What is the best method of teaching kindergarten children.



What is the best method of teaching kindergarten children.
Everyone likes to have the readymade stuff to use rather than the raw materials given to make a fantastic stuff.
Keeping the related textbooks, yearly planning is done followed by monthly planning and weekly planning.  In macro-planning [yearly], one can find the  broad learning outcomes listed, which focus on overall development of a child during the learning process.
In monthly plan, the number of chapters that can be completed along with the learning outcome related to the topic a child is expected to gain are listed.
In weekly or daily plan,the outcome is focussed on the questions related to the topic.
Here one can clearly understand that the broad learning outcomes are not mentioned or is having a scale or parameters to assess. Finally when it comes to the assessment, teachers focuses on list of questions put in various ways to elicit the required answers and score accordingly. At the end of the year promotion  report card is issued.
The question here is, what steps have been taken to realize the broad learning outcome in day to day activities.
What kind of planning should be adopted. Traditional planning or Inquiry-Based Approach.
The  comparison of both is given below:    
1. Traditional Planning
Topics are decided by educators (e.g., apples, Family,animals etc)
Topics change on a monthly basis.
Decision making and planning involve little or no input from the children.
Planning is often related to calendar events and topics traditionally perceived as interesting to all young children.
Planning is heavily focused on specific expectations rather than on overall expectations. Children all complete the same activities (e.g., drawing apple, tracing alphabets, standardized generic crafts), regardless of individual interests and needs. There is a focus on standardized procedures and task completion.Topics are often abstract from the children’s perspective making it difficult for them to engage in higher-level thinking.Children are asked to make contrived connections (e.g., identifying words that start with the letter a; working on an apple booklet). Planning often involves a Community Helper .
Inquiry-Based Approach
The focus of inquiries emerges out of children’s thinking, wonderings, and theories, as well as ideas that stimulate their interest. The duration of inquiries is not predetermined and is flexible.
Experiences, materials, thinking and learning are co-constructed with the children. Experiences, materials, thinking, and learning are co-constructed with the children. Educators focus on the overall expectations as they co-construct learning with the children.
Learning is personalized and differentiated. There is a focus on providing opportunities for children to test their own theories and explore answers to their own questions and wonderings. Children explore their own questions and ideas more deeply and directly, and so engage more readily in higher-level thinking (e.g., How does water move? Where do people read? Where do we find numbers?
The concepts of citizenship and social justice emerge out of an inquiry stance (e.g., How does my behaviour affect my friends and family and other people in my community?). We all would love to adopt ‘Inquiry-Based Approach.  There are lots of preparations to be done and accepted.
Class strength to be kept low. 15:1 For every 15 students 1 main teacher and a helper assistant. Ample of space to move around in the class should be taken care of. Learning materials in good condition should be given. Proper planning where the basic learning concepts is dealt. Every activity a child opts for in the activity time must be conceptualized and recorded the observation made time to time Class teacher should be given an independent hand in handling the classroom activities.
There must be transparency & understanding between the teacher,principal,parents and the management. 

Comments

  1. The most appropriate sentence which I like is -

    The duration of inquiries is not predetermined and is flexible.
    .
    .
    The entire thought is practically possible if management agrees...

    ReplyDelete

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