LOOKING FROM CHILD'S EYE

For this week, we did our lesson with our assistant due to the fact that our instructor was being in USA.

This week, we discussed both behaviorist and constructivist perspective and their significant role on science teaching curriculum during early childhood period. Constructive perspective is a view which sees children as a theory builders. According to it, children have the ability to construct their dynamic world. It means, children are mentally and physically active and have the chance of direct language, reading, mathematics, art, music and also science knowledge.

As Piaget (1970) indicated that there are three types of knowledge; namely, physical, logico-mathematical and social. While physical knowledge is defined understanding of the physical world, Logico-mathematical knowledge is about comparison and seriation. Moreover, social knowledge is not about social world or social interaction. Actually, it is a knowledge transmitting socially , like customs,particular names etc. However, due to the fact that social knowledge is culturally determined, children cannot construct it.

Then we focused the benefits of constructivist learning to children. The major advantages are;

• increasing autonomy
• promoting social beings

While discussing which one is more important either behaviourist or constructivist perspective, I reached that both of them include effective teaching strategies for young children, but I probably will prefer constructivist approach for my future curriculum, because I believe that important is the child. That is, being something is true,wrong or nonsense is not important!! The important is child's ideas, opinions and expressions. For this reason, as a future early childhood major, my main responsibility is to prepare appropriate environment in which materials and stimulus will direct children curiosity, asking own questions, fluent communication and reaching result with own experiences.

In lab session, my friends Kader, Yasemin and Songül tried to explain what is water, its dimension, its weight, its volume etc. by doing different interesting and amusing activities. Actually, I find all of these activities interesting, beneficial that has done so far, because few days later after the experiments most of them were in my mind. I analyzed them again and again and I plan how I can integrate them into my future class. So I thanked to my friends for these serial successful presentations.