http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjHGWElK1pM - a must see video clip Changing Education Paradigms.
Sir Ken Robinson's website
http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/
Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. He is also one of the world’s leading speakers with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been seen by an estimated 200 million people in over 150 countries.
He works with governments in Europe, Asia and the USA, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations. In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999. He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, working with the ministers for training, education enterprise and culture. The resulting blueprint for change, Unlocking Creativity, was adopted by politicians of all parties and by business, education and cultural leaders across the Province. He was one of four international advisors to the Singapore Government for its strategy to become the creative hub of South East Asia.
For twelve years, he was professor of education at the University of Warwick in the UK and is now professor emeritus. He has received honorary degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design, Ringling College of Arts and Design, the Open University and the Central School of Speech and Drama, Birmingham City University and the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He was been honored with the Athena Award of the Rhode Island School of Design for services to the arts and education; the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States, the LEGO Prize for international achievement in education, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for outstanding contributions to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2005, he was named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s ‘Principal Voices’. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts. He speaks to audiences throughout the world on the creative challenges facing business and education in the new global economies.
His book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (Penguin/Viking 2009) is a New York Times best seller and has been translated into twenty-one languages. His latest book is a 10th anniversary edition of his classic work on creativity and innovation, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative (Capstone/Wiley). Sir Ken was born in Liverpool, UK, as one of seven children. He is married to Therese (Lady) Robinson. They have two children, James and Kate, and now live in Los Angeles, California.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Piaget - practical uses in the classroom
Use of Piaget's Theories in the Classroom
Piaget's learning theory is based on stages that children go through in order to learn. In each stage, the learning process is different and a little more complex. Piaget believed that children should play, experiment and reason in order to learn. He believed that humans couldn't be given information that they immediately understand. Humans have to construct their own knowledge and they do this through experimentation. Experience enables children to create schemes, which are mental models and then the schemes may be altered through assimilation, accommodation and equilibrium. "Assimilation is the process of taking in, of absorbing some event or experience to some scheme" (Bee 67). Accommodation is when one changes the scheme as a result of new information and equilibrium is when one strives for and reaches a balance of the information collected. As children experiment with new things, they are able to encode it into their brains by mentally categorizing it according to information they have previously processed. In a classroom, a teacher should base instructional delivery, classroom management and assessments on schemes that the students already know.
Based on the learning theory of Piaget, the instructional delivery in say a fifth grade classroom should be mostly kinesthetic. Children should be given assignments that are hands on, something that they can physically do and experiment with. Students should be able to see and touch the project at hand. A good example of this is a project that teaches density. Students will be given a glass of water and an egg. They will have to predict if the egg will float or not in order to determine which is denser.
By physically acting the experiment out, instead of just reading about it in a book, students will understand and process the information so that they retain it and learn from it. Student already have knowledge of water and what happens to it when something is placed inside it. It is this prior knowledge that they will use to hypothesize for their new experiment. Teachers need to address their classes with old information first, and then the new. Once the information is relayed to them, they need to assign a group project for the students in order to get them involved. Teachers' instructional delivery needs to be creative and lively with little lecture and involving kinesthetic approaches.
Classroom Management
In order to have a classroom that supports a Piagetean theory, the teacher must understand the different developmental stages that children go through. At each stage, the child has attained something different, a new scheme. With this in mind, teachers need to gear their classroom environment appropriately. A preschool teacher cannot create and have the same environment as a middle school teacher. But there are things that a teacher can do to fall in line with this particular theory.
It would be helpful for the teacher to gear their grade to the age appropriate level in the Piaget theory of development. When the teacher understands that, he/she will have an easier time teaching the class. Teachers should not talk to the students, they should check in with the students for understanding. This can simply be done by asking three to four students "what we are doing right now?" "What are the steps to do this problem? Student A? Student B?" When a student has done something or answered a question right, they should be positively reinforced so they will want to do and succeed more. When they succeed, they must be praised to continue the will and want to do more. It is through these experiences that they will learn the right and wrong things, therefore reinforcing learning behavior.
Since children learn through their own personal experiences, having an environment reinforces that would be ideal. When teaching a lesson, the basics must be repeated and give the student ample time to learn it (Younge, 5). The task or lesson should be repeated many times to reinforce the concept to the student and in different ways to gain interest and hold the students attention. A child's attention span is very short and increases as they develop throughout life. But until a child's attention span is long enough, certain things must be done to hold his/her attention so they can learn the lesson. This may include hands on activities that reinforce the lesson, or mnemonic devices that children an recite, anything that will reinforce the lesson in a creative way.
References
Bee, H. L. (2002). Cognitive Development I: Structure and Process. In (Ed.), Child and Adolescent Development (9 ed., pp. 64-95). Pearson Education Company: Prentice
Based on the learning theory of Piaget, the instructional delivery in say a fifth grade classroom should be mostly kinesthetic. Children should be given assignments that are hands on, something that they can physically do and experiment with. Students should be able to see and touch the project at hand. A good example of this is a project that teaches density. Students will be given a glass of water and an egg. They will have to predict if the egg will float or not in order to determine which is denser.
By physically acting the experiment out, instead of just reading about it in a book, students will understand and process the information so that they retain it and learn from it. Student already have knowledge of water and what happens to it when something is placed inside it. It is this prior knowledge that they will use to hypothesize for their new experiment. Teachers need to address their classes with old information first, and then the new. Once the information is relayed to them, they need to assign a group project for the students in order to get them involved. Teachers' instructional delivery needs to be creative and lively with little lecture and involving kinesthetic approaches.
Classroom Management
In order to have a classroom that supports a Piagetean theory, the teacher must understand the different developmental stages that children go through. At each stage, the child has attained something different, a new scheme. With this in mind, teachers need to gear their classroom environment appropriately. A preschool teacher cannot create and have the same environment as a middle school teacher. But there are things that a teacher can do to fall in line with this particular theory.
It would be helpful for the teacher to gear their grade to the age appropriate level in the Piaget theory of development. When the teacher understands that, he/she will have an easier time teaching the class. Teachers should not talk to the students, they should check in with the students for understanding. This can simply be done by asking three to four students "what we are doing right now?" "What are the steps to do this problem? Student A? Student B?" When a student has done something or answered a question right, they should be positively reinforced so they will want to do and succeed more. When they succeed, they must be praised to continue the will and want to do more. It is through these experiences that they will learn the right and wrong things, therefore reinforcing learning behavior.
Since children learn through their own personal experiences, having an environment reinforces that would be ideal. When teaching a lesson, the basics must be repeated and give the student ample time to learn it (Younge, 5). The task or lesson should be repeated many times to reinforce the concept to the student and in different ways to gain interest and hold the students attention. A child's attention span is very short and increases as they develop throughout life. But until a child's attention span is long enough, certain things must be done to hold his/her attention so they can learn the lesson. This may include hands on activities that reinforce the lesson, or mnemonic devices that children an recite, anything that will reinforce the lesson in a creative way.
References
Bee, H. L. (2002). Cognitive Development I: Structure and Process. In (Ed.), Child and Adolescent Development (9 ed., pp. 64-95). Pearson Education Company: Prentice
Piaget - summary of terms and practical implications in the classroom
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is recognised world-wide as one of the leaders in the understanding of Intellectual and Cognitive Development.In his theory of intellectual development, Piaget utilised structuralism and related it to cognitive growth. In this process, Piaget identified four stages of development as a child grows, namely, the sensorimotor stage; the preoperational stage; the concrete operational stage; and the formal operational stage.
Piaget also believed that individuals construct their own meaning (constructivism) through the interacting processes of assimilation, adaptation, accommodation and equilibrium, and the extension of schema, or ways of thinking.
Key Piagetian terms:
Assimilation: Fitting new information into existing schemes.
Adaptation: Adjustment to the environment.
Organisation: Ongoing process of arranging information and experience into mental systems or categories.
Accommodation: Altering existing schemes or creating new ones in response to new information.
Object Permanence: Understanding that objects have a separate. permanent existence.
Operations: Actions carried out by thinking them through instead of actually performing the actions.
Reversibility: Thinking backward from the end to the beginning.
Conservation: The principle that some characteristics of an object remain the same despite changes in appearance.
Schemes: Mental systems or categories of perception and experience.
Equilibration: Search for mental balance between cognitive schemes and information from the environment.
Decentration: Focusing on more than one aspect at a time.
Egocentrism: The assumption that others experience the world in the same manner as you do.
Compensation: The principle that changes in one dimension can be offset by changes in another.
Seriation: Arranging objects in sequential order according to one aspect; like size, weight, volume.
Classification: Grouping objects into categories.
Piaget’s Four Stages of Development:
Sensorimotor 0-2 years Begins to make use of imitation, memory, and thought. Begins to recognise that objects do not cease to exist when they are hidden. Moves from reflex actions to goal-directed activity
Preoperational 2-7 years Gradual language development and ability to think in symbolic form. Able to think operations through logically in one direction. Has difficulty seeing another person’s point of view.
Concrete Operational 7-11 years Able to solve concrete (hands-on) problems in logical fashion. Understands laws of conservation and is able to classify and seriate. Understands reversibility.
Formal Operational 11-15 years Able to solve abstract problems in logical fashion. Thinking becomes more scientific. Develops concerns about social issues, identity.
Applying Piaget’s Theory in the Primary Classroom
Preoperational
1. Use concrete props and visual aids whenever possible.
2. Make instructions relatively short, using actions as well as words.
3. Do not expect the students to be consistently to see the world from someone else’s point of view.
4. Be sensitive to the possibility that students may have different meanings for the same word or different words for the same meaning. Students may also expect everyone to understand words they have invented.
5. Give children a great deal of hands-on practice with the skills that serve as building blocks for more complex skills like reading comprehension.
6. Provide a wide range of experiences in order to build a foundation for concept learning and language.
Concrete Operational
1. Continue to use concrete props and visual aids, especially when dealing with sophisticated material.
2. Give students the opportunity to manipulate and tes
t objects.
3. Make sure presentations and readings are brief and are well organised.
4. Use familiar examples to explain more complex ideas.
5. Give opportunities to classify and group objects and ideas on increasingly complex levels.
6. Present problems that require logical, analytical thinking.
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a contemporary of Piaget. For Vygotsky, the learning process was not a solitary exploration by a child of the environment, as suggested by Piaget’s personal constructivist theory, but rather a process of appropriation by the child of culturally relevant behaviour (McInerney and McInerney:1998)
Vygotsky is remembered mainly for his theory of social constructivism (also known as a cultural-historical theory) in which he believed that cognitive development can be understood as the transformation of basic, biologically determined processes into higher psychological functions.
This implies that children are born with a diverse range of perceptual, attentional and memory capacities which are substantially transformed in the context of socialisation and education. Put in a very simple manner, the theory is that children are only as cognitively developed as the culture in which they live, allows. For Vygotsky, the culture and environment in which a child grows over-rides the mental and cognitive schema processes outlined by Piaget.
As a consequence of this line of thinking, Vygotsky put forward the notion that a child’s learning is shaped by their social influence. Known as Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, he defined it like this “… as the distance between the actual development of a child as determined by the independent problem solving, and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more peers. (Vygotsky:1978)
The essentials of a Vygotskian Social Constructivist Perspective for Education For teachers:
- a belief that education is to develop a student’s personality;
- a belief that education is to facilitate the development of the creative potential of students;
- a belief that effective learning requires the active involvement of the learner
- a belief that teachers direct and guide the individual activity of the students but they do not
dictate or force their own will on them. Authentic teaching and learning come through a collaboration by adults with students
- a belief that the most valuable methods for students’ teaching and learning correspond to their developmental and individual characteristics, and therefore these methods cannot be uniform
- a belief that schools should provide the tools that learners need to internalise the ways of thinking central to participation in the cultural world around them.
Reference:
All of the information on this page has been adapted from either
McInerney, D.M. and McInerney, V. Educational Psychology: Constructed Learning (Second Edition)
(Australia: Prentice Hall, 1998)
or
Woolfolk, A. Educational Psychology (Fourth Edition)
(Englewood Cliffs, USA: Prentice Hall, 199
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
A Must See Video - A Vision of Students Today
A Vision of Students Today
| 12/12/11  | | ||
What Not To Do In Education - Beating your students
Teacher Beating Video Highlights School Violence
"She started beating on her chest and she threw the desk and kicked the book," Isaiah told "Good Morning America" today. "I was ... frightened."
Teacher Sherri Davis then allegedly slapped and kicked Isaiah for nearly a minute.
"The teachers didn't break it up," Isaiah said. "They were just standing there, and she just stopped so I got up, and then I looked around and then I left."
Although the alleged incident took place weeks ago, a recently released cell phone video that captured the attack has sparked outrage across the nation.
Jamie's House Charter School, a school for students at risk where many of them have disciplinary problems, fired Davis but Isaiah's mother, Alesha Johnson, wants her put behind bars.
ABC News
A cell phone captured video of what appears to be a teacher repeatedly hitting and kicking a 13-year-old student in a school in the Houston area.
"There is nothing they can say ... a grown-up beating on a child is not right," she said.
Police are investigating.
Davis did not respond to "Good Morning America's" requests for comment.
While accounts of teachers attacking students are relatively rare, school violence in general is on the rise. More than 150,000 teachers reported they were attacked by studens t in the 2007-2008 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
School Violence: Tips for Parents
In the midst of what "Good Morning America" parenting contributor and psychologist Ann Pleshette Murphy called an "epidemic of bullying" and violence in schools, Murphy said parents can take steps to help make sure their kids stay safe at school.
Get Involved It's impossible to fix problems if you do not know they exist, so, Murphy said it's important to have "connection, connection, connection" with the school.
Ask Kids About the Environment No one will know about the environment of the school better than those living in it, your kids. Giving them an adult to talk to allows kids to share things that may make them uncomfortable.
"You can't just put the kids in school and say, 'You take care of these problems,'" Murphy said.
What Not To Do In Education - Duct tape
Teacher Tapes Student’s Mouth With Duct Tape
April 4, 2011 Oddstuff
“She asked me to stop talking, and then a couple minutes went by, and I started to talk again, and she came to me and put it on my mouth,” Jazlyn said. “I had to cough, so I took the first piece off, so she went into her desk, and she took another piece out, and she put it on my mouth again.”The same teacher also taped another student’s mouth shut, prompting them to complain to an administrator.
Jazlyn’s mother, Leah, isn’t too happy about the way her daughter was treated by the teacher.
In an effort to cover her own ass, the teacher told her students to keep the tape on their mouth, and that what happened in her classroom stayed in her classroom. “It was just a joke,” she said.
The students say they only want an apology from the teacher, but they will not be seeking her job.
EDUCATION IN THE NEWS
Recession slows growth in public prekindergarten
In this photo taken, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, Three year-old pre-kindergarten students Delasia Milhouse, right, and an unidentified student, display the food they have prepared at an imaginary restaurant during class at Powell Elementary School in Washington The expansion in public prekindergarten programs has slowed and even been reversed in some states as school districts cope with shrinking budgets. As a result, many 3- and 4-year-olds aren't going to preschool. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) By Kimberly Hefling AP Education Writer / January 17, 2012
WASHINGTON—The expansion in public prekindergarten programs has slowed and even been reversed in some states as school districts cope with shrinking budgets. As a result, many 3- and 4-year-olds aren't going to preschool.
Kids from low-income families who start kindergarten without first attending a quality education program enter school an estimated 18 months behind their peers. Many never catch up, and research shows they are more likely to need special education services and to drop out. Kids in families with higher incomes also can benefit from early education, research shows.
Yet, roughly a quarter of the nation's 4-year-olds and more than half of 3-year-olds attend no preschool, either public or private. Families who earn about $40,000 to $50,000 annually face the greatest difficulties because they make too much to quality for many publicly funded programs, but can't afford private ones, said Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.
And as more students qualify for free or reduced lunch -- often a qualifier to get into a state-funded prekindergarten program -- many families are finding that slots simply aren't available, he said.
In Arizona, a block grant that funded prekindergarten for a small percentage of kids was cut altogether, although a separate public fund still supports some programs. In Georgia, a drop in state lottery dollars meant shaving 20 days off the prekindergarten school year. Proposed cuts in such programs have led to litigation in North Carolina and legislative battles in places like Iowa.
But even in states like New York, where state funding available for prekindergarten has remained relatively steady in recent years, fewer children have access to the programs because inflation has made them more expensive or districts can't come up with the required matching dollars, said Billy Easton, executive director of the Alliance for Quality Education in Albany, N.Y.
Today's climate contrasts with that of 2007, when then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer promised universal, public prekindergarten for all 4-year-olds. Other governors made similar commitments when the economy was stronger.
Far from meeting Spitzer's goal, just 40 percent of 4-year-olds attend a state-funded prekindergarten program in about two-thirds of the state's school districts, according to the advocacy group Winning Beginning NY.
"I think it's a moment in time when we have to really push harder," Easton said. "Pre-K is proven to be the most effective education strategy that we can invest in. What it means is that because we failed to live up to our commitment so far to our youngest children, more of them will end up out of work or they will make less money than they would've otherwise and more of them will end up in prison."
Barnett's institute has estimated it would cost about $70 billion annually to provide full-day prekindergarten to every 3- and 4-year old in America, including before- and after-care services.Continued...
About 40 states fund prekindergarten programs, typically either in public schools or via funds paid to private grantees, for at least some children. That's in addition to the federal Head Start program, which is designed to serve extremely poor children and offers a broader range of social services. In some places, state-funded prekindergarten and Head Start programs are combined.
Typically, state-funded prekindergarten programs have a narrower focus on education and cognitive development and serve a broader population than the federal Head Start program, which serves nearly 1 million kids.
In Wisconsin, school districts that offer prekindergarten to 4-year-olds must offer it universally, and roughly 90 percent of districts do. But budget cuts mean districts are forced to make other changes like increasing the size of pre-K classes.
"Unfortunately, as the awareness and the need (for early learning) becomes more and more evident, our money gets tighter and tighter and tighter and more programs are not instituted in those areas," said Miles Turner, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.
Three states offer prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds, according to Pre-K Now, a decade-long project of the Pew Center on the States.
The District of Columbia goes a step further, with universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. The program is viewed by many as not just a way to help low-income children in the historically low-performing district, but also as a driver to keep middle- and upper-class families in the city and the school system.
At D.C.'s Powell Elementary School, 3- and 4-year-olds sit cross-legged with whiteboards and black markers in hand as teacher Laura Amling belts out, "Up, down, up, down" over classical music. The tots scribble marks similar to an "M" at her command.
This program is not child care. The schedule is filled with Spanish and other lessons, including "buddy reading," with kids describing books to one another.
The kids eat breakfast and lunch family style, so they learn proper etiquette. Songs are sung as the children move to activities to help curb behavior problems. Teachers teach children coping skills and make home visits to bond with parents and children.
While it's too early to know the long-term impact, Principal Janeece Docal says kindergarteners with a pre-K background are writing sentences and discussing books with 3rd-grade level content.
"They trust their teachers. They love their friends," Docal said. "They are invested in their education and you can see that they own that classroom."
Over the past decade, state dollars for prekindergarten more than doubled nationally to $5.1 billion, while at the same time access increased from a little more than 700,000 children to more than 1 million, according to Pre-K Now.
But cuts in state-funded programs began showing up in the 2009-10 school year, according to Barnett's group. He said he's concerned not just that fewer children will be served, but that the quality of the programs will also be affected.
Still, early childhood learning advocates say they are encouraged, in part, because of a recent federal emphasis on improving early childhood programs.
Nine states were awarded a collective $500 million in grants last month to improve access to and the quality of early childhood programs for kids from birth to age 5. A month earlier, President Barack Obama announced new rules under which lower-performing Head Start programs will have to compete for funding.
Not everyone is convinced it's worth the cost.
Chester E. Finn Jr., president of Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, said the government should tightly target its resources on families who really need the prekindergarten programs and otherwise aren't going to get them.
Finn, who has written a book about preschool policy, said Obama's effort on Head Start is a beginning, but more needs to be done. Finn also questioned whether the government was capable of funding universal prekindergarten at a quality level.
"What the universal programs do is they provide an unnecessary windfall for a lot of families that are otherwise doing this on their own just fine, or pretty well, and not enough for kids who really need it," Finn said.
Richard M. Clifford, senior scientist at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said other developed countries -- including much of Europe -- provide prekindergarten programs.
"Kids come into the regular school better prepared to succeed in school," Clifford said. "In the long term, eventually, I think you'll see all 4-year-olds be eligible for pre-K in this country, but it will take a long time."
------
About 40 states fund prekindergarten programs, typically either in public schools or via funds paid to private grantees, for at least some children. That's in addition to the federal Head Start program, which is designed to serve extremely poor children and offers a broader range of social services. In some places, state-funded prekindergarten and Head Start programs are combined.
Typically, state-funded prekindergarten programs have a narrower focus on education and cognitive development and serve a broader population than the federal Head Start program, which serves nearly 1 million kids.
In Wisconsin, school districts that offer prekindergarten to 4-year-olds must offer it universally, and roughly 90 percent of districts do. But budget cuts mean districts are forced to make other changes like increasing the size of pre-K classes.
"Unfortunately, as the awareness and the need (for early learning) becomes more and more evident, our money gets tighter and tighter and tighter and more programs are not instituted in those areas," said Miles Turner, executive director of the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators.
Three states offer prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds, according to Pre-K Now, a decade-long project of the Pew Center on the States.
The District of Columbia goes a step further, with universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. The program is viewed by many as not just a way to help low-income children in the historically low-performing district, but also as a driver to keep middle- and upper-class families in the city and the school system.
At D.C.'s Powell Elementary School, 3- and 4-year-olds sit cross-legged with whiteboards and black markers in hand as teacher Laura Amling belts out, "Up, down, up, down" over classical music. The tots scribble marks similar to an "M" at her command.
This program is not child care. The schedule is filled with Spanish and other lessons, including "buddy reading," with kids describing books to one another.
The kids eat breakfast and lunch family style, so they learn proper etiquette. Songs are sung as the children move to activities to help curb behavior problems. Teachers teach children coping skills and make home visits to bond with parents and children.
While it's too early to know the long-term impact, Principal Janeece Docal says kindergarteners with a pre-K background are writing sentences and discussing books with 3rd-grade level content.
"They trust their teachers. They love their friends," Docal said. "They are invested in their education and you can see that they own that classroom."
Over the past decade, state dollars for prekindergarten more than doubled nationally to $5.1 billion, while at the same time access increased from a little more than 700,000 children to more than 1 million, according to Pre-K Now.
But cuts in state-funded programs began showing up in the 2009-10 school year, according to Barnett's group. He said he's concerned not just that fewer children will be served, but that the quality of the programs will also be affected.
Still, early childhood learning advocates say they are encouraged, in part, because of a recent federal emphasis on improving early childhood programs.
Nine states were awarded a collective $500 million in grants last month to improve access to and the quality of early childhood programs for kids from birth to age 5. A month earlier, President Barack Obama announced new rules under which lower-performing Head Start programs will have to compete for funding.
Not everyone is convinced it's worth the cost.
Chester E. Finn Jr., president of Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, said the government should tightly target its resources on families who really need the prekindergarten programs and otherwise aren't going to get them.
Finn, who has written a book about preschool policy, said Obama's effort on Head Start is a beginning, but more needs to be done. Finn also questioned whether the government was capable of funding universal prekindergarten at a quality level.
"What the universal programs do is they provide an unnecessary windfall for a lot of families that are otherwise doing this on their own just fine, or pretty well, and not enough for kids who really need it," Finn said.
Richard M. Clifford, senior scientist at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said other developed countries -- including much of Europe -- provide prekindergarten programs.
"Kids come into the regular school better prepared to succeed in school," Clifford said. "In the long term, eventually, I think you'll see all 4-year-olds be eligible for pre-K in this country, but it will take a long time."
------
Monday, January 16, 2012
EDUCATION IN THE NEWS
It'S good to see that our childcare and education departments are beginning to see the importance of wholesome stimuli early in the development of an individual. Indeed, high-quality day care and nurseries/kindergartens are considered critical for developing the cooperation and communication skills necessary to prepare young children for lifelong education, as well as for formal learning of reading and mathematics.
Early-childhood education should emphasise respect for each child's individuality and the chance for each child to develop as a unique person. Early-childhood educators should also guide children in the development of social and interactive skills.
To foster a culture of reading, all parents of newborn babies could be given literature, one for the parents, suggesting the roles of the parents, and a set of 'baby' books containing a journal, as well as bedtime stories, to be read to the child from day one.
Early education is the first and most critical stage of lifelong learning. Neurological research has shown that 90 per cent of brain growth occurs during the first five years of life, and 85 per cent of the nerve paths develop before starting school.
Care must be taken by parents and society to prepare children physically (eating properly, keeping clean) and mentally (communication, social awareness, empathy, safety and self-reflection) before beginning more formal learning at age five or six.
The idea is that the child learns through play, so that by the time he or she finally gets to school, he or she is keen to continue learning.
AINSWORTH D.M. FORSYTHE
forsytheadm@yahoo.com
Teacher, Guy's Hill High
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