EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION OVERVIEW

Sok Uttara, PhD

Educator, Manager, Researcher, Consultant

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Perry Preschool Study

• Conducted in 1962–1967

• 123 children born in poverty and at high risk of failing in school

• Ages 3 and 4 (Program Group and Control Group)

• Age 27 [1991]

• Age 40 [2005] — interviewed 97% and gathered data from the subjects' school, social services, and arrest records.

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The University of Pennsylvania

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Parents’ Influence on Child’s Vocabulary Learning

Cambodian National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Development (2010)

– Goal 6 “To ensure that children from birth to schooling age shall enjoy physical, cognitive, mental and emotional development at both ....”

– Policy 2 “To ensure that children have access to holistic early childhood care and development services.”

– Domains: (1) Cognitive; (2) Socio-emotional; (3) Motor; (4) Language and Literacy; (5) Health, Hygiene and Safety; (6) Cultural Knowledge and Participation; (7) Approaches to Learning.

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PerennialismRobert Maynard Hutchins (1899-1977)“Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight if possible.”

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Comments on Perennialism

• Past-oriented

• Teacher-centered

• Everlasting truth

• Passive approach

• Spoon feeding approach

• No creativity, no freedom in thinking

• Compliance to certain rules, belief, ideology, etc.

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Essentialism

William Chandler Bagley (1874-1946) “Essentialists hope that when students leave school, they will possess not only basic skills and an extensive body of knowledge, but also disciplined, practical minds, capable of applying schoolhouse lessons in the real world.”

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Comments on Essentialism

• Positive: Stability of Education

• Negative: Passiveness, less creativity, inflexibility

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Progressivism

John Dewey (1859-1952) “Education is a social process; education is growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.”

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

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3 Major Principles of Progressivism

1. Pragmatism:

- Practicality of what is being learned – the content should be relevant or meaningful to the learner.

2. Individualism: – Each student is unique and learns in a specific way.

– Educational content is tailored to individual needs of each student.

– “He [a child] should also learn to respect the individual opinions of others while maintaining his own.” (T. G. Cooper, 1900)

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2. Experimentalism:

• We learn best from our own experiences and reviews.

• Doing is far more important than knowing.

• Experience builds skill.

• To make learning permanent, the learning process should be made enjoyable, motivating, and rewarding.

• Individual ideas and choices should be respected.

• Make space for reflection.

• Process gets privilege over result.

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Reconstructionism

• To address social questions

• To highlight social reform

• To create a better society

“Education is the means of preparing people for creating this new social order.” George Counts (1889-1974)

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Principles of Child Development and Learning

1. All the domains—physical, social

and emotional, and cognitive

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2. Documented sequences of

abilities, skills, and Knowledge

(Jean Piaget)

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3. Different rates of development

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4. Dynamic and continuous interactions of

biological maturation and experience

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6. Simple Complexity

Concrete Abstract

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7. Secure, consistent

relationships with responsive

adults and peers

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8. Multiple social and cultural contexts

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9. Seeking to understand the world around them, children learn in a variety of ways

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10. Play is important for developing self-regulation and for promoting language, cognition, and social competence.

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11. Advancement through challenging work

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12. Children’s experiences shape their motivation and approaches to learning.

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Singapore’s Kindergarten Curriculum Framework

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Korean Kindergarten Curriculum

1. Health: Develop physical strength and harmonious mind

2. Social Relationships: Knowing and loving oneself, living together with the family, living with neighbors

3. Expression: Develop sensitivity, aesthetic appreciation, creative abilities, and various artistic expressions

4. Language: Improve listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills

5. Inquiry: Develop inquiring attitudes, basic scientific abilities, and basic mathematic abilities

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Malaysian Kindergarten Curriculum

Five Domains:1. Wellness2. Effective Communication3. Citizenship4. Intellectual Empowerment5. Aesthetic Expression

“An integrated curriculum will facilitate children’s exploration, discovery, problem-solving, critical thinking, and experimentation in a meaningful context.” (MoE, 2006)

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Reciprocal Relationships That Affects Children’s Learning

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Parents/Family

Community

Society

TeacherThe Child

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Thank You Very Much.

Questions and Answers