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

Lost in Translation..

This is a true story from the Japanese Embassy in US..

A few days ago, Prime Minister Mori was given some Basic English conversation training before he visits Washington and meets president Barack Obama...

The instructor told Mori Prime Minister, when you shake hand with President Obama, please say 'how r u'.

Then Mr. Obama should say, 'I am fine, and you?'

Now, you should say 'me too'. Afterwards we, translators, will do the work for you.'

It looks quite simple, but the truth is...

When Mori met Obama , he mistakenly said 'who r u?' (Instead of 'How r u?'.)

Mr. Obama was a bit shocked but still managed to react with humor: 'Well, I'm Michelle's husband, ha-ha...'

Then Mori replied 'me too, ha-ha.. .'.

Then there was a long silence in the meeting room.

A Father's Day message..

With Father's Day around the corner, this song from the movie "The Bucket List" makes for a poignant message to be delivered to all fathers out there ..



Have you watched the movie?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt58Z_XuGe4

"Say" (lyrics)
Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put 'em in quotations
Say what you need to say [x8]

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you'd be better off instead,
If you could only . . .
Say what you need to say [x8]

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You'd better know that in the end
Its better to say too much
Then never say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open

Say what you need to say [x24]

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

Joy of Painting..

I remembered my arts lecturer telling us (preschool teacher trainees) to refrain from drawing and painting in front of the children in our class, because we are "limiting the child's ability to visualize what they can paint or draw for themselves".

I wonder what her comment would be after seeing the joy and beauty of free-spirited painting in this video clip. Wouldn't seeing something like this spur the interest of the children in our classes in painting or drawing to even greater heights? You decide.

(thanks to Jane from DPT class 08/09 for bringing this video to us)

10 Signs of a Great Preschool..

10 Signs of a Great Preschool

If your child is between the ages of 3 and 6 and attends a child care center, preschool, or kindergarten program, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) suggests you look for these 10 signs to make sure your child is in a good classroom.

1) Children spend most of their playing and working with materials or other children. They do not wander aimlessly, and they are not expected to sit quietly for long periods of time.

2) Children have access to various activities throughout the day. Look for assorted building blocks and other construction materials, props for pretend play, picture books, paints and other art materials, and table toys such as matching games, pegboards, and puzzles.

3) Children should not all be doing the same thing at the same time. Teachers work with individual children, small groups, and the whole group at different times during the day. They do not spend all their time with the whole group.

4) The classroom is decorated with children’s original artwork, their own writing with invented spelling, and stories dictated by children to teachers.

5) Children learn numbers and the alphabet in the context of their everyday experiences. The natural world of plants and animals and meaningful activities like cooking, taking attendance, or serving snack provide the basis for learning activities.

6) Children work on projects and have long periods of time (at least one hour) to play and explore. Worksheets are used little if at all.

7) Children have an opportunity to play outside every day. Outdoor play is never sacrificed for more instructional time.

8) Teachers read books to children individually or in small groups throughout the day, not just at group story time.

9) Curriculum is adapted for those who are ahead as well as those who need additional help. Teachers recognize that children’s different background and experiences mean that they do not learn the same things at the same time in the same way.

10) Children and their parents look forward to school. Parents feel secure about sending their child to the program. Children are happy to attend; they do not cry regularly or complain of feeling sick.

Also ask if the program is accredited by NAEYC. NAEYC accredited programs complete a rigorous self-study and external review to prove that they meet standards of excellence in early childhood education.

Want more information?

Send a self-addressed, stamped, business size envelope to:NAEYCBox 5171509 16th Street, N.W.Washington, DC 20036You’ll receive a complimentary brochure entitled "A Good Preschool for Your Child."

http://www.naeyc.org/resources/eyly/1996/01.htm

New "American Idol"?

Are we looking at the new "American Idol" for 2009?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIYaRRVRu5A&feature=related