I was very enthusiastic to finally get enrolled in an early childhood education course, which would be my first one. I honestly did not know what to expect, but over the past several weeks of this semester, I have learned so much. From maturationism, behaviorism, the social learning theory, and constructivism, to neuroscience, Dewey, and psychodynamics, I could go on and on about each and every one of these topics. Even though my previous courses had slightly touched on these important subjects, I now know all of them in strong detail.
I feel that this course genuinely prepared us for what will come in our near future, especially in our own classrooms. We got assignments and projects thrown at us last minute, and even though we were stressed and anxious at the time, I feel as if we handled these tasks maturely and greatly benefitted from these experiences. Although I feel that I already learned a lot, there is still much more information to acquire before I manage my own classroom.
ECE 451 has really been a joy this semester. Not only was Dr. Joe an amazing professor, my group was also amazing. We became extremely close and comfortable around each other. We could all easily point out our different strengths and weaknesses. There were no quizzes or tests throughout this course, which was nice, but we learned how to work together as a whole group. Our first project, the Claymation videos were a lot of fun to make and to film. Playing with play-doh really brought back some childhood memories. We also did public service announcements, movie reviews critiquing another groups Claymation video, and even made our own comic based off one of the theories we had learned. Throughout this paper, I will explain each of the theories we discussed during this course, what I liked about each of them, and which ones I will use in my own classroom.
Maturationism is believed that a child’s genetic factors play a larger role in their development than environmental ones. These theorists believe that the role of education is to inactively support growth rather than fill the child with information. Constructivists on the other hand, view young children as active participants in the learning process. They also believe that young children start most of the activities required for learning and development. MacNaughton believes that keeping a positive environment will encourage students to stay positive (2003, 32). In this philosophy paper, I will explain how maturationism, behaviorism, and the social learning theory are all under the category of conforming.
The best way to get something done is to provide a reward to people when they act the way we want them to (Kohn Chapter 1,Week 3). Kohn believes that behaviorism is based on “do this and you’ll get that”. This could also be an example of positive and negative reinforcement and punishment. Students know what is right and what is wrong, but sometimes we need to reward them or punish them for their actions. Social learning theorists believe that most of a child’s learning comes from them actively imitating or modeling what he sees and hears other people say and do (Week 4, Chapter 9, Page 233). Imitation plays a major role in this theory and in the learning process. Children imitate good and bad things that they see other people, especially adults, doing. “Social learning theory is a perspective that states that people learn within a social context” (Social Learning Theory). Wikipedia explains that maturationism is an early childhood educational philosophy that perceives the child as a growing organism and believes that the role of education is to inactively support this growth, not actively fill the child with information (Maturationism). The idea is that genetic factors play a larger role in development than environmental ones, particularly in regard to language acquisition.
I believe that my education was mainly based on the constructivist theory. After spending nine years in a Catholic elementary school, I made the switch to a public high school, which was certainly constructivist. The theory of constructivism reflects on our experiences and we construct our own understanding of the world we live in (Educational Theories). My elementary school gave us a type of freedom to pick and choose our curriculum, but not all the time. They wanted us to be interested in our learning.
Not only did we create our own comics, we read our required reading that was completely animated comics. William Ayers’s book, To Teach: The Journey, in Comics, is based on educational reform in graphic format. He attempts to mix image and words to support his opinion that educators need to go beyond the traditional curriculum of teaching. He explains how alternative teaching sometimes requires an alternative handbook (Ayers, W., & Alexander-Tanner, R.). I personally enjoyed reading this book because it was very easy to follow and kept me interested throughout the entire book.
I believe that my classroom in the future will be based off constructivism. This theory genuinely caught my attention and I can relate to it very much. As we all know, there are different ways of learning; visual, auditory, etc. I am a very visual learner and would rather do hands on learning, or experiential learning, like we did in this class. I feel as though students should have a right to construct their own kind of learning, not just be forced to memorize vocabulary words that they will forget after they are tested on it. Throughout all the readings this semester, I learned that students would be more interested in learning if they actually enjoy it. Although the positive and negative reinforcements and punishments of behaviorism are very effective in the learning process, I still prefer constructivism.
Ayers, W., & Alexander-Tanner, R. (2010). To teach the journey in comics. New York, NY: Teachers college press.
"Educational Theories." Educational Theories. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.
MacNaughton, Glenda. (2003). Shaping Early Childhood: Learners, Curriculum and Contexts. New York: Open University Press.
"Maturationism." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2012.
"Social Learning Theory." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2012.
