SECOND READING

The reading of this week was called 'Child-centered education', taken from the Köck Private Foundation. 

5 words

- Enjoyment

- Self - regulated learning

- Learning strategies

- Self - assessment

- Community

3 main ideas

- Children love to learn and they do so in many different ways (playing, through discovery...) and, as long as they have fun while learning, they will do it with enthusiasm.

- Child - centered education supports the self - educational process of the child, enabling him to develop his personality and competencies taking into account his needs and learning level.  

- Child - centered education focusses on the development of the children dealing with everyday problems and tasks, providing different areas and resources for them to experiment and establishing relationships among the whole school community. In the process, it emphasizes the assessment and reflection of the children on their learning.

1 idea that touches me

The fact that the learning methods are agreed between the adult and the child, and adapted to the requirements of this last one. It means that the focus is on children, and everything is done in order to promote their process of learning according to what they need. Therefore, is the school that adapts to children and not them the ones that have to adapt to the requirements of the school. In fact, having to follow those requirements can cause frustration to some children, since not everybody learns in the same way and at the same time. However, through child - centered education this is avoided.

Have I seen child - centered education during this Practicum?

Actually, this week I saw a moment in which the teacher was willing to change an activity because some children didn't want to do it. They were practising the parts of the house, and they were going to start with an interactive exercise in which they had to place different furniture along the house. Once the teacher explained it, some of the children started to make comments saying that they didn't like this kind of activity, so the teacher asked them if they didn't want to do it. In order to be fair, she made a voting with the kids to decide whether they would do it or not.

This attitude surprised me as it was not what I was used to see, but I found it positive. She was not avoiding the comments of the children, but taking into account their opinions, and she was willing to change the programme so that the students would learn the same contents but in a way that was motivating for them. Besides, she also considered that some children perhaps wanted to do that activity, so she took into account the decisions of everyone inside the classroom.

                                

Have I seen some critical event this week?

There was a moment that I found funny to explain, since it was unexpected. In the way of going inside the classroom, some children started to race. However, a teacher saw them and told them to stop. I thought that she would tell them not to do it anymore or that she would punish them being the last ones on the queue, because that is what I have seen most of the times. But she didn't. Instead, she told them to stay still there and say 'good morning' to everybody who crossed that corridor. It was something different that made them do an act that was nice for other people.