Learner Differences and Commonalities in the Early Childhood Classroom
Content Area Instruction for Students with Varying Abilities
Aggressive Behaviour in Early Childhood Education
Managing Aggressive Behaviours in the Early Childhood Learning Environment
This module consisted of the four units "Content Area Instruction for Students with Varying Abilities", "Ethical Considerations in Early Childhood Education", "Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Education", and "Differentiation and Scaffolding in Early Childhood Education". As part of the first unit, we worked in small groups to create an “Early Childhood Education New Teacher Guide” that outlines best practices for meeting the needs of students with varying abilities. In this guide we highlighted that varying abilities can be determined by the teacher through initial assessment, observation, communication with parents, and different methods of instruction. When teaching in the Early Childhood Classroom, it is important to be aware that every child is different and we should always take time early on to get to know our students and try out different methods of instruction to see what works for each student. ​
One of the topics that we covered during the unit entitled "Ethical Considerations in Early Childhood Education" was that of aggressive behaviour and bullying. We learnt about 'restorative justice' which is an approach to bullying that does not overly focus on punishing the behaviour; but rather it focuses on building relationships and repairing harm caused by such behaviour. There is also a greater focus on the prevention of bullying and helping to ensure students are able to recognize what they are doing wrong and find a way to make it right. We also made a guide for caregivers explaining how to deal with aggressive behaviour in children of varying ages. As children grow and develop, their capacity to understand the effect of their actions changes and it is therefore necessary to respond to problem behaviour in a way that is appropriate and understandable for a child of that age. We also explored ethical dilemmas that we have experienced in our teaching careers and learnt that an ethical responsibility (describes how early childhood educators are required to act and what they must do and must not do) is different to an ethical dilemma which is a situation for which there are two possible resolutions, each of which can be justified in moral terms. It is important that as teachers we are aware of our ethical responsibilities and that we take care when facing ethical dilemmas and seek the advice of other teachers around us.
Meeting Students Where They Are
Meeting the Needs of Each Student
Child Development and Developmentally Appropriate Practice
As part of the "Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Education" unit of this module we learnt that Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) can be defined as “methods that promote each child’s optimal development and learning through a strengths-based, play-based approach to joyful, engaged learning” (naeyc.org). We discussed how guided play is a developmentally appropriate practice for young learners and we also considered different activities, teaching strategies, and teaching materials that would be appropriate for different age groups e.g. safety scissors for young children and more basic cutting activities. We also demonstrated the link between the concept of Developmentally Appropriate Practice and one of the theories we had studied in previous modules. I chose to highlight the link between DAP and Piaget's theory of Cognitive Development. This theory seemed particularly relevant as Piaget divided a child's cognitive development into distinct stages, and for each stage certain concepts or activities are more suitable than others. It is always important to consider the age and ability levels of children when preparing and planning our lessons to ensure that what we are planning to teach is developmentally suitable for that particular age group and will therefore lead to optimal learning conditions.
We finished of the module by exploring "Differentiation and Scaffolding in Early Childhood Education". We learnt about the importance of differentiating tasks for students with different learning styles or ability levels, and also the importance of scaffolding tasks into simpler steps to make it more manageable for young learners. We learnt that it is possible to not only differentiate the content (what students learn), but also the process (the activities they take part in), the product (how students show what they have learnt), and the learning environment (the way the classroom works and feels). I found it really useful to learn different methods of differentiation from members of my cohort that I had not tried before such as the idea of providing the students with a 'choice board' that would allow the students to choose the activities (process) from a selection prepared by the teacher to suit different learning styles. This is something I would really like to try to do more in my classes going forward and I felt that this module overall was particularly useful and I learned a lot from not only the course itself but also from my cohort.