Philosophy Of Childhood Education And Teaching Special Needs Learners

Philosophy of Childhood Education

Discuss about the Adoption And Use Of Technology In Early Education.

As an upcoming educationist, I know for certain that learning is a progressive process that begins right from childhood. Since I joined this course, I have come to know that childhood education is the most important stage in pupil’s educational life. It is the main foundation on which the entire education process is based.[1] Therefore, if I was to come up with my own philosophy of childhood education, I would emphasize that there should be a democratic, learner-centered and individualized teaching for the early childhood learners.

According to this philosophy, a child is to be viewed as the main focal point of the teaching and learning process. Meaning, it is the child who should be considered most and regarded as the most important component of the teaching process. They should, therefore, not be viewed as mere objects that are dominated, but given an opportunity to contribute as much as the can. The children should be given time to play and interact with one another regardless of their diversities. The philosophy also views children as dependent people who have to be given a democratic space and provided with individualized and relevant teaching. It is, therefore, my expectation that the children are provided with holistic education that can prepare them for life in the same community where they belong. On the other hand, the philosophy views a teacher as a guide whose role is to preside over the teaching and learning process, but not necessarily to dominate it.

The philosophy also considers childhood education as an inclusive process that should be done by incorporating the contributions of everyone including the teachers, parents, curriculum developers, and the community in general. Each of these stakeholders has a significant contribution to make towards the delivery of life-long education that addresses the interests, needs, goals, and expectations of each child.[2] For example, whereas the teachers are directly involved in the teaching of the learners, the parents and community are expected to chip in introducing and inculcating the culture of morality and ethical compliance in the society.[3] Each of these concepts should be captured in the curriculum because it should be a true reflection of the society. Hence, if they are included in the curriculum, the children would acquire the right education that can make it quite easy for them to fit into the society from which they are drawn.

Teaching Special Needs Learners

In conclusion, my philosophy of childhood education is an objective one. It acknowledges early child education as the most important stage in the children’s education process. At the same time, it views a child as an innocent creature that emulates virtually everything that takes place in the immediate surroundings. In this regard, it should be the responsibility of the education system to design an appropriate curriculum that emphasizes on individual learning, child-centeredness, and advocates for the principles of democracy and prosperity.[4] However, to achieve all these, childhood education should be viewed as a process that involves different stakeholders such as family, community, and other educationists.

1. Collection of Curriculum Formats

1. Analysis of the collected Planning Formats
2. As a profession who has had enough training on childhood pedagogy, I know what a good curriculum looks like. The most important thing that I noticed is that each of the curriculum formats reflects my view of the child and the educator. I am saying this because each of these formats clearly-outline the lesson topic, short and long-term objectives, list of resources, teaching strategies, instructional materials, roles of the learner, and teacher.[5] It also addresses the issue of assessment that the teacher seeks to undertake at the end of the lesson to enable him/her determine the extent to which the objectives are accomplished.
3. The other observation that I made in the formats is that they sought to capture the issue of the learners’ interests, goals, and strengths. What fascinated me most is that the formats address both individual and groups since it acknowledges that there are individual and group goals that should be addressed during the lesson. Each of them has well-designed lesson outcomes that are expected to be accomplished at the end of instructional process.[6] However, these are not merely listed, but accompanied by the instructional plans, measures, and the list of activities that will be done to achieve each of them within the stipulated time duration.

iii. The other attribute that makes this curriculum formats suitable for the teaching of the early childhood learners is that they specify they give room for the participation of each and every pupil who is in the classroom. In the list of activities, the format clearly outlines the list of activities that each learner is supposed to do during the lesson. Here, a list of activities such as playing, singing, note-taking, responding to the questions is listed. These are activities which must be performed by learners both as individuals and groups.

1. At the same time, there is a space for the family members to assess and evaluate the lesson. Meaning, it is inclusive because everyone is involved. The way in which these formats are designed makes them flexible, accessible, and easy to understand, interpret, and use by all the staff as well as the family members who are involved in the instructional process.[7] They use a standard format as well as simple and clear language that can be easily comprehended by everyone.
2. The other thing that makes these formats suitable for teaching is that they have space for the educators to evaluate the lesson and assess what the learners, did, knew, said, and how well they were done. This is commendable because such evaluations can be relied upon to make future improvements in the teaching strategies for the learners. 

1. C) Curriculum Planning Format

The curriculum is designed to address the needs of individual and group of learners in the class. To ensure that this is achieved, the format should be designed well. Meaning, there should be a proper plan on how to develop it. Once the plan is made, the design should be made as planned. However, measures must be taken to meet the needs of each and every learner because the teaching process must be learner-centered. The list of activities in the format must be done by each of the learners. Meaning, each of them must get enough time to actively participate in the lesson.[8] At the same time, in the plan, there should be room for each learner to engage in activities like playing because it is one of the practical activities that the early childhood learners should engage in. last, but not least, in the plan, there should be enough space for the instructor to assess the teaching process to determine its success. However, all these should be done for each and every lesson that is administered by the instructor.

Teaching is a challenging endeavor because the instructors always have to deal with learners from all sorts of backgrounds. A child who suffers from autism is considered as a learner with special need. Hence, when teaching such a learner, the instructor must put more effort because it entails a lot of activities that are not done when teaching the normal learners.

Resources and Support Services

Autism is a mental disorder that affects the children and hinders them from leading a normal social life like the rest of the ordinary children. The symptoms of autism are that it impairs the child’s communication and social interactions. Meaning, it makes a child fail to know and respond to his or her name, use facial expression, playing with others, engage in a continuous conversation, speak normally, recognize non-verbal signs, and understand other people’s feelings. Since the disease affects the communication, consciousness, understanding, behaviors, and social interactions of the learners, it is upon the instructor to adopt an appropriate teaching strategy that can help in addressing all the needs of the learners.[9] For example, the instructor should create enough time to encourage the learners to play, improve their verbal and non-verbal communication, adopt social interaction skills, simplify the language, and comply with the child’s interests. To do all these, the instructor has to acquire knowledge on teaching the learners who have special needs.

Special education is a skill that is not possessed by all the instructors. Many instructors fail to teach the learners with special needs like autism because they lack the knowledge that they might apply to teach them well. However, there are many places where the teachers might get such skills. For example, the teaching strategies for the learners with autism can be acquired from Autism Spectrum Australia whose link is https://www.autismspectrum.org.au/content/educational-outreach because it has got useful information that can be adopted by the teachers. From such sites, the teachers can learn about useful skills and technologies to use for visual support and assistive learning exclusively for teaching the learners who suffer from autism.

In my community, there are organizations which help in supporting the teaching of the learners with special needs. These organizations have invested their resources because they acknowledge that the individualization of the teaching and learning process can be quite difficult because in a single classroom, a teacher has to deal with learners who have diverse interests, likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses. There are also some professional support groups which offer assistance to the families with special needs. The originations include the Autism Awareness Australia, Autism Spectrum Australia and Autism Educators Australia.

These organizations have been concerned about the welfare of the children with special needs because they are worried about their future. As a matter of fact, disabilities can create inequality in the education sector. Meaning, it might bring a huge gap between the learners because while it is easier for the non-disabled learners to acquire knowledge, their disabled counterparts find it extremely difficult to fit into the classroom and learn. Therefore, these groups have come up to provide training and resources to the people who have children with special needs in their homes.[10] Such services have made it possible for the families to embrace the children with special needs and provide them with the right education that suit their conditions and can prepare them to be dependable and useful people when they grow up.

Conclusion

References

Blackwell, Courtney K., Alexis R. Lauricella, Ellen Wartella, Michael Robb, and Roberta

Schomburg. “Adoption and use of technology in early education: The interplay of extrinsic barriers and teacher attitudes.” Computers & Education 69 (2013): 310-319.

Eliason, Claudia Fuhriman, and Loa Thomson Jenkins. A practical guide to early childhood

curriculum. (New York: Pearson, 2015). Pp. 12-15.

Gerde, Hope K., Rachel E. Schachter, and Barbara A. Wasik. “Using the scientific method to

guide learning: An integrated approach to early childhood curriculum.” Early Childhood

Education Journal 41, no. 5 (2013): 315-323.

intensive robotics and programming workshop on sequencing ability in early childhood.” Early Childhood Education Journal 41, no. 4 (2013): 245-255.

Kazakoff, Elizabeth R., Amanda Sullivan, and Marina U. Bers. “The effect of a classroom-based

Lee, Frances Lai Mui, Alexander Seeshing Yeung, Danielle Tracey, and Katrina Barker. “

Inclusion of children with special needs in early childhood education: What teacher characteristics matter.” Topics in Early Childhood Special Education 35, no. 2 (2015): 79-88.

Lewis, Rena B., John J. Wheeler, and Stacy L. Carter. Teaching students with special needs in

general education classrooms. (New York: Pearson, 2017). Pp. 22-27.

[1] Blackwell, Courtney K., Alexis R. Lauricella, Ellen Wartella, Michael Robb, and Roberta

Schomburg. “Adoption and use of technology in early education: The interplay of extrinsic barriers and teacher attitudes.” Computers & Education 69 (2013): 310-319.

[2] Eliason, Claudia Fuhriman, and Loa Thomson Jenkins. A practical guide to early childhood

curriculum. (New York: Pearson, 2015). Pp. 12-15.

[3] Blackwell, Courtney K., Alexis R. Lauricella, Ellen Wartella, Michael Robb, and Roberta

Schomburg. “Adoption and use of technology in early education: The interplay of extrinsic barriers and teacher attitudes.” Computers & Education 69 (2013): 310-319.

[4] Eliason, Claudia Fuhriman, and Loa Thomson Jenkins. A practical guide to early childhood

curriculum. (New York: Pearson, 2015). Pp. 12-15.

[5] Kazakoff, Elizabeth R., Amanda Sullivan, and Marina U. Bers. “The effect of a classroom-

based intensive robotics and programming workshop on sequencing ability in early childhood.” Early Childhood Education Journal 41, no. 4 (2013): 245-255.

[6] Gerde, Hope K., Rachel E. Schachter, and Barbara A. Wasik. “Using the scientific method to

guide learning: An integrated approach to early childhood curriculum.” Early Childhood Education Journal 41, no. 5 (2013): 315-323.

[7] Eliason, Claudia Fuhriman, and Loa Thomson Jenkins. A practical guide to early childhood

curriculum. (New York: Pearson, 2015). Pp. 12-15.

[8] Blackwell, Courtney K., Alexis R. Lauricella, Ellen Wartella, Michael Robb, and Roberta

Schomburg. “Adoption and use of technology in early education: The interplay of extrinsic barriers and teacher attitudes.” Computers & Education 69 (2013): 310-319.

[9] Lewis, Rena B., John J. Wheeler, and Stacy L. Carter. Teaching students with special needs in

general education classrooms. (New York: Pearson, 2017). Pp. 22-27.

[10] Lee, Frances Lai Mui, Alexander Seeshing Yeung, Danielle Tracey, and Katrina Barker.

“Inclusion of children with special needs in early childhood education: What teacher characteristics matter.” Topics in Early Childhood Special Education 35, no. 2 (2015): 79-88.

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