Early childhood education forms a foundation for a child’s physical and cognitive growth. It is the reason why several stakeholders as well as theorists put a lot of emphasis on this level of education. According to Jackman, Beaver, & Wyatt (2014), the most prominent components of early childhood education are the teaching models and the environment. Firstly, early childhood educators need to use models that promote wholesome education to children. Similarly, children need to learn in an enabling environment to complement the teaching models. Most prominently, this essay discusses some of the teaching models that have been proposed to be used in early childhood education.
Constructivist
It is a learning theory that was proposed by Jerome Bruner. Bruner posited that learning is an active process where learners create new concepts or ideas from their past or current knowledge (Fosnot, 2013). Learning is perceived to be a process of selection and transformation of information, construction of hypotheses as well as making of decisions. The learner builds on knowledge and goes beyond what is provided. Educators are advised to encourage learners to discover new knowledge by themselves. For example, instead of teaching children that prime numbers are not divisible by two, children can be provided with materials and required to arrange them in two rows. Learners will discover a row that lacks a partner.
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Mixed Age or Multi-Aged Grouping
In this model, educators group together children of different ages, for example, children from the age of 3 to 5. Subsequently, the children are placed in the same learning environment and provided with different learning materials. Both young and older children learn from each other. For example, the older children may teach the young children how to read or even help them identify certain items. Consequently, the children learn faster from interacting with their peer groups and develop robust social skills.
Looping
According to Nitecki (2017), consistency is very crucial to a child’s development, especially emotionally and socially. Besides, children need social and emotional attachment to develop properly. As a consequence, in early childhood education, it has been suggested that looping, which is a practice of keeping a group of children with one teacher for over a year has the potential to provide the consistency that is essential for attachment. Briefly, moving children from one teacher to another within brief periods does not enhance their development because children do not get enough time to get attached to them. However, when a single teacher is maintained for a reasonable amount of time, the children get used to the teacher, hence will feel comfortable and secure to learn. Therefore, changing teachers disrupts the learning patterns of children and should be discouraged.
Progressive Education- John Dewey
It is a movement that emerged in the late 19 th century in Europe and the United States as a reaction to the seemingly narrow and formal traditional education. Dewey, an American philosopher, advocated for the education of the “whole child”, which implies attendance to emotional, physical, and intellectual growth. The school was perceived to be a laboratory where children take an active role in learning, that is, through doing. It was suggested that children learn best through actual performance of tasks related to learning.
Froebel Education
Froebel is regarded as a proponent of the Kindergarten curriculum method. He observed that brain development is most dramatic between birth and three years. As a result, he proposed early childhood education from a biological and spiritual view. He also acknowledged the importance of play in learning. Specifically, he argued that play is not an idle behavior. Rather, it is a biological mechanism to establish how things work. Also from a spiritual perspective, Froebel stated that what separates human beings from other life forms is that human beings can alter their environment. People’s brains enable them to visualize in 3-D and foster imagination. Therefore, it is prudent for early child education to make children understand their capacity as creative beings.
Bereiter-Engelmann (Direct Instruction)
This model was developed in 1966 by Engelmann and Bereiter by working on intensive instruction for poor preschoolers and drew from principles of behaviorism. The model operates on the assumption that if learners are taught specific basic skills, they develop the potential to generalize the skills to new learning experiences (Gettinger, Elliott, & Kratochwill, 2013). For example, in math, it is not necessary to teach children to calculate the area of each and every object. Rather, it is enough to teach them how to derive formulas. These basic concepts give them the insights of thinking and solving problems on their own.
Multiple Intelligences
While many people define intelligence as a single ability or prowess, Gardner split intelligence into eight aspects. They include: Visual-spatial, linguistic-verbal, interpersonal, intrapersonal, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and naturalistic. People can have a combination of these intelligences. For example, one can have musical intelligence and at the same time have logical-mathematical intelligence. Most prominently, this model requires early child educators to be aware of the different strengths that different children possess. These intelligences can be compared to talents, which need to be nurtured. Therefore, educators play an important role of spotting children talents and helping them develop them.
Tools of the Mind
It is a curriculum that began in 1992 through the collaboration of American and Russian education researchers. Play is the prominent teaching tool in this model, whose objective is to equip children with the mental tools they require to acquire academic as well as self-regulation skills. Besides, children make a plan by using the Scaffold Writing approach. Through this approach, teachers easily asses and support learners’ literacy skills individually. The learning materials are also tailored to support children with dual languages, those with disabilities, as well as advanced learners.
Waldorf Education
It is a model that was developed based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. The main objective of the model is to foster learners’ artistic, intellectual, and practical skills in a holistic and integrated manner. Briefly, the model aims to trigger learners’ imagination and creativity. One important aspect of the model is that it offers teachers the autonomy in determining the content of the curriculum, the methods of teaching and governance. Additionally, qualitative assessments of students are integrated into the classroom, and quantitative testing is minimal. Therefore, the model seeks to provide holistic education and not just learning that is centered on examinations.
Creative Curriculum
It is a curriculum in which children learn through creative and active teaching strategies. Educators need to expand their cones of vision to come up with novel ideas of making children to develop interest in what they are teaching. There is no single creative method of teaching. Rather, there are multiple ways educators can use to ignite the passion of students as well as make them remember important concepts. Most prominently, the creative curriculum does not compel students to memorize facts. Rather, it uses innovative ideas to make students remember important details. For instance, teaching and learning need to be fun. The educator can begin with a story related to a specific concept. Additionally, educators can supplement their teaching methods with videos or images to illustrate, ideas or concepts and make them memorable to learners. Consequently, it becomes easier for learners to remember important details especially if learning is fun.
From the ten curriculums discussed above, the two most prominent ones that would meet the thirteen components of an effective curriculum are Froebel education and tools of the mind. Beginning with Froebel, the curriculum recognizes the development and brain function of children between birth and 3 years. Secondly, it organizes education into Kindergartens, places where early childhood education can be provided. In these facilities, educators can organize learning activities based on the individual needs of the children. Also, educators can involve parents or guardians in the learning and development of their children. Lastly, the kindergarten is a tested system, which is now rolled out in many countries in the world.
In regard to tools of the mind, the collaboration between Russian and American education researchers means that conclusive study was conducted before it was developed, hence it is evidence-based. Secondly, the learning materials developed by this curriculum take into account children from various cultural backgrounds. Additionally, disabled children are also provided with learning materials according to their needs. Numerous assessments are also conducted in the course of children’s learning to establish the efficacy of the teaching methods. It is from the outcome that the educator can adjust according to individual needs.
To conclude, I have learnt important aspects, particularly from the different curriculums of early childhood education. Early childhood education requires that the teaching models and the learning environment be suitable for holistic education. I have also learnt that the functioning of the brain of children between birth and three years is very dramatic hence requires a proper approach to their development. Children need to be encouraged to become creative by exposing them to different learning materials. It is also important to foster their social skills by using multi age grouping. Most importantly, early child educators need to spot and nurture different children’s strengths.
References
Fosnot, C. T. (2013). Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice . Teachers College Press.
Gettinger, M., Elliott, S. N., & Kratochwill, T. R. (2013). Preschool and early childhood treatment directions . Routledge.
Jackman, H., Beaver, N., & Wyatt, S. (2014). Early education curriculum: A child's connection to the world . Cengage Learning.
Nitecki, E. (2017). Looping and Attachment in Early Childhood Education: How Applications of Epigenetics Demand a Change. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , 17 (2), 85-100.
