Curriculum Development Assignment To begin, there are many current trends and policies that have impacted greatly on the Early- childhood care and education system and services in Ireland over the years. Such trends and policies include, Play. Play is a huge part of any early-childhood care and education setting in Ireland. Children are said to be at their happiest when they play. They are also supposed to be at their most vital and energetic. Aistear the curriculum framework for early childhood care and education has impacted greatly on the early years settings and the development of the curriculum. Margaret Kernan says that there is a tension in current early childhood care and education in Ireland between the vision and theory of play and also children’s everyday play experiences. Understanding the importance of play for a child is highly important, not only as a right but an actual need for their overall well-being. Play needs to be secured in all ECCE settings. As well as play, there is also another focus and that is on activity and learned centred curriculum. This is defined as allowing the student to learn by exploring, thinking, creating and being involved with his environment. Thirdly we have the Developmental model of curriculum, this model is seen as a process and uses many of the teachings from such developmental theorists such as Vygotsky, Piaget and Bruner. This model of curriculum is concerned with the nature of the child. From these theorists we learn how the childrens minds develop and how they actually learn. This also has a huge impact on the curriculum development in early years services and the way they go about their teachings. Another thing that has had a severe impact on early year’s services is the la... ... middle of paper ... ... responsibility of having animals and the caring that comes along with them. This would be a long term way of keeping the activity going but if you wanted a short term activity, something as simple as asking the children to make their favourite animal out of play-dough or modelling clay would also be a great activity. Another short term activity could also be as simple as asking the children to all draw their favourite animals. There are many ways of keeping an activity like this going. To conclude, I have discussed the current trends and policies that have impacted on the curriculum development n early years settings. I have examined the learning story and identified the relevant principles, themes and learning opportunities outlined in Aistear. I have also reflected on the learning story and identified ways of extending the activity shown in the learning story.
Interestingly it was through this process of sharing our professional experiences that we established the central idea of our exhibition. We had determined that the importance of play in the Early Years was a theme that was often debated by parents, colleagues and policy makers. By choosing this as our topic we hoped to have an enhanced understanding of the historical implications of play in Early Years Education, resulting in professional competence and the ability to guide and mentor others on the significance of play. Rodd (1996) endorses this importance of Early Years Professionals having the skills to build, establish and maintain credibility in the fast-changing sector of Early Years.
Exploring How Psychologists Study the Role of Play in Child Development Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, New Edition, 1995 defines “play” as: “[Children] when children play, they do things that they enjoy, often together or with toys. ” Play is one of the most powerful vehicles children have for trying out and mastering new social skills, concepts and experiences. Psychologists, such as Faulkner (1995), present evidence that play is seen as a mean of developing social skills and interpersonal relationships with others. The first section of the essay will present the different approaches psychologists use in the quest to learn about the role of children’s play and their related issues. This section will briefly define the nature of play and the different types of play that influence social development.
Play supports children’s physical development as when they are playing they are being active and exercising their body. It is important that children develop strength and stamina from a young age and through
I think it is very important for children to engage in imaginative and creative play. The reason I say this is because, there are so many children out here in the world being forced to play the sports they dont want to play. Meanwhile, we have other teens and young adults playing the sports they want to play. Yes children need to experience creative paly to learn how to be themselves. They need to learn how to become independent responisible thinkers. With all of these things been said this brings me to my next subject.
In today’s preschool culture, the role and value of play is very important for children; a rich environment filled with playmates, opportunities to learn how to share, take turns, self-regulate, and make life-long friends only scratches the surface of why play is central for children’s development. Parents aren’t seeing what is happening: what they see as random play is actually being utilized to help the child grow socially, emotionally, and physically. Parents believe that children should be spending more time working at an academic level instead of spending their time playing with blocks, puzzles, or being with friends.
Morrison, G. S. (1976). Chapter 6: Early Childhood Programs APPLYING THEORIES TO PRACTICE. In Early childhood education today (10th ed., pp. 5-31). Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
There was so much to learn about play and learning. I learned that play is very crucial to the learning and the development of a child. I knew the basics of the way we teach the children and how we are supposed to address and ask questions to the little ones to learn and be able to excel in their leaning. The understanding of why we need to is a different reason. To understand that the early childhood education plays a big role in the lives of these very young children. There is evidence that states that there is short and long term gains in cognitive, language, and the social-emotional development of the children. ( http://www.academia.edu/). I never realized that play contributes to these developments in so many ways. We as preschooler
An Article by Dr. Leong and Dr. Bodrova (2016) stated that play is beneficial to children’s learning especially when it reaches a certain degree of complexity. When they engage in play activities most of their early years, they learn to delay gratification and to prioritize their goals and actions. They also learn to consider the perspectives and needs of other people and to represent things significantly to regulate their behavior and actions in a cautious, intentional way.
Play is a primary learning tool that allows children to develop, and is the key pedagogy used by early childhood educators to support and enhance development (DEEWR, 2009). These principles acknowledge the child as a capable, resourceful learner who plays a critical role in directing their own play (Kearns, 2010). Curriculum for infants and toddlers should be open ended and flexible so as to enable changes initiated by the children. When educators value play’s ability to encourage and combine a wide range of young children’s intellectual, physical, social and creative abilities, they follow the EYLF aims of empowering children to view themselves as competent and resilient learners (DEEWR, 2009). The framework is underpinned by the principles that play is a critical tool in promoting learning, children as producers of their own learning and educators as facilitators (Kearns, 2010). Play is not just an experience to engage in for their enjoyment; it is through play that young children’s deep learning occurs (MacNaughton,
In recent years the emphasis on academic accountability and focus on children’s cognitive skills has led to a decline in the occurrence of play in early education settings. While both approaches have those who argue for or against them, the focus remains on what is the most developmentally appropriate practice, a phrase coined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which describes the concept of matching environment to the varying needs of young children. (Crosser, 1996) According to a national study conducted for the U.S. Department of Education:
In order to promote the best outcome from the curriculum we must consider that each child is an individual in their own right. Tricia David (2001: 55) states that early childhood should be a time of “spontaneity and of exploration according to individual interests”. Thus accounting for the child’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as their likes and dislikes, provides a curriculum, which will promote optimum development. This is also known as a ...
What is play? Although there is no one consensus on the definition of play, it is undeniable that “play is the work of childhood” (Diamant-Cohen, 2012). If play is the work of childhood, then why is play being taken away? The answer lies in the “schoolification of the early years” (Kane, 2016). This means that many preschools are turning away from play and towards academics. Early childhood educators need to turn their focus away from thinking about academics and play as separate. Play should encompass all areas for a child’s well-being; social-emotional and academic alike.
Nóirín Hayes explains in her research paper Perspectives On The Relationship Between Education and Care In Ireland (2007), how demand for early years education in Ireland has increased in the last two decades for a multitude of reasons. Due to this growing demand for quality early years education the NCCA (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment) introduced Aistear as the early childhood curriculum framework for 0-6 years in Irish early years settings in 2009. Aistear was introduced as the curriculum framework which when practiced alongside Síolta, the quality guidelines for the early years settings environments (introduced by the NCCA in 2006), creates a nurturing and safe environment which caters to the individual developmental needs of each child within the setting. Aistear means journey as Gaeilge and symbolizes the learning process and search of knowledge as a journey. Aistear’s framework is based on four themes - Well Being, Identity & Belonging, Communication and Exploring & Thinking - as a means to develop the child in a holistic way. (Aistear principle and themes: introduction).
I am very much the type of person that prefers hard copies such as books, magazines, or newspapers so I started there. I looked at past textbooks I have used during my time in school and found two that were extremely helpful; the first titled Play, Learning and the Early Childhood Curriculum by Elizabeth Wood and Jan Attfield, and the second titled Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School by Edward Miller and Joan Almon. After finding two books, I decided it was time to look on the Internet. Instead of using the normal Google search, I decided to use Google Scholar as a way to find dependable sources. I used the key words pay based learning, childcare, and teaching styles. From those key words alone I found many scholarly articles and experiment papers. One article I really liked was by Ageliki Nicolopoulou, a professor from Lehigh University located in Pennsylvania. What stuck out about her article was that she also used the text by Miller and Almon. Another source I reference in this paper is How Dramatic Play Can Enhance Learning by Marie E. Cecchini, which I quickly mentioned above. Dolores A. Steglin wrote the last article I used. Her article Making the Case for Play Policy: Research-Based Reasons to Support Play Based Environments was really helpful when I started to link the NAEYC Code’s and Early Childhood Educator Competencies to play based learning strategies. I also used
Like all young children, a child enjoys the pleasure of play. However, many people have different views on play and what it is used for. First of all, many parents and teachers think that play is beneficial to young children in many ways. It teaches them basic skills they need to learn in life such as cooking or housekeeping. This type of role play helps exercise their creativity and serves as a “rehearsal for adult life” (Lester and Russell). It provides them with the skills needed for them to grow as independent adults. Say, a child is pretending to run a grocery store. Another child comes by the store and picks up an empty carton of milk. Children often experiment with numbers and prices and manipulate them to either create a sense of being “grown up” or to cause a reaction. With this being said, the child running the store charges