Category: early childhood education

Physical education is a general education course of study from kindergarten through grade 12 in which students participate in physical activities. The purpose of physical education is to introduce children to the basic elements of exercise and to help them develop a healthy lifestyle. Children can exercise their bodies and improve their mental sports ability by playing basketball, football and other traditional sports, and taking part in weight-lifting, calisthenics and other physical exercise activities. Physical education is the teaching and guidance of physical activities in a school gymnasium or other school environment. The goal is to improve and maintain the current health status of children and put them on the path of maintaining a healthy lifestyle for life.

According to Harry Crowe Buck, “Physical education is a part of general education programme, which is considered with growth, development and education of children through the medium of big muscle activities. It is the education of whole child by means of physical activities. Physical activities are the tools. They are so selected and conducted as to influence every child’s life physically, mentally, emotionally and morally”.

There are two major of physical fitness that must co-exists in physical education, which are health-related and skill-related.

For health related, there are 5 components of fitness. First, cardiovascular endurance is the ability of the heart and lungs to work together to provide the oxygen and fuel the body needs during a continuous working load. For example, jogging, cycling and swimming. Second, muscular strength is the power that a muscle can produce. For example, climbing stairs, bench press and crab walks. Third, muscular endurance is the ability of muscles to work continuously without fatigue. For example, cycling, step machines and plank hold. Fourth, flexibility is the ability of each joint to move within the range of motion of a particular joint. For example, yoga, gymnastics and dance or martial arts. Fifth, body composition refers to the ratio of fat to muscles, bones, and organs.

For skill related, there are 6 components of fitness. First, agility refers to a person’s ability to move his or her body quickly and easily. Such as a boxer dodging a punch, or a basketball player changing direction in a split second. Second, balance refers to a person’s ability to maintain balance while moving or standing still. For example, kneeling or walk on balancing beam. Third, coordination refers to the ability of a person to use your senses and different parts of your body to perform motor tasks accurately and smoothly. For example, catching a ball in a lacrosse scoop while running. Fourth, power refers to a person’s ability to quickly convert energy into power. For example, baseball or volleyball. Fifth, speed is the ability to move quickly from one point to another. For example, sprinting or swimming. Lastly, reaction time is a skill-related component of physical health that relates to the time between one of your sensory recognition stimuli and your body’s response. For example, martial arts or racquet sports.

In today’s society, many kindergartens and day care centers more emphasis on intellectual activities than physical activities, resulting in a decrease in children’s physical and physical activities. Physical education can teach children to improve their quality of life. Focusing only on their studies will make their lives boring and stagnant, which in turn will lead to depression and failure. Physical activity and exercise can enhance their endurance, which can make them fall in love with their intelligence and ability. By participating in sports, children can develop physically, mentally, socially and emotionally. The following are some important of teaching physical education in preschools.

Physical education is important for healthy growth and development. Nowadays, many children eat unhealthy food. These may include soft drinks, burgers, French fries, and pizza. Taking these regularly can lead to childhood obesity. Physical education in schools can help prevent obesity and high blood pressure. Physical exercise and activity will help them burn off excess calories. If these calories are not burned off, they are stored as fat. Through physical exercise, people can make use of extra calories to gain energy. In addition, physical education can also enhance bone movement, such as jumping, which is especially important for school children because the strength generated by these activities contributes to bone strength and growth. While muscle-strengthening exercises can make muscles bigger and stronger, they can also help children carry loads and protect their joints from injury. Physical activities make students energetic and strong, and stimulate their interest in classroom activities. It helps with muscle movement. Physical education improves an individual’s ability to concentrate and maintain attention. Physical activity helps enlarge the basal ganglia of the brain. The basal ganglia are a part of the brain responsible for maintaining a person’s ability to pay attention. In this day and age, when children have so many forms of technological entertainment (TV, phones, tablets), it’s hard to stay focused. By promoting physical education, school teachers can help them improve their concentration. Schools often arrange sports games and exercises, which require concentration.

Physical education helps individuals to be flexible and happy, and helps relieve stress and anxiety. School life is busy and stressful for everyone. The pressure may come from poor grades that prevent children from concentrating on their studies. Taking part in sports activities and education can help children relieve their academic pressure and anxiety. Many schools now make physical education an important part of the school curriculum and encourage children to maintain a healthy balance between education and exercise. That’s because school sports help improve connections between neurons in the brain. Healthy and well-connected neurons help improve a children’s overall thinking ability. Scientific research reveals the fact that children who participate in physical activities are happier and healthier than those who spend all their time in school. Physical education helps to promote the circulation of blood in the body. Provides more oxygen to the heart and brain, and keeps the body in balance with physical and mental health.

There are many benefits of physical education for young children. First, children need strong bones. Children need exercise to avoid losing bone density due to lack of exercise. Childhood is the best time for bone development. Weak bones can lead to osteoporosis. Second, physical education can reduce a child’s risk of being overweight or obese. When a child does not exercise, unused calories are stored as fat. Physical activity will burn off these calories, so the fat will be reduced, so that the fat distribution in the children’s body is reasonable. Third, a healthier heart. Lack of exercise can put pressure on the heart, putting children at greater risk of cardiovascular disease in the future. Physical activity allowed their hearts to pump blood more efficiently. Fourth, children have stronger muscles. Jumping rope, martial arts and yoga all require muscle work, which means kids are building up their muscles. Increasing muscle strength can also prevent injuries. Fifth, children have stronger lungs. Exercise means that children breathe in more oxygen, emit more carbon dioxide and have more lung capacity. The increased oxygen also helps their heart and brain.

In conclusion, physical education plays an important role in childhood. However, the intellectual education in kindergartens also plays an important role in this competitive society. But excessive intellectual activity training may lead to children’s disinterest in sports activities and may also lead to the formation of unhealthy living habits. Kindergartens and child care should not only focus on performing intellectual education, but also physical activities.

Early youth offers instructors a one-of-a-kind arrangement of chances and difficulties. Little youngsters experience momentous development in psychological, physical, social, and passionate improvement. In any case, getting ready little youngsters for future achievement isn’t just an issue of acquainting testing scholastic work with early youth study halls. Guidance, just as appraisal, must think about the unique difficulties of early adolescence. Most youthful students advantage most when rich proficiency and numeracy guidance are joined with music, workmanship, physical, and well-being training, with time to play and develop socially and inwardly. Their future achievement is based on this thorough establishment. I believe that early education is very important for every child, and in this essay, I want to argue why I think so.

Firstly, early childhood education is important as it helps develop good habits. Day-by-day schedules assist kids with having a sense of security and secure. They’re likewise an incredible method to show youngsters solid propensities, such as brushing their teeth or washing their hands. At the point when youngsters recognize what’s in store every day, they’re bound to be quiet, settled, and get into great resting propensities. After some time, they’ll start assuming responsibility for everyday exercises, such as getting dressed and pressing their sack.

Secondly, early childhood education develops language and numeracy skills. Proficiency and numeracy aptitudes structure an establishment for training, however, it’s something other than perusing, composing, and tallying. Kids learn education abilities by tuning in to stories, discussing pictures, and drawing shapes on paper. They learn numeracy abilities by singing and playing music, or emptying sand into compartments of various sizes. The proficiency and numeracy aptitudes kids learn before they start school dramatically affect their scholastic achievement sometime down the road. Research shows that kids who go to childcare for a long time or more perform much better on year 4 proficiency and numeracy tests, while a year and a half of preschool greater affects education and numeracy levels at age 11, than every one of the six years of essential school.

Early childhood education also teaches kids to be independent. Childcare offers children a chance to create social abilities, which causes them to structure solid associations with other individuals. They’ll figure out how to coexist with other kids, share and alternate, tune in to other people, convey their thoughts, and become autonomous. As kids get more established, they’ll utilize these aptitudes to create companionships that will shape their feeling of personality and their future.

Childcare additionally enables a youngster to create enthusiastic versatility. Research shows that youngsters who go to childcare at age 2-3 are bound to be mindful and better ready to manage their feelings when they start school. Studies have even discovered that guardians profit by sending their youngsters to childcare, harvesting social, enthusiastic, and even monetary prizes from the connections they create with different families in the middle.

And my final argument for why early childhood education is important is that it develops future goals. The aptitudes of youngsters to learn in the early long stretches of their life are significant for their social, enthusiastic, and scholastic achievement. Truth be told, examination shows that kids who don’t go to preschool are half bound to begin school with a formative vulnerability.

To sum up, it should be said that the early years are an urgent time, and the experiences a youth has in these formative years expect a basic activity in setting up the child for future accomplishment. Early childhood education is definitely the most ideal path for youngsters to begin their learning for their future.

Summary

The teaching philosophy of Agape Little Uni. is to prepare children for success in life in a loving and nurturing school environment where emphasis is placed on character development through instilling strong values. The school aims to evolve the children into an AGAPE Learner who exemplifies the five distinctive core values and the five principles of teaching and learning through play-based learning, character building, and values-infused learning. Because of their firm belief in character development, they implement the Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) Curriculum for pre-schoolers, where children’s learning is guided by their learning needs, concepts, and learning experiences that are relevant to the current trends in the world. The depth of content broadens as children become older. Children receive a well-rounded education as they are introduced to the S.T.R.E.A.M approach as part of the center’s pedagogy, where they can apply their knowledge and skills to real-world situations. Teachers are also the learning facilitators who enable children to identify their unique learning styles through quality interactions and holistic learning experiences. The center also establishes firm partnerships with parents through catering to the child’s needs providing for them in the best way possible, and reinforcing parental involvement.

My PCF practicum center adopts the play-based Sparkletots Curriculum, which focuses solely on the six learning domains from the Nurturing Early Learners (2013) framework, as well as the Thematic approach where different themes are assigned to them each term by the headquarters. However, I strongly favor the Agape Little Unis. Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) curriculum, as it not only covers the six learning domains but also places emphasis on shaping the child’s character. Through formulated questions, educators stimulate the children’s interest and projects are curated based on the selected ones. Children acquire resilience as they receive feedback and guidance from their teachers. Their learning gets intensified when they inquire and explore more. Lastly, as children mature, the content they learn gets more advanced. I also feel that Agape Little Uni. integrating the S.T.R.E.A.M approach to their curriculum, is vital as it will help children acquire the essential 21st-century skills and develop holistically in all disciplines. One instance would be the S.T.R.E.A.M Tinkerlab camp, held on 12th – 14th June 2019, where children were equipped with skills in both experimental and engineering as they explored their creativity in many fun activities, developed their innovation and outshined what they knew to prepare for the skills of the 21st century. According to the Nurturing Early Learners (2013) framework, teachers play a vital role as facilitators in stimulating children’s thinking and extending their learning by offering opportunities for purposeful play and authentic learning through quality interactions. At Agape Little Uni., teachers as facilitators allow children to discover their learning styles through quality interactions and integrated learning experiences. Teachers at my practicum center made a conscious effort to expand on children’s learning and provide opportunities for them to initiate self-directed learning during their free play. However, since the center gets its lesson plans from the headquarters, children’s learning is teacher-driven in that sense as the themes are already pre-fixed and may not be of the child’s interest. Both centers value the partnership of parents by keeping them aware of the center’s happenings and catering to children’s specialized needs. In my practicum center, educators kept parents in the loop via the Little Lives Portal and the communication book. At Agape Little Uni., parents are updated daily about their child’s day and are informed about all school activities. Both centers create a supportive environment whereby educators and parents work together to promote the child’s development.

Analysis

By incorporating the S.T.R.E.A.M. approach to their curriculum, children are provided with opportunities to achieve indispensable 21st-century skills and holistically develop in all disciplines. According to Nurturing Early Learners (2013), providing children with the necessary 21st-century skills is vital to be prepared to meet future challenges and succeed in a rapidly changing world. The center also follows the Ministry of Education’s framework for 21st-century competencies and student outcomes (2018). The student outcomes are integrated with the center’s goal of children becoming AGAPE Learners which includes being self-directed learners taking ownership of their learning, active contributors exploring different ways of problem-solving and seeking new information, concerned citizens displaying empathy and respect towards others in the society, a confident person taking responsibility of their actions and the consequences that come with it and an effective communicator listening effectively and expressing their ideas. Through getting children to collaborate and communicate, the curriculum promotes the development of 21st-century skills and knowledge. (Owen et al., 2002). The center also incorporates the iTeach principles into its curriculum. Through stimulating and relevant learning experiences, they adopt an integrated approach to learning as skills and knowledge from the different domains are integrated into children’s work. Secondly, teachers as facilitators take into account the child’s innate abilities while children as constructors of knowledge are encouraged to take ownership of what and how they want to learn with the teacher’s guidance and feedback. Through this, children acquire critical thinking skills, and the ability to evaluate their work and learn from their mistakes as they build resilience. This aligns with Bruner’s Constructivist Theory (1990), where children are creating knowledge instead of it being directly fed to them. The preschool curriculum is also designed in such a way that it helps children learn best through purposeful play and imaginative exploration. Authentic learning through quality interactions is evident as teachers and children work together to discover, collate information, and share and present to parents and the community about their learning. Lastly, since different learning areas are integrated within the planned and supervised environments, children will be able to develop holistically through exploration. The center also places great emphasis on school-home partnerships. According to Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory (1979), the mesosystem is where the child’s growth is supported by cross-relationships between the closest socializing contexts (home and school) of the child.

Application

I feel that preschool educators need to shift away from the conventional way of teaching, where information is dispensed to the children and they are required to memorize it. Inquiry-based approach is good and educators need to use it as the child is actively involved in the process and it helps them to acquire skills to process information and solve problems. I will integrate this into my teaching next time by tapping into children’s interests and letting them lead their learning through co-construction. I will also actively take on the role of a facilitator by scaffolding children’s learning based on their abilities and interests. I have understood the importance of equipping children with the necessary 21st-century skills to succeed in a rapidly changing world. I will implement it next time in my teaching by creating avenues for children to investigate, experiment, and ask questions to feed their sense of wonder. Also having understood the importance of home-school partnership, I will implement it in my classroom next time by establishing a good relationship with parents from the time their children join the school and strengthening it through regular conversations about the best interests of the child.

My teaching philosophy statement is based on the concepts of love, affection, care, guidance and trust in young children. As an early childhood professional I believe that each child is an individual and learns according to his own pace. As an educator, it is my duty to value and develop each child’s skills, interests, capabilities, and knowledge to enhance their learning. It is my responsibility to provide a stimulating educational environment that helps children to develop socially, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

My philosophy statement is based on theorists, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and the early childhood movement from Reggio Emilia, Italy. I will follow the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86) by providing activities to the children that are based on their past learning and support new learning at a slightly more difficult level.

Vygotsky believed that children’s cognitive understandings were enriched and deepened when they were ‘scaffolded’ by parents, teachers, or peers (Berk 1996).

I consider that playing the method of learning for children at an early stage is the appropriate way of teaching. Through play young children learn to analyze, discover and imagine. They are little investigators who use their senses to examine everything. According to Piaget (1973), “A student who achieves a certain knowledge through free investigation and spontaneous effort will later be able to retain it” (p. 93). Piaget says that only providing information to the children is not the correct way of teaching. I support Piaget’s concrete learning where the children should be able to see, taste, feel, smell, and touch the objects they are learning about. Learning is not something that is done to the child, but rather something she does (Firlik, 1994).

Family and community involvement are integral components of my philosophy because they are partners, and advocates for their children. I believe that developing the best interaction with the families has a positive effect on children’s development. As a teacher, I must respect parents because they are the children’s first teachers. I believe in involving parents and the community in curriculum planning.

I believe in enhancing children’s learning by planning activities according to their interests and taking part in those activities with them, rather than just passively watching their learning.

‘As a partner to the child, the teacher is inside the learning situation’ (Hewett, 2001).

So for me, teaching is not only giving knowledge to children but is a way to learn new ideas, philosophies, and techniques from children, parents, colleagues, and the community. Learning is a lifelong process so my philosophy may change with time which is an indication that I have experienced new things.

“Children are like blossoming buds, waiting for nourishment to bloom and display glory and pride, their colorful petals. “

To achieve a garden of blooms the early childhood educator must be an honest reflector and a facilitator.

I believe the role of the Early Childhood Educator is to provide a rich environment and guide children so they can develop their confidence and build their resilience to become successful learners. As an Early Childhood Educator, it’s my responsibility to promote quality experiences and environments for young children while supporting children’s learning and development through interactions, communication, and providing a range of provocations and stimulating, problem-solving activities. This is supported by Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which states ‘the best interests of the child must be the primary concern in making decisions that may affect them….’. I believe that children show uniqueness and interests at an early age, therefore Educators should plan a child-centered curriculum that offers children the opportunity to make choices about what, how, and whom they want to play. This approach enables children to initiate and direct their own play with the support of interested and responsive adults. Educators foster children’s growth and development by building on children’s interests, needs, and strengths within a safe and caring environment. This reflects Article 29 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that states ‘children’s education should develop each child’s personality, talents and abilities to the fullest….’ And Outcome 4 of the Early Years Learning Framework that states children are confident and involved learners.

I believe every child is a capable and competent learner, they are unique individuals who develop at their own rate. Children are full of imagination, curious, connected with the environment from birth, and start to learn soon after they are born. Children are born with possibilities. The importance in early years is to shape up and stimulate these possibilities for them to grow up in all the developmental domains and become competent and responsible individuals in the future as global citizens. First, five years are very important for a child for their brain development. The more they are exposed to their environment and experience free play and exposed to different activities and materials the brain neurons will light up and connect new paths in the brain to make new connections. Good nutrition in the early years is important for this matter and for healthy lifestyles. Environment as the third teacher will be the main factor for the children to be competent learners. As educators, it is our responsibility to set up an environment stimulating, inviting, and connecting to the real world and includes children’s interests as well. The relationships with adults will give them the opportunity to build trust and the children will become more comfortable to explore, communicate, and further enhance their learning to become competent learners. As a service and as educators it’s our responsibility to provide the above environment for the children to become competent in their life.

Inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach to early childhood, paying a great deal of attention to the look and feel of the classroom, ensuring that its aesthetic beauty is a part of the learning environment. An environment where children spend long periods of time needs to reflect an atmosphere of lasting friendships, a feeling of family, and strong relationships with teachers. I believe that my values affect the decisions I make about the arrangement of space, equipment, and materials in the classroom. Therefore, they need to be Inviting, natural, open-ended, creative, and multi-sensory experiences that reflect aspects of nature throughout them. The importance of the environment lies in the belief that children can best create meaning and make sense of their world through environments that support ‘complex, varied, sustained, and changing relationships between people, the world of experience, ideas and the many ways of expressing ideas’.

I believe parent involvement is important so that learning can become reciprocal when parents and educators work together in supporting the child’s development and learning. My views come from Bruner who believed that interactions between children and an adult act as scaffolding to help the children go beyond what they can achieve on their own. They now enter what Vygotsky termed the zone of proximal development, that is, the area in which a child is able to perform with assistance at a higher level of mental functioning. I believe that children co-construct their knowledge with others and that with the right kind of assistance, they can reach beyond their present level of ability and move forward in their development. With strong communication between educators and families, this development can continue between the center and home.

I believe families should be provided with information about their children in the program. Documentation of the children’s experiences should be visible to parents and families. Portfolios are an essential tool for communicating with parents about their children in the program. These portfolios should be accessible to the children so they can reflect on and show their families what they have been up to at the center. Portfolios also give children a sense of belonging as each child has their own.

I believe there is great potential when educators build relationships with other educators and with others in the community beyond the center. Educators who familiarise themselves with the customs and lifestyles of the people in the community surrounding their center may find richness and diversity to share with the children. Parents themselves may be the link to assist educators in learning the community’s people resources, as they disclose aspects of their home lives. Such as, educators could find neighbors experienced in traditional music who could share their interests with the children.

I believe businesses, shopping areas, transportation systems, construction sites, police and fire stations, parks and recreation areas, churches, zoos, museums, and residential streets offer numerous learning experiences. I believe teachers should use natural community resources to design a curriculum outside and inside the classroom. This could be done through excursions and incursions. My views come from Reggio Emilia’s Approach that an ‘education based on relationships’ focuses on each child in relation to others and seeks to support children’s relationships with other children, family, teachers, society, and the environment.

The Reggio Emilia Approach believes that children, teachers, parents, and the community interact and work together while building a community of inquiry between adults and children. I believe a file of pamphlets and referral information should be accumulated and kept at the center for reference by all staff. Frequently parents learn of sources of help through the information given to them from centres.

I always try to update myself with knowledge regarding children’s development to create a caring and nurturing environment that enhances each child’s individuality, creativity, and self-image. I always try together with staff to reflect the needs and goals of children and families. I always work together for an integrated, comprehensive approach to a caring, cooperative workplace that respects cultural values and supports positive relationships and respectful interaction.

Children are our future CITIZENS. Proud to be an early childhood educator and I always try to build up GLOBAL MINDED CHILDREN WITH CULTURAL HEARTS. “I strongly believe that every child has a right to learn and there is a community for every single child. “

Developing and progressing in the arts requires a lot of practice and commitment. Even if not pursued professionally, it may be used as an outlet to cope with a variety of pressures presented in society. Therefore, educating young children between birth and the age of five about art presents an opportunity for self-expression and self-actualization. Thus, a foundation in art may serve to stimulate creativity in thought patterns that can be applied to a variety of problem-solving practices. Some may go as far as to argue that art and existence are fundamentally connected when using broader definitions. Thus, it may prove worthwhile to analyze the connection between art and development. This information may then be used to create systems and programs that communicate to children in a way that they can internalize and comprehend effectively. Thus, analyzing the utilization of the art of early life for learning and monitoring progression may highlight important details about how young children perceive. Therefore, art education at an early age may contribute to forming an identity in a healthy way, as well as laying the foundation for creative thinking that can expand into other fields outside of the arts.

Art in the Daily Lives of Young Children

In order to observe how art education can be applied to benefit young children, it would be necessary to first analyze how the arts are utilized by these individuals in daily life. Activities like singing, dancing, and drawing are all often used as indicators of development in children. These kinds of activities can be facilitated at very young ages. Research has shown that infants who actively participated in a music group had improved emotion regulation skills (Menzer, 2015). This is because music allows for expressive emotions to be used (Menzer, 2015). Thus, nursery rhymes are often one of the first things that children are taught. Children can react to music from a very young age. Many children have been recorded rhythmically wobbling to dance before the ability to talk, or walk is gained. This shows that the arts are influential from very early on in the life of a child. Furthermore, it highlights the primal link between creative expression and human perception due to the early development of being able to consciously acknowledge art in the form of music.

This early integration of art into the daily life of young children under the age of six is not limited strictly to music. Visual art also plays a big role in the daily lives of children. In these early ages from birth to six, children are learning shapes and colors, the basic fundamentals of visual art. A young child who is stacking blocks or annoyingly scribbling on the walls of a house may be exhibiting the initial phase in the perception of art at this early age. This combination of playing, as well as constructing a sculpture out of the blocks. is one of the ways that art can be seen to be present in the development of human creativity. Thus, a child who is not yet able to articulate what art is can still be found creating visual art. Therefore, it is clear that art is an intrinsic part of being human, meaning that art education is concerned with stimulating this innate desire to be creative and expressive through these mediums.

Another art medium that can be explored is drama. One of the ways that the development of a child can be traced is through the child’s ability to tell lies. Hiding the truth is a testament to a child’s development of moral evaluation, insofar that a child can determine whether there was an infringement of particular rules, thus the child will attempt to cover up the act (Talwar & Lee, 2008). This ability can essentially be related to drama, as it is a composition of a story from the imagination. The section of the arts allows children to explore many characters. Thus, the active imagination of four to six-year-olds is an early indication of acting. A young child may role-play as a superhero or a dinosaur, thus exploring a range of dramatic characters, and adapting behavior accordingly. Therefore, imagination and the early lies a child tells can also be listed as an early inclination towards the arts. Therefore, finding ways to positively channel this creativity across multiple disciplines that naturally develop in children may help in guiding children towards holistic character formation.

Developing Art Literacy and Appreciation

Considering that an innate attraction to art can be identified early in the development of children, it would be logical to attempt to instill art literacy within the child. This would be the process of moving away from automatic artistic expressions to acknowledging that one is participating in the arts. This basic art literacy is the first step towards eventually instituting formal education concerning the arts. There have been multiple examples as to why actively engaging in the arts is beneficial to young children. These benefits extend to the appreciation of aesthetic beauty, the expansion of tools to communicate, as well as the creation of positive attitudes while stimulating creativity (Lindsey, 2017). Thus, including art in the world of young children may assist in facilitating healthy development.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy to highlight that different aspects of art present different benefits to children. For example, children who express themselves through dance experience more physical benefits in terms of exercise than children who are finger painting. In this way, there are differences between various arts that may help a child explore the multitude of complexities of existence and navigate the world. This exploration of the different arts may serve to open a child up to a wide scope of perspectives that may aid in socializing. Thus, incorporating arts into the curriculum may serve to stimulate the thinking skills that are useful in other fields as well. Therefore, diversifying the arts to a young child is exposed to contribute towards ensuring that the child is well adjusted. Research has shown that it may even promote cooperation once children enter school. Toddlers who participated in a classroom-based music program for eight months reported increased social cooperation and independence (Menzer, 2015). This extends to drama where children who participated in a formal drama program for one year showed increased social skills development (Menzer, 2015). This shows how the advantage of the development can be attributed to arts programs.

However, it is not only formal programs that show these benefits. Parents simply singing to a child three times per week was positively related to strong social skills (Menzer, 2015). This is further built upon by the findings that children who played with building blocks are more well-adjusted socially than the children who did not play with blocks as much (Menzer, 2015). Therefore, the research is clear as to the positive effect of art education, whether it is formal or informal, on the social and emotional states of children. Allowing for this space of expression within young children builds communication and an environment that stimulates self-actualization. Therefore, the responses children have towards art are a testament to the positive effects art has on creating an identity, socializing, and gaining communication skills. Furthermore, the experiences gained in connection with formal art programs tend to be beneficial in the long term, extending to a vast array of factors within a child’s life. Constructing programs like these is essential to the fundamental education of a child who will inevitably gravitate towards such creative activities, in one form or another, early on.

Approaches to Early Art Education

Since pedagogy in and of itself is considered by some to be an art form, constructing appropriate teaching techniques can enhance the benefits that creative expression creates (Pearse, 2011). Various approaches can be taken toward art education. Considerations would need to be made about what an education in arts aims to stimulate. Much of the research points to self-expression, better communication, and creativity as the positive outcomes of art education. Therefore, any teaching method that is applied should aim to maximize these aspects. Although constraints are necessary, an environment that is free enough for the child to create engaging art is an advisable approach to facilitating education in the arts.

It is possible to teach art while neglecting self-expression. For example, art plays a big role in preschool education in Singapore (Bautista et al., 2017). However, there is a great deal of teacher involvement, resulting in a product-orientated pedagogy that imposes strict time constraints and limitations on expression (Bautista et al., 2017). Considering that one of the primary benefits of formalized art education is the promotion of creativity and communication through self-expression, such a limited approach to art education may not provide the ideal environment to maximize the benefits of education in the arts. Thus, a technique that still exercises a level of control in a formal environment yet allows for freedom of expression to be encouraged would be the best approach to providing art education in the various disciplines available. Constructing an environment with too many constraints and limitations in the context of art education may not be advisable, because of the hindering effect it may have on positive outcomes stimulated by this learning process.

Thus, a teaching method that provides a structured environment in which expression is encouraged presents the best approach to teaching the arts. An example can be made of educating a child in drawing at a preschool level. Techniques that can be applied are avoiding having the child copy artwork, allowing the child to use as much or as little of the page as the individual wants, as well as not forcing the child to provide explanations (McArdle & Piscitelli, 2002). In this way, the task of drawing is clearly defined, however, the environment of free creation has been stimulated due to the broad way the task has been presented, which is open to possibilities. This open-ended approach to visual arts allows for child-orientated learning with minimal interference from the teacher (Lindsay, 2017). This is suited for art education because it stimulates identity formation, meaning that learning is an internalized process. Furthermore, an open-ended approach to art education will allow for an increased level of creativity that cannot be achieved through the push for uniform artistic productions. The room for variation that is allowed in teaching the arts is what would maximize the benefits of this sector of education.

Despite the freedom that should be encouraged in art education, the teacher needs to be proactive (Cutcher & Boyd, 2016). Getting actively involved in co-creating with young learners and promoting group work is what allows for communication skills to develop due to creative ideas having to be shared (Cutcher & Boyd, 2016). Therefore, a collective approach should be utilized to teach art. This can extend to all the arts beyond only the visual. Group or class projects using drama, dance, or other forms of art would all serve to facilitate the development of this creative communication. Thus, the approach that should be utilized when teaching is a pedagogy that allows for creative freedom, within a context of working together in order to build self-expression, as well as communication skills in young children.

Conclusion

Art and appreciation for what is beautiful is innate in human beings. Developing this trait is the purpose of education in the arts. The benefits of this education that extend to other disciplines that are outside the scope of art as well is a testament to the importance of this education. These positive outcomes can be listed as the development of self-expression and social skills in young children, which are essential to effectively functioning in a collective. Therefore, constructing curriculums that include room for creative freedom with minimal teacher interference and constraints would be the approach best suited to maximizing the benefits of art education. Appreciation of the arts is a large contributor to forming a well-rounded individual who is capable of producing unique ideas in the context of collective society.

References

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