Laying the foundation for optimal outcomes in early childhood education.
Item
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Title
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Laying the foundation for optimal outcomes in early childhood education.
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Description
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The book covers various aspects of early childhood development in the Zambian context.
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Self sponsored
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Creator
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Munsaka, Ecloss
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Date
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2022-10-11T07:50:41Z
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Date Available
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2022-10-11T07:50:41Z
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Date Issued
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2017
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Abstract
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Being a fairly young field in Zambia, Early Childhood Education (ECE) still has a number of challenges that need to be addressed. One of the challenges pertains to the lack of appropriate teaching and learning methodologies. We have had the privilege of observing how children are taught in a number of early childhood education centres, even in some of the so called “good” ones, and we have been horrified, in some cases, at how children are handled. Some teachers simply have no clue on how to stimulate children’s learning.
The writing of this book, therefore, is an attempt to try and provide a solution to the desperate situation we have in the several hundreds, if not thousands, of early childhood education centres throughout Zambia. Since parents also play a critical role in the teaching of children, this book has been written so that parents too can become more involved in ensuring children’s learning even at home. When parents, teachers and school administrators have adequate knowledge on how to care for and teach children, early childhood education outcomes will inevitably improve.
What has also become clear from our observation of a number of early childhood education lessons, as well as from the surveillance of the literature, is that early childhood education has lost its focus on its core business, namely to provide a safe, playful environment where children can be stimulated to optimally attain their physical, social-emotional and cognitive developmental milestones (Hewes, 2006). Instead, the focus has shifted to providing children with literacy and numeracy skills. Miller and Almon (2009) make the point so poignantly:
... kindergarteners are now under intense pressure to meet inappropriate expectations, including academic standards that until recently were reserved for first or second grades. These expectations and the policies that result from them have greatly reduced and in some cases obliterated opportunities for imaginative, child-centred play in kindergarten (p. 23).
The argument in this book, therefore, is that a play oriented teaching methodology has to be restored in early childhood education centres, if children are to benefit from ECE programmes. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that best results in early childhood education are only realised when play, not didactic instruction is at the centre of the teaching-learning process (see Vygotsky, 1978; Miller & Almon, 2009). To this end, this book demonstrates how games, songs and dances that children are familiar with can be used to effectively stimulate their development and learning. We have also observed, and we will still be addressing this in a lot more detail later in the book, that a number of early childhood education centres promoted the use of English as the medium of instruction even in those communities where both the caregivers and the children were not competent users of the English language (see Matafwali, Munsaka, Mweemba & Muleya, 2012; Matafwali & Munsaka, 2011; Mwanza-Kabaghe et al., 2015).
The erroneous view seems to be that the children’s ability to speak English at a younger age, is a sign that they had superior mental abilities and any early childhood education centre that could get the children to speak English during the early childhood years, gets high ratings. Nothing could be further from the truth, as no language is superior to another; all languages serve a communication role and each child learns best, especially for the
initial literacy and numeracy, in his or her own mother tongue. In this regard, we argue that children’s mother tongues should be used as the languages of instruction in all early childhood education centres. As we will show later, these mother tongues do not necessarily have to be Zambian local languages; there are a number of Zambian children today whose first language is English, even if they carry Zambian names. It would be counterproductive to expect those children to be taught in a local language. Thus, as far as determining the language to be used as the medium of instruction is concerned, the local context in each area will have to be taken into consideration. This is more so considering the multilingual situation that we have in Zambia.
We have also noted, with concern, that there is very little meaningful collaboration between teachers and parents. Early childhood centres are treated as sacred spaces where parents have no role to play except the role of paying their children’s school fees, attending Parents’ Teachers’ Association (PTA) meetings and occasionally attending school sports day when called upon. Conversely, homes are regarded as private spheres where teachers are expected not to have dealings in. A wide range of research findings which we will delve into later in the book, has unequivocally demonstrated that optimal outcomes can only be realised from early childhood education or indeed from any other education level, if there are healthy, meaningful, collaborative relationships between teachers and parents. For this reason, this book will also provide guidelines on how to enhance healthy teacher-parent collaborative relationships.
Structure of the book
This book has a total of seven chapters. The first chapter broadly covers the history of early childhood education in Zambia
with emphasis on policy pronouncements on early childhood education. Worldwide perspectives on the development of early childhood education are also highlighted in the first chapter. The second chapter follows with main developmental domains in early childhood. We feel it is important for teachers and parents to have adequate knowledge about how children develop so that they too can appreciate how to teach and support them. The next chapter is on child play. Play is the hallmark of children’s everyday activity and is largely the means through which children learn and develop. To show the relevance of play in the local context, we present suggestions of local play activities which teachers and parents can use to enhance development and learning in children. We also focus more specifically on how a play-based approach can be used in an early childhood classroom. Play is highlighted and infused with song, movement and storytelling.
In Chapter Four, we address the issue of why children should be taught in their mother tongue. In Chapter Five, we discuss effective ways of disciplining children without hurting them. We have decided to include this chapter mainly because there is debate on how to discipline children. There are reports from children in our families and outside about teachers and parents who subject children to unacceptable forms of punishment to correct unwanted behaviours.
In Chapter Six, we deal with teacher-parent collaboration. Unless healthy collaborative relationships are established between teachers and parents, the desired optimal education outcomes for our children will never be realised. The final chapter, Chapter Seven, is a summary of the key aspects that we have discussed in the book.
Since this book is to be used by technical as well as non-technical people, we have as much as possible, used everyday language throughout. Where we have used technical terms
because we needed to do so, we have endeavoured to unpack them for easy understanding.
We wish everyone of you, our readers, the best as you begin the process of making early childhood education optimally beneficial to our children.
Ecloss Munsaka, Ph.D
Bibian Kalinde, Ph.D
June, 2017
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Identifier
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978-9982-02-099-1
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Language
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en
en
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Type
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en
Book