A. There are daily reminders
B. Yet, people continue to enter the field and work hard to improve the situation on small and large scales
II. In all of your professional courses, this course will be the most important!
A. Understanding
play and "developmentally appropriate practice" is what sets early childhood
professionals apart
from other educators
1. Eventually, there shouldn’t be this distinction (DAP should be implemented across all grade levels)
III. Philosophy underlying most educational settings is behaviorism
A. Characteristics of behaviorism
1. Reward and punishment
2. Positive reinforcement
3. Learning as passive (I teach; you learn)
B. Early childhood educators recognize the problems with behaviorism
1. Because they’re working with very young children...
2. Who haven’t yet been squashed completely
3. Limitations
a. Leads to heteronomous attitudes and behavior (reliance on external forces)
b. Punishment/rewards ultimately don't work (unless you up the ante over and over)
c. Conflicts with what we know about human development and learning
IV. Nature of learning -- working assumptions
A. Learning is inherent
1. Except where there is a learning block or emotional tension
2. When that’s the case, you must address the block before you can expect learning to take place
B. All children are capable of learning
1. Children naturally want to master their environment and continually work to do so every chance they get
C. Children learn best from one they care about and who cares about them
D. New information must be measured against previously-understood material
V. Nature of children -- working assumptions
A. Children are dear, intelligent, cooperative, and deserving of our respect
B. Society does not support this approach
1. "Children should be seen and not heard"
2. Adults defend our confusions and rigidities,
but feel compelled and justified in "adjusting" children’s confusions
or rigidities
C. Teachers love children, want to be close to them, and play significant roles
1. It's hurtful and mistaken when we lose sight of their central importance and the value of investing in them'
2. Hurtful to teachers as well as to children
VI. Treating children with respect means…
A. The
same kind of respect we give other adults (assuming their intelligence,
cooperative nature, goodness,
complexity)
B. Manipulation, physical force, verbal abuse isn't acceptable
C. Considering their viewpoint/preferences, even when we cannot honor them
D. Imagine schools that don’t operate on the basis of manipulating children!