I have always considered it essential to identify learning and more importantly document this learning in our working environment. The first workshop dealt with research on assessment practices specific to four year old children. The second was an ERO presentation on what's happening in curriculum in early childhood services.
This musing on assessment and practices is centred around two workshops that I attended recently.
Read more: Assessment practices – an early childhood perspective
This short reflection is an attempt to unpack the essence of hauora, or well-being, from an early childhood perspective.
Hauora is a Māori concept that relates to the health model in Te Ao Māori (the Māori World). It encompasses a holistic viewpoint and is defined within four distinct dimensions (http://health.tki.org.nz). These are:
Read more: Hauora - well-being from an early childhood perspective
The idea of of writing this musing is to present a case to state that the word 'bully' is not a relevant one to describe a child in an ECE environment.
As a teacher, I have always thought it inappropriate to label children in this age group with a negative connotation. This has long term effects on a child as he could very easily grow out of a particular behaviour with guidance at this stage of development. These are the years for children to develop their social skills, and comprehend the foundation for socially acceptable behaviour. I feel that the word 'bully' has a very negative connotation for any young child before they even comprehend the concept. Let me reason why I believe 'bullies' do not exist in early childhood settings and why we should not label them so. Behaviour management is an important area for us as teachers to keep reflecting on. We need to keep working on strategies depending on the type of behaviour of the individual child that we are addressing. I consider the development of social skills for children as the key factor for teachers to address and promote in the environment.
One of the theoretical principles of Tikanga, the Māori way of doing things, is Rangatiratanga. In this musing, I look at how this perspective can be identified in an early childhood setting.
I am attempting to unpack all the theoretical principles of Tikanga to further develop my bicultural practice. So far I have written short reflections on wairuatanga and manaakitanga. Once again I found that there doesn't seem to be any singular meaning to rangatiratanga from a Pākehā point of view, but from what I can gather, it incorporates a number of different meanings in different contexts in the English language.
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) believed that there are three stages of development from infancy to adulthood.
The first stage is up to seven years of age when the child is sensitive to the surrounding environment and responds through the 'will'. This implies that learning takes place through doing, which is from movement and activity. The child is driven by what he is exposed to in the environment, as well as through the imitation and example of others around him. The second stage from seven to fourteen years is when children live in the emotional realm and develop an understanding of the feelings for life. The third stage from fourteen to twenty one years is when the individual is in the realm of ideas. These three stages constitute an education where the will (doing), the heart (feeling), and the head (thinking) are at the forefront during the developmental stages to adulthood (Bruce, 2011).
Read more: A reflection on Rudolf Steiner-inspired early childhood education
