Entry Three

Technology can impact both positively and negatively on young children’s lives. The positive effect of technology on children’s lives is that it helps them find more information about people, places, things and events (Fleer & Jane, (2011).  Young children develop new knowledge from investigating through technology and they will be more likely to open their minds about reasoning and other possibilities. This gives children opportunities to use their imagination to develop questions and expand their knowledge (Arthur, Beecher, Dockett, Farmer & Death, (2008).

However, technology can also have a negative effect on children’s lives. Children who come from dysfunctional families that struggle financially and emotionally could result in the child coming into the centre and having behaviour issues. “The children of permissive parents are often found to be aggressive in their relationships with parents, adults and other children”. (Woods & Taylor, 2005). This explained the way children have a lot of difficulties with forming relationships because of the child’s negative influence at home results to the child not knowing how to make positive relationships. This will affect the child’s social competence of not knowing how to interact with people around them.

“Technology for most people means… ‘labour saving’ technology, ‘high consumption’ technology, and they also see the use of such technologies as a measure of social and cultural development” (Fleer & Jane, (2011).

In an early childhood setting, technology is used to help children engage with things that they have not seen or heard before. For example, some children have not been to the zoo, museum or on a plane. Teachers would use the iPad and T.V to show the children some pictures of animals that are in the zoo, or pictures of things in the museum, and videos of aeroplanes flying in the air. These things made children connect to the world that they have not yet experienced but have seen it through technology. It is important to have technology as it provides children valuable learning opportunities. This influence young children to “think logically, strategically, creatively and critically” that they are much likely to continue to engage in ICT later in life (Kirova & Bhargava, 2002). Although technology can also take away children’s “Hands on experience” with people, places, things and events around them. In my centre we make sure that children can only use iPads when they need information to answer questions about what they have discovered in the centre, they would also get to spend only three minutes on iPads then they are sent to create things they have watched or seen on TV. The increasing amount of time children are spending on technologies at home and school has raised questions about how the use of technology may make a difference in their lives--from “helping with homework to causing depression to encouraging violent behaviour” (Subrahmanyam, Kraut, Greenfield & Gross, (2000).

Entry Two

Entry Two

Social sciences have a significant impact on children’s learning and development. Science is the study of the nature and behaviour of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about the environment. Children explore the world of science in their everyday life. Young children have a natural curiosity about their world and how it works. “The social sciences learning area is about how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizens. Contexts are drawn from the past, present, and future and from places within and beyond New Zealand” (Ministry of Education, 2007).

“Science allows learners to generate different theories and gather knowledge and understanding of the world around them” (Ministry of Education, 1996).

 

In early childhood settings, as teacher's we explore the science of how children learn and how they associate and interact with the world around them. This helps teachers to observe the value of play in children’s development. When children are playing they are exploring, creating, testing, trying, tasting, questioning and observing. These experiences build the foundation of a great future scientist. Teachers provide stimulating science experience for children to explore and become active explorers to make sense of the world (Ministry of Education, 2016).

Another way teachers can help children scientifically is by asking open-ended questions this enables children to think beyond measure use their current scientific knowledge and skills for problem-solving (Ministry of Education, 2007). Open-ended questions are used to find out how others are thinking and making sense of the natural and social world (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). Teachers support children’s holistic development through a range of science experiences from simply being in an outdoors environment where children can get closer to nature, to participate in safe experiments that encourage children to think outside the box and explore the many possibilities (Ministry of Education, 2016). I strongly believe that children experience cognitive, emotional, physical, social and cultural development through science. For example,

Cognitive development: Children build essential science processing skills such as ¨ observing, classifying and sorting

Emotional development: Young children experience a range of emotions, including happiness, pride, shame, sadness etc. These feelings can influence children to interact and communicate with others. Children use a range of communication strategies including gestures, movements and sounds to express feelings (Arthur, Beecher, Dockett, Farmer & Death, 2008)

Physical development: Children experiencing the way they become better at controlling their bodies by repeat the same physical action or skill over and over until they master it. Through science, children can inquire information about the physical nature of things.

Social and Cultural development: Young children learn how to work collaboratively with others. They learn to communicate and interact in social groups. Science acknowledges that learning occurs through the co-construction of ideas and sharing knowledge.

“Children experience the stories and symbols of their own and other cultures, developing awareness of the richness of communication” -(Ministry of Education, 1996, p.97).

Children learn to acknowledge their own identity and learn about the culture they identify with. 

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.