Reflections across 2 Master’s Degree Courses with Applications for Practice
EDUEC2: Learning Environment
As a postgraduate student, theory and practice apply in real-life settings. My course studies and application have enabled me to reduce the dependency of children to their parents when they are brought over to school. Previously, the act of crying and refusing to participate in class activities was rampant, and solving the issue individually yielded little effort. I have come to comprehend that the needs of the young children vary from person to person and so does the expectations of a teacher.
Based on learned principles of the Learning Environment Course, there is a correlative affection between the learning environment scales of a child and the reciprocated development. Depending on their adaptability to the learning environment, the acquisition of learning skills determines how a child progresses in academic development thereby prompting my decision to use environmental scales while teaching; indoor space, privacy, and art. Using these scales, I have created more personalized connections with the physical and cognitive abilities of my pupils by the visual and mental appearance of the overall learning environment. With the exposure of an appealing indoor setup through color and age-appropriate decorations, more room for privacy and availability of art resources, my kindergarten children have gained hands-on experience depending on how different scales present changing stimuli on their visual and cognitive perception.
I will advocate for most pre-schools in the UAE to use different scales of children’s learning environment since I have witnessed a richer experience in how the children explore, experiment, and learn of the basic things around them.
EDUEC3: Literacy and Numeracy
Literacy and Numeracy upon kindergarten children depend on the teachers' experience and academic qualifications. It is through my understanding of literacy and numeracy that my students practice comprehensive learning and extra-curricular activities that involve playing with knowledge and numbers. Through my class sessions, the children describe and question a lot of things and happenings involving general knowledge and numbers, but usually, when I ask them to put it down on paper, they usually draw close-to-replicas of what they think. They lacked literal expressions and most of them restrained from holding writing materials.
However, learning about the stages of writing helped me teach my pupils how to express their thought in writing and understand the role of pencils and crayons in expressing themselves. For me, what is important is to have them concentrate on the content of their ideas rather than grammar correctness. Influence of practice and pedagogy in numeracy was a challenge to my children to relate to simple arithmetic activity; however, in the workstations inside the classroom I introduced class and play activities such as number bingo, number, shape, and object memory matchups to introduce and influence remembrance.
As made aware through this course, play-based numeracy activities not only help kindergarteners to relate to simple arithmetic but also to invoke mathematical …
