Early Childhood Education Philosophy

Lorena Horne
College of Southern Idaho
Evin Fox
Foundations of Early Childhood
Spring 2014

Early Childhood Philosophy

Abstract

I truly believe that our kids learn by playing and while having opportunities to use their
creative little minds. It is so much fun to see how excited they are to learn and how upset they
get when the weekend arrives. Kids learn in different ways and I feel that is very important to be
aware of that to be able to serve them better.I never really thought about teaching as a career but
after working with preschool students, I discovered I had a passion for teaching. My job made
me realize how much Early Childhood Professionals are needed, and the impact that we can
make in those first years of a childs life. I discover they wonders that happen through play and I
am looking forward to apply that to my classroom environment. I will be the guide and my kids
will be the builders of their own knowledge.My positive attitude,loving and nurture personality
and my enthusiasm and passion for education will help me reach my goals and become the best
teacher I can be.

UNIQUENESS OF ECE
Early childhood is a very unique field and very different from the traditional elementary
education. Early childhood education focuses on that the academic, social and cognitive skills
that develops from birth to 8th.Children learn more efficiently and gain more knowledge through
play based activities such as dramatic play, art and social games. It is amazing how much our
children learn through play. I enjoy watching our children make decisions and problem solve in
the pretend area, discover shapes and volume using blocks, learning math, social and literacy
sills without even knowing they are learning. It is key to enrich our environment with several
opportunities for children to learn, grow, discover, explore and build their own knowledge.

PHILOSOPHIES OF KNOWN EDUCATORS

One of the many philosophers of early childhood was Maria Montesori. Montesori
believed that the environment must be carefully prepared. The environment should be clean and
aesthetic,using child size furnishing and beautiful materials. I can not agree more with Maria
Montesori on this. I work in several classrooms with overflowing material and walls full with
overwhelming information, etc. I do not think I could learn in such an unorganized environment
and I can imagine how hard could that be for a child. I truly believe that the environment plays a
huge role in childrens education. As stated in the Reggio Emilia Approach the environment is
the third teacher promoting active learning through opportunities to learn.This opportunities
include many choices, attractive displays and a large variety of open ended materials so children
can experiment, interact, problem solve and represent their ideas in many different ways.

Early Childhood Philosophy

Malaguzzi, the philosophical leader of the Reggio Emilia approach believed that children
construct knowledge through active engagement with the environment. I find this to be very true.
If the preschool classroom is set up with different interest areas that are attractive to the
childrens eyes they will become engaged and learning will happen. (Creating Environments for
Learning, Bullard 2nd Edition)

DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPIATE PRACTICE

Developmentally appropriate practice is teaching that is attuned to children's ages,
experience, abilities, and interests and that help them attain challenging and achievable goals.
(Effective Practices in Early Childhood Education p 72). In other words,as a teacher I need to
know and study about child development and apply my knowledge to my everyday practices
based on that. As a teacher I would adjust my instruction based on childrens interests and what
is appropriate for their age. When I think about this term the first thing that comes to my mind is
a program that was advertised years ago. I dont remember the name of it but they were
advertising how children could read at a very early age. I believe it was around 3. It showed a
child in front of the TV basically memorizing words. It was awful! Of course if they are pushed
they are going to learn it, they will end up memorizing things that have absolutely no meaning to
them. Is this type of learning developmentally appropriate? Absolutely not! It makes me sick to
think of little ones being pushed that way. I even remember hearing parents talking proudly about
how their babies could read, (very sad). I believe this program is now out of business, but it is a
perfect example of what is not developmentally appropriate. As an intentional teacher I would
have a purpose for everything I do. I would have the knowledge and understanding about child
development and would apply it to my lessons and my everyday planning. Everything has a
reason and a why, nothing is left behind. There are several decisions that as teachers we need to
make in our classroom every day, it is important to thoughtful decisions with intention, such as
adjusting their instruction if the kids are not getting what we trying to teach.
DIVERSITY
It is important to recognize diversity and cultural differences in the classroom. As
teachers we need to be aware of the needs of all our children and make sure they feel included
and acknowledge even if they do not speak the same language, or have a disability. It is our job
to help children acquire the knowledge and disposition to learn about similarities and differences
in people. I like the idea of integrating diversity into the curriculum. Diversity can be integrated
in the curriculum developing relationships with people from diverse cultural groups and
engaging in authentic experiences . (Bredekamp p195). An excellent opportunity would be to
invite parents of our students to share their culture, teach a song in their language, or cook a
special meal with the classroom.
As an early childhood teacher my goal will be to promote the physical, social, emotional and
cognitive development of each child. I truly believe this goal can be achieved through play based
learning. Children learn by doing, by becoming engaged with their environment and having

Early Childhood Philosophy

meaningful opportunities discover and explore by themselves. Every child is unique and has
different needs. It is our job as teachers to recognize these needs and adjust our teaching to meet
our students at their level. We can do this by creating activities that are appropriate for each child
and his abilities, interests and needs. I can not imagine a preschooler doing worksheets for
homework every day. That it is not developmentally appropriate. If I want to give homework to
my children I would ask them to go outside and find the plants and insects we have been
studying, take pictures of it. I would try to give them meaningful experiences.
I will enrich the classroom environment to provide my children with opportunities to learn and
grow, to problem solve applying real life skills, finding many ways to express themselves.

CURRICULUM AND PLAY IN ECE

In my opinion play is the most important part of the Early Childhood curriculum.
Curriculum is the written plan that describes the goals for childrens learning and development,
the learning experiences, materials and teaching strategies that are used to help children achieve
their goals(NCQTL, 2011;National Education for the Education of Young Children ,2008b).It is
the content that children are learning, a plan that tells teachers how to begin, progress and where
to end. It is the guide to follow to reach teachers goals. In early childhood classrooms
curriculum goals can be achieved through play based learning. Play has a very important role in
children's development and learning. Children learn by playing, by doing without even realizing
that they are learning. Something that comes to my mind is a classroom where the alphabet is
embedded in all the interest centers. There is no push to learn them but children become
interested on their own because they are part of their environment, they are in their name, in their
friends name.

CONCLUSION
Early Childhood education has been influenced by many philosophies. The philosophies
of these educators have built the foundation of current early childhood beliefs. Many of their
ideas are still used today. It is very clear that play is a very important part of childrens
development and learning. We need to continue providing our children with opportunities to
learn and grow in a world of play.

Early Childhood Philosophy

Works Cited
Bredekamp,S.(2014). Effective Practices in Early Childhood Education: Building a Foundation
(2nd Edition Ed.)Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Bullard,J Creating Environments for Learning: Birth through 8 ( 2nd Edition)