Ong Xin Yi

Awareness of Early Childhood Issues

This assignment allowed my classmates present their findings in class and I was able to learn more about it from them. There are many other Early Childhood Issues that my classmates researched on which are relevant in our industry and they helped me to learn about more the reason behind it.

As my group focused on holistic development, I learnt that although most teachers believe in it, there are many factors that affect them from implementing it. Before researching on this topic by interviewing the principal and teachers of a preschool in Singapore, I thought that holistic development was not implemented due to Singapore being an academic driven country. After interviewing the principal, I found out that holistic development in the school is hindered by the lack of manpower and skills of the teachers, the teachers’ beliefs, their classroom management as well as parents’ expectations. However, in my second assignment which requires my groupmates and I to conduct a survey with the teachers, we found that the teachers in the centre face problems such as lack of time, parents’ expectations, classroom management and lack of skills.

Hence, through interviewing the principal and the teachers, I learnt that we should always view thingsfrom different perspectives. The problems that the principal face might not be what the teachers are facing and vice versa due to different perspectives.

With these needs, my groupmates and I created a recommendation based on guided inquiry which is the approach that the school believes in, for the principal to implement in the school. One of our slides were done based on research from another country which might be too complicated for teachers in Singapore to follow. Thus, the principal suggested that we should link it back to the NEL framework which is created by Ministry of Education to make it more localized.

Through this, I learnt that we should always remember to relate our ideas or recommendations back into the local context by tweaking ideas that we found from sources. Although it might work in other countries, there are different factors in Singapore that might cause it to not work here.

Personal Growth

My biggest growth through working on this project is my organisational skills. At the beginning of Assignment 1, I was confused as to what we are supposed to do. I was unable to find out the main need of the school since there are so many factors that the principal talked about. Then, Ms. Eunice and my classmates taught us how to sort out the interview done with the principal. I did it by highlighting keywords from the transcript, finding similarities in it and then concluding it with the root issue of those needs. With that, I wrote my first assignment and submitted it thinking that it was done well.

However, after receiving the assignment back, I realized that I did not elaborate and explain my findings. I was just supporting the needs that I found by pasting words from the transcript.

When it came to Assignment 2, I was even more confused. There were many times where I thought I understood, but I realized I did not after talking to my friends about it. The way I figured out if I am on the right track is by writing out I understood and having my friend to check for me and telling me what I did wrong. Again, I realized that I was pasting words from the research that I found, but I was not explaining what those words means. Although I do not know how well I have done for this assignment, I hope that by learning my mistake and editing my work, it will be better than my first assignment.

Through this, I learnt that we should not be afraid to ask our friends or our lecturers or in the future, the principal in the centre that I will be working in, for help. I also learn that we should always learn from mistakes and improve on ourselves. Although I might not be writing essays anymore as an Early Childhood teacher, I have learnt to always remember to explain myself. For example, as a teacher, I have to explain to children the reason behind what I am telling or teaching them instead of just telling them what to do. By doing so, children will understand where I am coming from and will more likely do what I am telling them.