[University Affiliation]
Emergent Curriculum- A reflection
Introduction
The article on emergent curriculum, creating environmental awareness and documentation written by Ann Lewin-Benham about a preschool teacher, her experiences with pre schoolers, its impact on the children is reviewed and the advantages of the system is discussed in detail. The topics that will be discussed in the paper are about emergent curriculum, how effective was the teacher in implementing the program, theoretical base and about the documentation process.
Emergent curriculum – The topics for learning is selected based on children’s interests and the teacher acts as a facilitator in identifying their interest. Identification process needs clear cut observation of each student, their conversation, discussions, brainstorming, etc and the teacher has to record or document the responses. In the article, the teacher discussed about how she created awareness among the students on environment and how she used the fish in a bowl in generating interests in the children. Later on based on discussions, brainstorming, etc the teacher directed the kids in to other areas like waste disposal, recycling, etc. Deep understanding on the children’s responses helps in designing the curriculum taking in to consideration their interests and the relevant age appropriate curricular requirements. Approaches such as this could be used in my teaching career as learning through observation, discussions and interactions appear to be effective, at any academic levels.
Effectiveness of the teacher in implementing the program – The teacher in the article displayed a lot of patience in observing the students, making live brain storming and interactive sessions individually and as groups. The effort taken by the teacher is very commendable and the teacher was very sincere in carrying out her tasks. She made the one to one and group discussions very lively and interactive as she contributed quite a lot. She was willing to provide relevant and meaningful information to the inquisitive minds and right inputs were given by the teacher that enabled the kids to be very enthusiastic and to move forward in the right direction. “In this case the children’s interest in the life and death of a gold-fish enabled the teacher to arouse their concern for the well-being of the environment and to help the children think and act in ecologically sound ways” (Lewin-Benham, 2006, p. 7). Understanding how the teacher handled the teaching process is very useful in my career in the teaching field.
Theoretical base of the curriculum – It was based on the social constructivist theory that the emergent curriculum was designed and developed. As the new program had a proper theoretical backing, the program was found to be effective. According to the theory, interactions with the teacher can incite enthusiasm for a particular subject matter and teacher can properly guide the child in needed directions in a focused manner. Such interactions enables the kids to get interested in different topics and the teacher can help them in gaining deeper understanding on the subjects that interested the kids. This approach in fact gives the kids to put in more efforts in to studies. Understanding the theoretical base for the approach in fact helped me in gaining more insights on how link theory with practice.
Documentation – Recording or documenting the different inquiries and discussions with the kids in fact enabled the teacher to sum the whole process as well as to rightly design how the class can move forward in learning. From this I understood the need for proper documentation in substantiating claims.
Conclusion - In the paper, the writer discussed about emergent curriculum, how effective was the teacher in implementing the program, theoretical base and about the documentation process. It was found that approaches adopted in the emerging curriculum were very useful and relevant even in today’s educational scenario. As the approach had proper theoretical base, implementing the curriculum was easy and the passion for teaching enabled the teacher to be effective and kept us going. All these topics discussed here appear to be of interest and relevance in my future in academics.
References
Lewin-Benham, A. (2006). One Teacher, 20 Preschoolers, and a Goldfish: Environmental Awareness, Emergent Curriculum, and Documentation. National Association for the Education of Young Children.
