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Philosophy of Education Paper
Kim Y. Bailey
Concordia University, St. Paul, ECE 576-621
Tosca Grimm, M.A.Ed.
February 13, 2014
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Philosophy of Education
In the ten years of teaching in the field of Early Childhood Education (ECE), I have come
to understand and know that all children are capable of learning. Children learn through many
different ways; most importantly through play. Play supports the growth and learning of
children. Play allows children to explore the world and develop new skills. Play is an important
and necessary part of childhood and ECE.
Play
Play is a key component in ECE. Play enhances every aspect of development and
learning (Rogers & Sawyers, 1998). The developmental and learning areas that are enhanced
from play are social, emotional, cognitive, language, and physical development. Bodrova and
Leong (as cited in Heidemann & Hewitt, 2010) believes that while in formal setting children may
seem to have challenges. However, when engaged in play, children tend to perform at a higher
level set of skills. While in play children show advance skills in language use, memory, selfcontrol, attention, brain development, and social-emotional development. Through play, children
develop the following skills:

Social Development: Play provides the means and ability for children to interact with
others. Through these interactions children learn social skills.

Emotional development: Play provided the opportunity for children to express positive
and negative emotions. Children may not be able to verbalize their emotions but are able
to express their feelings through play.

Cognitive Development: Through play, children are able to assign different functions for
a single object, children are doing cognitive decentering. Children’s ability to learn
cognitive decentering will support their understanding of other people’s perspectives; this
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provides the ability to work together to coordinate roles and negotiate play scenarios.
Children that are capable of coordinating multiple perspectives will develop reflective
thinking and metacognition. The ability to also take an object and substitute the object for
another object (e.g. a block used as a cell phone to text), contributes to the development
of abstract thinking and imagination (Bodrova & Leong, 2003).

Language development: Play supports language development. Children are able to
practice and build their language skills by communicating through active play with peers
and adults. Language and communication development is important during play because
children are exploring stories, negotiating roles, expressing feelings, and learning to listen
while in conversations with others. Vygotsky (as cited in Berk & Winsler, 2002) believes
that language is the primary and universal tool utilized by all humans to communicate or
complete an activity by using the brain to create a higher-order and self-regulated
process.

Physical development: muscles are used during play. Children develop large muscle
skills when they reach, walk, run, crawl, and jump. They strengthen small muscles when
they use their fingers to grasp, to attempt to write, paint, and explore with manipulative
toys (e.g. bristle blocks and Legos).
Educators’ Knowledge
It's been my experience that teachers with more education or continuing education tend to
be more intentional in their teaching of young children. Providers should continue their own
education to build a strong foundational knowledge about children and how to appropriately
scaffold children’s learning. Continuing education should be done in an accredited institution
(e.g. Concordia University-Saint Paul) or accredited training with professional trainers (e.g.
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Early Childhood Stout Conference). Working in the early childhood education field, it is
essential to know how to collect data, record progress and evaluate children's outcomes.
Observations
Through teaching and taking courses about children I've learned that the best ways to
monitor the progress on children's education is through observations; such as anecdotal records
of children, portfolios of children's work, pictures and video clips of children at play, screenings
and assessment tools such as Teaching Strategies Gold Assessment, The Creative Curriculum
Check- list, and Work Sampling. Bredekamp and Rosegrant (as cited in Beneke, Helm, &
Steinheimer, 2007) believes that observations and documentation of children are important
because of all of the different educational decisions that affect the children. Therefore, by adding
intentional observations as part of the everyday curriculum can benefit children, teachers, and
parents. Observations should be naturally into the classrooms. Observations can be done by
adults or children. When teachers take time to organize and reflect upon documentation; rewards
may accrue as to providing quality decision making with greater results for the goals of children
and families.
Individualization
Providers should understand the importance of individual needs and goals. Positive
reinforcements should be the number one method when interacting with a child to achieve these
needs and goals. It is very true that providers should promote literacy, language, math, science,
and sensory into play in the everyday curricula. However, when individualization is involved,
each child will have to main tool to success because curricula are now geared toward each
individual child and their learning style. To better understand the children to create the
individualization, educators need to build a relationship with the family.
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Relationship
Families play a very important role in their child’s education. They are the primary
foundational support for the child's education throughout life. A partnership should always be
formed between the parent/guardian and teacher when it comes to the well-being of the child.
This can be accomplished by providing opportunities for families to volunteer in the classroom,
go on fieldtrips, and home involvement work. Clear communication with parents and family is
best. The best ways to do this is through conferences, home visits, personal meetings (Individual
Education Plans or upon parent requests) and should always include teachers and
parents/guardians.
Conclusion
Providers must understand the importance of relationships because families are the key to
the children’s overall success. Educators need to use current research to support methods and
theory. Children are different from one another and learn in many different ways. Due to the
different level of skills for each individual child, educators must do observations, use them to
individualize, and do intentional scaffolding. Individualizing an educational plan will help
support children to learn in their own way. Due to the differences of comprehension and
understanding from each child; the focus of education should be based upon nurturing the whole
child.
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References
Beneke, S., Helm, J.H., & Steinheimer, K. (2nd Ed.). (2007). Windows of learning: Documenting
young children's work. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Berk, E. L., & Winsler, A. (2002). Scaffolding children’s learning: Vygotsky and early childhood
education. Washington, DC: National Association For The Education Of Young
Children.
Bodrova, E. and Leong, D. (2003) Chopsticks and counting chips: Do play and foundational
skills need to compete for teacher's attention in an early childhood classroom? Young
Children on the Web. Retrieved
from https://blackboard.csp.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/20133030258/Chopsticks_Bodrova.
pdf
Heidemann, S. & Hewitt, D. (2010) Play: The pathway from theory to play. St. Paul, MN:
Redleaf Press
Rogers, C. S. & Sawyers, J.K. (1998). Play in the lives of children. Washington, DC: NAEYC