The Professional Early Childhood Teacher: Opinion Essay

Introduction

There are three main reasons why I think this post has added value to the Discussion of topic Reflection.

Firstly, I shared an example from my own practice experiences, it will remind my classmates who have read my post to avoid a similar problem occurs in their future practice.

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Secondly, I did the reflection from the perspective of improving my partnership with my associate teacher who is also one of my colleagues, because effective communication with colleagues plays an important role in the collaboration of early childhood education.

Finally, I connected my example to the relevant viewpoints and strategies in Vicars (2010), which underpins the conclusion of my reflection professionally.

Essay

Vanderah and Gould (2016) states that the brain develops the majority of its neurons between birth and 3 years old, which means a child owns the highest potential for learning new things in his/her early years. As the core of professional education and care service for young children, early childhood practitioners have extensive responsibilities for maximizing children’s valued learning and future development (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2017). This essay will give an account of a few responsibilities of early childhood educators for young children, their families/whānau, and the wider learning community base on the value of wellbeing, respect, communication and professional knowledge.

First of all, I regard wellbeing of children in early childhood education as the paramount value in my teaching philosophy. According to Bradshaw, Hoelscher and Richardson, the definition of child wellbeing is “the realisation of children’s rights and the fulfilment of the opportunity for every child to be all she or he can be in the light of a child’s abilities, potential, and skills” (as cited in Garvis & Pendergast, 2017, p.7). MoE (2017) emphasizes that every teacher should be the gatekeeper of children’s right of experiencing wellness protected. In addition, Licensing Criteria (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2018) requires the whole licensed early childhood education service providers to pour a significant attention into and comply with the health, safety and wellbeing practices standard.

I would like to come up with some examples of wellbeing promoting practice that I can engage in. The first one could be designing and creating a safe, aesthetically pleasing and meaningful learning environment for young children (Isbell and Exelby, 2001). Never leaving a child alone, always keeping children in sight to ensure that children playing safely and being familiar with the potential risk is another instance (Education Council, 2017b). “Always being intentional about watching for the physical and behavioural signs of maltreatment” (Sorte, Daeschel, & Amador, 2017, p. 528) is also an example of wellbeing protection for young children.

Wellbeing promotion derived by early childhood practitioners can actually benefit all the stakeholders in early childhood education (ECE). From the perspective of children, it is the escort for children to explore and learn. It lays the foundation for their growth and future development as well. From family/whānau’s point of view, it is an important guarantee of harmony and happiness. For the wider learning community, it fastens the trusted role of an early childhood profession in our society. Further, it is the embodiment of respecting human right (Education Council, 2017a).

Secondly, I believe in respect in the care and education for young children. Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer (2015) highlight the meaning of respect children is regarding every child as a worthy people. They explain further that caregivers should respect children’s right to have feelings and to express them. Furthermore, respect diversity is one of the professional responsibilities expected by the Education council (2017a) that all early childhood caregivers should celebrate differences of all learners, families and whanau, and colleagues. As New Zealand has been a typical multi-culture country, the dividends that respect diversity brings to the ECE field have become increasingly apparent.

Some examples of respect that I can work on come out in the scenario below. Trying to understand from different angles about the characteristic of each child and the tradition and culture of his or her home (Education Council, 2017b). Providing sufficient time and spaces for young children to do the activities that they are interested in (MoE, 2017). Before doing anything to a young child, explaining to the child what would happen next. When a child crying, offering support without gushing sympathy, and being able to pay attention to what was going on inside of the child (Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer, 2015).

There are plenty of advantages of showing care providers’ respect in childcare. In terms of the young children, it strengthens their self-identity and confident. It’s also a good opportunity to encourage a child’s respectful and responsive relationships with others. For the families/whānau of children, respect diversity can shorten the distance between teachers and families/whānau and enhance the sense of social belonging of families/whānau. On the side of wider learning community, celebrating diversity with respect is conductive to promote the social cohesion and harmony. In addition, it is an important manifestation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (MoE, 2017).

Thirdly, I think communication is another crucial value in ECE profession. Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer (2015) advocate that all teacher should consider communication as a major responsibility from the first day. The reason is that communication is a great approach to establish relationship with children, children’s families and colleagues. For a caregiver, “one early job is to find out the needs of the child and family and then decide on a service plan” (Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer, 2015, p. 314), and commutation is an effective way to understand the needs. Swick also claims that “trust-building is essential to having authentic, meaningful and growth promoting communication” (as cited in Hedges, 2010, p.32). Additionally, communication is one of the stands that MoE (2017) guides teachers to set a holistic curriculum. It is a responsibility highlighted by MoE (2017) that all teacher should stimulate young learners to use both verbal and non-verbal communication skill during learning.

In the following, some examples of communication scene in ECE that I can take part in will be quoted. Explaining a comment or an expectation to a young student with a positive communication statement (Vicars, 2010); utilizing different and effective communication ways to assist parents in getting involved in their children’s learning and providing information about their children’s performance and achievement to them (Education Council, 2017b); and sharing knowledge on students and their families/whānau or other resources with colleagues (Gonzalez-Mena and Eyer, 2015).

Effective and efficient communication has been a great influence on the relationship among early childhood teachers, younger learners, families/whānau and other stakeholders. From the standpoint of younger learners, communication can help caregivers to maintain interaction with them and to ensure learners’ meets met. In terms of families/whānau, the effective communication is more likely result an open and trusting relationship between parents and teachers, so that children can get the consistent and best care possible from educators. From the perspective of other stakeholders, it may maintain the trust and confidence of the public in the teaching profession (Education Council, 2017a).

Last but not least, I value professional knowledge is one of the vital values that teachers should include in their philosophy and practice. “Demonstrating a commitment to providing high-quality and effective teaching” is one of responsibilities of teachers aspired by Education Council, (2017a, p. 10). In order to help educators to fulfil the responsibility, Education Council (2015a) proclaims that all graduating teachers should gain deep understanding and knowledge in what to teach, how to teach and how contextual factors affect the ECE community. It also proposes that as a teacher it is necessary to have a good grasp of variety of educating approaches to meet different needs of young children intentionally and responsively. Further, early childhood practitioners are not only educators but also learners, they guide little children and obtain knowledge from the children and wider community at the same time. It can be seen that the publication of Our Codes Our Standards (Education Council, 2017a), Te Whāriki (MoE, 2017), and other ECE industry authority literatures are continually being updated, then the professional understandings and practices of every ECE teacher should be ongoing as well.

The following are some examples related to how to obtain professional knowledge on ECE that I can strive for. Taking the initiative to be involved in conversation and programs about professional development and applying the fresh achieving into practical life (Education Council, 2017b). In addition, adopting reflection on daily teaching and learning regularly in order to “avoid the impulse to do the same old things in the same old ways” (Cividanes & Lebo, 2010, p. 48) is another idea.

Mastering the specialized knowledge on child care is not merely a sizable contribution to the little children a teacher is delivering care for, but also brings advantages to the whole ECE population. From learners’ point of view, the professional and appropriate guidance ensures the healthy growth of young children. From the angle of families/whānau, they feel really at ease and assured to sent their kids to a teacher-led service centre where qualified and registered ECE teachers are required (Ministry of Education, 2014). From perspective of the wider learning community, it can help to raise the quality and standard of the whole ECE industry.

In conclusion, early childhood care providers are bearing great and glorious responsibilities for young learners, their families/whānau and the wider teaching and learning community. I believe the values of wellbeing, respect, communication and professional knowledge are relatively important to fulfil the majority of the responsibilities. As a student teacher currently, and a future qualified teacher hopefully, I will make a great effort to complete my mission and responsibilities.

Reference List

1. Cividanes, W., & Lebo, D. (2010, November/December). Cultivating a reflective disposition for teaching and learning. Exchange, (196), 48-50.
2. Education Council New Zealand/ Matatū Aotearoa. (2015a). Graduating teacher standards: Aotearoa New Zealand. Retrieved from: http://www.educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/gts-poster.pdf
3. Education Council New Zealand/ Matatū Aotearoa. (2017a). Our code, our standards: Code of professional responsibility and standards for the teaching profession. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf
4. Education Council New Zealand/ Matatū Aotearoa. (2017b). The code of professional responsibility: Examples in practice. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Code%20Guidance%20FINAL.pdf
5. Garvis, S., & Pendergast, D. (2017). Health & Wellbeing in childhood. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
6. Gonzalez-Mena, J., & Eyer, D.W. (2015). Infants, Toddlers, and caregivers: A Curriculum of Respectful, Responsive, Relationship-Based Care and Education. New York, United States of America: McGraw-Hill Education.
7. Hedges, H. (2010). Through the kaleidoscope: Relationships and communication with parents. The First Years/Ngā Tau Tuatahi. New Zealand Journal of Infant and Toddler Education, 12(1), 27-34.
8. Isbell, R., & Exelby, B. (2001). Early Learning Environments that work. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House, Inc.
9. Ministry of Education. (2014). Choices. Retrieved from http://parents.education.govt.nz/assets/Parents/Documents/Early-Learning/ECE-Choices-Booklet.pdf
10. Ministry of Education. (2017). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mo ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Author.
11. Ministry of Education. (2018). Licensing criteria for early childhood education and care services 2008 and early childhood education curriculum framework. Retrieved from https://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Early-Childhood/Licensing-criteria/Centre-based-ECE-services/ECE-Licensing-Booklet-Early-Childhood-June2018.pdf
12. Sorte, J., Daeschel, I., & Amador, C. (2017). Nutrition, Health, and Safty for Young Children - Promoting Wellness. United States of America: Pearson Education, Inc.
13. Vanderah, T., & Gould, D.J. (2016). Nolte’s The Human Brain E-Book: An Introduction to its Functional Anatomy. [Google eBook version]. Restrieved from https://books.google.co.nz
14. Vicars, D. (2010, January/February). “What we seem to have here is a failure to communicate...”. Exchange, (191), 16-17.

Reflection

I would like to utilize the Smyth model to do a reflection on my communication with one of toddlers in my home centre.

· Describe:

Emira is a girl who likes drawing. One day, we gave our young children some chalks to let them make drawings on the blackboard in outdoor area. However, I found Emira just drew something on the children slide close to the blackboard. Then I just came to her quickly and said “Don’t make drawings on slide, it will dirty your clothes when you play with the slide.”

· Inform:

I feel an early childhood caregiver is accountable for helping young children to change their wrongdoings because we are “supporting them to prepare for their future” (Education Council, 2017a, p. 6). Therefore, when I noticed Emira’s inappropriate behaviour, my natural reaction is to point it out and stop it at once without thinking of a better communication approach.

· Confront:

In the scenario I described before, I thought the sentence begins with “don’t do” is an explicit expression for Emira. However, according to Vicars (2010), it is challenging for toddlers to understand the concept of negatives. Emira might miss the word of “don’t”, and just translated “don’t make drawings on slide” into “make drawings on slide”. In addition, Education Review Office (2016) states “adults should use positive guidance in managing the behaviour of children. Encouraging good behaviour usually works better than focusing on poor behaviour”.

· Reconstruct:

When reflected upon my practice, I concluded how significant it is to communicate positively. It is really a wakeup call for me because negativity has often overpowered positivity in my conversation before. Henceforth I will replace “don’t” with “do” in my words to tell young children what they can do. For example, “Chalks are for drawing on blackboard”.

Finally, the goal for my future is to be a more competent and professional early childhood educator to help young children to realize their potential.

Reference List

1. Education Council New Zealand/ Matatū Aotearoa. (2017a). Our code, our standards: Code of professional responsibility and standards for the teaching profession. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf
2. Education Review Office/ Te Tari Arotake Mātaurange. (2016). Early childhood terminology. Retrieved from: https://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/early-childhood-education-a-guide-for-parents/early-childhood-terminology/
3. Vicars, D. (2010, January/February). “What we seem to have here is a failure to communicate...”. Exchange, (191), 16-17.