Why We're Passionate In ECE.

We are passionate about ECE because we want to help children in their development. Early childhood education (ECE) is about educating children from birth to the age of eight years old. At this time, children like to imitate the behavior and movement from adult or someone that they interest to help children in their development of cognitive. It is where Albert Bandura said that children learn through imitation. For example, a teacher is teaching at the front of the class. One of her student came home and plays the dramatic play by her and plays a role as a teacher. The child follows what have she seen at the class on how her teacher teaches at the class. There are four domains of development which is important in children development such as physical development (related to fine and gross motor skills), social and emotion development (about feeling and socialize), cognitive development (brain development) and language development (speaking, hearing, writing). For example domain of cognitive is give children activity by learning through play such as using block and the children need to think how to build a house using it. The benefit that the children will learn through this activity is about counting, coloring and creative thinking.

 Aside from that, educate to be someone that has leadership skill. It is means how teacher handle their work with professional and good manner. As a teacher, we must have self-confident especially when teaching the children such as during present in classroom. Teacher must have strategies, braveness and think how to make children interest to learn and understand about what they learn. Teacher is the role model of children so teacher must show good behavior and children will like to imitate. For example arrange shoes before come to classroom. Teacher must have strategies how to control children especially when do activity such as give instruction, observation and teacher will participate too.

Working in Early childhood education can build the passionate attitude in us because children have many characteristic. For example, such as in the situation of when the activity is conduct in group, some of children may not give their cooperation. Teacher must have more idea and think how to solve problem because not all children will follow the instruction. If children are doing mistake, do not simply angry to children because children is soft hearted but give them opportunity again to repeat until children can do or success. Then, passion when have complained from others such as complained from parents and as a teacher, we need to be passion to trying to correct the mistake.

 Last but not least, the reason why we are passionate about ECE is because we want to organize kindergarten in more modern. It is means that we want to bring all the kindergarten in Malaysia to the same level with the other country such as Russia. One of the things that we will do is provide appropriate facilities to the kindergarten such as have many areas which are area of science, music, art and craft and others. It is because in kindergarten, the children will be able to do many activities because there were appropriate facilities that they can use. For example, the children can dance at the area of music area because there were have materials that children can use with their activity such as music, dance carpet and others. I also want to add the subject that can help in the religious thing such as Arabic, Islamic study or moral studies and hafazan so children will not only learn about life but they also can learn about religious. At the time of learning, children can use technologies as a tool to make their learning become easy such as computer. By using the technologies, children can use it to find thing that related with their education.

History Of ECE & Theories

Providing the care, guidance, and education for children aged from zero to eight years old outside the home, early childhood education is the basic foundation for young children to be ready to learn, ready to build up personality, and ready to gain knowledge and experiences of life and environments. Early childhood curriculum today have become the most important education in children’s life and educating young children within the family have started for many years before. It is the theories and facets that have been evolving.

People often questioned which theories or methods are more appropriate and applicable to children’s development. Well, there are several theorists that are well known to people and their theories and methods are commonly used by early childhood educators.

According to the Community Playthings, the philosophical foundations of early childhood education were provided by John Amos Comenius, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Its curriculums and methodology were created by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel, Maria Montessori, and Rudolf Steiner. Most recently, the theories that have been used in several countries are The Montessori Method, Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory, Reggio Emilia Approach, and Lev Vygotsky’s Theory. In here, we will see about Montessori Method and Piaget’s Cognitive Theory.

The Montessori Method

Montessori Method was founded by Maria Montessori, the woman in Italy that earned a medical degree and became the country’s first woman doctor. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) began her work with children during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After her graduation, she became interested toward developmentally disabled children. She felt that they were not taught properly and schools should be established for these children.

Due to her desire to put her knowledge and work into practices, in 1907 Maria Montessori opened the ‘Children’s House’ in Rome for young children with working mothers. Just as Froebel, Montessori focused on fulfilling the needs of the child to their fullest potential and placed them as the centre of learning. Using her experiences with developmentally challenged children, she believes that with the right educational approaches, all children are allowed to be free to explore, play with their environment, learn, and grow.

In her center, she also emphasized the relationship between motor skills and sensory function and children’s physical and mental abilities developments. To advocate these abilities, she creates self-paced activities where some materials were designed to prepare children’s sense of formalized and practical life skills. Examples like getting dress, buttoning shirts, pouring milk, writing, and reading.

In addition, Montessori Method is requiring teachers to prepare the environment then leave the children to use the materials without interference and any help from other children happens spontaneously. Furniture for the classroom were designed in child-size and placed where children are able to reach them. The purposes for these kinds of approaches were meant to make children to develop self-direction and concentration.

Piaget’s Cognitive Theory

Jean Piaget, born in 1896 had a strong influence in early childhood curricula and practices. He discovered that children of different ages had their own system of logic or ways of conceptualizing the world. He believes that intelligence develops over time and considered children are like scientist, always experimenting and explore the world with their own thinking in constructing their knowledge.

Using children’s age, after several experiments, observations and interviews, he comes up with a theory of four stages of cognitive in children’s developments. In Table 1.0, stage four applies to older children and adults.

  

Age	Stage	Characteristic	Children’s Learning
0 – 24 months	Sensorimotor	Infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions.	Object Permanence – objects continue to exist even when out of sight.
2 – 7 years	Preoperational	Words and images reflect increase symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory information and physical action. Egocentrism is present.	Three mountain task.
7 – 11 years	Concrete Operational	Child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets.	Conservation - altering substance’s appearance does not change its basic properties.
11 – adulthood	Formal Operational	Child reasons in more abstract, idealistic and logical ways. Adolescents begin to think more as a scientist thinks.	Devising plans to solve problems and systematically testing solutions.

                              Table 1.0 Piaget’s Stages of Development

Advantages & Disadvantages Of ICT In ECE

Pros and Cons of ICT in Early Childhood Education

In times of rapidly developing countries, Malaysia has become more widespread use of ICT to all groups and it is not limited to the workers and adults only, but children are not left in the pace of globalization today. Children nowadays also know how to use computers. They can open and close the computer. They also can explore new things. School nowadays also have their own main subject that related to ICT or using ICT as their main tool of learning process either in preschool, primary school or secondary school. It is good for young children but the extent of ICT can bring benefits to children especially in early childhood education as well as ICT can bring harm to them.

The Benefits of ICT in Early Childhood Education

The child is receptive to new teaching and learning especially display material, colorful material, moving images, sound and image and anything that can attract children. ICT based learning is interesting on early childhood education because children like something different it is because they like to explore. It will accelerate the process of teaching and learning in preschool and also actually make it easier for teachers to teach the children using the ICT because in ICT there were many information that teacher does not able or does not have time to told to the children. Children actually like to hold something new. As an example, when the first time children can hold a computer by their own hand, see it by their own eyes, their curiosity further. These children often need only teach four or five times on how to start something on the computer and after that they have sufficient control on it. It is also one of the benefits of ICT to young children.

The other benefit of ICT in early childhood education is it can help children excellent in their education. When children were learn by ICT, they can explore or find anything that they want. At there, they will get new knowledge rather than just depending on teacher to tell them all things. Therefore, they were advance than their friend and because of that they can be excellent in their education because the children make an effort to learn by themselves by exploring it through ICT. For instance, Nazurah teacher teach about animal. In the class, the teacher just shows the picture of the animal. When Nazurah find in the internet, Nazurah can know about how the animal is moving, what are the animal sound, what the animals eat, and others. The above example shows that Nazurah learn by themselves by using the technology about animal and it can help Nazurah in her education and make her become excellent than others.

Based on the theories, Overton (2011) believes that by providing children with access to technology helps make the learning more exciting. He also said that technology can also be used to encourage group work with children, therefore encouraging children to be social while learning the social skills to share the computer with their peers. I believe that it is important for children to learn social skills in a wide range of curriculum areas as each area may require a child to use a different set of interpersonal skills. Other than that, Concordia University in Portland (n.d) believes that children who are using computer technology “will benefit from open-ended exploration rather than being confined to making a product”.

 

The next benefits is by Dockett and Fleer (1999), they suggest that when computers are used as a tool to teach the children they can be beneficial to children’s cognitive development. Clements (1992) as cited in Dockett and Fleer (1999), has done an extensive review on literature based on children and the use of computers, which states that children will find it easier to use a computer when it is in a word processing application, as the children may find it easier to press the buttons rather than using a pencil. Clements brings in the idea that handwriting can become tiring for children which could end in them not learning how to write correctly. It is because young children will be bored and easy to be tired when they need to write a lot hence, young children extension time is shorter than adult. Overton (2011) also claims that the use of technology can do to enhance skills, such as a child’s cognitive skills. However Wardle, (2008), suggests that introducing children to technology at a young age can mean that some developmental needs can be ignored or radically compromised such as a child’s physical development. Schiller (2010) also suggests that technology has a positive impact on brain development as it is helping to sharpen some cognitive abilities by learning to react more quickly to visual stimuli.

It is important for those centers that have technology in their curriculum; to ensure that it is has been integrated correctly to ensure that it can help to enhances children’s learning and development to its full potential. Wardle, (2008), expresses concern that if the technology is not integrated into the curriculum correctly it can have a negative impact on a child’s creativity. As an educator, we need to use the technology properly towards young children.

Disadvantages of ICT in Early Childhood Education

There is no doubt that computer technology can become a major platform of development in early childhood education. It was able to make the learning process in children more interesting, extensive and impressive. However, the main issue has always been on the agenda in the field of early childhood education is in terms of the effectiveness of multimedia learning elements. The use of ICT in early childhood education in teaching and learning sessions in a planned and appropriate to assist in the search for information and knowledge against a child. However, ICT in teaching and learning for early childhood have benefits to the children and also can harm them. As we look at the above advantages, there are also disadvantages of ICT to early childhood education. As an educator, we need to know the disadvantages of ICT before we apply it in our teaching method. Here I share mine and my group opinion about the disadvantages of using ICT in early childhood education. I hope it will help the others.

First and foremost, theorist Rowan (2014) states that the overexposure to the brain at a young age can be associated with attention deficit and cognitive delays. It also can be said by the delay of the development of the children. This could be due to the fact that the brain is not built to sustain extensive monitoring for long periods of time (Schiller 2010). It is because when the children know how to use the technologies, all things are prepare on their fingertips. What they want to know they just type and click and at there the children do not use their brain to think and just depend on the technologies to help them find information. It causes the delay of cognitive development because they do not use their brain to think.

The next disadvantage of ICT is children will be easily bored during learning process in classroom without using any ICT equipment. This will make them find it hard to understand the lesson and cannot give full attention when the teacher is teaching in front of the classroom. It is because they have been exposed to the technologies and internet teaching equipment by the teacher or by their parents during learning process either at school or at home. When they have been exposed to the technologies, they have also explore information beyond what they learn in the class and when the teacher teach the same thing it also can make the children feel bored. As an example, Sarah has been exposed by her parents on using technologies to find any information about what she wants to know. Sarah has known about the color and how to mix two colors to make the third color and she have practice it at home by her mother guidance. A few weeks later, Sarah teacher teach the children about the color and how to make the third color so, at here Sarah have been exposed to the same knowledge. When the teacher is teaching, Sarah was feeling bored because she have done that thing before and she have been exposed to that knowledge earlier.

Last but not least, the disadvantage of ICT in early childhood education is addicted. When children were exposed too much with internet and ICT equipment, they will be addicted to it and they will feel lazy to study. They also will not be able to learn on their own. They will think that ICT equipment is more interesting than learning in the classroom such as playing game, chatting and others. It is easy to become addicted to gaming, texting, talking on the phone or socializing online. Some children may attempt to do this in class which disrupts their learning, and at home it detracts from study time. Children putting in long hours on their gadgets will give less attention to homework and may be irritable when they are away from their gadgets. They might also sleep less because too focus on the gadgets. It can slow down the children thinking the next day.

 

Malaysia ECE Curriculum & International Approach

INTERNATIONAL APPROACH

In New Zealand, the government is committed to digital literacy. There is a strong social and economic rationale for nations to use ICT in the compulsory education system. Children need to be able to use ICT so they are completely prepared for the future and the prospective wealth of New Zealand’s economy is dependent on fixing digital technologies in our education system. In a government-sponsored literature review on the role and potential of ICT in early childhood settings, Bolstad argues that ICT use should foster a view of ICT as a tool for enriching the teaching and learning environment for young children. To support the improved use of ICT in early childhood education, the New Zealand Ministry of Education consequently launched the strategic plan Foundations for Discovery (Ministry of Education, 2005), with the implementation of targeted professional development.

In a recent report on the impact of a three-year professional development project aimed at increasing early childhood professionals’ capability using ICT to support children’s learning. Hatherly, maintain that an added value of ICT was the multiplicity it offered in terms of learning opportunities. 

Studies of children’s interactions with digital texts in out-of-school settings have drawn attention to the playfulness, agency, and creativity with which they may engage with them. For example, the literacy practices of 44 children in Britain aged two-and-a-half to four years of age at home found that children’s engagement with television, computer games and mobile phones provided them with a means of pleasure and self-expression.

Besides that, literacy as skills development was embedded within children’s techno-literacy practices whether that related to learning phoneme relationships from watching television or reading texts on the screens of computer games. In short, children’s home literacy events within this study could be mapped on to existing literature, differing in the extent to which techno-literacy practices were involved.

Diagram 1 Picture of graphic arts for children

Diagram 2 Children create an design on their creativity

Malaysian Early Childhood Education (Ece) Curriculum : National Standard Preschool Curriculum (NSPC)

Mission of NSPC:

• ·         Develop children skills at the age four to six years old with holistic in the physical, emotional, moral, intellectual and social study environment that safe and fertilizing with exciting, creative and meaningful activities. 
• ·         Children can increase their skills, improving self-confidence and building positive self-esteem in themselves.

Objectives of NSPC:

• Providing the opportunities for children between four to six years old; to achieve the objective in physical, emotional, moral, intellectual and social as below: 
•  Develop fine and gross motor skill
• Improve their creativity and aesthetic value
• Practicing a good daily routine
• Aware with other feelings
•  Have a good communication skill 

Future Of ICT In Early Childhood: What Does Research Say?

Based on the research “Role and potential of ICT in early childhood education: A review of New Zealand and International Literature” by Rachel Bolstad there a good reviews of the research. ICT have a great value in everyday life including in ECE because as we all aware, ICT is a platform or any form of technology that is being used for gaining and sharing information; ICT’s values in ECE are depends on the tools selected and on how yet when they are being used. The literature suggests that it is for the practitioners or teachers to know about the way of using ICT and on contemporary theories about learning and teaching that related to the ICT use.

From this journal, we found out about the literature that suggesting about ICT uses in ECE and we are focusing on the role and potential of ICT to support teaching and learning. In the literature review about role and potential of ICT in early childhood, Rachel Bolstad (2004) found that studies suggest ICT's can provide a useful context for co-operation and collaboration between children and also between the children and adults. However, she makes the point that educators "must be conscious of the kinds of learning interactions they would like to occur in the context of ICT used”.

Besides, the researcher suggests that ICT should be used to initiate an understanding of the practices, purposes and social context of ECE as ICT can support children’s learning such as in language development and mathematical thinking.

Teacher can used ICT for:

1. Document and assess children’s learning and activities.
2. Reflecting on children’s and educator’s conversations and interactions.
3. Construct learning experiences from children’s interest; ideas and experiences.
4. Strengthen support family involvement in children’s learning.

ICT can build up the environment of learning for children because the value of ICT itself makes the young children’s learning environment become more fun and meaningful but it depends on the choices of teacher on choosing which tools to be used in the teaching learning. Based on the case studies, teacher believe that ICT support on the directly or indirectly support children’s development and learning.

Aside from that, teachers are expanding on using ICT with children or on their own as a tool to support and scaffold children's early childhood education experiences. On a brighter side, case studies have shown that the uses of ICT in early childhood education settings are becoming more and more common each day because one of the reasons are it is often written by early childhood education practitioners and they provide recommendations, suggestions or guidelines for other practitioners based on what they have learned in their own centres to the other teachers.

In a nutshell, the future of ICT in ECE would increase rapidly as it has been a priority in everyday life and it includes children’s too because they are having a positive learning experiences.