My Journey in ECE
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Saturday, April 9, 2016
Leveraging Leadership
Leaders!
Leaders Say Yes!
Leading for Succession: Building Leadership Capacity
I
can’t believe that we are at the last week of the last course of our
Master’s Program. This course has empowered my leadership skills and
improved my confidence in making decisions and team building. I was a
person who had never thought of seeing myself as a leader, but now, I
believe I can say “YES” to the new challenges.
Leaders Say Yes!
In
my opinion, saying “YES” opens new opportunities in everyone’s’ life
and helps them go beyond their boundaries. As Michael Hogan stated,
“Saying ‘yes’ begins things. Saying ‘yes’ is how things grow… An
attitude of ‘yes’ is how you will be able to go forward in these
uncertain times” (as cited in Kouzes & Posner, 2010). According to
this article, there are ten truths about leadership:
I
agree with the authors that taking responsibility of your own life is
an important part of leadership. “… [Leadership] is about seeing a
problem and accepting personal responsibility for doing something about
it” (Kouzes & Posner, 2010). This article narrated the leadership’s
journey of Ivana Sendecka which could be found in this TEDx video.
Leading for Succession: Building Leadership Capacity
The
role of leadership in the area of early childhood education is
critical, they can inspire educators, children, families, communities,
and policy makers to improve the quality of the education. According to
Rodd (2013), there is lack of encouragement for early childhood
educators to take leadership roles mainly because the amount of
responsibilities and complexities associated with this role. It is very
important to invest in “leadership recruitment”, “capacity-building” and
“succession planning” in order to create a pool of diverse leaders who
can take the lead in “different facets and various contexts of
leadership”. Holistic leadership contains the following characteristics:
It
is also vital for the leaders to have expertise and information about
child development, pedagogy, legal issues, family and community
relationship to provide a high quality services (Rodd, 2013). Providing
leadership training for educators could empower them to be a leader,
develop their skills, and increase the quality of staffing and services.
“Tailored training opportunities help individuals to transition from
naive to better-evolved conceptions of leadership” (Rodd, 2013).
Today’s
leaders should prepare the next generation of leaders to replace them
in future. This could make the leadership training even more critical
for the new generation of educators. For example, in my workplace, we
have an organizational structure to train the staff for the leadership
opportunity. An Executive Director is the first person who leads two
supervisors. Supervisors are the main contact between educators,
families, and Executive director. Each age group also has a facilitator
who works 3 hours per week in the office to collaborate with the
supervisors for planning and programming which could help them develop
leadership skill. I think this structure not only helps develop some
leaders for future, but also creates more opportunities for people to
experience leadership. “Distributed leadership can encourage early
childhood educators to gain broader experience and perspectives that
shift them from a management and positional perspective to a distributed
and more holistic conception about leadership”(Rodd, 2013, p.262).
References:
Kouzes,
J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2010). The truth about leadership: The
no-fads, heart-of-thematter facts you need to know. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Rodd, Jillian (2013). Leadership in early childhood : the pathway to professionalism (4th ed). Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, N.S.W
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Culminating response paper
My opinion about the assessment
for children who are English language learners has been affected during this
semester. At the beginning, I hardly accepted having the child to be assessed
because of my belief about each child’s uniqueness. Getting to know assessment
and the ways that we can use them to promote children’s learning help me
realize the benefits of the appropriate assessments. As Siegel (2013) stated,
“The use of appropriate instruments to assess learning and plan future
instruction is particularly essential for students whose first language is not
English, because without special planning, the opportunity to learn might be
absent” (p.2).
What is Assessment in Early Childhood?
- What does “Assessment” mean in terms of being an educator?
- Do we make meaning about “the whole child” by questioning and/or observing children?
- Do we respect individualism by assessing children?
- What kind of assessment tools would be more beneficial for both children and educators to be used?
- What does assessment do in terms of being a child?
- Does the whole child and the family being considered in the assessment?
- Does it help children to get to know their interests and needs?
I have begun my journey in this
course by those questions from both educators and children’s point of views. I
believe assessment might standardize the way that children were expected to
learn and could give them some guideline to improve themselves. On the other
hand, it is not fair to assess everyone in a same way. Having pre-written
assessment test at the center that I work made me think of the children who do
not fit in the category of their own age. Specially, I could see the difference
for children who are English learners. As Blandford and Knowles (2012) stated,
“Each child is unique and the ongoing process of collecting evidence of
learning, both formally and informally can be a challenge task for the
practitioners” (P.491).
Furthermore, the cultural
difference plays a role in the children behaviors as well. For instance, some
parents pay more attention to tangible outcome of learning. This has effect on
their expectation and would change the dynamic of learning toward that. In
addition, we had some discussion about “DAP” last semester which made me really
think about assessment practices and if it is the best practice. As Paki &Caulcutt (2011) stated, “Many have criticized DAP by questioning the
ethnocentricity in the assessments' view of what is typical child development”
(p. 37).
Reading this course articles have
changed my negative perspective of assessment. As Blandford and Knowles (2012)
described, “In practice, AFL [Assessment For Learning] means children and
practitioners working together to decide where the learners are in their
learning, where they need to go and how best to get there” (p.488). I believe,
in the situation of being an educator, not a specialist, some children may need
more time to transfer to the next developmental stage, so the timing should be
used as sign to investigate and assess the child’s development. The result of
assessment might be/not be applicable for individual. According to Michael-Luna
& Heimer (2012), “Creative Curriculum also supports a range of teaching
approaches,…, offers advice for how to adapt instruction to different types of
learners, including those with special needs, gifted children, and second
language learners. [it] guides teachers to use naturalistic forms of assessment
which directly contribute to supporting individual learning as well as to
program evaluation” (p.125). We also know, the best result would be found when
the family and the educators work together to foster children’s learning.
Teacher’s role
I have been thinking of the role
of the teacher to include everyone in the room. By respecting different
languages and the cultures, teachers can use the variety of the tools to assess
children. It also is crucial for the teachers to have knowledge about different
ways of learning, so that they can have the variety of materials to help
children develop their skills. Siegel (2013) emphasized, “Formative assessment
is critical for teachers to communicate about and foster learning. Using
assessment data to provide feedback to students and adapt instruction provides
substantial effects in student learning” (p.2).
I thought of my topic and
specifically about the word “Language” and the benefits of the documentation
that I had been exposed to. The following sentence made me rethink about the
correlation between a 100 language and the children from around the world who
talk in the other language and have different cultures and values to express
themselves: “Multiple languages can facilitate communication between multiple
groups, from children, to parents, to political and other ‘stakeholders’”
(Alcock, 2000).
I think by respecting other
languages and cultures, we provide the accepting environment to children to
express themselves in the variety of ways. For instance, in my workplace, we
have an international twin who play together and talk in their own language.
Some educators asked the supervisor to separate the children, so that they
learn English faster. Others talked about their observations and the way that
the twin help and support each other for creating new art and exploring their
environment. We decided to have them both in our room to support them. I
believe both “a hundred language”, and talking in different language can
facilitate communication between multiple groups.
Teacher’s knowledge
In addition, I believe, teachers
need to promote their knowledge about the assessment for all the children. They
can use the assessment to enhance children’s learning and find their interests
and needs. As I have seen in my workplace, some teachers assess children only
to measure performance, and they usually use the same methods for everyone. But
Siegel (2013) believed, “Flexibility in selecting and administering a variety
of assessment instruments and making time adjustments for students to complete
the assessment are important aspects” (p.4).
How to Assess the ELL?
In my opinion, not knowing
English has effect on most of the skills. As I talked with my colleagues,
infants and toddlers generally don’t communicate verbally, so ELL child can
easily play and imitate other children (parallel play). “Observing and imitating
peers, beginning to play “follow the peer” games, and observing and playing
briefly with peers” are the indicators of the “social interest” (ELECT, 2007,
p. 35). On the other hand, older children have more difficulties to adopt to
the new environment and socialized, as language becomes more dominant in the
social skills. For ELL child, who just join the English environment, the
language become barrier to communicate effectively. “Not speaking the same
language is a barrier to inclusion” (Hardacre & Dumais, 2013, p. 485).
Rock & Stenner (2005)
mentioned, “ ‘Interpersonal skills’ rates the child’s behavior in forming and
maintaining friendships; getting along with people who are different; helping
and comforting other children; expressing feelings, ideas, and opinions in
positive ways; and being sensitive to the feelings of others” (P. 22). My
concern is how the educators are able to assess those children even in the
other aspect of developmental stage when the child is not able to communicate
and express her/his self?
Furthermore, they might have hard
time expressing their feeling to resolve any conflict with peers which is one
of the indicator of “Conflict Resolution and Social Problem-Solving Skills”
(ELECT, 2007, p. 43). On the other hand, exposed to new language can be handled
easier in preschool than older children. “Social language can be picked up more
quickly, through mimicking in social interactions” (Hardacre & Dumais,
2013, p. 471).
Also, what if the children get
frustrated because they cannot express themselves? Are they consider as a
behavioral problem? As Rock &Stenner (2005) stated, “ ‘Externalizing problem behaviors’ measures the
likelihood that a child argues, fights, gets angry, acts impulsively, and
disrupts ongoing activities. ‘Internalizing problem behaviors’ measures
anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem, and sadness.” I am afraid if the culture and the language
differences cause children to get the low mark from their assessment, so that
they feel different from others.
I was reading this sentence and
felt if this situation happened to me, I would be so proud of myself
challenging the accepted assessment! As Alcock (2000) stated, “Pedagogical
documentation may also be used to challenge accepted assessment practices such
as the obsessive and sometimes exclusive reliance on individually written
observations of individual children” (p. 3).
Although almost everyone knows
about the child individualism, and believe in uniqueness, we still are forced
to do the assessment and evaluate each child’s capability to pass the test. As
Rock and Stenner (2005) explained, “A useful test must be reliable, which means
that it will produce essentially the same results on different occasions.
Reliability can be measured in three ways: retesting, equivalent form, and
internal consistency” (p. 17).
We have observed children do
great job in the class and have appropriate developmental skills, but have
difficulty do the same in specific situations. We all can see the benefit of
have both observation and evaluation in the settings. Alcock (2000) emphasized,
“At a micro level (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) many centres in this country do use
some forms of pedagogical documentation for the ongoing formative assessment of
children's learning and evaluation of their programs. Written child
observations are probably the most prevalent form of documentation” (p.8).
I have learned that assessing
each child with the variety of tools to find appropriate assessment for each
child with diverse ability is critical, at the same time it is very challenging
exercise for the educators considering limited time and resources. Also, we
need to know different cultures and the strategies to meet the needs of each
child. At this point, I have not found clear answers for all of my concerns,
and I still need time and experience to deal with them. Siegel (2013) stated,
“Beth questioned the difficulty in making assessment equitable for a diverse
population of students by asking, ‘‘who is the judge on what is fair for each
student? Is that the teacher or is it someone else?” (p.7).
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Pedagogical documentation
I
was reading this sentence and felt if this situation happened to me, I would be
so proud of myself challenging the accepted assessment! As Alcock (2000)
stated, “Pedagogical documentation may also be used to challenge accepted assessment
practices such as the obsessive and sometimes exclusive reliance on individually
written observations of individual children” (p. 3).
Although
almost everyone knows about the child individualism, and believe in uniqueness,
we still are forced to do the assessment and evaluate each child’s capability
to pass the test. In the first week of this module, we had articles about the
reliability, validity, and ... of the test. As Rock and Stenner (2005) explained, “A
useful test must be reliable, which means that it will produce essentially the
same results on different occasions. Reliability can be measured in three ways:
retesting, equivalent form, and internal consistency” (p. 17). I still am
confused to accept the reason that we need to assess and evaluate children to
receive the rate of the school in the area.
We
have observed children do great job in the class and have appropriate
developmental skills, but have difficulty do the same in specific situations. We
all can see the benefit of have both observation and evaluation in the
settings. Alcock (2000) emphasized, “At a micro level (Bronfenbrenner, 1979)
many centres in this country do use some forms of pedagogical documentation for
the ongoing formative assessment of children's learning and evaluation of their
programs. Written child observations are probably the most prevalent form of
documentation” (p.8).
100 Languages for everone!
As I have
been working on my PoP about the children who are English learners, I usually
think of my topic and specifically about the word “Language”. I was reading
this week article “pedagogical documentation: Beyond observation”, and I thought
about the benefit of the documentation that I have been exposed to. The
following sentence made me rethink about the correlation between a 100 language
and the children from around the world who talk in the other language and have
different cultures and values to express themselves:
“Multiple
languages can facilitate communication between multiple groups, from children,
to parents, to political and other "stakeholders".” (Alcock, 2000, P.8)
Don’t you
think that we can assume the meaning could be related to all groups? I think by
respecting other languages and cultures, we provide the accepting environment
to children to express themselves in the variety of ways. For instance, in my
workplace, we have an international twin who play together and talk in their
own language. Some educators asked the supervisor to separate the children, so
that they learn English faster. Others talked about their observations and the
way that the twin help and support each other for creating new art and
exploring their environment. We decided to have them both in our room to
support them. I believe both “a hundred language”, and talking in different
language can facilitate communication between multiple groups. :)
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