Science Activities in the Kindergarten - Term Paper Example

?Childhood is a ‘foundation laying’ and ‘life – shaping’ phase for every individual. It is a vital period in one’s life when ideas are developed, concepts are learnt, the mind is conditioned to believe in what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. It is also a stage when the mind is alert, active, inquiring and seeking. Children look up to their elders, family members and teachers to mentor them through these years. It thus becomes extremely essential that children are guided in a balanced, holistic and just manner. Parents and teachers must ensure that they adequately expose children to the basic realities of life, with an educative approach; appropriate to their age group. Teachers play one of the most influential roles during ‘early childhood’ since they spend anywhere between four to eight hours a day with their students during their formative years. This makes it imperative for teachers to develop and inculcate the qualities of listening, understanding, respecting and empathizing, so that they may improve on their relationships with students. ‘Counseling skills’ form an integral part of training programs that are specially designed for teachers and have been found to have a long – term impact on the social learning and psychological wellbeing of the students (Hutchins & Vaught, 1997). As a newly appointed pre – school teacher at an international school, I would be expecting a dynamic, diverse, multi – cultural classroom environment. The age group of the children in my class would be in the category of three to five year olds. Some of the children’s families would hail from white backgrounds while a majority would come from families that are of diverse origins such as Asians, Africans, Arabs, Native Americans, etc. Some may be well versed with the American way of life, language of English as well as the customs. Cultural attributes may vary between individualist and collectivist tendencies. Communication is believed to be dependent on two factors: ‘the speaker’ (usually the teacher) and ‘an active addressee’ (the pupil), both of whom need to actively participate and differentiate as per the social and cultural environment (Poimenidou and Christidou, 2010). Culture is believed to influence participation, acquisition, transmission and invention. However, the children and their families who hail from diverse backgrounds may not be very conversant in English, may be of a different cultural mindset and may require time and assistance in adapting to the new environment. The one ‘diverse background’ that I would like to focus on is the ‘Asian community’. The Asian community has always intrigued me due to its tremendous sub classification and branches within itself. The most amazing fact is that, within the Asian community, cultures are so varied and different from each other. ‘Asians’ include people from China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore (to name a few). Chinese, Koreans and Japanese individuals characteristically possess physical characteristics such as distinctly slanted eyes and a rather small build. In general, Indians, Pakistanis and those from Singapore and Malaysia have a darker skin tone than their Chinese or Japanese counterparts. Historically, India and Pakistan were under the British rule until the year of independence and partition respectively.  China is one of the world's oldest civilizations, ruled by various dynasties at different time periods, culminating in the Chinese Civil War and proclamation of the People’s Republic of China. Japan evolved from the Meiji period and was occupied by the United States up to the year 1952, following which it attained significant economic growth. Singapore was conquered by the Japanese during the World War II; however, followed by British rule and was finally declared an independent republic in the year 1965. Traditionally, these communities were rather conservative in their approach and hierarchical in structure, wherein males and senior individuals would occupy higher statuses in society. Gender differentiation is rampant between the Asian male and the Asian female, with a high importance given to the male child to provide for the family, with the hope of carrying on the family lineage. The Asian female is traditionally more passive, less valued and viewed as ‘subservient to the male’ (Nguyen, 2002). Right from a very young age, Asian children are taught to listen to the words of their elders and respect the views of their seniors. This brings about an attitude of accepting parental conditioning without much scope to debate or voice one’s individual opinion as a child. There is a great importance given to ‘family units’ and strong sense of bonding amongst close and extended family members of the Asian community. There is also an observed reluctance amongst some parents to seek assistance or help outside school for fear of tarnishing the status of the family (Al Thani and Nasser, 2012). The ‘opinion of elders’ is given utmost respect and value and plays a vital role in ‘decision making’. Owing to the rising population in Asian countries like India and China, nuclear families are mostly limited to four members (i.e., mother, father and two children). Most Asian countries focus on a strong education system and exhort the attainment of academic achievements such as good grades or marks and take great pride in “topping the class” or “breaking previous records” at the school level. Children from Asian communities may be perceived differently due to various reasons such as their physical features, appearance, build, color, family background and language abilities. It is commonly observed that children from these communities tend to cluster in to groups, based on familiarity of language or origin and tend to communicate less in ‘English’. Importantly, children from such backgrounds may have varying religious beliefs and customs, which may be uncommon or difficult to comprehend by the Western children. Some Indian families are strict vegetarians or vegans due to their religious beliefs, which gives rise to a unique requirements or dietary restrictions. These factors leave them easily misunderstood and often ignored by the local American children. Children from each of these countries may speak the English language with varying accents; this renders them vulnerable to jeering comments and embarrassments from their peers, often hindering the usage of the language. Children belonging to Asian communities tend to be respectful, sober as well as passive and are taught from a young age to obey instructions by their teachers and not to strongly retaliate even if provoked by their peers. This is in stark contrast to the American or European culture where outspokenness, confidence and forthcoming attitudes are encouraged, giving every child an opportunity to voice his or her opinion as an individual, irrespective of age or gender. I believe teachers can play a major role in helping to bridge the gap between students hailing from different communities and stimulate integration amongst them, through the usage of some strategies. A creative idea to involve children along with their families may be to organize an ‘Ethnic Evening’, wherein children are invited to the school with their parents in their traditional ethnic attire. A short cultural program may be organized for entertainment, with songs and dances from different ethnical backgrounds. This would allow for inter - community learning, cultural acceptance and better involvement of the entire class. At the parental level too, this would be an ideal opportunity to get to know the other children, their parents and teachers in a better way. I would also suggest that children are taught about the existence of different backgrounds with the help of quizzes, puzzles, games and short videos focusing, on the cultural aspects of the communities. These methods would certainly capture the interest of the child and generate a sense of curiosity to learn about people from cultures different from one’s own. This is highly important especially in a cosmopolitan environment. I also suggest a unique concept of organizing a ‘Food Day’ or ‘One Dish Party’, wherein each student brings one food dish that is native to their country of origin. This would stimulate the children’s taste for various cuisines and also give rise to an opportunity to mingle amongst their peers. After all, specific recipes and ‘the art of cooking’ are great uniting forces that may appeal and cater to the taste buds of individuals from highly contrasting origins! Preschool activities that would educate the other children about students from the Asian community would be to learn a few commonly used greetings; for example: “Hello” and “How do you do” in some of the Asian languages such as Hindi (from India) or Mandarin (from China), etc. This is sure to intrigue the young minds and open the door to language acceptability, knowledge and fluency. Another preschool activity would be for each non - Asian child to paint flags of any Asian country and present them to their Asian counterparts. Similarly, the Asian children can choose to paint the flag of any non – Asian country and present the same to their peers from a different background. This would promote cross – cultural adaptability and integration amongst the children. I believe that the ‘Asian culture’ must be adequately represented in the standard curriculum for pre-school children. The diversity within the Asian communities must be highlighted using anti - bias curriculum, so that the community is not unfairly generalized, judged or categorized, against the rest of the society. I suggest that due emphasis is given in the curriculum to the diverse languages spoken in Asian countries, clothing and attire of the Asian people as well as the major world renowned festivals celebrated in these regions. However, I believe teachers should make it a point to encourage the sole use of the English language, within the classroom. This would motivate students to reach out of the comfort zones of their native languages and mingle with students of all cultures, through a common language. In particular, ‘ESL Learners’ must utilize tools and recommended resources such as ‘weekly quizzes’ to test the child’s knowledge of English, ‘language polls’ to understand the most frequently used and accepted sentence structure, as well as the evergreen concept of the ‘Word of the Day’, which allows for constant enhancement of vocabulary and knowledge. Language tests may be conducted to gauge individual progress of the class and prizes may be awarded to children who score above a certain mark, in order to motivate and encourage greater participation and performance. It is thus essential for teachers in a multi – cultural setting to creatively design and adopt educational, goal - oriented, fun – filled activities for children to integrate better amongst themselves, in a culturally sensitive environment. This would certainly inspire better communication, improve trust and harmony, mitigate tendencies for cultural shock and give rise to greater sensitivity for people from different cultures. With the world ‘going global’, there is every need to lay utmost importance to cultural integration right from the formative years. It is thus my belief that such cultural amalgamation should be the endeavor of every schooling institution!! Referencess 1. Hutchins D. and Vaught C. (1997) Helping relationships and strategies, (3), Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. 2. Poimenidou M. and Christidou V. (2010) Communication Practices and the Construction of Meaning: Science Activities in the Kindergarten, Creative Education, (1), Pg. 81 – 92. 3. Nguyen L. (2002) Characteristics of the Traditional Asian Family. Retrieved on May 26, 2013 from http://www.coedu.usf.edu/zalaquett/mcdp/Asian%20handout.htm. 4. Al Thani A. and Nasser R. (2012) Little Steps at Improving Preschool Teachers Practices through Counseling Skills in Qatar, International Education Studies, (5). Read More