Philosophy of early childhood math education In math education, I want children to have the ‘I CAN’ spirit regardless of any difficulties they might face. My philosophy is represented by the acronyms I, C, A and N. ‘I’ in my philosophy stands for interaction. Interaction is essential because it is through interactions that children learn more; build social skills as well as allowing the teacher to observe if the children need more attention in certain areas. I agree with Vygotsky (as cited in Berk, 2013) that social interaction between children and more knowledgeable adults is necessary for children to acquire understanding and behaviour. Therefore, not only children to children interaction are important, teacher to children interaction is …show more content…
Curiosity is a vital component in children’s learning. It is when children are curious, they would start to “recreate or reinvent mathematics as they interact with concrete materials, math symbols, and story problems” (Sperry Smith, 2001, p. 16). To maintain the curiosity level in children, I would give them the autonomy in choosing what they would like to learn and tap on their interests accordingly. Lastly, provide children with a variety of concrete experiences for exploration and allow them to express their ideas in different mediums. The next acronym in my philosophy is ‘A’ and it stands for acknowledge. It is important for teachers to acknowledge children for their efforts and achievements because it helps to increase children’s level of self-esteem (Clements & Schneider, 2006). Children appreciate kind words and acknowledgements from teachers therefore I need to come up with more encouraging words and phrases to motivate them to learn …show more content…
Child A mentioned, “Circle is round, the CCTV is also round, same as circle.” In the case, the child has attained Stage 0 (Visualisation) as he was able “to recognise the whole [shape, circle] without being able to talk about the parts” when he saw the CCTV (Sperry Smith, 2001, p. 69). In addition, he displayed competency in Stage 1 (Analysis) because he was able to describe the attribute of a circle, which is round. He was able to recognise and name circle then relate circle to its attribute by looking at the circle portion of the
Introduction This essay aims to report on how an educator’s mathematical content knowledge and skills could impact on the development of children’s understanding about the pattern. The Early Years Framework for Australia (EYLF) defines numeracy as young children’s capacity, confidence and disposition in mathematics, and the use of mathematics in their daily life (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), 2009, p.38). It is imperative for children to have an understanding of pattern to develop mathematical concepts and early algebraic thinking, combined with reasoning (Knaus, 2013, p.22). The pattern is explained by Macmillan (as cited in Knaus, 2013, p.22) as the search for order that may have a repetition in arrangement of object spaces, numbers and design.
In Carol S. Dewck’s article “The Perils and Promises of Praise,” she shares her research on how to praise students correctly while helping them become motivated learners. She believes that most educators hold two beliefs (1) praising students builds motivation to learn, and (2) Students inherent intelligence. As a psychologist for 35 years, Dweck has studied student motivation looking at thousands of children. Asking questions like why some like learning and why they are able to overcome obstacles, she learned a great deal. Praise is linked to how students view their intelligence.
In the 1900’s, Winston Churchill said “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” (Kutner, The Illustrious History of Misquoting Winston Churchill,”). This quote stands out for a number of reasons. When people read books, people slowly gain more character, courage, and more curiosity. First of all, reading helps people develop character to know the good choices from the bad ones.
Prior knowledge and understanding- children need to have prior knowledge to enable them to understand the ideas presented. Understanding- children need vocabulary related to the ideas presented Context- the mathematical concept must be understood by the child/children they need something to relate to, to back up what they are being presented with. Resources available-
The same rapport needs to be built, being respectful with one another and ensuring that you are actively listening and showing interest in the other person. However, when in a school setting it is very important to ensure that when communicating with children you maintain that professional relationship as an adult/carer and ensure that they understand your role as this. Physical contact should not be actively encouraged when communicating with children. This is hard to avoid when working with younger children as they do often initiate contact like hugs and hand holding. A child may need or seek comfort in these situations and therefore it would be inappropriate to reject their need.
In order to build and maintain an effective relationship with children/young people I need to consider the following methods. • Effective communication – this is the key area for developing relationships with others and also covers many different forms of communication. The different forms are mentioned below. o Find opportunities to speak: I need to make sure that pupils are given sufficient opportunities to talk. Some children have very little chance to put their own thoughts forward and express themselves with adults.
Developing positive relationships by using effective communication is an important part of working with children and young people as well as working alongside adults. Positive relationships can benefit everyone in the classroom situation, it can encourage children to feel secure and able to participate, and to enable everybody to understand what is expected of them in the situation. Using positive communication is also a good way of being a positive role model to children and young people. If everybody feels happy and comfortable in a situation it helps to boost their ability and want to interact with each other.
Through implement activities in this classroom, I observed that children have capacity to use materials in variety of ways to learn and explore base on their experiences and interests. Even though I have planned my activity and image how children might approach to the materials, I restrain instructions and let children express how they play and learn. I stay beside to observe and assist when children needed. It is treasure to see how children excited to learn and be creative. In the classroom, I’m sensitive to individual differences and abilities.
This will be a perfect way to make them visual and understand the concept of math. The students can create a real world activity in their room. Let the students think and bring out their own knowledge that they have inside to learn what the teacher is
The teachers encourage friendship building from the moment the children enter the setting. Wragg (1993) believes that relationships between child and child are extremely important and it is a teacher’s job to encourage these relationships to build. From research gathered it is believed that children build relationships with each other based on the teachers teaching styles and having a variety of teachers. This is because some teachers may tell the children to work independently in silence and not to interact with other children whilst doing so where as other teachers will get the children to complete group work and encourage them to communicate with one another. Allowing children to work together is promoting relationship building as it is allowing the children to get to know each other, they will be learning things about each other and will be forming friendships whilst doing this.
Explain the importance to children’s holistic development of Speech, language and communication This development is important for children’s holistic development as this will help the children to socialise and help them express what they like and need, this will get them to have more sense about the world. If the child can communicate this will help them with their confident and self-esteem levels as they can talk about how they feel.it is important for children to use their own language skills and not to listen to other all the time and this could put their development back. Adults should praise children a lot so they have the encouragement try new things but it is important you adults to give them feedback so that they can learn from right and wrong.
For children and young people to develop positive relationships it is crucial for adults to model effective communication in the classroom. As a teacher or teaching assistant, you have the platform to facilitate social learning and lead by example. One of the main reasons why effective communication is important, is because it makes children feel happy and comfortable at school, and in your presence. Not only will this help children to thrive in a learning environment, but will also filter through to their lives at home and outside of school.
“13 Rules That Expire” by Karen S. Karp, Sarah B. Bush, and Barbara J. Dougherty, is a thought-provoking read because, for one thing, students do not actually know that these thirteen rules perish until someone notifies us. When I first read this article, it came to me as a bit of a shock. This is an article that all math teachers should read before teaching in a classroom. This article is about the rules that teachers use to teach math to younger students and how those rules will expire before they graduate from junior high school. Many teachers struggle with getting their students to understand math.
The first stage is the sensory motor stage ( birth-2 yrs.) , in this stage child does not know the physical object in existence when out of stage. Second stage is called the preoperational stage (age2-7), no abstract conceptualisation is possible where it needs concrete physical situation. In the stage is concrete operational stage (age7-11), starts to conceptualize with experience that accumulates. The fourth stage is formal operation (11-15), cognitive structures resembles like adults and includes conceptual reasoning.
Theories that as future educator will need to be understood and explored. Some if not all these theory’s will be used in the classroom. Vygotsky, Piaget, Bruner, and Bloom all set out to establish a foundation for education, whether through building skills such as pre-reading, language, vocabulary, and numeracy. It becomes the educators job to implement theories into the classroom for children's cognitive development. The theorist discussed in this paper, have had made a profound effect on