Children 's Intent Observation And Participation

881 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Theories in early childhood education

We now elaborate on this definition by making links to the theories highlighted in this article and examples from our research project which illustrate working theories in action.
(a) According to Te Whariki, children construct working theories as they observe, listen, discuss, take part and represent their understandings in their everyday lives.
Rogoff et al. (2003) describe this as children 's intent observation and participation in everyday cultural activities with the goal of later involvement as effective contributors. Working theories are therefore "increasingly useful for making sense of the world, for giving the child control over what happens, for problem-solving, and for further learning" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 44). Working theories are visible, tangible outcomes of children 's developing knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Two valued cultural activities are parenting and being a "good friend". Several children in the research project articulated working theories about where babies come from and how to care for them. Eve (4) said: "You can grow a baby in your tummy ... my mummy had a baby and it 's me", and Amber (3) said:
"Look, I have a baby in my tummy, it 's not popped yet." They also reflected their working theories in their dramatic/fantasy play, when they fed, cuddled and took care of their dolls. Similarly, in relation to caring for others, Dihini (4) comforted her friend who had just fallen over, and went with her to find an icepack. In other data, Dihini 's play repeatedly focused on friends and friendships. Therefore, in this episode we believe she was demonstrating her working theories about how friends look after each other, as well as indicating some early knowledge of first aid.
(b) Working theories...

... middle of paper ...

...zle, imagine, consider and think through their ideas and understandings. In doing so, they clarify and negotiate understandings about what constitutes acceptable and effective participation in their communities and cultures.
For example, many children in the research were engaged in developing working theories about identity based on gender differences. Some children had very strong ideas about appropriate behavior for boys or girls, likely influenced by cultural understandings. Isabella (4), for instance, brought up in a traditional Chinese extended family, was adamant that daddies are not allowed to take care of or even carry babies, only mummies and nanas. This was disputed by Jade (4), whose experiences and working theories were obviously different. She challenged Isabella 's theory by saying to her: "But boys can look after babies because my brother babysat me."

Show More
Related

  • David Jardine On The While Of Things Summary

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, I have also struggled with the idea of whiling and how to while in our current society. How can we start whiling? What is worth whiling? What is the purpose of education in whiling? What is the role of teachers and schools in whiling? Can we fully understand the child through whiling? All these questions I have is challenging to answer. However, by reading this article and learning about the idea of whiling, I found the balance between the known and the unknown. The questions I have composed might have no definite answer. However, these questions open up dialogues and through these dialogues I can gain new understanding of the world. Answering these questions is a long process and it requires time and patience. We can start by being attuned and

    Read More

  • Archeological Studies: Why Do We Discount Children in the Archaeological Record?

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    children are a critical factor in the continuation of tradition and cultural themes (Ruttle 65).

    Read More

  • The Documentary: An Analysis Of The Documentary Babies

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    Humankind has always held a certain fascination for babies. We see a baby and our automatic response is generally one along the lines of “awwe”. New mothers often experience an increase in attention from strangers when going out in public with their new children. The bottom line is we love babies. Their big eyes and general helplessness evokes a certain almost maternal desire in each of us. Aside from the obvious psychological and evolutionary science behind these emotions, infancy is a universally significant time that transcends all cultures. The documentary Babies choses to explore this time by examining four newborns and their mothers in Nambia, Mongolia, the United States, and Japan.

    Read More

  • Differences And Summary Of Thomas Balmes's 'Babies'

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Babies”. Is a documentary made by the Thomas Balmés. It offers a window on the lives of four infants in four completely different cultures. This is not a usual kind of documentary; there are no narration, no subtitles and actual dialogue was very minimal. The film explores childhood rituals, enculturation, socialization and parenthood. I will try to explore each of these themes and try to make the case that behaviors, values and fears are learned not something congenital. It has, in my opinion, comparative perspectives and different methods in rearing children in different societies. It achieves this by cutting the scenes in certain ways to show the differences between these different children. For example, in one part of the film, both Bayarjargal (the Mongolian child) and Mari (the Japanese child) were playing with their pet cats and then the two scenes were edited to a shot of Ponijo (the Namibian child) looking interested in flies. The four children developed in somewhat similar ways. However, there are differences in their behaviors due to the enculturation by seeing their parents or siblings who were doing what they thought to be the norms and the obvious landscape in which they are brought up. Two of the kids were born in rural areas (Namibia and Mongolia) and two were born in urban areas (the United States and Japan). The mothers of these infants were interviewed and chosen to be in the film

    Read More

  • Child Development Observation

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    Child observation is relevant in social work because social workers deal with problematic situations, in which students have the opportunity to observe and reflect the characteristics of a child’s development in terms of physical and mental change. Observation has an important role in children’s play it shows the development progress as well as the child’s thinking about events.

    Read More

  • The Social Construction Of Gender And The Joys Of Parenthood

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gender is a popular topic in the world today. It is a subject that is talked about and argued over, yet even with all the discussions being had, there are numerous other matters related to gender that should also be considered and included in the conversation. One of these issues is parenthood. The two articles “The Social Construction of Gender” and “The Joys of Parenthood, Reconsidered” each talk about how their topics are influenced by culture.

    Read More

  • Babies Documentary Analysis

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    The French documentary Babies shows the first year of development of four different babies who live in four completely different environments. The film follows Ponijao, a little girl from Namibia, Bayar, a little boy from Mongolia, Mari, a girl from Tokyo, and Hattie, a girl from San Francisco. Even though the babies live in very dissimilar parts of the world, their physical, cognitive, and social development seem to all follow a set pattern. On the other hand, the babies learn to do some activities distinctive to their environment by watching their parents and siblings. Therefore, Babies provides evidence to support both the nature and nurture sides of the debate.

    Read More

  • Comparing Childhood Studies

    1109 Words  | 3 Pages

    The study of children and their development is a new interdisciplinary field unifying research from sociology, anthropology, development psychology, law, and healthcare. Childhood studies emerged from the universal need to understand children’s development, their susceptibility to external factors, and what it means to be a child from the child 's perspective. Children differ depending on many factors, such as place, time, social status, religion, and tradition, and each of these aspects

    Read More

  • The Social Construction of Childhood

    2204 Words  | 5 Pages

    While all societies acknowledge that children are different from adults, how they are different, changes, both generationally and across cultures. “The essence of childhood studies is that childhood is a social and cultural phenomenon” (James, 1998). Evident that there are in fact multiple childhoods, a unifying theme of childhood studies is that childhood is a social construction and aims to explore the major implications on future outcomes and adulthood. Recognizing childhood as a social construction guides exploration through themes to a better understanding of multiple childhoods, particularly differences influencing individual perception and experience of childhood. Childhood is socially constructed according to parenting style by parents’ ability to create a secure parent-child relationship, embrace love in attitudes towards the child through acceptance in a prepared environment, fostering healthy development which results in evidence based, major impacts on the experience of childhood as well as for the child’s resiliency and ability to overcome any adversity in the environment to reach positive future outcomes and succeed.

    Read More

  • Theory Of Imaginary Play

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    More studies indicate that young children are able to define their own experiences both individually and as collective. As children process and revisit experience, they define social knowledge according to their experiences of their culture. Nevertheless, the learning community becomes a scientific cooperative, dedicated to researching and celebrating the world (Bodrova and Leong, 2006c).

    Read More

  • 1.2 Explain The Difference Between Sequence Of Development And Frameworks

    2263 Words  | 5 Pages

    Theories of development are important as they can influence practice and also help us understand children’s behaviour, reactions and ways of learning.

    Read More

  • Vygotsky's Impact On Development And Child Development

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    Why I think Vygotsky sociocultural, theory work best in childcare development is that children work best in small group; there are many opportunities to incorporate individual work as well. The individual work can also be used as assessments. A child working alone will show the teacher what she actually knows, and how much their development has improved. It exposes students to different ways of thinking and higher standards, which in turn lead to greater accomplishments. Finally, yet importantly this theory will produce well-rounded, confident individuals who grow into high producing

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Vygotsky's Cognitive Development

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    I believe this as well, that children are constructive but are not experts at most skills and will therefore need some guidance from a caring adult. “The Zone of Proximal Development is the range of abilities that a person can perform with assistance, but cannot yet perform independently. Providing children with the appropriate assistance and tools gives them what they need to accomplish the new task or skill”. This is called scaffolding. “It’s important for people to realize that the zone of proximal development is a moving target”. Which means it is consistently changing as the child grows older. This is why I like to challenge children and present them with tasks that aren’t easily achieved on their own, but with some guidance and slight assistance, it is capable of accomplishment. Vygotsky believed that this would progressively advance the learning process as I too

    Read More

  • Parenting Styles

    1395 Words  | 3 Pages

    Parenting, which is somewhat akin to teaching, should be regarded as one of the three cooperative arts. Thus conceived, it calls upon parents to assist their offspring in the process of growing up, doing so by observing carefully the steps the children themselves take in the process and doing what is necessary to facilitate their progress. Parenting departs from being a cooperative art, as teaching does also, when it tries to be the active and dominant factor in the process -- when parents or teachers think that what they do should be like the molding of passive, plastic matter.

    Read More

  • Pretivation Of Child Observation: Motor And Physical Development

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    For this assignment I had to observe a child between the age range of 0-6 for an hour and half to note their motor and physical development. Before I go in to detail about my observations of the child I must first define what motor and physical development means. Motor development can be broken down into two subcategories. One subcategory would be the gross motor skills development that use large muscle groups to complete task. Then there is the second subcategory deals with, “ Skills that involve large-muscle activities”.( Santrock, J. (2015). Children (13th ed.). Madison, Wis.: Brown & Benchmark. ) The second subcategory would be fine motor skills that, “ involve finely tuned movements” and it known as fine motor skills. Fine motor skills

    Read More

More about Children 's Intent Observation And Participation

Open Document