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Early Childhood Learning: Mapping Theories to Practices

Introduction

Early childhood education is marked by the debate of how children learn and what the best way to teach these young children is (Stremmel 1993). There have been many theories and viewpoints regarding the early childhood learning process and the effective methods of teaching. These theories inform and guide teachers on how the young students learn and develop. Every day, the teachers draw ideas and belief from these theoretical perspectives while operating in the early childhood settings (Nolan & Raban 2015). So, today’s educators put many of these theories into practice when they design their lessons and class activities with young children. In the Early Years Learning Framework (Australian Government n.d.), there are fundamentally 5 identified theoretical perspectives, such as the developmental, socio-cultural, socio-behaviourist, critical and post-structuralist perspectives.

This article discusses three teacher-designed class activities involving kindergarteners, to understand their learning progress during the activities. All of these three activities require group interactions, although can be performed individually by the student. These three cases are discussed in the light of three theoretical approaches to early childhood learning, connecting the theories to the practice. The three theoretical perspectives that are found to be predominantly informing the three chosen cases are: the developmental perspective, the socio-cultural perspective and the post-structuralist perspective.

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Case 1: Family Ties

This case entailed a group activity, where children created a house scenario using dramatic play props such as glasses, trays and tables. Each child took on a role in the house – Ana played the mom of the house, Mila played the baby, Chloe and Clarissa were the sisters and Eva and Eryn enacted servants in the house. The servants were busy serving the family members in the house and the family members were giving out orders to the servants for items like the hot chocolate or the strawberry milkshake.

This role-play of a house engaged the students in a positive manner and they seemed to enjoy being in the shoes of a mother, baby or a servant in that play environment. It allowed a lot of scope for interaction and conversation among the participating children, building relationships and resolving conflicts in case of disagreements.

Evidently, this ‘Family Ties’ activity successfully achieved the 2 following learning outcomes:

• Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners.
• Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.

The children bonded together, solved problems together and also negotiated together as if they are indeed a real family in a real house (observations attached to the Appendix).

This activity appears closely connected to the developmental perspectives of early childhood learning. The developmental theories of child learning are based on the fundamentals of developmental psychology, which holds that a child develops through certain stages and in a pattern. Therefore, early childhood pedagogies are built around those patterns and the stage at which the child is.

Some of the significant developmental theorists are Jean Piaget (stage theory), Maria Montessori (planes of development), Rudolf Steiner (seven year phases), Kohlberg (stages of moral development), Erik Erikson (stages of development), etc. (Nolan & Raban 2015). Although their theories are not identical, they overlap and they look at development as a discontinuous, stage-by-stage process, where one stage ends to make way for the next. These theorists believe that young children learn by exploring and playing with concrete objects (CSU EYLF Consortium 2009). In such cases, the development is holistic – physical, social and cognitive development merge and progress together. So, educators practising these developmental theoretical approach, plan a rich classroom environment with play-based experiences suitable for each child’s unique and holistic development (CSU EYLF Consortium 2009). As the young children engage in the experiences, the educators observe them in their everyday activities in order to understand and analyse every child’s individual progress and shortcomings.

In the chosen case, the activity is designed to provide exposure to the physical, cognitive and social development of the children. Enacting a family within a house is a rich play-based activity that allows the children to enhance their gross motor skills (physical), nurture their thinking/cognitive abilities by imagining a family situation, build on their social skills as they interact with each other and solve problems on their own. Play fosters language development, social skills, creative abilities and imagination (Fromberg & Gullo 1992). Frost (1992) held a similar opinion. He mentioned that play is the main medium for developing social skills, imagination and intelligence, language and perceptual-motor skills in young children. Piaget (1962) described play as a process of assimilation, where the children try to relate or match his/her existing concepts of a situation to the environmental stimuli received during play. Montessori (1936) also observed that children are inherently curious and teachers should take into account their individualities and independence in a learning environment. The Montessori Method emphasized on the human tendency to explore and share with a group, to be independent, to be able to use imagination and to be able to abstract ideas from real experiences (Gottesman n.d.). Even Erikson’s theories on the stages of development mentioned that the preschool years (3 to 5 years) are marked by exploration (Learning Theories n.d.). The group activity ‘Family Ties’ satisfactorily accommodates these developmental theories of child learning and development by providing a scope to explore, think, interact and resolve conflicts on their own. Teachers can observe and assess students to arrive at an understanding of which student needs more help with what. Thus, they can further channelize them into developmentally appropriate practices.

 

 

Case 2: Slime Making

The slime making activity is a fun, but messy, play activity for young children. It is not the same as playing with slime, but being involved in the process of creating one. Not only does this activity have a lot of scope for learning language, it also allows children substantial sensory experiences (the sensations of touch in particular). One child named Bianca leads the activity as she is aware of the slime making process. So she lists the ingredients that are needed to make slime and she guides the rest of the children to make the slime step-by-step with those ingredients. The other children follow instructions, ask questions and express how well their slime is coming through. It is a completely interactive activity, although each child is making their own slimes, pouring and mixing ingredients in the right proportions. They will watch others, ask questions and cooperate and collaborate. The sensations of touching the slime as it is being prepared, will generate their curiosity and make them use descriptive words like “gooey”, “slimy”, “moist”, “pasty”, “slippery” or maybe “slithery” as they make sense of the substance in their own individual ways.

This activity is targeted towards the three following outcomes:

• Outcome 3: Children develop a strong sense of well-being.
• Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity.
• Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners.

During this activity, children touch new and unfamiliar items, honing their fine motor skills (outcome 1); they also demonstrate a sense of well-being because they wash and dry hands after touching the slime (outcome 3); and they followed Bianca’s guidance quite well to be able to make their own slimes, thus exhibiting attention and involvement (outcome 4). Learning through this activity reflects the socio-cultural theories of early childhood learning.

Socio-cultural theorists considered that the social environment plays a huge role in shaping the learning in young children. Vygotsky (1978), for example, was a proponent of this theory and strongly believed that a child’s knowledge is constructed socially. In their particular social context, the children acquire the culture and values as they interact with the more knowledgeable members of the society (Vygotsky 1978). His concept of the “more knowledgeable other” is as important in the context of this slime making activity as is his idea of the “zone of proximal development”. In Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, a child performs tasks guided by an adult or a more knowledgeable peer and thus achieves learning. Bronfenbrenner (1979) is another such theorist who believes in the impact of the environment on the child’s learning and development. As the child interacts closely with his/her immediate environment or the social sphere (persons/objects/symbols), he/she acquires new knowledge. Rogoff (1990) was yet another socio-cultural theorist who advised educators to view child development as deeply rooted in the communities they thrive in – the social and cultural milieu within which they grow up.

In the slime making activity, the children follow instructions from Bianca, who acts as the “more knowledgeable other” in this case. Also, the children interact among themselves and help each other, share their own ways of making the slime, explaining and describing in their own ways (observations attached to the Appendix). They thus learn from their environment, being scaffolded when necessary by the “more knowledgeable other”. They, therefore, function in the zone of proximal development and each of them bring to the table a varied range of descriptions of the slimy mixture or the different ways they can play with it. Some children relate it to the playdough activity as they are more familiar with it in their social context. However, the successful slime making by all children attest the importance of environmental impact on children’s learning.

Case 3: Jewellery Making

The jewellery making activity was carried out by the three girl students in the class – Eva, Ana and Rani. Using coloured paper, texta’s and tape, they created rings, necklaces and bracelets customised for each of their ‘customers’, which included the teachers and the students around. They organised their job well – going about taking orders from potential customers and writing down their order details by name so that orders are not mixed up during the production phase. They created unique designs and styles, each handcrafted with utmost care and delivered personally to the customers (observations attached to the Appendix).

This activity achieved the following outcome:

• Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.