Fieldwork (Cluster 2): Planning for Student Development

For observations I have been following a kindergarten class. Students are typically five or six years old. Tailoring lessons to where students are developmentally is very important. A teacher shouldn't be asking too much of his or her students, nor should they be making activities too easy. The teacher I am observing seems to find that perfect balance.

According to Piaget's model, these students would be in preoperational phase of development. This means that the students are developing language, have trouble identifying past or future (they think solely in the present), can think through operations logically in one direction, and has difficulty understanding another person's perspective (Woolfolk, 2014). Children begin this stage by using gestures or symbols to represent what they want to say, such as drinking from an empty cup when they are thirsty or rubbing their stomachs when they are hungry. The students I observed are now at the end of this stage and are able to verbalize their needs. Not only do these students have trouble identifying past and future, they have trouble conceptualizing time. A student was trying to tell me a story about a lesson they had done the week before and instead said, "Yesterday, we did a math problem..." Children at this age have trouble understanding conservation. For example, during snack one student snapped his pretzel rod in half and said, "Look! Now I have two pretzels!" This started a chain of everyone doubling their pretzels this way so they could all have two pretzels.

Vygotsky believes the most important element to a child's development is verbal interaction to solve a problem. He also focused on the use of cultural tools, including technological and psychological tools played a large part in the educational process. Technological tools today include calculators, the internet, cell phones, and assistive technology for students with learning disabilities. Examples of psychological tools are Brail and sign language, maps, works of art, and language (Woolfolk, 2014). Thus, under this theory of development, children will learn better through engaging activities with their peers. By working together to solve a problem, they will be voicing their opinions and justifying them.

The teacher I observed plans lessons where her students participate in turn and talks, work on writing pieces where they explain a previous lesson or experience, and use tools such as a rekenrek for math. After group readings, the teacher would pose a question to the class, usually asking if the story reminded them of a time in their life. She would then let the students pair up to share their thoughts. After a minute or two, the students would turn back to the teacher who would call on three children to share out. They would have to say what they talked about, as well as their turn and talk partner to ensure they were listening. Students had journals they would write in once a week after a particularly exciting lesson or experience in school. For example, after the students planted their flowers, they were given time to journal about the experience, the steps in planting, or what they thought their flower would look like when it grew. This gave them a chance to practice conceptualizing time. They would have to say "Today we..." or "Next week my flower will..." Finally, the teacher tries to use tools in the classroom that reinforces student learning. When the students were working on subtraction, the teacher gathered the students on the meeting rug and gave them each a rekenrek to work with. They would slide the beads back and forth to show a math problem. They were able to visualize the problem, as well as experience it through touch.

Here is some information about child development provided by Princeton.

Sources:
Woolfolk, A. (2014). Educational psychology (12th ed.). Pearson Education.