Early Childhood Education and Care Theories and Literature

Question: Describe about the Early Childhood Education and Care. Answer: Part 1 Explain inquiry-based learning, with references to theories and literature that support this. Inquiry based learning can be defined as the model that is dependent on the ideas from which the leaning abilities of the individuals develop through investigation of problems and various other scenarios and also though the experiences that are faced socially. It was developed in the year 1960s by Joseph Schwab who is considered to be one of the key founders of this Inquiry based teaching (Britto et al., 2016). Though there is a long history for this the literature that forms a base for the IBL is at the level of inconsistency and turgid. However there are many volumes of the literature which provide the description for the teaching approach most of them are in between the disciplinary and the educational journals which support this with huge examples. The inquiry based leaning nature is challenged as the term is not so familiar in the educational literature. Ernst Boyer along with his colleagues support this inquiry based leaning as the challenges of the dualism of teaching and rese arch were lacking the experience by students (Bruce, 2012). So this literature was supported by IBL for examining the teaching research. The another argument that led for the approach of the IBL adoption is that its close association with the teaching-research nexus with the concept of teaching and learning tertiary has to happen in the communities where the inquiry occurs in this field the teachers and the other staff are considered to be the co-learners. Learning through discovery is considered to be the inquiry based, a theory of constructivist learning which is used in the situations of solving the problems from which the learner concludes from the past experience and by using the knowledge that is existing for discovering the actual facts and the relationships of that and also the new truths that has to be learned. Students interaction with the world can be occurred by the exploration and by manipulation of the objects, posing queries and creating controversies or perform exper iments. This theory can be related closely to the work of the Seymour Papert and the Jean Piaget (Campbell et al., 2014). Part 2 Provide ONE (1) example of an inquiry-based learning activity. The inquiry based leaning activity involves five different steps which is exemplified as follows: Questioning: In this phase concept has to be developed where students gets motivated and connects them to pose questions. For instance, a teacher questions, have you ever got the doubt that why the chewing gum gets smaller as you keep on chewing it? This is the topic of exploration and each student is given with the gum to experience and known the phenomenon. After 10-15 minutes size of the gum is reduced the teacher says and answers it by saying its because of the sugar loss it has changed the volume. Then now students are in a position to make questions (Ruhm Waldfogel, 2012). Planning and prediction: After exploring the ideas through experience they form a question and plan is created for investigation of their question. Results prediction will also be made. For instance the question that comes is: how the weight loss can be compared between the sugared gum and the sugarless gum? Does the mass amount that is lost is dependent on how long the gum is chewed? Action plan is made by investigation and the outcomes are predicted (Spodek Saracho, 2014). Investigation: Students are now deeply involved in their own inquires. So time is required for them to finish their investigations. The investigation in this scenario by students starts from weighing the chewing gum that is unopened, a fresh one. Then the gum is chewed by them for 15 minutes. Then it is dried for some time. Then the dried gum is weighted again. Record and report: At this stage of the inquiry learning and recording of their findings and communicating the same which is reported in various ways (Essa, 2012). They format in posing the question, making predictions, investigation description and interpreting the results. Later these results are graphed. Others might use software presentation for reporting. Then all the results are compared for percentages of the content of sugar before and after chewing the gum. Reflection: The phenomenon is again given a taught and investigates in another way which might give the way of new questions because of the inquiry (Gordon Browne, 2013). The new queries are: Does different flavors contain different amounts of sugar from the same brand? Will gum chewed in the saliva lose mass more than the one in water? At this point investigation begins. Part 3 Analyze TWO (2) roles of the child and TWO (2) roles of the teacher in this inquiry- based learning play curriculum. Roles of a teacher: In this inquiry based learning curriculum the various roles that are required for the teachers to work with their students are described (James Prout, 2015). To more specific there are three major roles which are categorized into the instructional roles especially for teachers which are related to the intellectual goals: 1) the direct instruction 2) facilitates the understanding and mind related habits 3) performance Direct instruction: This role of the teacher is mainly concerned about the primary goal of her for informing the learners by giving clear instructions. This should be telling them openly and lecturing them about that which is demonstrated and accompanied by the textbooks. Facilitates the understandings: This kind of teaching provides help for the students to build the meaning and then come to the final understanding of the ideas and the processes which is facilitated. Guidance is provided by the teachers for solving the complex issues, cases and situations by the students. The principal methods that are involved are the questioning; investigating and the comments that are process related in which neither are provided with instructions. Performance coaching: The learners are supported by the coaching in which their ability is noticed for transferring the learning they made for success in the complex situation by their own performance. The performance goals are clearly established by the teacher and then guide them for developing the skills and their habits by giving feedback and demonstration. Roles of the child: The roles of child in an inquiry based learning curriculum is to make ideas of their own and make appropriate questioning of the asked query proper investigation of the situation or the problems that rise and think in a different way by analyzing the issues and find out the solutions by giving predictions for the problems (Gordon Browne, 2013). The student should be an analyst where the problem or the case has to be analyzed from all the different aspects and find out the correct solutions from his own understandings and the guidance provided by the teacher. The learning process has to be understood and should understand the enquiry and provide evidenced by proper analysis from this complex processes. Investigation has to be made after analyzing the issue and approaches should be made in multiples for solving the problem (Campbell et al., 2014). The concepts that are taught by the teacher have to be put on and determine the pathway from their experiences. By this they develop new skills and knowledge in various aspects which makes the investigation complete. References Britto, P. R., Lye, S. J., Proulx, K., Yousafzai, A. K., Matthews, S. G., Vaivada, T., ... MacMillan, H. (2016). Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development.The Lancet. Bruce, T. (2012).Early childhood education. Hachette UK. Campbell, F., Conti, G., Heckman, J. J., Moon, S. H., Pinto, R., Pungello, E., Pan, Y. (2014). Early childhood investments substantially boost adult health.Science,343(6178), 1478-1485. Essa, E. L. (2012).Introduction to early childhood education. Cengage Learning. Gordon, A. M., Browne, K. W. (2013).Beginnings beyond: Foundations in early childhood education. Cengage Learning. James, A., Prout, A. (Eds.). (2015).Constructing and reconstructing childhood: Contemporary issues in the sociological study of childhood. Routledge. Ruhm, C., Waldfogel, J. (2012). Long-term effects of early childhood care and education.Nordic Economic Policy Review,1(1), 23-51. Spodek, B., Saracho, O. N. (2014).Handbook of research on the education of young children. Routledge.