Sonja Chesnutt
EDU110- Essay 2
May 16, 2018
TITLE
On a sunny day in the month of May, I spent a couple hours in UC Davis' ECL Preschool. This preschool is located at The Center for Child and Family Studies on campus. It serves as an early childhood program for children and gives a chance for others to learn about children and how they develop for those interested in child development. This was the perfect place for me. In the two hours I spent there, I observed the learning environment, the motivation and mindset, socio-emotional development, and psychosocial development of many four to five-year-old children.
Within five minutes of being in the classroom, I noticed that the classroom was structured in a way that focused on the learner. The type of classroom was a learner-centered environment. These environments pay careful attention to the "knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring to the classroom" (National Research, 2000, 134). Because of this focus, individualizing instruction is part of the curriculum (Mattingly, 2018, Session 10). The instruction is molded based on children's needs and the aspects that they bring to the class. This individualization includes respecting language practices of certain students and their beliefs (National research, 2000, 135). Doing this enables teachers to assist learners in constructing their own meanings and build on their initial foundations.
In the ECL Classroom, the teacher modeled a learner-centered learning environment in two specific ways. First, when the caregivers first started working in the school, they were provided with information about each child: his or her background and any relevant information that would allow each caregiver to best assist the child. I noticed that a few of the caregivers in the classroom even had a schedule for individual students. These schedules were meant for students who needed extra help during Free Time to either stay on task or build extra skills. One child in particular was Owen. Owen is a child who struggles with fine-motor skills, paying attention, and completing tasks. Owen is one of many children that has a specific scheduled catered to his needs. During Free Time, he followed this schedule: the first ten minutes he chose one activity from two provided options, the second ten minutes he worked with the teacher on an activity she felt would help develop his automatic or metacognitive skills, and the last ten minutes Owen got to pick whatever he wanted to do. It was called "Owen's Choice". During Free Time the teacher worked with Owen on gluing small sequins on paper. This tested and built his fine-motor skills and concentration. The schedule took into consideration Owen's background and individual struggles and created a way for him to develop these skills.
The classroom also took into consideration the languages that each child knew. For the children that knew other languages as well as English, whether it was their first language or not, the teacher did her best to implement a caregiver in the classroom that knew the language as well. A few children spoke Mandarin at home, so there was a caregiver in the classroom that spoke mandarin as well to ease communication. The teacher highlighted individual differences and provided certain student with resources enabling them to have comfort and assistance in school. She centered what she did around the learner.
During Free Time, I observed the motivation and mindset of a specific child through the Reinforcement Theory. As seen in the Reinforcement Theory, children are more likely to be motivated to exhibit a particular behavior or achievement in a setting where they have been reinforced for that behavior in the past (Stipek, 1998, 9). Similarly, if a child is rewarded for working hard or persevering when something gets tough, a child is more likely to work hard and persevere in the future (Stipek, 1998, 9). A child that believes they will be rewarded for a particular behavior, based on past rewards, will likely continue the behavior. Cognitive motivation theorist say, "it is [their] belief, not [their] past history, that influence[s] [their] behavior"(Stipek, 1998, 10). This motivation was seen in Riley through the preschool's "Giving Tree".
The "Giving Tree" started as a tree with bare branches and then it slowly started to "grow" leaves as children earned them. Children that showed good behavior or the accomplishment of a task that the teachers and caregivers deemed difficult for a child to complete were acknowledges with a leaf to add to the tree. Having seen Riley interact with peers a few times, I could tell that she was a child that struggled with following directions and listening to others. It was clean-up time and Riley, who had been playing in the Art Area for quite a while, got up, cleaned up her activity and then helped clean up in the House Area. This was abnormal behavior for her, so the teacher walked over and handed her a leaf for her good behavior and helpfulness. About 20 minutes later during snack time, Riley, unusual one again, she cleaned up her spot right away. This was likely in hope that she would receive another leaf since she had the last time. Riley was motivated to clean because she believed that she would receive a leaf if she did.
I walked around the classroom and observed the socio-emotional development in a few children as they interacted in play. Mildred Parten studied social interactions between children and noticed that play increased these interactions. She grouped play into four categories based on how children interacted: solitary play, parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play (Slavin, 2010, 56). The two types of play that I saw in particular were parallel play, when children work alongside one another without any mutual influence or interaction, and cooperative play, when two or more children interact and work together to "achieve a common goal" (Slavin, 2010, 56). Both of these were seen during Free Time.
Two children were painting on what are known as Buddha Boards. These boards were fascinating to the children because they painted with water and then the design disappeared after about ten minutes. Sitting side-by-side, Ina and Gabriel painted designs with water all over the board and then waited for the drawing to disappear. They were not interacting with one another; however, they were engaging in the same activity and "paralleling" one another. They were partaking in parallel-play. On the other hand, in the Block Area, Sarah and Katherine were working together in cooperative play to compete a house for their dolls. They each worked on a separate part of the house, one on the roof and the other on the front walkway, to complete their goal.
Moments later, I looked to my left and observed the development of Elyse and Wyatt on the rope ladders. I saw Elyse's self-efficacy and Wyatt's growth mindset. Albert Bandura's self-efficacy is "a set of beliefs [one has] about the likelihood of performance outcomes" (Mattingly, 2018, Session 11). It is when a child believes that he or she can complete a task to the best of his or her abilities. Children with self-efficacy readily take on difficult tasks, they persist through these tasks, and put in great effort (Zimmerman, 1994, 226).
Similarly, children with growth mindsets are known to persevere through setbacks (Dweck, 2008). Falling under Carol Dweck's Incremental Theory, children with growth mindsets also have a desire to learn and see room for improvement. With this mindset, one believes that the harder he or she works at something, the better he or she will be at it (Mattingly, 2018, Session 12). They have a goal of learning, positive effort, and resilient response to failure (Mattingly, 2018, Session 12).
Elyse and Wyatt were taking turns on the rope ladder. I saw a caregiver holding the bottom of the ladder to allow Wyatt to successfully climb to the top and ring the bell. She was scaffolding the task for Wyatt, making it doable for him even when he could not yet do it on his own. Elyse went right after, and as the caregiver bended down to hold the rope, Elyse said, "No, I can do it." Elyse showed her self-efficacy. She did not want any help climbing rope ladder because she believed that she could it on her own. As she climbed the rope ladder and rung the bell at the top, Wyatt watched how she did it. He wanted to go again and try it himself. When he did, he ended up needing the caregivers help part way through. Frustrated that he could not do it, he was determined to practice it until he got better at it. Through this challenging task, I observed his growth mindset. He had a desire to learn which he did through persevering. Wyatt saw that he had the opportunity to improve his abilities, so he kept trying and had a resilient response to failure all of which embody Dweck's theory. He grew intelligence through his continued effort.
I headed over to the sand area and saw Erikson's third stage of psychosocial development in play. Stage three of Erickson's theory is initiative versus guilt. In this stage of psychosocial development, children that are continually maturing in their motor and language skills "tend to be increasingly aggressive and vigorous in the exploration of bother their social and physical development" (Slavin, 2010, 50). These three to six-year-olds "have a growing sense of initiative," and when parents allow their children to throw, run, jump, hide, and climb, the doors for growth open further. On the contrary, parents that punish their children for these things will leave their child with guilt, which, in turn, might make them believe that they are a bad person (Slavin, 2010, 50). An example of this was seen in an interaction with Mark and Riley.
The ECL preschool staff allows children to run around and play tag, jump from log to log, and play with bamboo sticks, encouraging the children's growing intuitions. This encouragement of exploration allows children to develop their motor and language skills while experiencing the guilt that can accompany it. In the sand area, Mark and Riley were playing in the kitchen making sand pies and sand cupcakes. There was an issue with who got to use what pan. Mark started yelling and hit Riley with a metal spatula. A caregiver walked over to address the situation. She had seen that Mark was aggressive towards Riley. After resolving the problem, Mark felt guilty for what he had done. He asserted his power based on his initiative, hitting Riley with a spatula to get the pan he wanted. However, he was punished for doing such which left him feeling guilty for what he had done.
Moments after, I observed a child's belief about knowledge- her epistemic orientation. We all have different beliefs and ways of thinking. A child with epistemic orientation seeks to have closure of knowledge through continued testing and asking of questions (Mattingly, 2018, Session 11). He or she wants to learn about the world and looks for certain answers. Some children seek non-specific closure, meaning they will be satisfied with any answer, and others want specific closure, or the truth (Mattingly, 2018, Session 11). Elyse, in particular, exemplified a child seeking non-specific closure.
Elyse came up to me pointing at her teacher on the phone on the bench behind us. "Who is teacher on the phone with?" Elyse asked. Given that I did not know the teacher very well and she was at least 20 feet away, I was unsure who she was speaking to. I told Elyse that I do not know and encouraged her to seek out an answer on her own, suggesting that maybe she asked the teacher herself. She proceeded to ask, "Why do you think she is talking to them?" Once again, I had no answer for the same reason as before. Elyse was so curious why her teacher was on the phone. With great effort, she tried to obtain knowledge and seek closure through me. This is an example of a child having an epistemic orientation. She wanted an answer to close the situation while I was trying to open it up and have her do it on her own. Telling her that I did not know who the teacher was talking to did not stop her from questioning, so eventually I told her that she was likely speaking to another teacher at the school about class activities. This answer was sufficient for her. I found that she just needed non-specific closure for her question regardless of the answer's accuracy.
While I was overwhelmed by the chaos that the 16 preschoolers generated, The ECL Classroom provided me with many examples of theories in action. I learned so much about the minds of four and five year olds and how they are developing. From their learning environment to their mindsets and motivation, I saw them accomplish tasks they would not normally accomplish. I observed their socio-emotional development through painting and building. Through their questioning and conflict I observed how curious they are and how much initiative they have. All of these things enabled me to understand so much more about their little brains and why they act how they do and engage in the activities that they do.