About Us and Why We Passionate About ECE

Hello ~ Fisyl in the house ! We are the student's from Management and Science University (MSU), Malaysia. Now we are in the last semester that taking Diploma in Early Childhood Education (DECE). What a cute course isn't it? hehe.. For your information, FISYL is the combination of the first letter of our group members name.

My name is Nur Farah Wahida Binti Abdul Rahim. I'm 20 years old. I live in Puchong, Selangor. I'm the sixth from seven siblings. My mission is to finish my study with a successful certificate and make my parents proud of me. While, my vision is to be a successful teacher in the world. 

The reason why i like Early Childhood Education is because I want to know about development of children. For example, how the children play, how they learn, how they develop their domains, their achievement and etc. I also want to know the technique on how to teach young children in proper ways, because I will also become in mother in future. Plus, i love children because to me children is very innocent and interesting to know about them. By looking at their cute faces you will feel very peacefully and without realize that you will forget any problem that you have. I love to teach children based on their experiences and learn by doing lots of activity such as gardening, water play, sand play, experiment, dramatic play and etc.

My name is Aminah Binti Abdul Karim. I'm 20 years old and i was born in Kuala Terengganu. I'm the third from fifth siblings. My vision is want to open kindergarten  for children to gain an experiences and education.

The reason why i choose ECE is because of i love to teach children and also like to play with them. this course can make me more understand about children world such as how to handle children, know what should as women do when have baby and anything that very interesting information. ECE course also make me happy and release my stress. My ambition is want to open kindergarten for children to gain their knowledge and because of this ambition, i want to know about this course because it have many benefits information to me. I will do my best in this course and  I hope that I can be a good teacher in the future.

Hi there! I'm Nur Syuhada Binti Zulkarnain. Friends usually call me Syud. I'm 20 years old. My mission is end my study successfully and my vision is further my study in ECE and also build my own kindergarten. There are several reasons why I really love about ECE. First of all is of course because I like to play with children. As you know, children often act cutely that can make you happy with their behavior. second is because I really want to learn about children. Learn about their development, types of behavior, what we should and should not do in front of the children and so on. Third, to prepare to be a good mother in the future. In ECE, we are not only learn about their development, but also gain knowledge about health and safety that parents should practice at home.

My name is Maryam Jamilah Binti Jamaluddin. I'm 20 years old. I choose this course because I love children. Ever since I was a little kid, I have shown my interest with infants and toddler. I believe that all children would be better off if all the teacher and parents knew more about how children think how they behave. Some parents who are raising children and some parents who are teaching or otherwise responsible for children at various ages and stages. The more you know about infants toddler and children and the way they think, we can provide children what they need and also can help them grow into healthy and mature life.

Hi, my name is Norlindawati Binti Sjafrial and just call me Linda. I'm 20 years old. I live in Bandar Sunway, Selangor. I have 3 siblings and I'm the youngest. The reason why I passionate about this course because I really love children, I want to be a good and successful teacher to the children in the future. Not only that, I want to learn more about the children development and behavior. Children is like a clean cloth that we need to paint beautiful life on top of it. Without educators, children will don't know more about knowledge. As educators, we need to give them beneficial lesson that related to their daily life. Not only that, we also can give them some lesson that give them experience and can apply in the future. Children always learn through play, so we can give them more interesting activity such as dramatic play, drawing, water play, making own play dough and etc.

Historical in Early Childhood Education

THEORY ATTACHMENT

Edward John Mostyn Bowlby was a British psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst, notable for his interest in child development and for his pioneering work in attachment theory. He was born in February 26, 1907 at London, United Kingdom. He died on September 2, 1990 in Skye , United Kingdom. His parents are Anthony Bowlby and Mary Bridget Mostyn. He was studying at University of Cambridge, Trinity College, Cambridge. He was influenced by Sigmund Freud.

These days many parents are well aware of the importance of a strong bond between them and their child and many are certainly recognize of disorders that related to attachment. Theory "attachment" by John Bowlby shows us that we should be aware that attachment is the strong emotional bond that forms between the baby and his/her caregivers. It is the most important component that helps to bring about socialization in children. 

Children who have developed a positive attachment to one or both of their parents will probably wish to maintain the parental affection and approval they receive. Consequently, they may be motivated to adopt the standards of behavior their parents set for them.

BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Albert Bandura OC is a psychologist who is the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University. He was born in December 4, 1925 at Mundare, Canada. He was studying at University of British Columbia (1946-1949), University of Lowa (1951), and University of Lowa (1952).

Social learning theory, which started out as behaviorism, had a major influence on practices with children throughout much of the twentieth century. Behaviorist believed that directly observable events usually referred to a stimuli and responses-were the appropriate focus of child study. In general, behaviorism taught that a child's behavior could be increased through as variety of reinforces and decreased through punishment such as disapproval or withdrawal of privileges.

 Following behaviorism, several kinds of learning theory-often referred to a social learning theory-emerged. Perhaps the most influential of the learning theories was developed by Albert Bandura, who emphasized that modeling, also known as imitation or observational learning was a powerful source of development

Pros and Cons About ICT in Early Childhood

As we know, technology is important in this Era. So, parents and teacher have to introduce technology to children as it has many functions. However, there are the pros and cons of technology for children.

Pros

1. Develop Fine Motor Skills.

- By pushing keys with their little finger, children can develop their fine motor skills. Plus, these fine motor movement also help children's eye-hand coordination as the children focus on the screen as they play games.

2. Self Esteem. 

- Technology is changing the way children all learn and it can have a positive impact on kids and their reading. By adding gadget like tablet e-readers to the classroom, children's self-esteem and confidence level rises. technology also gives children who have grown up in an age of smartphones and computers another outlet with which they are familiar to grow and learn. Building self esteem through applied technology and increased reading skills can have a positive ripple-effect on every other area of children's life.

3. Gain More Knowledge.

- There are a lot benefits that we can use technology for the children to gain more knowledge and information. The children can learn and gain more knowledge by e-books, educational source from the internet, software with appropriate guidelines. Other that we can minimize the usage paper by using electronic gadget at school. School uses hundred stacks of paper every year for students work sheet. This is not a good condition for our eco environment. Therefore, using electronic device or gadget can overcome this problem and be more environmental friendly.

4. Motivate To Learn.

- Technology such as computer, television and multimedia that using various of colour and moving image can provide challenge for children and increase their passion to learn. 

5. Social Development.

- ICT already affect the people and environments that surround young children's learning. Children can keep connection and relationships with their friends by calling through phone, Facebook, twitter, Skype 

and etc. 

Cons

1. Become Addicted.

- It is a bad thing when children play with technology without parent's attention. Children will addict to the technology as they want to play with it all the time.

2. Social Relationship. 

- Technological gadgets have posed a bad impact on social relationship. Children are addicted to gadgets, They don't have time to sit with their parents and to spend good time with them. They prefer to connect with their friends and relatives via text messaging, chatting and etc, rather than meeting them actually. Means, they are connected with others in virtual world, but not in the real world.

3. Health Problem.

- Electronic devices can be risk for the children's health. The radiation from the electronic devices can cause harm to the user's health. A part of that, using gadget such as computer, ipad or phone also can bring damage to eyes and also because enjoying digital devices tends to be a sedentary pastime, children may be more susceptible to weight gain.

4. Expensive.

- To get a technology is not easy. Parents or school have provide money to buy some of technology like computer because the technology is quite expensive. 

5. Laziness in Studying.

- Computers make it so easy to find answers that children barely have to look for them. This may result in them having poor study habits and developing a lazy attitude towards their education.

Malaysian Curriculum and International Approach

Malaysia.

National Standard Preschool Curriculum ( NSPC ) is used in early childhood education in Malaysia. The purpose is to develop the children’s potential to the fullest, in an integrated manner, addressing physical, spiritual, social and intellectual attributes.  NSPC advises that this aim can be achieved by preparing a safe and conducive learning environment. Also, NSPC encourage children to use ICT and communicate in accountable and ethical manners by applying appropriate ICT resources for improving their learning process.

Australia.

The Australian Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) supports the foundation for quality teaching and learning in early childhood education and childcare settings in Australia. The EYLF have goals and aims, and learning outcomes targeted for children that emphasis the importance of communication and language development. They believe that the use of ICT is promoted for children in doing investigation and problem solving. Besides, EYLF was developed to assist educators working in partnerships with the families to minimize young children’s potential and build a strong foundation for children to success.

Japan.

July 2011 Japan is ranked as top four in terms of the Digital Reading Assessment identified by reading through the screen, information retrieval and the utilization of ICT in education, and many people in Japan as well as those who are concerned about how to utilize in existing subject matters. The conception of the spiral curriculum has not as yet been explicated in detail or at micro-levels in ICT education, but it appears to hold much promise for the future curriculum design efforts, since school curriculum in present and future society marked by the information-oriented and lifelong learning society should consider and follow the student psychological developmental stage focusing on the learning style and teaching style learned from the development of science education curriculum and teacher education and training curriculum as well.

What Research Said ?

Based on researcher says, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is important because it give effect on the people and environment surround young children’s learning. It is a component of the physical and social worlds that occupied by young children’s learning. ICT is important part of the private and work lives of most people including those who support young children learning development that is parent, sibling, teacher and other. It is to guide young children’s future development and decision making in this area.

ICT offers new opportunities to strengthen many aspects of early childhood education practice (Downes & Fatouros, 1995). The opportunities are:

·         To support and enhance children’s learning and play experiences.

·         To support and strengthen the relationships and communication between early children centers, parents and other people that connected with young children.

·         To support and strengthen practitioners’ professional learning and development.

Besides, ICT support for the development and integration of ICT education policy, curriculum and practice across the whole education sector. ICT and “e-learning” have become important concept in primary, secondary and tertiary school. However, for ICT in early childhood education sector has lagged behind in most of the countries. But, this situation is beginning to change ( O’Hara, 2004; Sheriden & Pramling Samuelsson, 2003l; Stephen & Plowman, 2003)

Some technologies may not have adverse effects for children but by some token, it may not be well matched to children’s level of development, motor skills or previous experience. Researchers believe that young children had more success operating a computer by using a mouse than touch screen because children had more prior experience and using mouse physically easier for children to operate. (Romep, Edwards, McNamara, Walker & Ziguras, 2003).

References

• Downes, T., & Fatouros, C. (1995). Young children learning in their preschool and primary years: A framework for planning to incorporate IT. Australian Educational Computing, May, 4-9. Elkind, D. (1998). Computers for infants and young children. Child Care Information and Exchange, 9, 44-46.
• O'Hara, M. (2004). ICT in the early years. London: Continuum
• Sheridan, S., & Pramling Samuelsson, I. (2003). Learning through ICT in Swedish early childhood education from a pedagogical perspective of quality. Childhood Education, 79 (5), 276-277.
•  Stephen, C., & Plowman, L. (2003). ICT in pre-school settings: Benign addition or playroom revolution? Early Childhood Folio, 7, 33-38.
• Romeo, G., Edwards, S., McNamara, S., Walker, I., & Ziguras, C. (2003). Touching the screen: Issues related to the use of touchscreen technology in early childhood education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 34 (3), 329-339.