (5.3). We agreed that I would observe her class on Wednesday, 25 February, to be followed by a review meeting on Friday, 27 February.

I also mentioned that we would then follow up with T’s parent within the next month to give him an update on our actions to prevent any recurrence that would impact T negatively.

We ended the meeting after we had summarized the action steps. Teacher J appeared relieved that she was getting additional help from me.

(2) Friday, 27 February (8.40am -9.45am)

In the office, I described what I had observed to Teacher J by showing her the lesson observation record that I had filled out.

Teacher J was mindful of the need to listen to what I had to say. She was surprised by one of my observations which showed that she did not give M (5.3) sufficient time to return his worksheet to her and prepare for his next lesson. This had caused M (5.3) to push his worksheet on the floor, in so doing, caused him to irritable for about 10 minutes.

She was happy that overall, her other methods of manage the class in general, and managing M (5.3) in particular was quite effective, based on my observations.

I mentioned to her that we would draw up some short-term goals that we could achieve to help M (5.3) to better manage his emotions. We would also follow up with T’s parent to give him an update of our actions.

Longer term, we will review M’s (5.3) behaviour over the next 3 months, and if the need arose, we will meet with M’s (5.3) parents with the intention of sharing with them our observations of M (5.3) and to recruit their help in managing M’s (5.3) emotions better and developing his social skills.

Teacher J agreed to this action plan. She appeared happy that a plan to work on M (5.3) had been drawn up. When I asked her what she felt about this whole process which started with our meeting on Monday, 22 February, she stated that it was good that the focus was on ways to help make M (5.3) manage his emotions better, and not about apportioning blame as to why T’s parent had lodged a complaint in the first place. We ended our meeting with a warm handshake

LESSON OBSERVATION (Appendix B )
NAME: Teacher J DATE: Wed, 25 February
CLASS: K1 TIME: 10.05am – 10.35am
ACTIVITY: Language Lesson

PROCESSES
OBSERVATION

1. PLANNING
Clear objectives
Content knowledge
Selecting content/materials/media
· Determination of procedures

- Lesson Plan had clear objectives
- You are knowledgeable on the contents you had taught
- I would encourage you to use better props for your story
- Well thought out procedures


2. DEVELOPING THE LESSON
Arousing interest
Stimulating thinking
Encouraging participation
Maintaining pace of lesson
· Lesson closure

- You held the interest of the children in your class well
- You used good questioning techniques
- All the children participated. Although M was distracted a few times
- Good use of pace of your lesson, except at the end
- You should consider giving the children more time to prepare for their transition

3. COMMUNICATING
Explaining and informing
Questioning and responding
Use of voice
Command of language
· Using media and resources

- You explain to the children what you wanted to teach them
- The children responded well to your questions
- Good use of your voice. This is your strength..keep it up.
- You have a good command of the English language
- Please consider using the computer to reinforce your teaching


4. MANAGING
Establishing rapport
Managing behaviours
Managing group/individual work
· Managing time

- Your reached out to the children well, without showing any favourites
- M’s behaviour was disruptive. Consider giving him a role-model in class
- Well coordinated grouping. But give children more time for transition
- Overall, time management was good, except for transitions

5. EVALUATING
Using and giving pupil feedback
Monitoring pupil understanding
Encouraging pupil evaluation
Using and marking written work

- The children felt engaged with you – good job!
- Do ask a few students to write the words on the whiteboard
- Do ask the children if what they had written was correct
- Use the nap time for this

TEACHER’S CHARACTERISTICS

Task orientation -Very Good
Flexibility -Very Good
Enthusiasm -Excellent
Warmth -Good

PROFESSIONAL ATTITUDE/CONDUCT

Overall, you projected to the children a professional image. You are confident and most importantly, you are enthusiastic. Such an attitude will stand you in good stead as you progress from year to year as an early childhood educator.

Supervisor’s Signature: _______ Teacher’s Signature: _______

My ECE Assignments : Education Psychology

"My ECE Assignment" series is meant to demystify ECE and make it a more pleasurable endeavour for those of us who are willing to commit to it :

Module: Education Psychology
Individual Assignment – Essay on:

Discuss the contribution of Behaviourist and Social Constructivist traditions in teaching and learning

Introduction

Both behaviourists and social constructivists have long provided significant contributions to the growth and development of young children, and in understanding how learning in young children occurs.

Behaviourists are proponents of theories emphasizing change that originates in the environment through learning (Charlesworth, 2004). On the other hand, constructivists are believers in the idea that children construct their own knowledge through interaction with the environment, and for social constructivists, the importance of peer and adult interactions in facilitating knowledge construction as well.

A closer examination of these two views on early childhood development will bring additional clarity on how they influence learning, and as a result, how they impact teaching.

Body Content

Theoretical Views and Their Influences on Learning and Teaching

Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner

No discussion on behaviourism is complete without addressing the works of B. F. Skinner. He was a leading behavioural psychologist who stated that learners’ actions are controlled more by the consequences of a behaviour than by the events preceding it. In his most influential paper, “A Brief Survey of Operant Behaviour”, Skinner wrote,

“It has long been known that behaviour is affected by its consequences. We rewardand punish people, for example, so that they will behave in different ways.” (B.F. Skinner Foundation Website, 2009)

Skinner developed the idea of "operant conditioning". Operant conditioning is the rewarding of a behavior or a random act that approaches the desired behavior. Operant conditioning can therefore be used to shape behavior. An example would be that if children hear language, imitate it and are rewarded for making sounds, they will learn to talk.

His theory can thus be applied in teaching young children in numerous ways. One example is that an early childhood educator worried about a very aggressive child in her class can keep a count of each time this aggressive child hurts another child, or when he breaks a toy. She also observes and notes down each incident in which the child does something that is regarded as non-aggressive. The next week, she makes it a point to give attention to the child when he does something positive, while totally ignoring his bad behaviour, unless he is hurting another child in the class, in which case, he will be told to sit separately on a “cool down” chair, to regain his own control. After 3 weeks, she counts the incidents of aggressive behaviour and positive behaviour. She then finds that the positive behaviours have increased, while those of the negative type, have decreased.

This teacher has therefore, used Skinner’s behaviourist theory to mould the behaviour of this aggressive child in her class.


Lev Vygotsky

Russia-born Lev Vygotsky is the leading theorist in social constructivism. According to Vygotsky, cognitive skills and patterns of thinking are not primarily determined by innate factors, but are the consequence of the activities practiced in the social institutions of the culture in which a young child grows up. As a result, the historical background of the society in which a child is brought up and the child's personal history are crucial determinants of the way in which that individual will think.

Vygotsky’s ideas have significantly changed the way educators think about children’s interactions with others. He demonstrated that social and cognitive development work together and build on top of each other.

One essential principle in Vygotsky's theory is the notion of the existence of what he called the "zone of proximal development", or ZPD (Mooney, 2000). Zone of proximal development is the difference between the child's capacity to solve problems on his own, and his capacity to solve them with help, either from peers or from adults. In other words, the actual developmental level refers to all the functions and activities that a child can actually do on his own, independently without the help of anyone else. On the other hand, the zone of proximal development includes all the functions and activities that a child can perform only with the assistance of someone else. The person in this scaffolding process, providing non-intrusive intervention to the child’s construction of knowledge, could be an adult (parent, teacher, language instructor) or another peer who has already mastered that specific activity or function..

Zone of proximal development has many implications for those in the educational field. One of them is the idea that human learning presupposes a specific social nature and is part of a process by which children grow into the intellectual life of those around them. According to Vygotsky, a key feature of learning is that it brings about a variety of internal developmental processes that are able to operate only when the child is in the action of interacting with people in his environment and in cooperation with his peers.

Vygotsky's theory is also an attempt to explain consciousness as the end product of socialization. For example, in the learning of language, the first utterances with peers or adults are for the purpose of communication but once mastered they become internalized and allow "inner speech" (Social Development Theory Website, 2009)

One practical example of how Vygotsky’s theory influenced the field of early childhood education is when a teacher supports the child’s language development by reinforcing the child’s efforts at verbal expression during story-telling. The teacher can extend the experience by asking the child questions and relating the story to the child’s personal experiences. Such a method of teaching will help the child construct his knowledge further than he currently knows or understands.


Conclusion

One can see that the contributions of both the behaviourist and the social constructivist in the field of early childhood education have been substantial. While the behaviourist sets out to mould the learning of young children through shaping their behaviours with rewards and punishment, the social constructivist looks at the construction of knowledge of young children through active social interactions, through the process of scaffolding and in concert with their environment.

In truth, within the context of a typical classroom, the early childhood educator will likely by using both views of childhood development to teach her children. This would stand to reason, given the wide scope of influence these 2 traditions of teaching has on the education of our young children.

References

1. B.F. Skinner Foundation Website [Online Database]. Retrieved 11 March 2009 from
the World Wide Web: http://www.bfskinner.org/brief_survey.html

2. Charlesworth, R. (2004), Understanding Child Development, 6th Edition, p.11. Delmar
Learning, Executive Woods, 5, Maxwell Drive, Clfiton Park, NY 12065-2919

3. Mooney, C. G. (2000), Theories of Childhood, p.82 . Readleaf Press, Division of
Resources of Child Caring, 450 N, Syndicate, Suite 5 St Paul, MN 55104.

4. Social Development Theory Website [Online Database]. Retrieved March 14, 2009
from World Wide Web: http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html

My ECE Assignments : Children's Play

"My ECE Assignment" series is meant to demystify ECE and make it a more pleasurable endeavour for those of us who are willing to commit to it :

Module: Children’s Play
Individual Assignment – Essay on:

Discuss the historical context and perspectives of play.
Explain how play can be injected into daily activities.
Write on 3 theories supporting play.


(A) History and Perspectives of Play

The notion of play conjures up different images for different people. For me as a fledgling early childhood educator, the first thing that comes to mind when play is mentioned is the image of children engaging in outdoor activities where they are running, laughing, shouting and sharing. The second image would be children involved in some form of indoor play comprising a board game of sorts, or simply playing with toys, in all shapes and sizes.

History, however, suggests a different take on the notion of play. As early as the times of the great Greek empire, it is interesting to note that play and education were viewed then as one and the same thing. The Greek words for play and education were the same (Hughes, 1999). Play was already viewed as compatible with education during those early ages. Play was for the young, and when they moved into adulthood, they were expected to engage in competitions such as the Olympic games, in order to make a living.

In more recent times, what children did when they played was roam in packs, large or small, more or less unsupervised, and engaged in freewheeling imaginative play. They were princes and princesses, or more likely, action heroes. Basically, children spent most of their time doing what looked like nothing much at all. This is the play that I, and most of us, I would hazard to guess, are likely to relate to. We improvised play, whether it was in the outdoor or whether it was on a street corner or someone else's backyard. We also improvised our own play; we regulated that play and we made up our own rules. In my mind, these times would remain as the “golden period of play” for me.

But over the last 2 decades, play appeared to have changed radically. Instead of spending their time in make-believe play, children were supplied with ever more specific toys for play, and with predetermined scripts as well. Essentially, instead of playing pirates with a tree branch, children started to play Star Wars with a toy light saber. This increasingly commercialization of children's play had inadvertently begun to shrink the size of the children's imaginative space.

This perspective on play has brought about much debate between parents. More and more parents expect their young children to be learning specific academic skills and at an even younger age. If adults are seeking more and more of these academic outcomes, there is no room left for child-centered learning-play (Wardle, 1996). Exacerbating this situation is that play is being eliminated more and more from the formal education of young children.

From my perspective, advocating for play in early childhood has therefore become even more urgent now than ever before. As early childhood educators, the need to expose our young charges to more play should become one of our central aims.

(B) 3 Theories Supporting Play

Lev Vygotsky

One of the world’s leading developmental psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, argued that in the preschool years, play is the leading source of childhood development. He theorized that through play, children learn and practice many basic social skills (Mooney, 2000). They develop a sense of self, and they learn to interact with other children. Through play, they also learn how to make friends and how to role-play.

At the basic level of cognitive development, Vygotsky argued that make-believe play is crucial to helping a child in abstract thinking (Hughes, 1999). According to him, very young children are incapable of abstract thought because for them, meaning and objects are one and the same thing. This means that they cannot think about a horse without seeing a real horse. But when they begin to engage in make-believe play and use a stick, for example, to represent a horse, they begin to separate meaning from the object. As a result, children soon become able to think about meanings independently of the objects they represent.

On a second level, Vygotsky showed that play can provide a rich context for socially assisted learning. His concepts of zone of proximal development (ZPD) and scaffolding showed amply the power of play in helping children grasp and extend their knowledge and skills to a higher level.

Thirdly, Vygotsky viewed play as a self-help tool that promotes learning and understanding. Children engaged in play can create their own scaffolding and stretch themselves to such areas as self-control, cooperation with others and literacy, using private speech to direct, control and self-regulate. Play can therefore become a magnifying glass revealing potential new abilities before these new abilities became actualized in the young child.


Mildred Parten

The study of how play develops in children was carried out extensively by Mildred Parten in the late 1920s. She closely observed children between the ages of 2 and 5 years and categorised their play into six different types (Dockett, Fleer, 2002). Parten collected data by observing and sampling the children's behaviour. She observed the children for 1 minute periods, which were varied systematically. Her 6 types of play are:

1. Unoccupied play: the child is relatively stationary and appears to be performing random movements with no apparent purpose. This is a relatively infrequent style of play.

2. Solitary play: the child is completely engrossed in playing and does not seem to notice other children. This play is most often seen in children between 2 and 3 years-old.

3. Onlooker play: the child takes an interest in other children's play but does not join in. The child may ask questions or just talk to other children, but the main activity is simply to watch.

4. Parallel play: the child mimics other children's play but does not actively engage and play with them.

5. Associative play: the children are now more interested in each other than the toys they are using. This is the first category that involves strong social interaction between the children while they play.

6. Cooperative play: The playing has some goal and children often adopt roles and act as a group. Some organisation may enter the children's play.

What is interesting to note about these 6 types of play is that the first four categories of play do not involve much interaction with others, while the last two do. While children shift between the types of play, what Parten showed was that as they grow up, children participated less in the first four types and more in the last two, that is, those which involved greater interaction.

Parten therefore emphasized the important idea that learning to play is learning how to relate to others.

Sara Smilansky

Sara Smilanksy was an Israeli researcher who studied children at play in Israel and the United States. She developed the 4 stages of play, which focused on the intellectual development of the child. Her 4 stages of play are:

1. Functional Play - Here, the children’s movements are used to provide exercise. This is characterized in infants and toddlers.

2. Constructive Play - The child works towards a goal – an example is when a child is completing a puzzle or a drawing. This is characterized by children up to 3.5 years.

3. Sociodramatic Play – The child assumes roles and uses language for the purpose of pretending. This is characterized by children between 4 and 6.5 years.

4. Games with rules – This is the highest form cognitive play for children. This is characterized by children who are 7 years and above.

She defined dramatic play as taking place when a child pretends to be someone else and sociodramatic play as those times when two or more children cooperate in such role–playing. In her research, the results point to dramatic and sociodramatic play as a strong medium for the development of cognitive and socioemotional skills. It led her to conclude that sociodramatic play activates resources that stimulate emotional, social, and intellectual growth in the child, which in turn affects the child’s success in school.

She argued that children who play well in creative social situations show significant gains in many cognitive and emotional-social areas, including language development, intellectual competence, curiosity, innovation and imagination and that the good players tend to have a longer attention span and greater concentration ability (IPPA Website, 2009).

(C) Explain how play can be injected into daily activities.

Play can be injected into daily activities in a preschool setting by using popular play games and seizing opportunities for the children to engage in make-believe plays. Some of these games for children are:

1. Simple Simon Says : This children’s favourite, Simple Simon Says, is a game that requires children to control and inhibit themselves. Children have to think and require them to not do something, which helps them to build self-regulation and confidence.

2. Imaginative Plays: Imaginative plays where your child plans scenarios and enacts those scenarios for a fair amount of time help children build cognitive and social skills. Realistic props are good for very young children, but it may just as good to encourage the children to use symbolic props that they create and make through their imaginations. For example, a stick can be used as a sword.

3. Play activities that require planning: Games with directions, patterns for construction, recipes for cooking, for several examples that preschool teachers can introduce into their classrooms to support Parten’s 6 stages of play.

4. Joint storybook reading: Reading storybooks with preschoolers not only fosters language development, but engenders good social skills within children because children's stories are filled with characters who model effective social skills and strategies.

5. Encouraging children to talk to themselves: Like adults, children spontaneously speak to themselves to guide and manage their own behavior. Children often use self-guiding comments recently picked up from their interactions with adults, indicating that they are beginning to apply those strategies to themselves. Encouraging children to be verbally active fosters concentration and enables problem-solving skills.

These would be 5 ways that preschool teachers can naturally, and without much effort, inject play into their classrooms.

References
1. Dockett, S & Fleer, M. (2002), Play and pedagogy in early childhood : Bending the
rules. Harcourt, Australia.

2. Hughes, F.P. (1999), Children, Play and Development, 3rd Edition, p.3. London, Allyn
and Bacon.

3. IPPA Website [Online Database]. Retrieved March, 10, 2009 from the World Wide
Web: http://www.ippa.ie/play.htm

4. Mooney, C. G. (2000), Theories of Childhood, p.93 . Readleaf Press, Division of
Resources of Child Caring, 450 N, Syndicate, Suite 5 St Paul, MN 55104.

5. Wardle, F. (1987). Getting back to the basics of children’s play. Childcare Information Exchange, Sept 27-30

My ECE Assignments : Preschool Admin and Management

"My ECE Assignment" series is meant to demystify ECE and make it a more pleasurable endeavour for those of us who are willing to commit to it :

Module: Preschool Administration and Management
Individual Assignment:
Staff Recruitment, Selection and Induction Plan

(A) Staff Recruitment and Selection Plan

Table of Content

1. Determine Actual Staff Requirement and Explain Shortfall
2. Recruitment : Tactical Plan and Timelines
a) Internal Broadcast to Staff
b) Advertisement
3. Interview and Selection Criteria
a) Academic Qualifications
b) Experience and Skill
4. Important Questions to Pose to Interviewees
5. Teaching Interview
6. Final Selection

(B) Staff Induction /Orientation Plan

1. Staff Orientation Objectives
2. 2-Day Orientation Program

(C) Job Description

1. Job Title
2. Responsible To
3. Duties and Responsibilities
4. Employment Contract and Terms

(A) Staff Recruitment and Selection Plan

1. Determine Actual Staff Requirement and Explain Shortfall
The need to determine the actual staff requirement must first be ascertained. What has caused this staff shortfall? Perhaps the shortfall is precipitated by a significant increase in student enrolment which therefore triggered the need for an additional teaching staff. The departure of an existing teacher may also be the reason for this staff shortfall.

The Supervisor should then size up this shortfall. Does the centre require 1 or 2 teaching staff? The answer to this will then determine the phrasing of the staff requirement when speaking to other staff members or when planning for an advertisement in the newspaper.

2. Recruitment : Tactical Plan and Timelines

The first part of the recruitment tactical plan is to broadcast internally to all staff members during the staff meeting of the need for a new teaching staff to be recruited. This move is prudent, not just because it saves money for the centre but new staff recruited through recommendations by existing staff has shown to be both competent and has longevity. In other words, they stay with the centre longer because they have people they already know within the centre.

The timeline for this broadcast to take effect is 3 working days.

After 3 days, if the internal broadcast is met with no responses, the next step of the recruitment plan is to advertise in the local newspaper (The Straits Times), which has a classified-section catering to teaching positions. These advertisements should be planned for Fridays and Saturdays for maximum impact and return, given that most teachers use these 2 days to search for alternative job postings.

The advertisement may be worded as follows:
“ Premier childcare centre in Serangoon seeks caring and dedicated English teacher. Must have min CPT but DPT preferred. Competitive salary package will be offered to the right candidate. Call 96677531 or email : ccare@serangoon.com.sg”

This advertisement will cost about $60 per run, but if required, it can be placed in a more attractive box-format for about $150 per run.

The timeline for this advertisement should be run over 2 weeks, with the Supervisor being available for interviews with suitable candidates on the days of the advertisement being placed, as well as the following Monday and Tuesdays.

3. Interview and Selection Criteria

The interviews will be held at the centre office. If an interviewee request for the venue to be outside of the centre due to confidentiality reasons, this request can be accommodated by holding the meeting somewhere in the neighbourhood mall, preferably inside a quiet coffee or beverage establishment.

The selection criteria will be based on the 2 dimensions of :
a) Must-haves :
i) Academic qualifications of either the CPT level or the DPT level.
ii) Experience in early childhood education of at least 2 years.

b) Skills and Attributes:
i) Additional years of service in the early childhood field, other than the minimum 2 years of experience.
ii) Projects undertaken by the interviewee over and above her regular duties.
iii) Initiatives shown by interviewee in previous employment : example, taking on additional assignments which are considered difficult by others.
iv) Commendation from previous employers.
v) Commendation from parents.


4. Important Questions to Pose to Interviewees

The following questions can be posed to the interviewees to determine fit and suitability of the interviewees for the role and for the centre, with the intent of recruiting the staff for the long term :

Q : What is your own personal philosophy on teaching, especially to preschool children?

Q : Many interviewees say that “passion for children” is the ingredient for a successful and long career in early childhood education. Do you agree and do you think there are other key ingredients missing to be successful?

Q : What was the most difficult moment or event that you have faced with children in your class, and how did you deal with it?

Q : What makes you the happiest at the end of a normal day in a centre?

Q : How did you manage a very difficult parent? Describe that situation to me.

Q : What aspects of teaching do you like the most, and the least?

Q : Are there certain duties of a preschool teacher assigned to you in your previous jobs that you dislike and that we should know about, before we decide to hire you?

Q. Where do you see yourself in 3 years time or 5 years time, career wise?


5. Teaching Interview

A teaching interview may be considered if the interviewer feels that it would add to the understanding of the candidate’s fit and suitability for the role.

The candidate is to be told of the rationale behind the teaching interview and to seek her agreement to this interview approach.

The candidate will be asked to deliver a lesson to an assigned class (preferably the class she will be teaching, if her application is successful) for about an hour. The Supervisor will observe her during this period to see how she delivers her lesson and how the children responded to her.


6. Final Selection

The final selection of the best candidate for the required staff role in our centre will depend on your views on these 5 questions, assuming that the minimum qualifications and experience are met :

i) Does the candidate have a bright and happy personality that children will appreciate?

ii) Will she be able to deal with parents effectively?

iii) Is she a team player and will help, without being asked to do so?

iv) Does her personal philosophy matches in some way with our centre’s own teaching philosophy?

v) Will we be able to cater to her ambitions in 3 to 5 years time?

If the views above are positive and that there are no showstoppers, that is, there is nothing about that candidate that makes you feel slightly uncomfortable, then a referral by the candidate should be followed up, for additional inputs as a final check on the candidate.


(B) Staff Induction /Orientation Plan

1. Staff Orientation Objectives:

The objectives of our Staff Orientation Program will be 3-fold :

Firstly, we aim to provide the best foundation possible for the new staff to acclimatize to her new environment in our centre. This will include familiarizing her to all the current staff members, the layout of the centre, and the processes and procedures that a teacher would go through in a typical day. This will enable the new staff to understand what is different, compared to her previous employers or roles, and thus, allowing for changes on her part.

Secondly, the new staff will be advised by the Supervisor of the organizational chart of the staff in the centre, the important dates upcoming in the next 6 months including PTCs, field trips or concert, the Employee Appraisal system in the centre and the key procedures that must be followed, such as the Lesson Plan submission dates. She will also be introduced to her mentor-teacher, who will be an existing teacher and whose role is to look after the new teacher’s needs over the next 4 weeks.

Thirdly and perhaps the most important of all, the new teacher will be introduced formally to her class students. She will be observing the children in her class whilst the stand-in teacher continues with her lessons for the next 2 days. This will give her time to have an initial assessment of the lessons done to-date and thus, allow her to continue where the stand-in teacher has left off.

By the end of this 2-day Orientation Program, the new teacher will have a good understanding of what is expected of her in her new role or in her new centre. She will know who to approach whenever she needs assistance, and she will be ready to take on her new class with confidence and deliver her best to her students.


New Staff Orientation : 2-Day Program:

Day 1:
Supervisor to introduce to all the staff, the physical environment and amenities of centre.
Proceed to office:
Collect staff manual (supervisor to provide an overview of the manual)
Collect job description (explain in detail)
Collect calendar of events
Supervisor to introduce to class students and the stand-in teacher.
New teacher to observe stand-in teacher and her class students, until end of the day.
New teacher to collect lesson plan, curriculum plans/portfolios/teaching materials/time table from stand-in teacher. Stand-in teacher to also share information on the children/parents with new teacher.
Supervisor to announce the appointment of the new teacher to all parents in the class students communications book, and the centre’s newsletter

Day 2:
Supervisor assigns and introduces the mentor teacher, who may be teaching the same grade level (preferred).
New teacher continues to observe the class, as the stand-in teacher delivers her lessons, and understands fully the requirements during various transition times including nap time, shower time and meal times.
Supervisor or stand-in teacher to introduce the new teacher to parents who arrive to deliver or to fetch their children home.
Stand-in teacher to do a wrap-up with the new teacher in the presence of the Supervisor and/or the mentor-teacher to ensure that the hand-over process and the orientation program elements as well as the objective are met.


(C) Job Description

1. Job Title :
English Class Teacher

2. Responsible To :
Centre Supervisor

3. Duties and Responsibilities :

3.1 Hygiene and Cleanliness
Health checks for fever, rashes and other signs of infectious diseases such as HFMD or chicken pox are required daily. This is will be scheduled by the Supervisor per the Teacher Timetable.

Cleanliness of the classroom is the responsibility of the class teacher, except for the floor and the shelves which will be cleaned by the centre’s cleaner daily.

Toileting and showering needs for the children are part of the daily duties of the teacher.

3.2 Attendance of Children
Attendance of the children are required to be noted down on the Children Attendance Sheet daily. This is an action needed, to meet MCYS requirements.

3.3 Safety
The safety of the children in the center is of paramount importance, and is the responsibility of the teacher for her class children.

3.4 Checking of Communications Book
Daily checking of the Communications Book is required to ensure that all written notes to and from parents are addressed with speed and clarity.

3.5 Learning Centres/Corners
All Learning Centres/Corners are assigned by the Supervisor to respective teachers for their upkeep and general cleanliness, apart from the floor areas which are cleaned by the centre cleaner.

3.6 Lesson Plans and Observations
Lesson Plans for the week are required to be submitted to the Supervisor by every Friday, for the following week. They will be assessed and commented by the Supervisor. Daily Reflections are required on the Lesson Plan Forms and also submitted to the Supervisor weekly for review.

3.7 Monthly Themes
Monthly Themes are to be reflected on the Theme Boards of each class to reinforce the learnings for the children. This monthly setup of the theme board is the responsibility of the class teacher including any specific assignments by the Supervisor.

3.9 Field Trips
Field Trips are organized every 6-8 weeks periods. The Supervisor will lead the organizing of the Field Trips and will be assisted by all teachers. The Supervisor may assigned some of the responsibilities to organize the Field to a teacher or several teachers, as required or as part of the teacher’s own development.

3.10 Portfolios
Portfolios are monthly compilations of the children’s work samples and photos to show development of a child’s milestones. This Portfolio will be given out to the parents monthly.

3.11 PTC
PTCs are carried out twice in year, usually during the months of May and November. Teachers are required to prepare for this important session with the children’s parents. The schedule for the PTC will be assigned by the Supervisor.

3.12 Concert
The annual Concert is organized by the teachers, with the centre Supervisor providing the leadership. Teachers are required to engaged the children fully and creatively during the Concert, and to wholeheartedly participate in it, as dictated by the schedule of the Concert.

3.13 Staff Training
Staff training is a crucial part of staff development and growth in our centre. The teacher will be required to participate in it fully and with dedication, when these trainings involved her.

3.14 Teamwork
Teamwork is expected of every teacher in the centre. Teachers are expected to display initiative to help other teachers, without being asked to do so. This is an important component of the culture of our centre.

3.15 Parent-Teacher Rapport
Teachers are required to establish a cordial and warm relationship with parents of the children in their class, throughout the school year. The Supervisor is always available for the initial introduction to parents, if required.

3.16 Teachers as Role Models
Teachers are required to be role-models in the centre. This is important to ensure that children do not observe behaviours by teachers that are less than exemplary.

4. Employment Contract and Terms:

Employment at the Centre is based on the terms as set out in the Letter-of-Offer. Amongst other terms, salary review will be done once a year for all staff in December. The performance of the teacher will be assessed annually by the Supervisor, and will form the basis for any increments in the salary of the teacher in the following year.

Termination of service will be by formal notice of a letter or email addressed to the Supervisor, and it will require 30-days of the notice period to be served by the teacher. Immediate termination of your service by the centre will be initiated when a teacher falls below the expectations of the standards required in the centre, after a prior warning note is issued. In such a case, the termination will take effect within 24 hours and the teacher will be paid till that day.

My ECE Assignments : Tracking my ECE Course Grades..

In class this week, I was asked by a lecturer to share my grade for one of the ECE course modules. Well, I couldn't remember it. But since it is of interest, and can provide a small guidepost for the kinds of grades one can obtain for similar assignment submissions (see "My ECE Assignments" series in earlier postings), here's the half-time scores:

ECE Course: Specialist Diploma in Preschool Education (SDPE)

Results : DPT modules

1. Philosophy of ECE, History and Tenets : B

2. Human Growth and Development : B+
3. Working with Parents and Community Agencies : A
4. Special Needs : B+
5. Professional Development in EC Setting : B
6. Observations, Planning, Implementation, Assessment : A
7. Practicum #1 : B+
8. Understanding and Presenting the Physical Environment : C+
9. Safety, Health and Nutrition : A
10. Positive Guidance Practices and Classroom Mgmt : A

Results : DPL Modules
1. Introduction to Teacher as Researcher : A+
2. Action Research : A+
3. Preschool Admin and Management : A

(ps..no self-promotion here, just sharing. Hopefully, like me, you have dodged a couple of bullets along this ECE road you have taken, as this "Matrix" photo depicts..)

Note: Refer to next posting below in Mar 2010 to see the rest of my grades:

http://childrenareourfutureteachthemwell.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-ece-assignments-tracking-my-ece.html

My ECE Assignments : Music for Young Children

"My ECE Assignment" series is meant to demystify ECE and make it a more pleasurable endeavour for those of us who are willing to commit to it :

Individual Assignment : Reflective Papers and Integrated Music Lesson Plan

Reflective Paper (Part II a)
What is your philosophy as a preschool teacher? How does your philosophy influence the way you teach music and movement to young children?

My philosophy as a preschool teacher is that I see myself as a “mind-expander” for the children. This means that I have the capacity to help the children see and experience all the beauty and the wonder that the world can bring to them, through their minds.

Children are curious and inquisitive by nature. By fanning this natural curiosity of theirs, I can be their vehicle to grow their four key developmental domains of the physical, the intellectual, the emotional and their social domain.

I therefore see music and movement as a very important method for me to reach out to the children. Teaching them music, especially for the musically-inclined, provides a new pathway for every teacher to gain access to the mind of that child. They can also be taught linguistic and numerical skills through music and movement, whenever lesson plans are integrated to include language and mathematical concepts.

Music and movement is therefore a crucial teaching tool for a preschool teacher like me to reach out to the children who are musically-inclined, or otherwise. I can enhance my lesson plans by integrating music and movement into other domains like language, thus increasing the effectiveness of my lessons to the children.


Reflective Paper (Part II b)
Discuss the challenges that preschool teachers will face integrating music and movement across the curriculum. Provide recommendations on how these challenges can be overcome.

The challenges that preschool teachers will face integrating music and movement across the curriculum are many fold. I would list the following challenges as the key ones, and offer the following recommendations to overcome each of them:

1. The preschool teacher is shy to perform music and movement with the children, for fear of being ridiculed by the children or their fellow colleagues.

I believe that this is the Number 1 inhibitor to teachers using more music and movement in their daily lessons. I am keenly aware of this because I felt the shyness within me during my own lessons in class, when they were conducted by my lecturer. This fear of being ridiculed in front of children (or even adults) cannot be over-emphasized in its importance in deterring preschool teachers from using more music and movement in their lessons.

But I now learnt that the best way to overcome this shyness is to literally and as stated in the ever-present advertisement of Nike, “Just Do It”. Some preparation before the lesson on music will also help greatly. If there are fellow teachers who can join you in performing your dance and movements, and critiquing them as well, then, all the better.

2. The preschool teacher is untrained in music and feels inadequate to teach music to the children.

Feeling inadequate because one is not trained in a specific knowledge area is very natural, when one is asked to share that knowledge. It therefore stands to reason that some formal training in music and movement will help significantly in improving the confidence of a preschool teacher in delivering it to the children. In fact, some basic understanding on music will go a long way towards upping that confidence in every preschool teacher.

3. The preschool teacher is not supported with the right musical equipment by their centre.

This is a perennial problem. But it is a real issue, nonetheless. Preschools have to be prudent in their spending and musical equipments are by no means inexpensive. However, if the benefits of teaching music and movement are well understood by the management of the preschool, funding will be readily made available, especially if they understand that learning music is also learning other domains like numeracy and language at the same time.

4. The preschool teacher does not have the time to find (and learn) the songs that would interest the children, due to her workload in class.

The old adage that “Time is what you make of it”, rings true in this case. Preschool teachers have to embrace music and movement as an effective tool in growing a child. Once this is fully understood and internalized within the psyche of the teacher, I am sure that the time spent on finding new songs to reach out to the children of her class, will manifest itself.

5. Unfamiliarity with the songs will also hamper the preschool teacher from using them for her children.

This challenge is true with almost all new endeavours in life. But the unfamiliarity can be overcome if there is a will to learn new things, on the part of the preschool teacher. Who would have thought that I would be performing hip-hop at this stage in my life in front of other adults, as unfamiliar with hip-hop as I was, at the beginning of my own lessons last month? This is an excellent example of having the will and determination to learn something new, and in doing so, things become familiar.


6. The preschool teacher is fearful of singing out of tune in front of her children.

Singing comes naturally to children of preschool age. They appear to not worry about whether they sang in tune or off key. Such an attitude by children should also be adopted by preschool teachers. Children appreciate the enthusiasm shown by teachers when the latter are singing, more so than care for the tune itself. This in itself, is a lesson for all preschool teachers.

7. The preschool teacher thinks the parents of the children prefer to have more of their children’s time spent doing worksheets, rather than in listening to or singing songs.

Within the context of Singapore, this perception may well be true. But I believe that it is borne out of ignorance on the part of the parents. So if teachers can reach out to parents by showing them how their children have learnt numeracy, for example, better when combined with music and movement, I am of the opinion that the parents’ views will change, for the better. This challenge is indeed a real opportunity for teachers to increase their own interaction with parents themselves, which therefore becomes a side benefit for the teacher.

8. The curriculum of the preschool itself may have a much stronger emphasis of all areas of teaching other than music and movement, therefore giving the teacher the impression that music and movement is of lesser importance to the management of the centre.

This situation may well be true in some preschools. However, in almost all forward-looking preschools, the emphasis on music and movement is always discernible, and they are proud to say so to the parents of the children in the class. The management of the preschools who are not inclined towards music and movement can therefore be swayed to make changes, if teachers in those schools continue to influence the thinking of management by showing them positive results. Slowly but surely, the views of management will change, for the better.

9. The preschool teacher does not fully understand the enormous developmental benefits that a child can get by being exposed to songs and movements in class.

This challenge can be easily overcome if preschool teachers are willing to entertain new ideas and keep their minds open. Attending music lessons that are targeted at children of preschool age may be a worthwhile venture for some of these doubtful preschool teachers.

10. The preschool teacher feels that music and movement should be delivered to the children through enrichment programs offered by other service-providers external to the centre services.

If this situation is present within a preschool, I feel that it is incumbent upon the management of that preschool to help their teachers understand the real benefit of providing these music and movement lessons in-house, as opposed to farming it out to other service-providers. This is a straightforward matter of educating the teachers themselves, and the management should take the initiative to do so.



Integrated Music Lesson Plan (Part 11 c)

(A) Theme : Animals and the Railway
(B) Subject Areas : 1. Music and Movement 2. Art and Craft
(C) Age Group : N2 – K1 (4 - 5 years old)
(D) Number of Children : 12
(E) Duration : 40 minutes
(F) Prior Knowledge : Children know various animals and the MRT.

(G) Objectives :
1. To move rhythmically to the song and to the words of the rhyme, “Piggy on the Railway” ( to the tune of “Eensy Weensy Spider”).
2. To draw and paint the images of the rhyme/story.

(H) Materials :

(i) Words of the rhyme
(ii) Art paper
(iii) Water colour palettes
(iv) Brushes
(v) Aprons


(I) Procedure:
(i) Tune-in Activity:
1. Teacher will invite the children to sit in a semi-circle.
2. Teacher to ask the children to describe their favourite animal:
- what is it?
- why do they like it?
- what colour is this favourite animal?
3. Teacher will write on the whiteboard the animals and the colours of the animals, as said by the children.

(ii) Main Activity (include 3 questions you would ask children):
1. Teacher will begin by saying out loud the rhyme and to ask the children to listen carefully.
2. Teacher to ask the children to follow the movements of the teacher, as the teacher sings the song for the 2nd time.
3. Teacher will ask the children, “Would you all like to do this song again?”. The teacher to then repeat step (2).
4. Children to now do the rhyme and movements by themselves.
5. Teacher to then form 2 groups of 6 children, with one group performing the rhyme and movements, as the other group watches. This will be repeated by switching the role for each group.
6. Teacher to ask the children : “Are you enjoying yourselves, children?”
7. With an emphatic “yes” from the children, the teacher will then ask the children to do the rhyme and movements, one last time. Children to sit down after this, and have a drink from their water-bottles.
8. Teacher to distribute the art paper to each child, with their water colour palettes and brushes.
9. Teacher to ask the children : “Do you remember the rhyme and the story in it?”
10. Teacher to then ask the children to draw and paint whatever images they can think of that they like about the rhyme, or whatever pictures that come to their mind when they think of the rhyme.
11. Teacher to allocate 30minutes for this painting activity.
12. Teacher to announce that there are 5 minutes left before asking the children to finish their work samples.

(iii) Closure:
1. Teacher to ask the children which part of the singing of the rhyme thay enjoyed the most and why.
2. The children will each be asked by the teacher to describe what they have painted, while the rest of the class listens.

(I) Followup:
To extend this Lesson Plan into the Language domain, the teacher will ask the children in the class to remember, speak and then write the 4 key words of the rhyme :
1. Stones
2. Bones
3. Fair
4. Care
This will be done with the guidance of the teacher.


Appendix
(A) Words of the Rhyme (sung to the tune of “Eensy Weensy Spider”):

Piggy on the railway
Picking up stones
Down came an engine driver
Broke his bones
“Aah”, said the Piggy,
“That’s not fair”
“Oh”, said the engine driver
“I don’t care”