The Growing Child

Children grow and learn upon the skills they already possess. My personal view or philosophy of education is much like that of Piaget and Vigotsky.

Pg 145 Piaget believed that childrens knowledge was neither intrinsic nor extrinsic, but that interaction of the child's physical and genetic abilities, as well as experience created knowledge and understanding.

His theory is based on his conclusion that children create or construct their own understanding and that they do this by interacting with people and objects. Just like piaget, I feel that children learn through play. Children need to have hands on experiences and we need to provide the opportunities to build upon those experiences.

I also believe in Viogotsky's theory of scaffolding. His theory is based on the belief that childrens development is influenced by their culture. He, like piaget, believed that children pg 152 are active participants in their own learning, that they construct their own knowledge and understanding. He also believed that the role adults play in young children is very important to their learning and development because they are actually helping them construct meaning.

The program I work for and passionaltely believe in believes parents and caregivers are of big importance in the lives of children. We believe the parents are their childs number one educator and we work with parents to identify their child's strengths and skills to work on. We do this by providing a rich environment that provides opportunity to master the level they are at, but also to build upon it.

We monitor their growth through observation and ongoing assessment. We then plan according t their interests and skill level.

Pg 153 viogotscy believed childrens abilities should be analysed through careful and thoughtful observation of children as well as valid assessment of their skills and abilities. Then teachers can guide learning through different activities such as small groups with vary skills, for example.

Pg 146 piaget theorized that as children interact in their environment, the develop organized wasy of making sense of experiences, he refers to this as schemata. Early schemata is the basis for more complex future mental frameworks.

Piaget identifies 2 processes, assimulation and accommodation, that children organize their experience into structures for thinking and problem solving.

I believe that children's childhood is a separate and magical stage of life with it's own characteristics. With all the theories of early childhood development, many have an influence on how we teach.

In the program I work, we know that children refine their logic and construct an accurate understanding of the world by manipulating

Concrete objects. Their knowledge grows as they experiment, make discoveries, and modify their