Early childhood education - Research Paper Example

? CURRICULUM CONCEPTS FOR FIRST GRADERS Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction 2 Literature Review 3 Overview of concepts that would be the focusing features in the academic area for ECD 5 Activities demonstrating the concepts of ECD 7 Conclusion 8 Works Cited 10 Introduction Early Childhood Education (ECD) is one of the substantial and essential components for the students that help them grow in every field of their lives that can lead them to the attainment of success, status, and prosperity. With the advancements and developments that the world is encountering, the educational and learning curriculum and the teaching methods have improved and enhanced in a continuous way that have left an indelible impression on the achievement of the student’s progress in a productive and positive manner (Saracho & Spodek, pp. 1-4). Education is the learning, knowledge, insight and the information that students get in their academic levels that can provide them with an understanding about how and in which direction to lead their lives. Moreover, quality in education helps the students to make their lives in a much better position as they have the power of knowledge. Due to such importance, that education holds in itself, education, and predominantly early childhood education is one of the prime concerns that cannot come under ignorance. Nonetheless, like any other sphere of influence, the area of education also has numerous issues that the students’ experience in their academic lives (Saracho & Spodek, pp. 1-4). Besides, students have a strong need to develop specific skills that takes account of problem solving, analytical and critical thinking skills in order to survive and cope up the world of global competition. Early childhood educators play an integral role in setting the underpinning for developing the future leaders of the planet. However, with respect to the broad spectrum of early childhood education, the primary and first question that comes to mind is regarding the program of study of the students. Therefore, the thesis statement of the dissertation is “when designing the curriculum for the preschool of young child’s classroom, what are the prime concern areas, concepts or subjects to focus that can lead to the progress of the student in a most constructive way”. Literature Review According to various researches, it has come under notice that the physical environment of the classroom plays a significant role in the learning styles of the students that has failed to come under notice and ignored to great extent. In addition, these studies conclude that the prime focus of the educators or the teachers is only on pedagogy, content of the core curriculum and interpersonal dynamics, which eradicates their focus from the physical contexts, which is one of the imperative contributors of teaching and learning. The physical environment of the classroom includes the classroom setting as well as the outdoor setting. However, these studies conclude that by changing the classroom environment that persuade and endorse play would facilitate in escalating and promoting literacy activities among children during their early childhood or preschool years (Essa, pp. 189-191). In addition, the environment ought to be such that must provide opportunities to the children that can lead them to explore and learn. Studies also exhibit that the arrangement of shelves, comfortable and sturdy furniture, learning materials displayed on shelved and classroom design on an overall basis when taken into strong consideration demonstrates to be very fruitful (Essa, pp. 192-195). According to some schools of thoughts, it has come under observation that teachers and educators of early childhood is another vital and crucial facet that must have a proper background knowledge and information regarding the early childhood education or child development. This is because courses related to such studies provide massive emphasis on the development of the child and the learning styles of the young child, and thus the National Association for the Education of Young Children has also set some standards with respect to the early childhood educations. Studies also demonstrate the piece of information that the teacher-child ratio and size of the groups also play an important role in the planning and designing of curriculum considerations. Consequently, the appropriate teacher-child ratios become a source of encouragement for the bonding of children with the teachers (Essa, pp. 89-93). Consistent daily schedules are another factor that has materialized from several studies as a contributor in the planning for effective early childhood programs. Studies provide evidence that young child of early childhood develops a sense of security when they can make predictions of the sequence of events. This way they feel that they have some control over their environment, which provides them with an elementary sense of time (Essa, pp. 221-224). Extensive studies also suggest that first grade comes under the consideration as the most important for the students as this is the grade where the students make their assessments of poor or good readers. Additionally, studies have indicated that unfortunately the most common instructional practices have come under finding to be the most unpredictable and inconsistent. The envisioning of the curriculum for the first grade students must come under development that has integrated learning as an essential component. Integrated themes and projects enable the students to interlink and make connections between the ideas and knowledge, which is meaningful to them. Moreover, integrated nature of curriculum facilitates the student in learning and acquiring several skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking skills in a much better way. Physical development, language and literacy development, creative development, social and emotional developments are all wide aspects of integrated learning that the students benefit (Deiner, pp. 102-105). Authentic assessment should also be an integral part of the curriculum, as authentic assessments and evaluations are the progress of the child that comes directly from their experiences. This is essential as it exhibit the performance of the children. Evaluation must come under performance in such a careful way that it must collect, analyze, and interpret the results in such a way that the students should not perceive it in an unconstructive manner and must take it as positive advice from the teachers (Essa, pp. 163-166). Overview of concepts that would be the focusing features in the academic area for ECD The classroom space is one of the distinct entities that come under segregation into several centers including art, writing, reading, math, manipulative, blocks, science, and play area. Therefore, planning how to integrate active play and movement into activities and lesson plans in all the areas under focus is one of the most beneficial strategies educators can apply. Technology has become one of the vital aspects in the world of twenty-first century. In the contemporary world of today, technologies that incorporate television, videos, and computer to large extent have become visually oriented and thus have become a source of attraction that maintains the attention of young children. Furthermore, the technologies that are interactive and let the children develop their curiosity, problem solving, and independent thinking skills must come under utilization. This is because the preschool or young children have significant cognitive growth, therefore, the use of cameras, computers, tape recorders, and video cameras in classroom projects can prove to be very valuable, productive, and mind-expanding for a child, as long as they do it at the right time (New & Cochran, pp. 798-804). Besides, real-life experiences with real people from available technologies have proved to be very beneficial for the early and quick learning of the children, hence, technologies must come under practice to enhance the curriculum and experiences for the young child. The technologies that are embedded into the core curriculum of the early childhood education enable the children to integrate and well balance their set of experiences that can lead them to grow competent and professional adults and can take care of the social and emotional interactions as well as develop their intellectual abilities (New & Cochran, pp. 798-804). In the designing of the curriculum for the first grade early childhood education, children must get an involvement in concrete, real and three-dimensional learning activities, which must closely transmit to the daily life experiences of the children. In addition, teachers must have a question answer sessions that give confidence and push the students to give as much answers as possible. Block building activities, measuring ingredients for cooking, woodworking, and drawing activities are also few additional tasks that teachers must bring into practice that can assist the children in learning the concepts in math, science, and social studies (Essa, pp. 254-257). A wide variety of strategies with respect to reading and writing would come under implementation that would assist the students to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, understand, and respond to a wide variety of text and literature. Indeed, Phonological and Phonemic Awareness is one of the critical aspects. This would reveal and elucidate the hearing ability, the capability to identify, and manipulate large parts of not only spoken language that include words, syllables, and rimes and but also individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words (Isenberg & Jalongo, pp. 118-121). Vocabulary would be another highlighting feature of the areas under concern that would help the student to develop and expand knowledge and understanding of words and word meanings, and hence increase their vocabulary (Isenberg & Jalongo, pp. 123-124). For mathematics, number sense is important for the understanding of complex mathematics and the relationship between numbers and quantities. Geometry would be other areas of importance that would lead the student identify and recognize the common shapes of geometry and explore the relationship of objects in the environment (Essa, pp. 340-342). Activities demonstrating the concepts of ECD Children by the time they are in their first grade, they have become very active learners. Indeed, experiments, trial and error, representing their learning through construction and play, and finding answers in picture books have become their prime areas of interests in this range of age. Consequently, they like to find and uncover things on their own.  With regard to the aspect of technology that can help in designing the course of study of early childhood education, specialized computer programs are available that provide a great deal of help. While having a glance at an uncomplicated case, if a child has problems with related to its handwriting that is he or she has very slow, clumsy, untidy and sloppy handwriting, which decreases the esteem of the child, and thus their homework, class work or other work presentations comes under great effect. In fact, this child hand in papers that is all in a mess. As an outcome of this low esteem, the child gets reluctant and unenthusiastic towards their work, due to the reason that this child receives negative comments, opinions and remarks at all times. The answer to such a problem is easy and technological (Deiner, pp. 264-265). With the availability of the program on a word processor, the child is able to learn and hand papers that are neat and clean. Besides, this program also enables the child to make correct spellings of the words. Therefore, only simple, uncomplicated, and non-specialized software if used in a right way proves to be very fruitful for the young child. Nonetheless, a number of wide ranging programs are available that with a primary educational focus on mathematics or reading that engage and challenge the children to read better and learn on solving math problems (Deiner, pp. 264-265). Another leading example that has substantiated to be useful for the first graders is concerning the development of the problem solving skill. The educators or the teachers by giving the students a challenging task or activity that embrace making a cardboard village or building a fort and several others of this sort would enable the students to participate and contribute in a team. This would enhance their problem solving skill, as brainstorming is one of the beneficial practices that involve the students to come up with ideas and work in a team. By working in a team, the students develop the quality of how to perform a task in teamwork. Moreover, teamwork also allows the students to have multiple options to solve their problems, thus developing the quality of problem solving skill (Gestwicki & Bertrand, pp. 305-308). A different and diverse activity that has come under witness to be a creative and dynamic activity with respect to the learning process of the young child of first grader is the program of alphabet-workout that involves the movement, music, and visual aids. This program of alphabet workout helps the first graders in learning sounds. With various motor movements, the students hear the word sounds of the letters that assist them in learning the words and the sounds. In addition, this program also let the teachers use simple and inexpensive things like scarves that helps in enhancement of the movement experience that lead to work on creating shapes and letters upon movement. Conclusion The dissertation can come to conclusion with the thought that children are always inquisitive and interested to learn and seek for new things about their own world. In fact, numerous creative ideas and approaches are always in their minds and thoughts that they encompass. To put it briefly, preschoolers and young children, particularly the first graders are vigorous, dynamic, and eager learners, as they explore, seek for, manipulate, and experiment on a continuous basis. With reference to the thesis statement presented in the above paper, the primary concern in the current era is with reference to the designing of the curriculums of the early childhood education that can lead to the student improve in all areas of study. Vast and extensive studies and researches have come under practice that demonstrates the prime concern areas that should come under consideration when early childhood education is concerned. The entire thesis report and the researches that have come under performance states that early childhood education is the stepping-stone from which the learning of the student and his entire academic life depends. Therefore, the course of study must come under design with critical and grave thoughts and considerations in all aspects including the environment, core curriculum and the teaching practices that can lead the students to have a better learning and understanding of the basics of their academic lives. Works Cited Deiner, P.L. Inclusive Early Childhood Education: Development, Resources, and Practice. Cengage Learning, 2009. Essa, E.L. Introduction to Early Childhood Education. Cengage Learning, 2010. Gestwicki, C. & Bertrand, J. Essentials of Early Childhood Education. Cengage Learning, 2011. Isenberg, J. P. & Jalongo, M. R. Major trends and issues in early childhood education: challenges, controversies, and insights. Teachers College Press, 2003. New, R.S. & Cochran, M. Early Childhood Education: O-Z. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. Saracho, O. N. & Spodek, B. Contemporary perspectives in literacy in early childhood education. IAP, 2002. Read More