Title Page
Early childhood
Interview summary
The interviewee was the Head Start (Pre-K) teacher at McNair School having five years of experience. The minimum requirement for a teacher is a bachelor's in education with FCPS diploma. Interviewee explained that the teacher has a duty of completing professional development and address the needs of the children. To engage parents in student activities, the school invited them to the zoo and other outdoor activities. Compassion is an essential trait for educators to teach the students of pre-K. It is important for the teacher to understand children and their issues. Job security and a good salary are two prominent expectations of the educators. Teacher continues to learn new things in schools and adopt a flexible attitude for gaining maximum returns.
Instructional model
It includes discussions of direct instructional strategies, technology, motivation and classroom management. The school environment plays an effective role in promoting learning and child development. The structured learning environment, the involvement of teachers and parents, results in the improved mental ability of children that enhances their thinking ability and level of intelligence. Some effective tools to enhance the learning involve extracurricular educational opportunities and unstructured home learning. The program helps the student to focus on activities other than studies that provide the opportunity to become a motivated achiever in academic and other aspects of life. Schorer et al., (2015) identifies the significance of an effective learning environment on the improved learning capacity of children. A constructive environment focuses on the adoption of physical resources such as classrooms, comfortable chairs, whiteboards, and other materials. The technological materials essential for enhancing the level of concentration include projectors, audio enhancements, and smart boards. These technological tools assist teachers in improving students attention CITATION Jos15 \l 1033 (Baker, Stoeger, & Ziegler, 2015). Effective learning environment is crucial for the improved social interaction between the teachers and the students. Activities like trips, photos, and natural observation are part of an influential environment CITATION Yel16 \l 1033 (Durmuş, 2016).
Approaches that contribute to quality programming
The learning theory focuses on investigating the theoretical aspects of learning algorithms. It determines the difficulty of learning problems and how learning performance is dependent on certain parameters. The theory has its roots in mathematics and is useful in understanding learning algorithms CITATION Din14 \l 1033 (Zhou, Wu, & Ying, 2014). The learning theory focuses on, “children’s early cognitive and affective development through everyday experiences and learning processes, represented in concepts such as funds of knowledge, working theories, and dispositions, are viewed as outcomes” CITATION Hel12 \l 1033 (Hedges & Cullen, 2012). The theory is crucial as it defines the role of an effective teacher in helping children to overcome learning disabilities and challenges. The participatory learning theories are vital for effective teachers as they allow them to address the needs of children individually.
An effective teacher takes the role of addressing the learning issues faced by the children. Agudo and Gutierrez (2017) define, "effective teachers are those who provide their students with knowledge that is useful in future learning, presumably require their students to exert effort by paying attention and being concentrated in class and by doing demanding homework” CITATION Lui17 \l 1033 (Lopez-Agudo & Marcenaro-Gutierrez, 2017). The central role of effective teachers is to maximize the student's level of engagement. They focus on the capacity of students to concentrate on class lectures. They aim to engage students to interest in classrooms and increasing their ability to learn. The criteria of effective teachers depict that they work in an organized manner by making the best possible use of the available resources. They also make effective use of the instructional materials resulting in the enhanced learning of the children. Helping students in overcoming their learning issues is the central goal of these educators.
Instructional theory
Piaget's theory of cognitive development is used for applying learning capabilities. The adoption of the theory suggests attaining development through transformational state and evolving environment. These two conditions will permit children to establish learning competency. Gardener's theory of multiple intelligence is also employed for attaining development goals. The eight factors the process utilize include; developmental progression, susceptible to the symbolic progression, a support in their experimental psychology, having a brain isolation potential during a brain damage, a presence in the core operations, the existence of prodigies in the light of becoming exceptional, and a place in the evolutionary history. This is an effective tool as it allows children to use their characteristics for building enhanced learning competencies.
The teachers will adopt collaborative learning techniques to promote work in groups for attaining high levels of thinking and allowing students to retain them for a longer duration. The teacher builds group and identifies the tasks that students need to perform in each group. Defining goals and objectives are part of this stage. To attain better outcomes, the teacher will keep only 2-3 members in the group. The size of 4-5 is also ideal as it allows students to work efficiently. The strategy will focus on promoting open communications and building a friendly environment. Open communications are important for building trust and improving individual performance of students.
How theory contributes to child development
Small group experience plan is used for a creative class project as it addresses the diverse needs of students. It heightens the sense of creativity. All students are assigned independent tasks allowing them to use their creativity and imagination for solving puzzles. Students are spilled into groups so the instructor can pay individual attention to each child. Role-playing activities are incorporated for engaging student. Groups are involved in classroom discussions, speaking on specific topics. The development plan focuses on using flashcards for improving visual understanding of the child. Scheduling the progression of the student and evaluating at the end of the month. Adopting interaction strategies that encourage the student to trust instructor. The effective teacher has a role of building consistency in child and permanently removing negative behavior traits. They adopt structures and routines for building constructive behaviors. The child who is slow learners needs to modify behavior and adapt to the learning environment in the classroom. The mentor emphasized on the inclusion of interactive learning tasks such as collaborative learning and inquiry-based tasks. More attention to the weaker students can help them in improving their concentration.
Transitional strategies stress on adopting strategies of skill building, problem-solving, listening. Giving child sufficient time is essential for preparing them and respecting her feelings. The parents need to encourage her towards watching TV, creating art, coloring books, etc. Instructors eliminate insecurity by making the child feel safe and secure through positive reinforcement motivating child to continue positive behavior. To overcome anger instructor allow the child to engage in a creative activity such as playing songs, acting and performing arts. Thorough behavioral assessment is performed to uncover the acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Diverse literacy practiced are adopted to address the needs of the child individually with a focus on overcoming learning issues.
The assessment includes observations about the child's behavior on three occasions (classroom, outdoor play, transitions). To deal with the situation, a plan was created and implemented including specific measures for addressing the needs of the child. The framework is developed to address the learning incompetency and overcome the gap that the child encounters due to disability. The observations about the mood fluctuations, level of interest, and interaction of the child with other students in class are assessed.
Developmental domains
Effective teacher supports the child to regulate his own behavior, fostering a sense of belonging, building a sense of security. More focus and individual attention improved his learning capabilities. Modification/ adaptations involve using specific interventions that focus on behavioral modification. The strategies such as project-based learning, collaborative learning, and inquiry-based learning are useful in attaining the desired goal of improving students' engagement in the disciplines of science and education. The approach will enhance their learning by permitting them to conduct in-depth investigations on the topic and finding the solutions to the problems. The strategies are useful as they encourage students to collaborate and participate in classroom activities. Through mathematical and scientific inquiry-based learning the students develop capabilities of resolving problems that add to their overall development. The strategy is effective in real-life situations and encourages learners to develop a critical approach.
Self-motivation relies on promoting open communications and building a friendly environment. Open communications are important for building trust and improving individual performance of students. Assigning group roles such as division of tasks among students will help them to solve mathematical and scientific problems efficiently. In the apathetical inquiry, the teacher will allow students to find answers to the questions; such as the natural world and the things around us. Natural phenomena: understanding characteristic change such as shadows cast by objects and the reasons behind them.
Including parents
Parents will be involved in the process as they will be provided instructions for assisting them in homework. They will encourage them to read and engage in different art activities like coloring or drawing. The plan will give information on adopting a lenient and friendly attitude towards children. They will be guided to create friendly homework area for the children without distractions. Such as doing homework at study rooms or switching the TV off. To build constructive and positive relationships between parents and children, they will be asked to engage in fun activities. The weekly outing, taking kids to parks and museums, etc. are effective practices for building healthy relationship among them. Parents will be asked to discuss things with their children so they could open up. This is useful for promoting a sense of belonging, safety, and confidence CITATION Lui17 \l 1033 (Lopez-Agudo & Marcenaro-Gutierrez, 2017).
Benefits of plan
The child development plan will benefit the children and families because it will improve their academic, emotional and social development. Children will get opportunities to interact with others in the inclusive environments that will help them in developing social skills. The identified strategies that the teachers need to adopt and make part of lesson plans will improve students' engagement at all levels. The strategies will work best to eliminate the limitations experienced by students in the disciplines of math, English, and science. Effective engagement models will promote learning capabilities among disengaged students. The adoption of effective strategies will help learners to complete education and retain the learned processes in their memories for a longer period. The improvement framework will provide a safe and secure learning environment for the students in schools. Effective intervention models rely on the needs of the students thus leading to their overall well-being. These strategies need to be part of the schools as they focus on the improvement of students at an individual level. Child development is linked to their better future so it will benefit the families. Parents investment in their early development will provide future returns. Children will overcome developmental issues that could affect their studies later.
Personal plan for childhood education
Learning objectives
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Academic development
Cognitive, observation, listening, writing
Words and phrases.
Familiarity with numbers, plants, animals.
Doing guided reading with the class.
Reading loud.
Guided reading. Describing pictures.
Reflecting on book activities.
Social development
Socially active
Open up
Talk to others
Play activities talks with other children about activities.
Speaking about the favorite cartoon.
Outdoor activities. Planting etc.
Emotional development
Self-confidence
Removing barriers
Giving time for reflecting
Handling conflict with mates.
Positive feelings. The sense of care.
Competencies
I find instructional strategies as the most effective tool of teaching. I will acquire a bachelor’s in education with FCPS diploma. I will develop competency for using technologies such as collaborative environments leading to the active participation of the students. Building content knowledge and exposing through reading are the positive outcomes of applying instructional strategies. A tender teacher is compassionate and exhibits a friendly gesture. He manages to understand the needs of the children and address them individually. His benevolence and kindness create a conducive learning environment. He is congenial with the students and possess skills of a good communicator. Good listening is an essential trait of a tender teacher. I will rely on tender teaching method because they offer various benefits to the children such as a free learning environment. Positive student-teacher relationship allows children to explore new ideas by using imagination. Students can discuss their problems with the teachers without hesitation.
As an educator, I must be able to fulfill all responsibilities that lead to child development. The acceptable behavior includes positive conduct and response of a child towards others. I will need to familiarize myself for handling children with care who exhibit distress and discomfort. I will build compassion and dedication to teaching children appropriately. I will try to stay calm and patient because harshness has negative impacts on children. I will continue to learn new techniques for ensuring children welfare and development.
References
Danniels, A. P. (2016). A Continuum of Play-Based Learning: The Role of the Teacher in Play-Based Pedagogy and the Fear of Hijacking Play. Journal of Early Education and Development, 274-289.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Durmuş, Y. T. (2016). Effective Learning Environment Characteristics as a requirement of Constructivist Curricula: Teachers' Needs and School Principals' Views. International Journal of Instruction, 9 (2), 1308-1470.
Zhou, D.-X., Wu, Q., & Ying, Y. (2014). Learning Theory. Abstract and Applied Analysis, 1-2.
Baker, J., Stoeger, H., & Ziegler, A. (2015). Special Topic: Identifying effective learning environments. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling, 57 (1), 37-39.
Hedges, H., & Cullen, J. (2012). Participatory learning theories: a framework for early childhood pedagogy. Early Child Development and Care, 182 (7), 921-940.
Lopez-Agudo, L. A., & Marcenaro-Gutierrez, O. D. (2017). Engaging children in lessons: the role of efficient and effective teachers. SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT, 28 (4), 650–669.
Weisberg, D. S.-P. (2013). Talking it up: Play, labguage development, and the role of adult support. American Journal of play, 39-54.
