Graduating Teachers Standards

Professional Inquiry 6

FINAL REFLECTION

FINAL REFLECTION 

I really enjoyed the feedback that I received from Susan, Rose and Sanjana based on my provocation in Entry 5. I realised that my role as a teacher it is very important to have a good understanding of the impact that social sciences and technology have on a child’s learning development. By reading the feedback I am able to see what I can reflect on and improve on for my own teaching practice and the use of technology in Early Childhood Education.

Susan’s feedback regarding the idea of having discussions first with the children about what they know before searching the answer was very helpful because it is very important to allow children to think for themselves as this provides children opportunity to problem solve and use their imagination to extend on their learning. I really appreciated her reminder about dispositions is the key to support the children to become life-long learners. I also liked the idea of allowing the children to take photos and document the changes that they see and also the idea of making a book about the life cycle of a caterpillar.

Sanjana’s feedback on my provocation, she liked how I provided children with a range of resources and options, this made me feel proud that I was able to facilitate on their learning. I also like that fact that she noticed the beautiful pictures of children and the caterpillar as this was part of my provocation is to take photos of children in action. I liked her idea of taking a group of children to the butterfly creek where they can learn and observe different types of butterflies as this can extend on children’s interest in the caterpillars.

Rose’s feedback about the interaction I had with children was important as it involves the children’s ideas and their understanding of caterpillars. I liked her idea about extending the children independent thinking when given them technologies to use as this help develop their metacognition skills with others.

Throughout this blog, I have learnt that technology and social sciences have played an important role in children’s learning and development in Early Childhood Education. In today’s society, it is very important for children, teachers and parents to develop an understanding of how technologies work and that they are used appropriately to benefit learning. I believe that ICT can be a useful tool for supporting young children’s learning development in early childhood (Bolstand, 2004). I learnt that giving children opportunities to explore technologies can help them in a variety of skills that will lead them to become active learners.

Social science teaches children about the world that they live in. I believe that young children have an understanding of how societies work and that they are part of the community where people, places, things and events will become a big part of their social world (Ministry of Education, 2017).  “The social sciences learning area is about how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizens.” (New Zealand Curriculum, 2007). 

Refence List

Bolstad, R. (2004). The role and potential of ICT in early childhood education: A review of New Zealand
                       and international literature. Wellington: New Zealand Council of Educational Research.

Ministry of Education (1996). Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātaurang mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early
                          childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media Wellington.

Contribution to other students’ blogs

https://pptesusan.blogspot.co.nz/

https://ashiyanianand.blogspot.co.nz/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

https://amazing-sanjana.blogspot.co.nz/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Entry Five

Entry Five

For this planned provocation it was inspired by the children’s interest in gardening. I decided to take a group of children to our backyard to check on our vegetable garden and explore the nature in the garden. The children have always loved visiting the centres garden so one day I took a group of children with me and check on the garden to see what vegetables we need to plant for the winter season. As we got to the vegetable garden, one child noticed a yellow and black insect on one of the cabbage. I took a closer look and it was a “Caterpillar”, there were three caterpillars on the cabbage. Children were very interested in the caterpillar that they wanted to keep some. The children have taken a strong interest towards the caterpillars and how they want to see the caterpillar turn into a butterfly, I decided to take two caterpillars inside the centre for the children to watch and experience the life cycle of the butterfly. This is how our inquiry-based learning started, the children shared a common interest and wanted to explore and find out more about the life cycle of the butterfly (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett, & Farmer, 2015). 

  

 I set up a table with papers, colouring pencils, magnifying glasses, and a small plant with the two caterpillars on it. I made sure that children understand the importance of looking after the creatures in our environment. My role as a teacher was to listen and ask open-ended questions to the children about what they know and what they don’t know. As MacNaughton & Williams (2009) stated, “When teachers use listening as a teaching strategy, then try to understand what the children are saying, and through doing so’ try to better understand them”. (p. 116). 

As I watched children observing the two caterpillars munching on a leaf, they were very involved into how they eat so they used the magnifying glasses so they could get a closer look at the details of the caterpillar and the way they move around the leaf.

I planned on introducing the technology to this learning experience, by giving children iPads to watch videos based on “The life cycle of a Butterfly”. Children took a turn on the iPad watching the caterpillar story but then more children noticed what was happening and therefore the table was crowded with children trying to watch the iPad. So, I decided to put the video on the Apple TV for everyone to watch. This allowed me to give children the opportunity to connect with the wider natural environment (Ministry of Education, 2017, p. 35). This also allowed me to support children’s learning by letting them observe and identify the characteristics of the life cycle of a butterfly as well as listening to what they are saying and the comments they make.

As the video goes on about the caterpillar changing its size and shape, I heard children mentioning the word “Pupa”, “Cocoon” and “larva”, I found it very interesting that some children knew the words to the butterfly life cycle, so I asked the teachers if they have already learnt about the life cycle of butterfly and they said that it was only in the book called “The Hungry Caterpillar” and watching videos on YouTube about butterflies. Therefore, this will be the first time that children will get to watch real-life experiment on the life cycle of a butterfly. After watching the video, children started asking questions about “What food does the caterpillar eat?” or “How do we keep the caterpillar from falling down the leaf?”. I decided as a centre, we gathered more information about what caterpillars eat and not eat, and how we can keep them on the leaf without falling and so on. In doing this I was facilitating the children’s learning by giving them what they required to learn and reach a successful outcome. “Facilitating is a process of making children’s learning easier” (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009).  

This provocation helped the children deepened their understanding of the environment and developing confidence in working alongside others to explore the nature and making sense of their social world. Ministry of Education believes that children problem solving together with their peers, they develop the understanding of how things work (Ministry of Education, 1996). This experiment will be an ongoing learning process for the children in the centre.

References 

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S. & Farmer,S. (2012). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (5^th ed). Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning.

MacNaughton, G. & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices for theory and practise (3^rd ed.). Frenchs Forest, N.S.W: Pearson Education Austarlia.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education (2017). Te Whāriki He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Mātauranga House. 

Entry Four

Entry Four

At my home centre, we have several ICT resources that the children are able to use and enjoy without teacher’s supervision. We currently have an Apple TV, two iPads, Bluetooth speaker, and an Apple computer for all the children to use. In our centre, we limit the use of technology by giving children 10-15 minutes of quiet learning using the iPads, or 15- 20 minutes of singing, dancing and watching school programmes on TV. Throughout my teaching experience in the centre, I have observed the use of technologies in early childhood education and how technologies can play a significant role in children’s learning as they connect effectively to people, places, things and events.

One day I noticed child B playing on the iPad and he was very engaged in what he was doing. I sat next to him to have a closer look at what he was doing, I saw that he was focusing on connecting the dots to form the letter “M”. From this, he was very patient on connecting the lines even though he kept drawing over the dots and therefore loses the lines and have to start again. I observed him for few minutes and he saw that I was watching him. He asked for my help, but I did not want to intervene because he was halfway to connecting the last two lines for the letter “M”, so I encouraged him to keep his eyes on his index (pointer) finger and slowly follow the line by pressing down smoothly on the screen. He tried it again and he kept starting over and over. This time he took my advice by slowly following the lines and connecting the dots together and therefore he successfully form a capital letter “M”. I was very pleased to watch him complete this task without giving up. He excitedly showed me what he had done, then he went to the teachers and his friends to show them the iPad with his writing on it.  He was very proud of doing so as he had learnt a new skill. With technology “solving practical problems contributes to self-confidence and wellbeing” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p 94).

Following his interest in writing and drawing, I decided to expand on this by incorporating another aspect of technology, so I played a video of the alphabetical order on the Apple TV and encouraged child B to sing along to the ABC song, this will help him recognise the letters of the alphabetical order. His friends started joining in by dancing around and singing along to pronounce each letter of the alphabetical order.

During this experience, Child B had learnt the skill of hand-eye coordination by visually following the dots on the screen and actively participating in the activity. He was able to learn how to write the letters on the iPad and used it to engage with his friends and teachers. This learning experience enhances social interaction skills as children develop their language skills by using technology and such skills will then develop their understanding for the world around them (Ministry of Education, 2017).

References

Cook, T., & Hess, E. (2007). What the camera sees and from whose perspective: Fun methodologies for engaging children in enlightening adults. Childhood, 14(1), 29-45.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education (2017). Te Whāriki He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Mātauranga House. 

Reference List

Reference List

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Dockett, S., Farmer, S., & Death, E. (2008). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (4th ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Thomson Learning (or 2012 edition). 

Berk, L. (2007). Development through the lifespan (4^th ed.). Boston, Ma: Allyn & Bacon and Pearson Education.

Drewery, W. & Claiborne, L. B. (2014). Human development: Family, place, culture. (2^nd ed.). North Ryde NSW, Australia: McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd.

Fleer, M., & Jane, B. (2011). Design and technology for children. Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson. Australia.

Kirova, A., & Bhargava, A. (2002). Learning to guide preschool children’s mathematical understanding: A teacher’s professional growth.  Early Childhood Research & Practice, 4(1). Retrieved 6 August, 2004 from the World Wide Web: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/kirova.html

MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (3^rd ed.). French Forrest, Australia: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki matauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education. (2017). Te Whāriki: He whāriki matauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Santrock, J.W. (2009). Lifespan development (12^th ed., International). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Subrahmanyam, K., Kraut, R. E., Greenfield, P. M., & Gross, E. F. (2000). The impact of home computer use on children's activities and development. The future of children, 123-144.

Woods, M., & Taylor, J. (2005). Early Childhood Studies: an holistic introduction. Hodder Education.