Theories and Approaches
In this essay, the importance of ethics in early childhood phase of the children and its effect on the moral development of the child is studied. Ethics are a set of moral laws to be followed by a person based on logical norms of the society for the overall development of the society (Dewey, 2016). The introduction of child to an ethical environment at an early age helps them develop and understand the environment. The inculcation of ethics in early childhood helps in the overall development of the child and the initial personality development of the child (Peters, 2015). The overall development of the child includes the development of his attitude and the behavioral patterns, which help in development of the overall cognition of the child. The development of the child and the inculcation of the moral ethics in the child is the duty of the educator.
As an educator, I need to identify the needs of the children and device different methods needed for the ethical and the moral development of the child. For educating the children and development of their cognitive abilities a number of theories have been put forward to be used. The various theories that can be put to use in the inculcation of the ethics and morality among children are Kohlberg’s moral understanding stage theory, Piaget’s cognitive development stage theory and Vygotsky’s Theory of Child Development. These theories help us in understanding the development of the children though various age groups along with conducive methods to reach them (Noddings, 2013). The various developmental activities to inculcate ethics among the children needs to be developed based on these theories so that the process has a productive output.
In the growth and development years, the children need special care and attentions as they tend to learn more by observing others than by usual teaching methods (Biesta, 2015). The teaching process of the children should therefore be dependent on more practical activities than on the direct teaching methods. The developmental methods of the children need a number of processes and methodologies to be devised to work in the teaching environment of the children and help in the development and growth of the children. As an Instructor I need to device methods to inculcate moral and ethical approach in the children. One of the major studies which takes in account the growth in the moral development of the children is the Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. In this theory, Kohlberg states that the morality of the child develops in a number of stages depending on the situation they are raised in (Kurtines, 2014). According to Kohlberg the children do not have any moral code, instead their moral codes are developed by the observation of moralities among the adults. This puts a more important responsibility among adults in who are around the children to behave in morally ethical ways so that the children can inculcate proper ethics among themselves by learning from their adults (Adler, 2015). The children need to understand the following of the social norms will be helpful for them in the society. More importantly the children will learn to understand that the viewpoints of the individuals vary and everyone’s views are important if they do not hinder the logical social norms of the society. the inculcation of ethics in children will need the help of this cognitive behavior of children as it is the quickest way for them to learn behavioral habits.
Importance of Environment and Adults’ Behavior
I have a duty to teach the students about the society to teach them about ethics, as the ethics need more of a modern and hands on approach. The Piaget’s theory of the development of the children is important in this regard to understand their developmental patterns through different age groups (Mischel, 2013). The Piaget’s theory of children’s development helps in understanding the development of the children by dividing their understanding of different cognitive abilities based on their age groups. The children learn the different behaviors at different stages of their life based on the experiences in their lives (Modgil, Modgil & Brown, 2013). The cognitive development based on the changes observed by Piaget shows the different developmental pattern. The inculcation of ethics, which should begin at a very early age, depends on the various approaches that I have to take based on the age group of the children. Moreover, the change in the patterns of the individual child’s behavior has to be taken into account while devising strategies of behavioral teaching.
A number of studies suggest that the inculcation of behavioral and ethical moralities in the children. There are a number of reasons, which may affect the moral development of a child during their growth years, one of the most important is the environment in which they are brought up. In their early years, children develop their behavior and habits by miming adults (Bailey, 2014). In such cases, it becomes extremely necessary for the adults around them to behave in morally good ways so that the child should not learn anything which might not be good for him in the long run (Walters, 2015). Therefore, it is very important for me as an instructor to keep an eye on the children and assure they imitate the right habits of the elders. The development of the moral ethics is extremely important in the early childhood as it moulds the adult behavior of an individual (Best, 2016). A child who does not develop morally is bound to have problems during adulthood dealing with the society, and sometimes such children become a problem for the law. It is seen in a number of cases that the person resorted to crime as a result of a bad childhood (Gajewski & Forlin, 2017). The ill experiences they had as a child made them resort to violence and crime to express their anger and angst. This is a situation where the childhood nurturing and the effect of the environment on the childhood mentality and the behavior is visible. The change in the behavioral patterns of the children should not be taken lightly and must be studied in detail to understand the cause of the change its effect on the morality of the child (Rabin & Smith, 2013). The ethics of the child helps in develop into an adult who is and active and contributing member of the society.
Role of Educator in Inculcating Ethics
As an educator, it is my duty to inculcate among the children a number of positive behavioral qualities along with the learning abilities. In this easy, I will device the necessary procedures for the development of ethics among children (Tayler, et al. 2013). For this, I have to keep in mind a number of ethical issues that might crop up while educating children. Teaching literary knowledge to the children is relatively easy compared to the teaching of the behavioral ethics among the children (Chang-Kredl & Kingsley, 2014). The literary knowledge is easy to teach in schools and childcare, but teaching of moralities like, ethics need a constant overseeing that the child is supervised and does not delve into some unethical behavior. To achieve this, I need to be in constant contact with the parents and the other adults who are around the child at home or at school. The different teaching abilities to be included in inculcating ethics the most I will need is being patient with the children while overseeing children and gradually guiding the behavioral changes in them (NICHD, 2016). It is not the case that, most of the children are morally wrong, but the instructor needs to oversee their interaction. The change in the interaction patterns among children and their behavior towards their peers show their true ethics and the flaws in them. The moral ethics of children are easy to mould but they need an overall effort of the children and the parents in tandem (Lamb, 2014).
The development of the ethics in children needs a number of policies to be devised. The different practices that I have to use to inculcate the required ethics in the children needs to vary from child to child and their individual cognitive abilities (Brennan & Fenech, 2014). The development of the child depends on the environment they are in, so the plans devised for the development of the ethical virtues in the children would need a number of issues to be addressed to overcome the barrier to the childhood mentality. The children need constant support and the person to look up to imitate (Vaughn, 2015). In case of the peer interaction among children, it is seen that children tend to follow their peers who are appraised and rewarded by the adults. In such scenarios I have to keep in mind that I should appraise the proper behavior among the children so that the other children follow the behavior and moral pattern of the appraised child. To improve the ethical development of the child I also have to involve the parents of the children. The parents of the children have to be informed about the ethical behavior they should have with their children and the ways to supervise the child.
Devise Policies and Practices to Improve Ethical Development
The inculcation of the ethics play a major part in the growth years of the child as it moulds the child’s adulthood. The early age in which a child in a childcare or a kindergarten is where he learns a lot of his basic behavioral patterns and habits. It is therefore necessary for the childcare to be a place where the children can learn their basic ethics and develop them. the ethical thinking and rationale is one of the tenets of the sustainable society. The developments of the ethics in a child not only help in their personality development, but also help them understand their individuality and form a positive attitude towards the society. The attitude defines a lot of things in life of an individual as it helps them adapt to their environment and be an ideal citizen in the society. to improve the social environment and the improvement of the living condition in the society the inculcation of the ethics from an early age is extremely necessary (Nelson, 2014). The inculcation of ethic from early childcare will help in the development of the individuals who respect the laws and follow them. Therefore, this inculcation of ethics will also great for the society as it will help it by decreasing the crime rate. The growth of an ideal society needs responsible individuals who work towards the development of the society and have a positive attitude towards the social development.
The different practical approaches that I can take as teacher to improve the ethical development of the child is the introduction of the group activities in the class (Roche, 2013). The introduction of group activities will teach children a number of good habits like sharing and improve their social behavior. On the other hand the other activities which can be used in the development of the ethical abilities is the rotational interaction among the children. The children have to be observed if they have any ethical issues or bad behavior towards peers and find its cause. For example, a number of children who show hatred towards animals or an affinity towards hurting them have seen their parents do that. In this case the parents need to be supervised to keep the children away while doing any recreational activity like hunting or killing for food when the children are around. It is also observed that children who come from families who have internal issues tend to be overtly quiet or aggressive. In such cases the parents need to be counseled to keep their clashes away from the child. The children spend most of the time in the childcare and are around a lot of adults apart from the instructor. There should be code of ethics that should be maintained in the childcare area so that the child only learns the positive things from the individuals he interacts with.
Impact of Ethical Development on Society
The inculcation of the ethics will need a number of factors to be paid attention to. In case of children of impressionable age, it has to be made sure that the strategies devised should be helpful in giving positive outcomes. To improve the ethical development and to understand its effect, I need to devise a number of activities. Firstly, one of the major ethics that the children need to learn is equality and respect. To achieve this, the parents, instructors and the people who are around the children should behave respectfully towards each other. The children should be encouraged to intermingle among themselves and play with each other. The children should be supervised and the children who are laid back should be encouraged to mingle. The parents are to be told that they should not make derogatory and racial remarks towards others in front of their children to stop them from learning wrong values. In case of children who have single parents, the parents have to be supervised to use the help of trained professionals if they have to leave their children home due to any personal work. Secondly, the children should be made to mingle with animal, which will help them become compassionate and loving towards animals. This is a very important ethics in the development of the individual as the compassion towards animals helps the children become kind and loving towards other kinds and individuals. The development of an individual as a compassionate individual is important as it helps in development of a progressive society.
Thirdly, the parents need to be counseled to help the child become independent. The child initially depends on the adults for their needs bi I would like to inculcate in the child the ability to depend on oneself for certain important activities. The parental support will be an important part of this approach of mine as it is at home that the children form their maximum behavioral patterns. If the parents help them to do their small tasks themselves they will become independent and responsible individuals. Fourthly, I seek to remove one of the major issues that is in the educations system which is the bullying. For this I need to identify the reason of the rage that the child expresses on other children and according to me punishing the child will help the issue to the least. In this case, I would like to take a reverse approach to improve a bully among the children. The most favorable approach according to me will be to show him that he will be loved if he helps other students with his or her strength than hurting them. there is one case in particular where this approach has worked in my experience. There used to be a student of mine who would take extreme pleasure in snatching things of other children rather than asking them for it. Gradually, when I taught him to share his own toys with other children and they gave him their own, his behavior towards other children improved. I think this is a better procedure for helping the child into a better individual as a tutor rather than reprimanding or extensive counseling of the child.
Practical Approaches to Improve Ethical Development
I think the children are very intelligent and developed so to develop an ethical community feeling among them, I would like to conduct among them a session of individual interview where they can give their feedback. I think apart from the feedback of the parents regarding the childcare the feedback of the child is equally important. Once in a while the instructors of the child have to be switched to take a proper feedback about the whole class. This will help overcome any barrier that the instructor and the childcare facilities are facing regarding the overall development of the child. The devising of this strategy will also highlight any flaws that is there in the thinking process of the child and this can be overcome by the counseling, extra attention or changing the teaching approach toward the child. As an instructor, it is my duty ensure the moral development of the class is evenly distributed in the children.
I think these measures will be helpful in the ethical development of the child but their effectiveness depends on their acceptance in real life situations. The acceptance of each and every method cannot be assured in real life situation as it quite tough for me to reach out to the individual needs of each and every child. I cannot assure that beyond my class all the regulations for the ethical development of the child’s mentality is being followed. It is nearly impossible to get any proper feedback from all the children at once unless they want to open up and it is a major barrier in communication. All the children are not same in their behavioral patterns and it is increasingly difficult to benchmark the changes in the ethical behavior.
Thus, in this essay we see that the inculcation of ethics in children is an important part of the development of the society. The various reasons for the inculcation of the ethics at an early age is explained in the essay along with the various reasons. I think that the introduction ethical moralities will help the children develop into better individuals and help in the overall development of the society. The ethical development of the children will not be easy though as they are children at an impressionable age who learn very quickly and cannot be reasoned with. Still these early years are the best time to inculcate the proper ethics and the behavioral patterns as they will learn it easily during this period. One of the major issues that I might face is taking feedbacks due to the various barriers in the children communication. The various reasons for the development of the strategies to inculcate ethics is that ethics is behavioral trait which cannot be learnt academically and thus will need a practical approach. Hence, we see that the ethical citizen are very important in the development of a progressive society and there is no better age than childhood to learn.
References
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