Multicultural and Anti-Bias Program for Preschool Age Children - Coursework Example

THEME An effective, culturally relevant, anti-bias program for preschool children TARGETED GRADE Preschool age children UNIT OVERVIEW The unit is designed for age group of 3 to 5 years students of anti-bias Preschool program who are in developing phase. Considering the age and academic level (entry level) of children, course should be designed to help children in growing and learning three basic areas of knowledge, which are Language, General Knowledge and General Progress / Activities. The basic theme of anti-bias preschool program is to educate all children about the importance and equality of different races, religions, social or cultural backgrounds. Language to be followed is English as English is the world’s common and formal language. OVERALL GOAL The goal is to design and implement an anti-biased curriculum that would help children from different cultural backgrounds, religions, races to learn values in Preschool program to build un-bias concepts and personality, to improve their muscular development and to get ready to properly begin to formally get in to academic boundaries, and getting familiar with the basic concepts and also with the school environment. DISCUSSION OF DEVELOPMENTAL GOALS All contents (Language, General Knowledge and General Progress / Activities) of anti-bias program for preschool children will be taught by focusing on the basic concepts regardless of sequence or order. Basic colors, Basic counting concept, basic sounds and equal value concept will be taught with the help of solid objects, worksheets, videos, rhymes and educational toys that would also promote different cultures, races etc. The major part of preschool program is to help the children in their muscular development and responsiveness. The evaluation task is to test if the mental and physical development and growth of child is complying with the satisfactory standard and his growth is competitive as compare to other children of his age group. The first quarter is to help children in improving their grip with several exercises like playing with play dough and crayons for scrambling. There will be no particular books involved in Preschool program. Worksheets, solid objects, crayons, worksheets, pasting activities, cutting activities, coloring, dancing, singing, poems, stories, games and similar activities will be executed in order to help child in being attentive while listening, comprehension of verbal instructions, understanding of phonemes, listening stories with interest, retelling stories/events, expressing needs or emotions, participating in discussions, expressing likes or dislikes, recognizing basic or primary colors, discussion of pictures or events, getting familiar with pre-writing patterns, improving hand control, tracing shapes or letters, understanding of basic concepts, recognizing shapes, getting familiar to cutting and pasting activities, showing creativity with clay work, participating in group discussion or assembly, participating in role play or music, taking part in outdoor activities, development of fine and gross motor skills, showing discipline or courteousness, showing responsibility, interacting with peers, being consistent or confident, showing consistency in work and showing independence in the use of material, etc. There is also a need of giving multicultural touch and color of all races in worksheets, rhymes and all above activities to promote the cause. IMPORTANCE OF ANTI-BIAS CURRICULUM Children of preschool program are quite young and are in phase of beginning to learn number of differences including the difference of gender, race, color, physical appearance and a few other visible dissimilarities (Rasmussen, 2004). However, learning same lessons in same environment by same teachers under same circumstances train children of young age to adopt anti-bias concept. Mind of a young kid should be shaped in such a way that he should follow such trend for the rest of his life. This way, these anti-bias programs contribute reasonably in the development of a good, responsible and productive citizen. The term multicultural refers to the blend of children from totally different societies and cultures. Multicultural programs for preschool children also promote the concept of anti-bias environment where children learn to live without differences. School curriculum, school environment and activities should be designed to encourage the multicultural and anti-bias environment, concept and skills for children. Diversification actually maximizes the usefulness and other productive aspects of the education system for the children. Following are a few activities that would be followed in our school in order to accomplish our overall goals. ENCOURAGING SCHOOL-HOME PARTNERSHIP Children do not just learn from school, they also adopt concepts, habits, ideas, style and several other gestures from parents, relatives or siblings. More than any other relation at home, mothers and fathers are the main focuses of children. Children adopt a lot of habits, activities, concepts and living style from parents. In many cases, teachers teach in a defined framework while mothers or fathers teach in their own style. A little preschool kid can get frustrated and may not learn anything. A good school system realizes that for the correct and proper development, growth, education and performance of a child, parents and teachers should proceed in a same direction. It is advisable to teachers that they should take parents in loop in order to let them know the direction to follow. If teachers tend to educate the children well under anti-bias multicultural program and parents, deliberately or subconsciously, follow biased practices and speak slang in fun that could put inappropriate affect over the child then efforts may get wasted. To mitigate this threat, our team would be conducting parent teacher meetings, orientations, functions and other interactive discussions every quarter so that the parents come to know the importance of implemented anti-bias program. COMMENCEMENT OF ROLE PLAYS, STAGE SHOWS It would be necessary to organize role plays, sport carnivals, stage shows and several other entertainment activities so that to encourage children to mingle well among peers and to gain confidence in participating, collaborating with fellow mates who are from different race, region or religion. This way, numerous positive outcomes could be received and this would encourage uniformity (BusinessPublishers, 2007). PRACTICAL APPROACH Children of preschool are too young to learn things easily. It is very necessary to arrange outdoor visits and games to teach them curriculum courses. In our curriculum, it has been proposed to educate the animal names to preschool children, our practical approach would be taking our preschool children to ZOO where they can personally and practically see different animals and this way they would tend to learn their names with interest. Throughout these activities, children should be encouraged in being friendly to each other in discussing different things they see together under supervision of their teachers. On the other hand, to let them know a little about weather, they can be taken out to collect dry leaves from garden in autumn season, etc. To make them learn alphabets, songs, rhymes and videos are proven to be quite helpful. Same is the case to teach them about shapes. Original square, round, rectangular and triangle shaped objects should be given to children to let them feel the shapes and should ask them to help each other in drawing the shapes with crayons. Throughout such visits, games and activities, students should be randomly grouped in three to four per group so that they talk, play; discuss the objects they see or feel. This way, from such an entry level only, children can learn the benefits of living in anti-bias society. PRE-IMPLEMENTATION RESEARCH As it has been proposed by one of our faculty member that the curriculum of our school’s sister concern school, I would like to present my research, I conducted considering the results of last three years of our sister concern school system that indicate that not more than 50% of the preschool children are evaluated on the basis of applied curriculum to be promoted to the next program. In 50% of the promoted students are mostly over age than the average class age that indicates a flaw in the curriculum. It has also been noticed that girls of this age group are sharper than boys. However, evaluation cannot be done considering this as criteria. To overcome this fact, it should not be expressed at any stage to the children that girls of preschool pick things quicker than boys. However, the resolution could be designing a curriculum that the younger boy (whose age is below average age) could also pass easily or with a little effort. This way, unbiased curriculum will help all students to learn new things without getting confused. No student will be left behind. In last three years, parent-teacher meetings were always being conducted on time. On assessing the comments of parents, following outcomes are concluded. Less than 10% parents showed satisfaction in terms of results and growth of children. On searching the database, it has been noticed that all parents who showed their satisfaction actually showed satisfaction as their children were promoted to the next program. Following facts have been found about the children who successfully passed the preschool program for last three years: 70% of the children were girls 40% of the total children who passed (girls and boys both) were over-age than the class average age. Above facts reveal that curriculum should be reconsidered as it seems a little tough for the age group of 3-5. Seven years ago, curriculum that was initially designed for the age group of 3-5 year-old children was found satisfactory as the majority passed the program with good results. With the passage of time, good results resulted in overconfidence for the school faculty and gradually curriculum had a lot of modifications, in result of which, current curriculum of our sister concern school is not right for the preschool children. The changes were made gradually so the school system could not really consider this dark side. In most of the cases, school system blamed the teachers or sometimes blamed the children for the results. As many of the students were passing the programs, there was a question mark for the other students. Unfortunately, no one researched the gender and over-age factors. It has also been found that the age factor while admission was skipped by the admission department in number of cases. Younger than the required age or elder than the required age were given admission that also created such problems. Considering the conclusion of the above research, there is a need of implementing unbiased multicultural program where no one is left behind. IMPLEMENTATION OF MULTICULTURAL THEME PROGRAM To implement the anti-bias multicultural theme program for preschool children, we need to take following steps. Areas to teach: For entry level children of 3 to 5 years of age group, implementation of different cultural, generic, age based, religion based , and core conceptual or a little hard to understand courses are not suggested. Therefore, the course areas to be taught on the basis of our multicultural theme program would be the Language (World Local Language), General Knowledge and the General Activities. Mathematics is not suggested to be treated as a separate course because at this level, the basic numbers (1-9) are to be taught throughout the program tenor. Therefore, Mathematics is planned to be taught by the Language teacher. The plan would be teaching each number for one week so that the children learn in fun without any difficulty. Usage of right material and images: For preschool children, copies and books for each course are not suggested. However, story books representing different cultures, genders, different countries, and different races should be included. Use of play dough, clay work, outdoor visits, diverse images, cultural puzzles, activities, role plays, videos and other similar activities are to be doubled than our sister concern school. Alphabet activity games like “My B Balloon”, “Name Bingo”, “File Folder Letters’, “Memory Game”, “Erasing with Water”, “Dramatic Play: The Letter G”, “Erasable Alphabets”, Erasable Numbers”, “Alphabet Album” and other similar games should be the basic strategy to teach letters to preschool children. Singing songs and using words in various languages could also help children to learn with fun. To promote anti-bias and multicultural program, alphabet games representing different cultures are to be played so that children enjoy learning and learn to live with all social values. Celebrating cultural days: Fashion shows, stage shows, role plays, dancing and singing events with colors of different cultures, languages, societies, religions, races and traditions are very important to promote and encourage the multicultural system where all cultures, societies, religions, genders, races are given equal importance in order to educate little children to love mankind and not to discriminate. CONCLUSION The core task of anti-bias, multicultural program implementation is to educate preschool children about the different races, cultures and social values and to make them learn to live and collaborate with fellows from different races, societies, cultures or backgrounds. To treat equally, language should be the world’s local language; however, cultural songs, fashion shows and functions are to be organized to encourage social and cultural collaboration. Preschool children pick things, concepts quicker than any other age group, therefore, right cultural values and un-bias system should be taught to them that would stick with them for the rest of their lives. Bibliography BusinessPublishers. (2007). Address Diversity, Promote Anti-Bias Behavior By Celebrating Differences. Report on Preschool Programs , 39 (9), 65-72. Rasmussen, V. (2004). Anti-Bias Curriculum. Retrieved May 31, 2010, from ChildFun: http://www.childfun.com/index.php/providers/curriculum/751-anti-bias-curriculum.html Read More