The Classroom Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Classroom Plan - Essay Example As I have grown and become a mother, my philosophy on children, how they learn and grow has evolved. Personally, I have witnessed my children grow stage by stage and what each stage entailed in their development. It is amazing how one moves from one stage to another. Physically, it is obvious, but cognitively, it takes a while to realize that they grow out from being babies sooner than I expect. I believe that there are certain skills that develop per stage and that they learn from developmentally-appropriate activities before they can progress to another level. I have also learned that children are capable of learning if they are just trusted enough to be let go to explore and discover things for themselves and even solve simple problems on their own. In allowing them such, it communicates to them is respect for their own learning styles. An educational approach that adheres to a constructivist philosophy, is usually based on the theories of Piaget or Vygotsky. A Piagetian-based classroom promotes discovery learning, sensitivity to childrens readiness to learn, and acceptance of individual differences (Berk, 2008). A Vygotskian-based classroom on the other hand, emphasizes assisted discovery, in which both teacher guidance and peer collaboration are virtually important (Berk, 2008). Taken together, both will highly benefit the preschool child. I also subscribe to Howard Gardner’s (1983) Multiple Intelligence theory. It has motivated educators and ordinary people to think that each person has a giftedness that makes him special in his own way. Gardner claims that intelligence is not limited to the cognitive domain, as traditionally conceptualized. He views it in a much broader sense to include the individual’s affective, social and creative domains. He has come up with a number of intelligences a person possesses within him, as