Educators use numerous developmental theories to guide classroom interactions and create meaningful learning environments for young children.
As an early childhood educator while I think about the theoretical foundation that is most relevant to working in childhood education for myself, I find that constructivists most relevant to working in early childhood education. I work at a loosely based Montessori school. So my environment is set up to support, encourage and engage children the way that Maria Montessori believed it should be. Maria Montessori believed that children go through certain stages as they learn and it is the job of the teacher to observe and capture there moments, as they happen. When you scaffold a child it is there that you know when a child is in the zone of proximal development and you choose how much to facilitate the situation and how much to sit back and just observe the child as they learn. In the environment there are jobs ( activities) on shelves and the children are expected to independently choose jobs, work on them on a job rug, or at a table and return the job back to the shelf where they found it. Promoting independence and responsibility.
It is also important in our classroom to encourage self help skills, to make sure that the children learn tasks that they can developmentally do on their own as they find their own space in the world around them. In preschool the children start to become less egocentric and start to grasp the idea that there other people with different wants and needs around them. We as teachers once again are there to facilitate this idea. “Self-development can be children's achievements, successes, facing challenges, confidence and can include how children interact with other people, the environment and the things around them. The purpose of early childhood is to build a strong foundation for the child and society. This requires that educators take into consideration how a person's contribution to society imbues a meaningful and positive feeling which is the essence of a happy life.” (Ikegami,2014) I work in our classroom which we call "The rainbow room" and we enrich our classroom to be nothing short of colorful and happy.
“ Developmental, and age appropriate practices are activities, plans, and or strategies used consistently to enhance strengthen and build knowledge and skills according to the zone of proximal development, which includes the environment in which the children learn.” (Dartt,2020) In our classroom as a constructivist based classroom we want the children to be curious, to learn form each other and their experiences, mostly to be active learners. We are only there to facilitate and build an enriched environment to allow the children to find their knowledge within our environment.
References:
Dartt, Kevin. (2020). Foundations of Child Development Module 5: Developmental Theories in the Classroom Part 1: The value of developmental theory , American College of Education. Retrieved from http://ace.edu. file:///C:/Users/scf47/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/ec5403-m5p2-script%20(1).pdf
Dartt, Kevin. (2020). Foundations of Child Development Module 5: Developmental Theories in the Classroom Part 2: A Case for Constructivism , American College of Education. Retrieved from http://ace.edu. file:///C:/Users/scf47/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/ec5403-m5p2-script%20(1).pdf
Ikegami, K., & Seyram Agbenyega, J. (2014). Ex
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