A. APPROACHES TO LEARNING.
I. What is approaches to learning?
1, Approaches to learning describes how young children go about acquiring new knowledge and mastering skills. Approaches to learning is the foundation that effects how children learn in every content area. Young children approach learning in different ways, each bringing a unique set of attitudes, habits, and preferences to their interactions and explorations.
Preschool programs are often children’s first learning experiences outside their homes. How children approach learning in these early years, thus, can determine their attitudes toward education when they enter school, and indeed, for the rest of their lives.
2, Components of approaches to learning.
“ Approaches to learning describes not the what but the how of learning… Today young children ‘s interest, engagement, persistence, and motivation are being placed at risk the challenges of poverty, violence, and instability within families and communities; trends in early childhood curriculum, teaching, and assessment practices, and the inadequate supply of evidence-based professional development. The risks are many but so are the remedies. Action is needed to remove barriers and to direct greater attention to approaches to learning ”- Hyson (2008,pp.4,12).
Children approach learning in different ways. Some are more reserved, while other children approach new experiences with lots of enthusiasm.
Psychologists and educators use the term styles of learning to describe how people go about acquiring knowledge and skills, solving problems, and generally dealing with the information and experiences in styles of learning appear early in childhood. These differences vary along several dimensions, including sensory mode, pace or timing, and social context. Example: Some children learn best by watching others – watching the teacher and other children use the straws and golf balls before trying it themselves. Other children learn by doing right off the bat – using the straws and golf balls in their own way.
HighScope training began to provide more choices in the materials and activities she offered and noted in her journal, “ Children are staying with a task much longer because it is more open ended, and matches their interests and ability levels”.
Approaches to learning also involves being able to break down a task into its components, organize a plan of work, and reflect on the success of one’s endeavors. In these respects, a child’s approach to learning affects performance in other content areas.
3, Influences on Approaches to learning
A child’s approach to learning is in part shaped by temperament, including the child’s level of inhibition and strength of emotional reactions (Chess & Alexander,1996). Babies are born with innate temperamental differences that persist into adulthood. However, the Collaborative for the Advancement of social and Emotional Learning ( Elias et al., 1997) says that the environment also plays a significant role in determining how these biological traits are expresses.
The National Education Goals Panel emphasizes that school readiness is enhanced when young children are encouraged to explore, ask questions, and use their imaginations. These early experiences predispose them to take reasonable risks. HighScope uses the term initiative to describe children’s desire and ability to begin and follow through on tasks. Children intentionally decide what, how, and with whom to engage. The do so with a specific goal or plan in mind. They do so with a specific goal or plan in mind. The child’s goal maybe simple( get the ball ) or complex (write my name with a stick in the sand).
While many early childhood programs allow children to make choices, HighScope preschools incorporate the plan-do-review process, which encourages children to engage in planning. During planning time (plan), children state, in gestures or words, a plan of action. At work time (do), children carry out their initial plans and other self-initiated activities, working and playing alone or with others while adults interact with children to support and gently extend their activities. At the end of work time is recall time (review), at which time children reflect on, share, and discuss their work-time experiences.
Approaches to learning thus cut across all domains of development. They reflect what we think of as children’s personalities, or emotional dispositions. Because so much early learning occurs in social settings, children’s social dispositions can also affect their exposure and openness to new information. Finally, whether children perceive learning and problem solving as positive challenges, insurmountable barriers, or even threats directly affects their ability to benefit from their educational experiences. How young children approach learning carries long past their entry into formal schooling. In fact, it will likely determine their educational careers and influence their attitude toward mastering new knowledge and skills throughout their adult lives. For these reasons, it is important to provide young children with experiences that develop their initiative and the skills to solve problems with confidence, flexibility, and persistence.
II. General Teaching Strategies for Approaches to learning.
1, General teaching strategies
Establish a physical environment that is rich in options to explore materials, actions, ideas, and relationships.
Young children enter preschool primed for new experiences. They bring to this exciting but unknown environment a shared curiosity and motivation to learn, along with unique dispositions about how to approach the process of discovery.
Create a daily routine that allows children to express a variety of learning styles and preferences.
Predictable routines establish a safe setting within which young children can approach the job of learning in whatever ways feel comfortable for them. A combination of child- and adult- initiated activities, during individual and group times of the day, provides a range of experiences to suit children’s needs, interests, and preferred modes of engaging with materials, ideas, actions, and people.
In HighScope preschool programs, teachers follow a daily routine, which includes the following activities: Greeting time, Planning time, Work time, Cleanup time, Recall time, Large- group time, Eating and resting times, Small – group time, Outside time, Transition times ( Including arrival and departure).
Give children time to approach learning in their own way.
Many adults live with the constant pressure of multiple demands and tight schedules. Without realizing on children. Yet preschoolers need time and psychological space to attempt new things, make a plan, figure out how to solve a problem, practice a new skill, and think about the meaning of what they just saw or heard. It is therefore important for adults to be patient as children approach experiences in their own way. When adults step in too quickly to suggest a plan, offer a solution, or do something for the child of an opportunity to discover and create things for him or herself. Although adults may become anxious, resentful, or disinterested. They also learn to rely on the adult for ideas.
2, Key Developmental Indicators
HighScope has six key developmental indicators (KDIs) in Approaches to Learning: 1. Initiative ,
2. Planning,
3. Engagement,
4. Problem solving,
5. Use of resources,
6. Reflection.
III. Approaches to learning in Action
1. KDI Initiative: Children demonstrate initiative as they explore their world.
a, How Initiative Develops?
The Initiative to explore the world comes from within and is intrinsically rewarding. Preschool children show initiative when they choose to participate in variety of activities that, over time, engage all their senses. They are increasingly comfortable trying new things, taking risks, and generating their own ideas. In a supportive environment, young children approach tasks with growing levels of originality, flexibility, imagination, and confidence. They discuss a broadening range of topics, share observations and ideas, entertain open- ended questions, and solve problems. Preschoolers are more apt to engage fully in a activities that support child initiative.
b, Teaching Strategies that Support Initiative.
To promote initiative and build on young children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, adults can use the following teaching strategies.
- Focus on effort, not outcome.
Encourage investigation and celebrate children’s attempts, not whether they succeed or fail in their efforts. Emphasize the inherent satisfaction of learning rather than rewarding performance or results. Acknowledge when children try to master a new skill, solve a problem, or explain something they observe.
Use encouragement rather than praise to focus on children’s actions (and not on whether they are pleasing adults), and ask open-ended questions so you can listen to children’s thinking and help them understand that there is not only one right answer.
- Acknowledge when children try new things.
Encourage – but never force- children to explore new materials( scissors, the computer), try our their knowledge and skills (sort beads, ride a trike), or share their idea or opinion ( about why ice melts or the feelings an artist is trying to convey). Acknowledge and appreciate the risks take, whether they are physical or psychological. Taking the initiative requires confident and trust. Let children know that you see and value their courage as well as their curiosity, as these teachers demonstrate.
- Balance freedom and structure in the physical environment.
Children take the initiative when the learning environment is designed to provide thoughtful variety in an organized setting. An overly structured classroom can be inhibiting; children may be afraid of “messing up” the order posed by adults.
Initiative is also supported by giving children in
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