Understanding Critical Reflection and Its Importance

Entry 1

I have used Driscoll’s model of reflection- what? So what? And now what? Model of reflection

What?

This week has been quite exciting as well as hectic for me, due to the recent changes that has occurred in our early childhood settings. There had been a comprehensive change with respect to the classroom design as well as the changed curriculum. With time our education center have witnessed a transformation from a teacher centered approach of teaching to a student centered teaching approach.  This week I have spent most of my time planning for new play based activities for children. I used various materials like play dough, dolls and snow dough, water for setting up activities.  One of the main rational for setting up such activities is that I had a couple of students in my classroom having poor fine motor skills and attention deficits that hamper their activities like holding the spoon at the time of the lunch.

So what?

I developed the activities on the basis of few observations made on the concerned children with lesser motor skills, and I have found that the children responded more to these activities rather than the traditional methods of teaching. I have always supported and have understood that play helps children to develop and learn in a varieties of ways. From sharing to turn taking to developing an imagination. It helps the children to sense the word around them.

I have learnt with attention deficit disorders mostly face challenges in the sensory processing and the adaptive responses. Hence sensory based motor activities that included vestibular, proprioceptive or tactile input that gives a calming effect on the child. According to Thompson, and Raisor, (2013), increases physical activities, design enriched classroom with a varieties of sitting options as well as the opportunity for tactile and proprioceptive experiences throughout the day. Mediums like play dough and water serves as great sensory medium and sensory seeking children can squish, squash, pound and gloop the play dough giving themselves proprioceptive  and some tactile feedback. Moreover, it also helps to increase the hand –eye coordination skills. Since, many of the children had issues with fine motor skill activities like holding the color pencil or drawing, manipulation of the play dough helped in strengthening the hand and develop control over the fingers (Thompson, and Raisor, 2013). The scissor cutting skills of children are also enhanced. Use of the tripod fingers have been found to develop pencil control and better and writing. Furthermore, I have also noticed that children will increase their fine motor skills by various activities like scrubbing, pouring, squeezing and stirring. I have also realized that schema based learning or play assists the educators to identify the sector they are interested in. Schema based learning encourages repetitive behavior in children that assists children to learn through doing. Activities such as solving of puzzles or tying strings or materials together encourages children to learn hoe materials link together and the relationship existing between them. Activities which can support facilitating the development of the schema involves (Woo & Lee, 2013). I believe that observing the schemas at a given time will assist the educators to build up a play for them. As per Jean Piaget’s theory of play also known as the developmental stage theory is based on the fact that cognitive development and mostly the learning of a language requires appropriate environmental stimuli (Bhagat, Haque & Jaalam, 2018). According to him, children learn by two processes, assimilation and accommodation of those in to the existing patterns of behavior and thoughts known as the schemas. With the development of a child, the schemata for each of the experience occurs and the knowledge that it has gained and which it stores for reference as it comes across similar or same experiences (Bhagat, Haque & Jaalam, 2018). I anticipate that my instructional as well as the play based activities would help in updating the schema for children. I also believe that lecture based classroom teaching is not at all suitable for early years children, as it may turn in to less meaningful learning and more of a rote learning.

Entry 1: Using Driscoll’s Model of Reflection to Reflect on Pedagogical Practices

Now what?

Analyzing my own beliefs, thoughts, current pedagogy that I had been following and the instructional designs, I have understood that I have taken the correct approach for facilitating a child-centered learning. I intend to introduce more sensory play based learning in the classroom, in order to boost up with the sensory skills of children. I would conduct more researches to understand about the how teaching approaches can be changed in order to facilitate better learning for children. I would also approach the administration regarding the making of a sensory corner in the classroom where everything starting from the color and the texture of the room, floor and the objects would provide sensory stimulation to the children. Apart from focusing on the fine motor skills, I would also emphasize on activities to strengthen the gross motor skills of children. I will focus more on experiment based learning giving chance to the children to develop hands on learning techniques.

What?

This week I have tried to incorporate ICT (Information and communication technology in the classroom) based pedagogy in providing classroom instructions. I have tried to use pictographs, podcast clips as well, sound effects as well as short video lessons for children. Children have expressed interest and have been found to be more attentive in the classroom. Children who normally does not pay attention in the classroom or those with learning disability also shows more interest in the handling ICTs. While teaching through power points I used appropriate colors and pictures to draw attention of people. I allowed some of the children to draw digitally using electronic tablets. They were more enthusiastic in drawing on the tablets than on the picture books. Digital storytelling had been a great success in drawing children’s interest to the practice of storytelling.

So what?

Since, I have researched a bit about the usefulness of the ICTs, I have come to know, that some of the authors have been skeptical about the use of ICT and claims that its use is not suitable for the physical, social, cognitive and emotional development in children. However, there is no such clear evidence to support the claim. According to de Aldama and Pozo, (2016) ICT practices provides a context for collaboration, cooperation and positive learning experiences between children and the adults. ICT provides unique opportunities to people to support scaffolding and supporting learning for children having special learning needs and those from culturally and linguistically diverse background. By the use ICT children can or join together picture, word and sounds thereby providing a range of ways for children to communicate their ideas, feelings and thoughts. I have always tried provide opportunities to children to experience a meaningful learning.  I have tried to use good soft wares which can allow children to engage in self directed exploration. According to outcome 4 of the EYLF children are confident and involved learners. They tend to develop a range of skills like problem solving, experimentation, enquiry, hypothesizing, investigating and researching. Furthermore, I was also aware of the fact that children resources their own learning by connecting with place, people and technologies. Hence, I have introduced ICT considering the outcomes of the EYLF.

Benefits and Challenges of ICT in ECE Settings

Theoretically, integration of ICT in teaching is also in line with the constructivist process of teaching. Constructivism, generally promotes social ad communication skills by the creation of a classroom environment that emphasizes on collaborative learning as well as exchange of ideas.  A constructivism learning generally relies heavily on collaborative learning. There are certain reasons why collaboration facilitates learning. Learners get autonomy and initiate to use various ICT integrated tools for collaborative learning (Branscombe et al., 2016). Via social platforms, work of the children can be shared easily. All the children will be able to get access to the magic of the internet at one touch or click.

Now what?

However, being a teacher, I would definitely like to introduce ICT in ECE settings, but would at the same time keep a close vigilance on physical as well as the ergonomic safety of the child. I would be mindful about the exposure to in appropriate context and to balance the screen time activity.   It is also necessary to check that children do not become internet dependent and a balance is maintained between the learning and the use of ICT. It has also been found that ICT knowledge is extremely useful in facilitating online learning with children. I intend to work more on introducing ICT in classrooms for facilitating learning for children with disabilities. Classroom based assistive technologies can be helpful for teaching children with learning disability. Visual scene displays has been found to be assistive for children struggling with verbal skills (Dong, 2018). In fact customized curriculum may be used by using ICTs, for those with special learning needs. However, I believe that I should develop more knowledge about the use of new technologies, so that they can be used as per the needs of the children. It is recommended that a compulsory integration of ICT be facilitated in early childhood classrooms. I also believe that effective development of ICT professional development will also indirectly incorporate aspirations, skills, knowledge of the teachers.

References

Bhagat, V., Haque, M., & Jaalam, K. (2018). Enrich Schematization in Children: Play as The Tool for Cognitive Development. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 8(07), 128-131.

Branscombe, N. A., Burcham, J. G., Castle, K., & Surbeck, E. (2013). Early childhood curriculum: A constructivist perspective. Routledge.

de Aldama, C., & Pozo, J. I. (2016). How are ICT used in the classroom? A study of teachers’ beliefs and uses. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 14(2), 253-286.

Dong, C. (2018). Preschool teachers’ perceptions and pedagogical practices: young children’s use of ICT. Early Child Development and Care, 188(6), 635-650. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2016.1226293

Eid, N. (2015). Innovation and Technology for Persons with Disabilities.

Ignatova, N., Dagiene, V., & Kubilinskiene, S. (2015). ICT-based Learning Personalization Affordance in the Context of Implementation of Constructionist Learning Activities. Informatics in Education, 14(1), 51-65. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=61012

Thompson, S. D., & Raisor, J. M. (2013). Meeting the sensory needs of young children. YC Young Children, 68(2), 34.

Woo, T., & Lee, K. H. (2013). Effects of sensory education based on classroom activities for lower grade school children. Nutrition research and practice, 7(4), 336-341.  https://doi.org/10.4162/nrp.2013.7.4.336