Foster the Holistic Development and Wellbeing of the Child in Early Childhood

Arnold Gesell - Maturation

1. Two different students with same age of 4 years might have different developmental patterns according to their heredity. Example: one might understand the concept of sharing or playing cooperatively with friends while the other might be more interested in being conversational with friends during early childhood education in school. So designing different activities for both will encourage their development process.
2. A student in school is four years old and has good imaginative play. While the other student of same years is too rough and cry too readily during playtime with the other mates. Designing the activities accordingly could lead to improved learning abilities of students.
3. One student of 4 years is more spontaneous and play better with another child outside rather than indoors while the other student is shy and is either cranky or moody. Designing both indoor and outdoor games to suit all children would imply better growing environment in school.

Bronfebrenner - Bio-Ecological

1. A teacher asking a question with a pre-determined answer would enhance the students’ learning by engaging them with the environment.
2. A teacher asks a pre-school to associate the alphabet with the sound is an example of a molecular act under the Bronfebrenner’s theory that could reinforce repetition amongst the child but would appear meaningless in child’s eyes.
3. A teacher is asking an open-ended question from the child without a pre-set answer would mean that the student is being engaged into a molar activity by the teacher.

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky - Cognitive

1. During show and tell, one pre-school child might consider the ball to be used for rolling while the other child who brought the ball in class might associate ball with throwing. No-one is wrong in this scenario as ball can be used for throwing and rolling both but as each child has different cognitive approach, they would only associate ball with the activity that they like the most.
2. Teacher at pre-school promoting exploration and discovery activities through giving puzzles to the children while distributing them into groups. The teacher would evaluate the educational progress of child in comparison with its previous development instead of basing it on normative or average performance of same-age peer groups.
3. A whole language classroom approach in the literacy class is also a practical example where this strategy is used. Students might begin with the open library where they can select pictorial books in which they are interest in and use their own judgement about the characters and shapes used in the book. The results of each student choice are displayed visually in classroom that will further enhance the development mechanism of the students.