Dispositions Essential for an Early Childhood Educator - Essay Example

?Dispositions The term disposition refers to a stable habit, of readiness or tendency to do things in a specified way. These dispositions also influence a person’s attitudes about and how they respond to daily events. People in different professions are required to have appropriate predispositions that will allow them to deliver their services efficiently and more effectively. It will also help them to satisfy the people or customers they serve. One such group of people is the early childhood educators. Their predispositions should be those that will enable them to have a strong impact on their effectiveness as professionals in handling children and their educational requirements. Dispositions essential for an early childhood educator An early childhood educator should delight in the development of children and have a curiosity about the same. This will allow them to have a strong liking for children and be able to approach and interact with them in and out of class every time and not only when direction or correction is needed (Kidd et al 316). According to Danielson et al (235), playing forms an essential part in the life of a child and their proper development. Therefore, an early childhood educator should value children’s play. This disposition will motivate them to arrange the environment, provide opportunity and materials for play, and be part of it either by watch closely or active participation. They will not find themselves interrupting play and replacing it with teacher-directed activities. The world is dynamic and some of these changes bring challenges in the way we handle and deal with situations we are used to. The early childhood educational centers are not exempted from these challenges and changes for example changes in children’s behavior due changing social-economic and technological situations in the society. An early childhood educator should therefore expect and welcome continuous challenges and change. Such a disposition will allow them to delight in and help the children no matter the change in behavior. They will also demonstrate flexibility for example trying new ways and new activity plans to match any change in the interests, questions and needs of the children (Thornton 23). Due to the continuous emergence of new circumstances and challenges in the society including children, an early childhood educator should have the will and be ready to take risks and make mistakes. This will allow them to move and perform in new upcoming areas within the early childhood education. It will also enable them to handle situations or issues in the early childhood education set up they have never handled before. Whenever mistakes arise, they take them as important learning opportunities instead of sources of self-condemnation and discouragement. Lack of this disposition leads to rigidity and less interest in professional development (Danielson et al 235). Collaboration is necessary for the attainment of results that individual people cannot achieve to the best or those that can be achieved better if approached or done as a group. This requires that an early childhood educator should seek collaboration and peer support. Peer support is very important especially in tackling challenges that relate directly to the education of young children. An educator with such a disposition will use all opportunities to brainstorm and problem-solve with colleagues while requesting or offering help where needed (Thornton 25). Early childhood educators have a significant role in the life of young children to shape, care and protect them due to the much time children spend in school during the day. This requires that early childhood educators should actively advocate for children and teaching practices that are appropriate for them. This disposition will drive them to learn all rights and needs of children in order to ensure that they are provided for. These will include the educational needs required by children for them attain to their best education wise for example the best instructional methods and teaching-learning materials. Such an educator will should also inquire into the challenges and dangers that children face so as to seek for ways of addressing them (Thornton 28). An early childhood educator should be a person who can reflect and self-evaluate themselves. This means they should know themselves, their values, beliefs and the intangibles that will guide them in class. This will also enable them to search for new learning opportunities and better understanding of their profession. They will also know their role in the early childhood education program and stop directing blames to other staff members, children or parents when things do not go right (Danielson et al 235). An early childhood educator should engage parents and other stakeholders in the education progress of the children. This disposition is important because parents are an important source of information needed for an all round evaluation of the children. These include their behavior at home and any history of sickness (Kidd et al 319). Children also have their own dispositions hence early childhood educators should know the dispositions of children. Such a disposition will enable them to screen out inappropriate dispositions among the children and help them develop those that are appropriate. They will also develop interventions for these inappropriate dispositions. Looking at the above list of dispositions essential for an early childhood educator, I must admit that I have not developed all of them. Those I have developed include delight in the development of children and curiosity of the same, valuing children’s play and active advocating for children and the early childhood profession. I also seek collaboration and peer support, and perform a personal reflection and self-evaluation. However, my level of expecting changes and challenges, and the readiness to take risks and make mistakes are still low. How to develop dispositions The best way to develop these dispositions is to attend various professional development programs and early childhood teachers’ programs. Experience as the best teacher cannot be sidelined either and so I will interact with and learn from the other teachers within the school. This is because dispositions are important learning outcomes which should be encouraged instead of being taught. A performance of personal investigation into required dispositions and closer interaction with children will also contribute to the development of the appropriate dispositions. Conclusion The above mentioned dispositions are very essential for all early childhood educators hence they should be given an opportunity to learn and practice them during professional development programs and all early childhood courses. This will make their career more fulfilling and rewarding. Teachers should also form collaborations and learn from one another especially concerning dispositions that will enable them deliver the best in their profession. Works cited Danielson, L., Edick, N., and Edwards, S. (2007). Dispositions: Defining, aligning and assessing. Academic Leadership Retrieved June 25, 2007. Online. http://www.academicleadership.org/emprical_research/Dispositions_D. Retrieved on 27th April, 2011. Kidd, J. K., Sanchez, S. Y., and Thorp, E. K. Defining moments: Developing culturally responsive dispositions and teaching practices in early childhood pre-service teachers. Teaching & Teacher Education. (2) pp 316-329. 2008. Thornton, H. (2006). Dispositions in action: Do dispositions make a difference in practice? Teacher Education Quarterly. Online. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi. Retrieved on 27th April, 2011. Could not manage to get the second names of authors due to lack of internet connection. Please help. Read More