What is Your Philosophy of Early Childhood Education
Culminating Paper and Personal Philosophy of Early Childhood Education
This final assignment will allow you to bring together the major HISTORICAL and PHILOSOPHICAL themes and IDEAs from the course in a discussion of the CHILD, FAMILY, COMMUNITY, and ENVIRONMENT in early years learning, and foundations for learning (belonging, well-being, engagement, and expression). Four foundations: http://www(dot)edu(dot)gov(dot)on(dot)ca/childcare/howlearninghappens.pdf
You will draw from the theoretical understandings that resonate with you and your current practice as well as those that you will embrace in your future practice in a PERSONAL philosophy of early childhood education. The assignment makes many connections to the How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years document. Your paper and personal philosophy will be 10-‐‐12 pages and double spaced in length, not including references. Use APA style referencing.
Below is a detailed description of points to include in your culminating paper and personal philosophy. While your paper should conclude with your philosophy statement, please bring together the following in a way that makes sense to you and flows well (i.e., please do not write your philosophy as a list of answers to the questions).
Please follow the below instructions and format:
1. Introduction
Briefly introduce yourself and detail what motivated you to enter the field of early childhood studies. Was there a particular teacher or role model in your life? An experience working with a child or children? —1 page in length.
2.Supporting Early Learning
For EACH of the following participants, discuss their role in early years learning. In your discussion, bring in the ideas and themes explored in the course (e.g., play, experience, children’s rights, ecology, etc.). Also, in your discussion make connections to the theorists and the readings from the course. Please make connection to the course materials that I uploaded.
The Child
The Educator
The Family
The Community
The Environment
3. Foundations for Learning
For the foundations of learning listed below, discuss how the theories and practices explored in the course can guide and inform early childhood educator’s support of children’s realization of these foundational goals:
Belonging
Well-‐‐Being
Engagement
Expression
There is more specific explanations about Four foundations: http://www(dot)edu(dot)gov(dot)on(dot)ca/childcare/howlearninghappens.pdf
4.Concluding philosophy statement
Your philosophy statement will express your personal philosophy of early childhood education and be reflective of the ideas, themes, and approaches discussed above. —2 pages in length.
Notes: The paper requires to make connection to course materials, so when you use the references please use any 5 materials that I uploaded.(in APA style, in text citation and so on..)And make connections about how these inspire me as an educator to develop personal philosophy. No needs for additional resources since this paper is more like Personal Philosophy of Early Childhood Education. But it still can be inspired by other theorists that I provided. Thank you so much! Have a good day:)
Early Childhood Education`
Introduction
I have always aspired to join the field of early childhood mainly because my mother was a teacher and she taught children for more than twenty-five years. Besides, her sister is a children librarian. Therefore, making me a product of the environment in which I grew up. Growing up, I was surrounded by sounds of crayons, schoolyard and class equipment while at home. However, as a kid, I had envisioned myself working in the gaming animation industry, but later I figured that I did not like sitting behind a computer, and this is when I chose to pursue early childhood education. Whenever people hear of early childhood, they envision a soft and outgoing individual of age 40 and above. However, the industry is saturated by diversity. That said, the industry is still hugely dominated by the female.
Nevertheless, more men are taking up the challenge and are working towards challenging these conventional roles and joining the field to bring new insights into the teaching word. The few male teachers in the industry have brought alternative ways to impart and teach literacy and language especially for the children who absorb and learn well during motor activities. Having grown with a mother who was an ECD teacher, she became my main motivation and role model. The smiles she received from those innocent children were fulfilling. Besides, the ability to change an individual’s intellectual status and imparting them with knowledge is my greatest motivation and encouragement. The excitement in the children when they achieve something is also satisfying. Generally, anyone who chooses this path; they must have some empathy chip on their overdrive. You have to feel what the child feels when they fail and succeed at the same time.
Supporting Early Learning
The Child
There is a famous piece of wisdom from Plato that relates to playing. He states that one can discover a lot about a person in one hour they play than one year of having conversations. This statement was quoted by Alaska’s governor Sarah Palim back in 2009. The philosopher ideas on the play were deemed as his ideas for his time since his writings do not offer any indication that he might have allowed or entertained such a notion (Astuti & Sukartiningsih, 2018). His ideas on play emanate from his novel which states that play can easily influence how children develop as adults. According to Plato, he viewed play as important and that it plays a crucial role in a child’s development. In Greece, most of the aspects of play seemed intrinsic to a huge range of cultural activities (Sweeney & MacBeth, 2018). The playing of music and games was the central element in social events and religious ceremonies.
The manner through which children engage with their peers, teachers as well as tasks is crucial to the success of early0-childhood studies. However, this is an aspect that is hugely underestimated. The conventional wisdom dictates that a well-organised, emotionally supportive and stimulating pre-kindergarten classrooms are not enough especially to children from low-income homes (Astuti & Sukartiningsih, 2018). Children have a great contribution and bring a lot to the table. Therefore, the teachers should look beyond having a well-furnished and quality classroom and capture the children’s personal experiences in the classroom setting. A child’s engagement is directly connected to their developmental gains emotional support and a properly organised classroom notwithstanding.
The Educator
President Obama requested Congress to broaden access to high-quality pre-school to each child in the US. Preschools provide children with the opportunity to socialise with other children and learn more about problem-solving, themselves and are taught how to build confidence and a lot more (Darling-Hammond, 2017). According to research, children are learning more in preschool than it had originally been assumed. The preschool teachers have a key role in creating and building a child’s success in their early years of school (Strand et al., 2015). Basically, the teacher does a lot more than just facilitating craft and art projects every day. They offer a structure and assist children in growing in their writing skills, reading, and they also teach science and assist the children in understanding themselves better it is, preschool teachers who lay the foundation the kids require to understand what school is (Darling-Hammond, 2017). In light of this, teachers will use a myriad of methods to assist children in growing both conceptually and cognitively. Therefore, children who have a positive relationship with their educators can have an exponential difference in the child’s early years of learning and can adequacy prepare them for elementary school (Ringrose, 2012).
Aristotle noted the historical relationship between the growth of learning and leisure. As wealth supplied more leisure, the Greeks became more and more open-minded in the areas they thought they would seek expertise and competence (Lee &Baker, 2015). In spite of the connection displayed about musical play and learning, Aristotle viewed education as a completely separate entity from play stating that education is a way of relaxing and spending leisure time in an edifying manner and play is a mere break from work or rather school work.
The Family
Parent involvement is a crucial role in not just a child’s early years of learning but also in their development and growth. Today, parents seem to be more involved in their children’s development other than preschool (Lee &Baker, 2015). They will take their kids to school and leave them in the hands of the teachers and will later pick them up without paying much attention and thought to their education or learning. For children to get the most benefits from early childhood education, parents who comprise the family ought to be supportive and get to understand what their children are learning one daily basis
The most important cognitive development of every child takes place during their preschool years therefore when the family takes an active role in the early learning process of the child; they ensure that the child is well supported and they develop their full potential (D'Angour, 2013). Besides, the parent involvement assists to extend the teaching outside of the classroom and helps in creating a positive experience of the child. Thus, the child can perform better in school. Basically, the idea is for a parent to extend the learning that happens in the classroom at home as well (Lee &Baker, 2015). For the parent who is in tune with what happens in their child’s preschool life, they are in better position to ensure establish a proper connection between what the child learns in school and what happens or takes place at home. This connection is such a fundamental component of the child’s learning development, and it facilitates further learning for the child. The family involvement builds a positive experience for children and assists children to have a better and positive experience and this translated to performance in school.
Community
A community is not limited to a location or a collection of persons who work or live in the same area. When people talk of a sense of community, they usually refer to the quality of connections and relationships that bring people together rather than the idea that these people see each other regularly (Sweeney, 2016). Early childhood educators ought to grasp this definition of a community and strive to foster a sense of community as part of what they do. It ought to be integrated into the main themes of identity and belonging that are in the early years of a child’s learning (Milford et al., 2012). The famous sage it takes a village to raise a child is very practical in the early learning of a child. Every child grows up as part of a community. Therefore, how the community engages with the local facilities such as preschool hospital and others can easily have an impact on one child’s life.
Children will always thrive well in a community that offers mutually supportive and caregiving relationships, and it is for this reason that a child develops a sense of community. Since education is the fundamental method of reform and social progress, it is imperative that communities create an enabling environment for children to grow and develop cognitively through education (Sweeney, 2016). The duty of the community to education is a paramount moral duty. A society has the mandate to form and regulate itself in an organised or haphazard manner. However, through education, a community can formulate purpose and can easily organise its resources and means and shape itself with the economy and the definiteness...