Nature vs. Nurture Concept and Debate
After teaching for several years, I still enjoy my profession up to date. The reason is that I find teaching extremely satisfying especially when I see my students have made it in life and I feel that I am part of their success. Dealing with young children is enjoyable because they tend to obey what I tell them to do and thus I have to be careful not to make mistakes in my class because I believe life is shaped at childhood stage. My best moment is when I see students ask questions, pursue the answers and apply new concepts in their daily life.
As a teacher of young children, I believe that nature and nurture have a role to play when it comes to learning in class and the ability for each student to understand new concepts. Some students are bright in class than others because their parents are also bright while some take too long to understand the same information. The idea here can be explained using nature, and that is the genes children get from their parents. Bright and clever parents most of the time give birth to sharp children because of the genes that they pass on them. Notably, nurture also has a part to play because in my class I have two children who are brought up in different families where one of them lives with her biological parents, and the other one lives with her uncle. I find that these two children perform differently in a class where the one living with her biological parents perform much better than the other one. Nevertheless, the two children also behave differently in class and when playing with their fellow children. Some psychologists propose that nurture influences the way children behave and their ability to comprehend information. According to John Watson who was a psychologist proposed environmental learning as a leading side when it comes to nature vs. nurture argument, and he said that he had the ability to teach a child who could be randomly picked in a group of children to be the type of specialist he wanted. He said that he would teach the child to be a specialist of any type irrespective of the child’s talents, potentialities and race (Bowling, 2017).
My goals and objectives as a teacher are to ensure that my students are able to understand what we have learned at the end of the lesson and they are able to ask questions concerning the topic of the day to prove that they have understood. I am also looking forward to ensuring that my students are in a good position to pass their exams either the tests that are tested internally or externally. Additionally, I also look forward to assisting the weak students in class in order to help them perform better in class without undermining any of them or having a negative attitude towards them. I also aim at covering the syllabus of the year before the year ends for my students to be in a better position to perform their best.
Goals and Objectives
I believe that being an early childhood tutor requires me to wear different hats in order to excel in my profession. I have to be flexible as long as I am experienced as a teacher. My role is to guide students and not lead them, and I have to move in the direction which interests the students. As their guide, I permit the children to select their playing and learning style while making their safety my major concern. If a child does not perform well or hurt herself while playing, I understand that the blame is on me since their parents are not around. Additionally, I have to be a partner in learning by encouraging children to get their answers rather than providing answers for them. According to constructivist theory, learning is an active procedure where students construct new concepts founded on their present or past knowledge (Weimer, Parault Dowds, Fabricius, Schwanenflugel, & Suh, 2017). However, I encourage students to find answers to a certain problem based on their knowledge. I plan to uphold ethical standards, professional standards of practice and relevant laws and policies by following the agreement that I made of appreciating childhood as a special as well as valuable phase of the human life cycle, thus achieving my goals as an early childhood teacher of ensuring that children get the best foundation during this crucial stage.
Advocacy has a way of building professional identity because it continues to remind tutors the significance of their work and the function which early childhood education and child care plays in our children (Jukes, Mccain, & Crockett, 2010).My role as a tutor is to advocate on behalf on the children in a way advocacy permits people to link with other educators as well as members of the community in a shared part which nurtures people’s collective identity. Through advocacy, learning opportunity is promoted because children rights are protected, and it is the right of every child to be educated regardless of their background. At the same time, teachers are able to perform their roles in class and ensure that they achieve their goals.
My method of assessing student understanding from birth to Age 5 is through observation and giving simple tests from what we have learned in class. All children can learn different ideas differently, and I test their understanding by giving simple tests like drawing a line and asking them to repeat the same. Additionally, I also assess them through the way they follow simple instructions. For those in K to age 8, the case is different since most of them are able to repeat what I say thus I give them standardized tests, for instance, the sequence of numbers where I write one number and omit one for them to fill the gap.
Technology plays an important role in children education because it helps them increase their academic skills and improve their scores in the class. Children are able to revise their work using computers and able to learn new concepts which their teacher has not yet taught them in class. Computers also make learning interesting and many children enjoy going to schools so that they may use them (Chaudron, 2015).
The environment that children are in affects their learning, and it is important to choose it wisely. During their childhood stage, their brain develops rapidly, and it forms more connections than it may use. The connections used form powerful connections and the unused ones are pruned away. The experiences of a child assist in making the determination. However, the environment provided impacts the way the brain develops, and it is likely to be reflected in academics.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I have both good and challenging experiences in class. For instance, when I teach, and my students do not understand or fail some tests, I feel I have failed to do my part as a teacher. My professional is important to me because it offers me a chance to learn children and build their foundation. For example, I am able to interact with children from different background and able to teach them in class.
References
Bowling, D. L. (2017). The continuing legacy of nature versus nurture in biolinguistics. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1202-7
Chaudron, S. (2015). Young Children (0-8) and Digital Technology: A qualitative exploratory study across seven countries. Technical report by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. https://doi.org/10.2788/00749
Jukes, I., Mccain, T., & Crockett, L. (2010). Education and the Role of the Educator. Education, 92(4), 15–22.
Weimer, A. A., Parault Dowds, S. J., Fabricius, W. V., Schwanenflugel, P. J., & Suh, G. W. (2017). Development of constructivist theory of mind from middle childhood to early adulthood and its relation to social cognition and behavior. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 154, 28–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2016.10.002
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