Philosophical Approach to Children’s Learning

Introduction:

Today, there are many approaches to understand a child at an early age, there are many theories to mold a young child. Younger children don’t know new concepts or things, they are pushed to learn new things through different approaches. Psychologists and constructivists have been understanding the behaviour and attitudes of children for decades, many have introduced approaches to help the children through their infancy. This reflective essay will critically analyze different philosophical approaches that are Reggio Emilia, Emergent Curriculum and Cognitive based Philosophy against my own that is the Montessori Approach. The contemporary theories are also critically analyzed that are Developmental theories, Socio-Cultural theories and Socio-Behavioral theories against my own Montessori Approach. The essay will reflect upon my own approach and will give an insight of my experiences after the application of the Montessori approach.

Philosophical approach:

Montessori Approach:

This approach is both a process and philosophy to early childhood education introduced by Maria Montessori, the first female pediatrics in Italy. This approach is believed to encourage the young children to learn in any setting or environment that is specifically designed with experienced teachers. Through this the students learn very quickly, the physician observed that children can be taught about math, philosophy, values, shape, language and many more (Marshall, 2017). The philosophical approach that I admire and implement towards early childhood learning is the Montessori approach, the children with different environmental settings can learn different things about the world. The approach promotes learning among students, the children will be eager to learn from their own without any force or pressure. I believe that this approach is helpful for the children as majority of them aren’t eager to learn and always avoid getting additional knowledge. The reason is that they are forced to learn different subjects, this approach will not only help the teachers but also the parent to focus on how to promote learning. The different approaches that would be explained against my own philosophical approach are:

Reggio Emilia:

The approach was introduced by the educational institution of Reggio Emilia that is a city in Italy at the end of the Second World War and is the most famous institutions around the world today. This philosophical approach revolves around education targeting art and music. This approach is a means to evolve serious and methodical thinking by through art, inspiring values and motivating children to come forward and express their emotions (Santin & Torruella, 2017). This approach also helps in communicating and enhancing interpersonal skills with others, encouraging cooperation and conversation as main components in a democratic community (Gonzalez, 2011 as cited in Santin & Torruella, 2017). This kind of approach not only develops early artistic intuition in children but also develops innovative, critical thought process and cooperation with others (New, 2007). in a Reggio Emilia approach, children are active learners and learn different things on their own. In this approach a child is given chances to interact with the environments and explore new things on their own. The role of a teacher in this is to bargain learning that is the teacher explore a child believe, expectations or concept about how the tangible and the interpersonal environment works (Alkhudhair, 2014). This approach is quite different from my approach as this strategy promotes artistic thinking among the children through which the children think critically and innovatively. The Montessori approach doesn’t emphasis on art or music but rather helps the children to learn by developing their interest towards variety of domains. The Reggio Emilia approach also enhances social skills whereas the Montessori approach provides such an environment that helps the children to interact with each other. The Montessori approach also helps the children to be creative and innovative as they are eager to learn, their creativeness will also prevail and the teacher will set the environment keeping in mind creativity and innovation.

Cognitive Based Philosophy:

This type of philosophy is based on cognition of the young children, when children interact and discover new things about the environment, it is easy for them to socialize with others. The educational institution is planned in a way that promotes inquisitiveness, exploration and solving challenges in an environment of reverence and fondness for every child (Seifert, 2013). The approach is linked to the Vygotsky theory for cognitive child development that postulates that the theory does not only emphasis on the child but also h/her past experiences, culture, the way the child communicates in the classroom and the chances they receive through the current activities. The introduction of Zone of proximal Development by the psychologist to explain how does the child learns through the union of culture and cognition (Winsler, 2003). After observing the literature, the cognitive based philosophy is based on the cognition of a child, how the children grasp the culture they are born in and explore the cultural setting. On the other hand, the Montessori approach evolves a child’s interest into learning different things rather than forcing h/her to explore. In my opinion, exploring of the environment can lead to negativity in a child’s mindset that can cause disturbance in a child’s thinking. Through providing a learning environment the children can learn far greater things.

Emergent Curriculum:

This type of philosophical approach focuses on the interests and habits of the teachers and the children. Most of the approaches have already planned a curriculum beforehand but this approach observes the behaviour and skills of the children then plans the curriculum (Tal, 2012 as cited in Tal, 2014). Emergent curriculum is not like the traditional ones that pre plans its curriculum rather observes the children. This type of approach is sometimes negotiated with the students, the teacher in this curriculum is seen as a researcher and innovator rather than a “transmitter of knowledge” (Tal, 2014, p. 150). The Emergent curriculum based philosophical approach isn’t easy at all, the role of the teachers is hard as they have to observe every emotion, interest and skills of the children and plan the curriculum revolving around that. The outcome of this curriculum is extraordinary and the children are diligent, how to make their own decision and are innovative (Biermeier, 2015).  The emergent curriculum is a new type of approach for learning that doesn’t plan a curriculum before rather than plans a curriculum after observing a child’s talents, skills and interest. I think this pressurizes the teacher to be creative and to plan a different curriculum for each child. Nevertheless, the Montessori approach has a pre-planned curriculum but as mentioned above it develops the interest of the children to learn new things and interact with environment provided to them by the teacher.

Contemporary theories:

Developmental approach:

This approach entails that there are different stages of development in a person’s life and that a child also goes through different stages of development to reach to that maturity level. Some of the theorists perceive the developmental approach as different stages like Piaget’s stages of development theory, Erikson’s stage of personal and interpersonal development and Montessori’s planes of development (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Looking through a contemporary lens, one of the main theories of development approach in my opinion is the Jean Piaget’s stages of development that states that at every age a child goes through a developmental stage that helps the observer to infer the behaviour of the child. Moreover, according to Piaget, a child’s development and attitude are influenced by internal factors rather than external (Liu, 2017). The philosophical approach that I have chosen for the paper is the Montessori approach, the physician also introduced the four planes of development throughout a person’s life. Montessori explained clearly different plane on how a child goes through every plane from infancy to maturity along with ages. For instance, the first plane is starting from birth to a preschooler where the child cannot think critically, is slow and is head strong when passing the age plane (Grazzini, 1996). Montessori’s planes of development is a much detailed and clearer version of developmental stages as it illustrates that how an unborn child will lead to maturity.

Fig 1: Maria Montessori’s Stages of Development (Mase, 2016)

Socio cultural approach:

Socio-cultural approach includes theories that emphasizes on the teachers to plan such a curriculum for the students that includes a child’s interaction with their culture. The socio-cultural theories include Vygotsky and Rogoff theories, the developmental process of a child revolves around the interaction with the community and its culture (Nolan & Raban, 2015). There are five standards towards a socio-cultural approach that are (Smith, 1996):

1. The process of development starts with interpersonal engagement
2. Learning initiates development instead of development initiates learning
3. Social connections and shared understanding are most important for ideal development
4. The objectives of development are regulated by culture instead of discrete development
5. Lastly, the child has an extraordinary objective in building h/her own knowledge thorough out the cultural setting.

In my opinion, the Montessori developmental approach explains that how a child learns about different things surrounding h/her as h/she move towards maturity. The Montessori approach doesn’t take into account the culture for a child to learn but present the child with different classroom environment to allow h/her learn differently. I have chosen the Montessori approach as my own because it helps the teachers determine what the children need and how can the skills of a child be developed into an extraordinary one.

Socio behavioral approach:

This approach includes two distinct sides that are social and behavioral learning, the behavioral theory includes Pavlov theory and social theory includes Bandura theory. This approach entails that any child can learn any subject or concept with the correct reinforcement at the right time, through this reinforcement a child is encouraged to learn. Learning can be perceived to be linked with interpersonal and tangible conditioning. The reinforcement of behaviour and attitudes expressed by children or by someone else in the community which regulates the learning process. This approach emphasizes on learning and conditioning instead of development, this approach is focused on the teachers instead of on the children (Nolan & Raban, 2015). The Montessori approach emphasizes on development and explains how a child from birth to adulthood passes through different stages. The development stages by Montessori also entails what the child learn at every plane, the first half of every stage is about development and the second half is about association of the previous stage to the new one. The child transitions to new stage and learn new things about the setting h/she is in which helps him to reach to a mature stage.

The Montessori approach is an old approach but this approach is implemented all over the world and is quite successful. The Montessori approach helps the children to develop the urge for learning and experiencing new things in the given setting. Through this the children can learn new concepts, theories, they can also enhance their innovative and creative side. In my professional career, I have been applying this approach on the students; the experience has been quite extraordinary as students have developed their interest towards learning. The Four Plane of Development model has helped me to observe the children from different perspective, the model has also helped me to set up different environments for the students to learn something new. The model has given me a clear and concise outline of how young children in different ages react and how to calm them down. The application of the philosophical approach by Montessori have been quite extraordinary and informative in terms of a child reacts, learns, create chaos and how h/she expresses h/herself in a particular environment.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, early childhood learning is crucial for a child because that is the stage when h/she sets on a particular path in terms of career, behaviour, attitude and many more. My own philosophical approach is the Montessori approach for early childhood, at this stage the children learn and explore new things and the teachers can help them to develop their interest in learning new concepts and exploring different things. The other philosophical approaches are quite different than my own, for instance Emergent curriculum first observes a child’s interest and skills then the curriculum is planned. Mostly, the curriculum is pre-planned but not in the case of emergent curriculum. Montessori approach helps a child to grasp new things and concepts, it helps the children to grow an interest of learning.

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