My Philosophy Of Early Childhood Education

My educational philosophy has been in development for 15 years. It is a product of my own experiences in school, as well as my opinions on what skills should be taught, and to what extent different components of the child should be developed. The academic, social, emotional, and cognitive development of the children can be heavily influenced in PreK and kindergarten classrooms. It is dependent on the teacher to conduct their classroom in a manner that successfully facilitates the development of each child’s faculties. As a future teacher, it is critical that I enter the classroom with a clear philosophy in regards to how I believe education should be conducted. This philosophy fuses many of the different elements of early childhood approaches

These extended projects, which involve a variety of jobs and tasks, are effective tools to allow for children to appreciate the experiences, diversity, and cultures of their peers (Katz & Chard, 2009, New & Kantor, 2009). During projects, the children come together to work on various tasks and research to accomplish a long-term project, such as researching and creating a class garden. Children work independently and in small groups to research and understand the topic and what it entails, and then the responsibilities attached with the project are divvied out. As children observe the different contributions of their class members, they become more aware of how each person can be an important contributor, regardless of their backgrounds. This promotes the child’s ability to empathize with others, a quality that is essential to healthy emotional and cognitive development. The Project Approach will be just one aspect of the overarching curriculum in my classroom. It can be used not only to work on the psychological components of the classroom, but also to teach students new information, much of which I hope can be applied in a practical manner, such as the use of the classroom garden to teach about weather, seasons, botany, and other information that can be applied in daily life. To learn this information, the teacher does not tell it to the student, instead it is the students job to find the knowledge themselves so that they can work towards their project goals. As the child works to research and apply the information, they are more likely to see it’s real world application on display, as opposed to being told the information by a teacher (Katz & Chard,