Early Childcare
Co-constructing
Co-constructing is a teaching strategy where the learners and teachers collaborate and work as a team. Here, the educator responds to the learner’s questions by responding with a reverted question that provokes the imagination and establishes new knowledge to the child (TORRES, 2018). Co-construction comprises three elements that help boost a child’s creativity (Museum, 2019). These are the individual child, the learning space, and the caregiver. An example of how to implement co-construction is when an educator finds learners trying to illustrate an airplane by modeling a kite using plasticine. However, they are annoyed that the kite cannot fly. The educator asks them why they think the kite is unable to fly in the air. One child might say that the kite is probably too heavy. The educator then asks why the kite is heavy and what should be done differently. In response, one child may answer that plasticine is not the right material to make a kite. With that knowledge, they will now team up to make a perfect kite using a piece of paper. Another illustration is when an educator enters into a classroom and finds the children arguing over who should clean the room. The educator will ask what should be done to solve the problem. One of the children might say that they need to do it in turns by creating a schedule and according to everyone a day for their cleaning task.
Supporting
The supporting strategy explains a continuously tailored teaching strategy that maximizes the full involvement and active contribution of all learners. In this, the educator offers support to the students through practices such as proper communication and friendly interactions. Of the key features to meet for a successful supporting learning strategy are according to equal value to all student’s ideas or suggestions, giving learners equal opportunities to express themselves and always showing empathy (Darling-Hammond, Osher, Barron, Cook-Harvey, & Flook, 2019). An application example is when an educator finds out that some of his learners are too silent and are often left out during conversations. Now the educator can support such learners by providing talk tickets in the class (Raudys, 2018). In another situation, an educator is sitting next to a child who is having difficulty in identifying different colors. To support the learner’s understanding, the educator will provide the child with a variety of painting colors and drawing charts.
Facilitating
Facilitation learning is an insight teaching strategy that involves the educator as a guide or facilitator. Although almost similar to presentations, the latter is open and general while facilitation majorly involves a guide who fosters the learning and sets the pace. The most defined role of the educator is to facilitate the learners and direct them towards the beforehand set goals and outcomes (Cserti, 2019). Facilitation comes in when the educator steps in, not to do the work for them, but to help solve conflicts, make light decisions, and suggest new ideas here and there (Feldberg-Dubin, 2020). An example of facilitation is in a classroom setup where children are struggling to grasp the order of alphabetic. Despite the repeated singing of alphabetic, the children still do not get the order correctly. The educator can facilitate the learner’s progress by providing an alphabetical order chart that uses illustrative images for the alphabet. Another example of how to implement this technique is when an educator comes across children trying to model different shapes like the circular and rectangular shapes using clay. However, the clay is too dry hence making it hard for them to manipulate it to the different shapes. Here, the educator will facilitate the children’s learning by providing them with plasticine which is soft and purposely made for modeling.
Modeling
The modeling teaching technique is a performance-based illustration technique where learners mainly learn through observation and imitation. However, this strategy can be destructive or meaningless when children just copy without learning. A perfect illustration of how to implement modeling in practice is in a situation where an educator comes across children who are trying to learn a song in one of their storybooks. Here, the educator will demonstrate by hand gesturing and mimicking the sound beats to show them the tone, pitch, and intensity of the sound (Gonchar, Winnick, & Hicks, 2018). After watching the model, the children learn and similarly apply the same concept. In another example, an educator comes across children playing with clay to model play toys. Now the educator can use the clay to model a play toy that illustrates the circle shape and even incorporate mathematical concepts. Modeling the clay to form a ball will bring out the circular shape. Dividing the ball into halves will form two halves which will then be divided to form quarters and so on. It will be an interesting class where the children are observant and anxious to find out the different shapes clay can model (Neufville, 2020).
Acknowledging
Acknowledging teaching is a strategy that educators use to reinforce certain learner’s behaviors and practices by acknowledging them. Through praise, acknowledgment, or appreciation, the learners can understand what exactly is right and thus work to meet these expectations. Besides, the strategy helps the child feel that they are cared for and that their emotions are felt. For instance, the acknowledgment technique can be used by an educator when a child has done extremely well in her assignment. The educator can say “congratulations so much for the work well done in your assignment.” This can also be accompanied by a gift. Appreciation encourages students to put more effort and alter behaviors to receive the same praise. The same technique can again be applied when an educator finds a child crying because her play toy has spoilt. The child’s emotions can be acknowledged by saying, “I can see you are sad because your favorite play toy has spoilt.”
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References
Cserti, R. (2019). Essential Facilitation Skills for an Effective Facilitator. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from SessionLab: https://www.sessionlab.com/blog/facilitation-skills/
Darling-Hammond, L., Osher, D., Barron, B., Cook-Harvey, C., & Flook, L. ( 2019). Implications for the educational practice of the science of learning and development. Journal Applied Developmental Science, 97-140.
Feldberg-Dubin, H. (2020). TOP 11 SKILLS OF EFFECTIVE FACILITATOR. Retrieved June 28, 2020, from THE DESIGN GYM: https://www.thedesigngym.com/top-11-skills-effective-facilitator/
Gonchar, M., Winnick, L., & Hicks, J. (2018). Project Audio: Teaching Students How to Produce Their Podcasts. Retrieved April 19, 2018, from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/learning/lesson-plans/project-audio-teaching-students-how-to-produce-their-own-podcasts.html
Museum, W. C. (2019). WOW! Children’s Museum. Retrieved July 3, 2019, from Co-Construction Learning: https://wowchildrensmuseum.org/co-construction-learning/
Neufville, R. (2020). Instrumentalism. Retrieved July 30, 2020, from Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/instrumentalism
Randys, J. (2018). 7 Experiential Learning Activities to Engage Students. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from Prodigy: https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/experiential-learning-activities
TORRES, N. (2018). Parents as Consumers. Social Innovations Journal, Issue 48.
