Entry One

Entry One

The people, places, things and events, plays a huge role in a child’s learning and development. Young children grow up to be surrounded by the people in their family and community, their culture, places and any occasions or events happening in children’s lives (Drewery & Claiborne, 2014. p18). Te Whariki the New Zealand curriculum emphasizes the importance of meaningful interactions that children learn by engaging with people, places and things (Ministry of Education, 2017, p.12).

"The child's learning environment extends far beyond the immediate setting of the home or early childhood programmes outside the home" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.19).

In Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, to study a child’s development, we must not only look at the child and his/her immediate environment but also at the interaction of the larger environment as well. That includes people, places, things and events that may have an impact on the lives of young children (Berk, 2010). For example, a family from Samoa wanted to enrol their child in our centre but was afraid that their child won’t like the centre because it was mixed with children from diverse backgrounds. But when I noticed that the child only spoke Samoan, I immediately interacted with her by using the same language. She noticed that I was speaking to her in Samoan then she started talking back in the Samoan language. Two weeks later, this child was very happy to come to the centre every day. Her parents were glad to see that their daughter formed good relationships with teachers and other children. The parents were always invited to the centre’s special occasions, for example, the birthdays, cultural day etc. This made the parents feel very proud to watch their child learned and gained a variety of skills and new languages through others in the centre environment.

I strongly believed that it is important that children are exposed to society, as they shape the way that they think and grow. This is further explained through Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, that sees the child being developing through the effects of surrounding people, places, things and events, "from immediate settings of family and school, to broad cultural values and programs" (Berk, 2010, p.24).

The Ecological Systems

In the early work of the Russian phycologist, Lev Vygotsky emphasised that children are born as a member of a society, through a particular culture. Thus, his development is unique and different from others in the environment (Bird & Drewery, 2004). Vygotsky focused on the connections between the people in the environment and the sociocultural context. Drewery and Claibourne (2004) describe Vygotsky’s idea as social constructivist “who was interested in the way the child constructed knowledge arising out of the social and learning culture” (p. 15). They explain that children are able to construct their learning and knowledge through social relationships with others, and the way they relate to each other depends on the context & culture. (Berk, 2010) supports Drewery and Claibourne (2004) on this and expands it by claiming that all learning is culture-specific. Which means the children’s development is closely tied to their culture environment with different values and beliefs that can influence their learning. Santrock (2009) reinforces the idea that knowledge occurs through collaborative relationships and social groups.