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Running head : EDUC 607_ GROUP PROJECT_BAKTYGUL, RAUSHAN, YERBOLAT. 1

ECE Program Proposal

Section 1: Introduction

When researching the theories of child development and education that have been

developed throughout the years, it can be overwhelming to analyze them all and decide on which

is the most effective. This is especially difficult for educators who cannot afford to spend much

time researching different instructional approaches and testing them out in their classroom.

Therefore, there is a need to provide educators with a collection of best practices that have been

tested and proven to work in the classroom. One such collection of best practices is utilized by

the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) within their programs, including the Primary

Years Program (PYP). IB programs “reflect the best practice of a range of different educational

frameworks and curricula” (IBO, n.d.) For our Early Childhood Education (ECE) program, we

made a decision to follow IBO’s reasoning by implementing a collection of the best practices in

education. We chose to name our project “Social Constructivism” and included such best

practices as constructivism, zone of proximal development, inquiry-based learning and reflective

learning.

We included the constructivist approach because, when it comes to PYP curriculum

model, it “is dependent on (a) commitment to a particular belief about how children learn,

encapsulated most clearly in the constructivist approach” (IBO, 2009, p.6). The constructivist

approach developed by Lev Vygotsky forms the basis of PYP curriculum model. Vygotsky

defined learning as “the creation of meaning that occurs when an individual links new

knowledge with…existing knowledge” (Williams and Woods, 1997). In our ECE program, we

chose to focus on social constructivist approach. The difference between a constructivist

classroom and a social constructivist classroom is that in the latter classroom, more emphasis is

placed on “learning through interaction” and more value is placed on “cultural background”

(UCD, n.d.). However, due to the fact that more research is available on the constructivist

EDUC 607_ GROUP PROJECT_BAKTYGUL, RAUSHAN, YERBOLAT. 2

approach compared to the social constructivist approach, we will be focusing on the former

while still stressing the importance of social aspect of learning.

As for zone of proximal development and inquiry-based learning, IB cites Bruner (1990)

and Gardner (1993), who stated that “the focus of teaching curriculum content needs to change

to enable teachers to make connections between learners’ existing knowledge and their

individual learning styles in the context of new experiences” (IBO, 2009, p.6). IB addresses

these challenges by enabling students to learn through structured inquiry. IB integrates

constructivism and inquiry-based approaches into teaching and, although not stated explicitly, it

appears that IB also integrates social constructivism. This can be clearly seen in the following

statement: “students’ learning and their attempts to understand the world around them are

essentially social acts of communication and collaboration” (IBO, 2009, p.6).

The target audience of this program are educators of Kazakhstan, especially educators

working in early childhood and elementary level. According to Davis-Seaver (n.d.), “historically,

there are three basic philosophical approaches to teaching in elementary school: the reductionist,

the developmental, and the constructivist” (p.1). In the reductionist approach, “knowledge can be

directly taught”, “accumulation of facts… must precede thinking critically about them”, and

teaching is “dedicated to coverage” (Davis-Seaver, n.d., p.1). In our experience, most educators

of Kazakhstan are still using the reductionist approach to teaching and our program aims to train

educators to shift their teaching approach from the reductionist to the constructivist. Another

audience of this program are educators who are already implementing the constructivist

approach but do not know or understand the basis for using this approach. We believe that

training educators in how to implement the social constructivist approach as well as developing

their understanding of why this approach is important for children will greatly benefit children’s

cognitive and social-emotional development.

This topic is important because, as IBO (2009) states, “experiences during the early years

lay the foundations for all future learning” and “it is our responsibility as educators to recognize


and maximize this crucial stage of learning” (p.7). Educators of Kazakhstan need to recognize

that this is the most important stage in children’s lives and use instructional approaches that have

been proven by research to be effective, namely constructivist and inquiry-based approaches. In

the digital age, the reductionist approach has become archaic; it is not enough to memorize and

regurgitate information since we already have all the information readily available. The crucial

thing to teach our children is what to do with all the available information and how to use it to

solve problems of today’s world. We believe our program will help achieve this goal.

Section 2: Summary of theories

“Social constructivism emphasizes the importance of culture and context in

understanding what occurs in society and constructing knowledge based on this understanding”

(Derry, 1999). Social constructivism is closely associated with the developmental theories of

Vygotsky and Bruner, and Bandura's social cognitive theory (Kim, 2001). As for the

psychological roots of constructivism, it began with the developmental work of Jean Piaget

(1896–1980), who developed a theory of genetic epistemology. Vygotsky contributed to

constructivism with his his theories about language, thought, and their mediation by society. He

“held the position that the child gradually internalizes external and social activities, including

communication, with more competent others” (State University, 2016). In his experiments,

Vygotsky studied the “difference between the child's reasoning when working independently

versus reasoning when working with a more competent person” and he invented the notion of the

zone of proximal development “to reflect on the potential of this difference” (State University,

2016). Vygotsky and Piaget's theories are often contrasted to each other in terms of Piaget’s

individual cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky’s social constructivism (Vygotsky).

There are three main assumptions in social constructivism theory concerning reality,

knowledge and learning. It is important to understand these assumptions before implementing

the models of instruction related to social constructivism. The first assumption in social

constructivism is that “reality is constructed through human activity” and that “members of a


society together invent the properties of the world (Kim, 2001). In other words, reality does not

exist until it is discovered and socially invented. The second assumption in social constructivism

is that knowledge is a human product and “is socially and culturally constructed” (Gredler,

1997). The meaning that individuals create depends on their interactions with each other and the

environment they live in. The third assumption that social constructivists hold is that learning is

a social process and it does not take place only within an individual. Learning is not “a passive

development of behaviors that are shaped by external forces” (Kim, 2001). Learning is

meaningful when individuals are engaged in social activities.

In social constructivism, both the context in which learning occurs and the social contexts

that learners bring to their learning environment are crucial. The next important question to

answer is how the ideas of social constructivism could be implemented in the classroom. There

are four general ways that we could implement social constructivism: cognitive tools

perspective, idea-based social constructivism, pragmatic or emergent approach, transactional or

situated cognitive perspectives (Gredler, 1997).

Idea-based social constructivism places education's priority on important concepts in the

various disciplines, for example, part-whole relations in mathematics, photosynthesis in science,

and point of view in literature. These big ideas “expand learner vision and become important

foundations for learners' thinking and on construction of social meaning” (Gredler, 1997). Out of

these four perspectives of implementing social constructivism, it appears that IB has chosen

idea-based social constructivism. In IB, concepts are one of five essential elements of the written

curriculum and are defined as “powerful ideas that have relevance within the subject areas but

also transcend them and that students must explore and re-explore in order to develop a coherent,

in-depth understanding” (IBO, 2009, p.10). The key concepts include form, function, causation,

change, connection, perspective, responsibility and reflection (IBO, 2009, p.16). When it comes

to instructional models, social constructivist approaches can include “reciprocal teaching, peer


collaboration, cognitive apprenticeships, problem-based instruction, webquests, anchored

instruction and other methods that involve learning with others” (Kim, 2001).

In order to present the theoretical framework of IB more concisely, we chose to

focus on three main approaches, namely, inquiry-based approach, zone of proximal development

and reflective learning. In inquiry-based approach, students learn by:

“observing or engaging in an event,

devising questions based on their observations,

developing hypotheses,

formulating strategies for testing their theories,

performing the tests,

analyzing and drawing conclusions from test results, and

communicating their findings to others.” (Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2004)

In IB, inquiry is supported by concept-driven curriculum (IBO, 2009, p.15), which is how

inquiry and social constructivism become connected. Moreover, according to UCD (n.d.), in

social constructivist classroom, one of the roles of the teachers is to develop learning programs

that are “sufficiently flexible to permit development along lines of student enquiry” and let

students “construct their knowledge through a process of active enquiry”.

As for the zone of proximal development, the teacher should structure interactions and

develop instruction in “small steps based on tasks the learner is already capable of performing

independently — an instructional strategy known as scaffolding” (Coffey, n.d.). The third main

approach that we will present in our program is reflective learning, which is part of social

constructivism. In reflective learning, the two main questions to ask are: "What would I change

to make my work better?" and “What did I get out of this?” (Costa and Kallick, 2008).


Section 3: Overview

When the person intends to practice, implement or is desirous to see the quick result of

newly created teaching and learning program it is better to choose the right place, language

instruction, age and others. Aiming to connect the continuity in a child’s upbringing this very

course was developed for West Kazakhstan Region, particularly for Uralsk.

Uralsk is one of the industrial and cultural places in West part of Kazakhstan which

mostly borders with Russian cities like: Orenburg, Astrakhan and Samara. Consequently, taking

the nationalities living in Uralsk into consideration, the language they use or their “social,

familial and cultural contexts within which development occurs” (Korn, 1998, p.227) let us to

run the program in Russian and Kazakh. It also can help to attract the parents’ ability to support

as acknowledgement of parent participation is the second significant source of Social

Constructivist implementation (Carlson, 2010, p.207).

The program will meet the 2-6 year olds kids’ needs as this age period is accepted as the

most unique scanning time for learning in the whole developmental events and phases in one

person’s life (2nd link in our mail). So, the younger the child the more fundamental skills he/she

will get speedy.

Various teaching aids for consuming “the kids’ hearts, minds, bodies and spirits” are

needed to implement the program successfully. Unfortunately, the program will face the

challenges as the amount of research and practice are written in English, partially translated into

Russian. So, the teaching staff in groups of medium of teaching in Kazakh will suffer. As a

result, the successful implementation of the program needs financial and personal capital

investment to get the quality work on publishing high-quality translated bilingual or trilingual

teaching and learning resources.

Currently, according to the Kazakhstan Business Organizations Guidebook (2016) we

have more than 25 kindergartens and child developmental centers in Uralsk among which there

is a Child Development Center, Center of “Balapan Program”. Eventually, we have an


opportunity to organize Educators Professional Development Courses, send the nurses and nurse

assistants to peer observations, and organize special meeting with the researcher-educators on

Grounded Theory from abroad, from Astana like: Educational Policies and Program Department,

“Orleu” National Center for Professional Development. Additionally, we can invite our NIS

colleagues from Taldykorgan and Kokshetau Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools as practice

teachers who are able to direct the primary teaching educators what and how to teach as they are

the only schools implementing Primary Teaching in our NIS system. The implementation of our

program will be constant and with further improvement.

Every group will consist of 10-12 students as the course with small number of children is

easy to manage the individual approach to every learner, assure the psychological warmth to

each kid, and provide the opportunity to have a face-to-face feedback or reflection with all the

children during the day (Carlson, 2010, p.204). Additionally, in such well-knit group young

learners can easily broaden their knowledge through peer learning, language capacities, trust and

responsibility as well (2nd link).

Corresponding, 3 qualified teachers (1 teacher, 1 teacher-psychologist, 1 teacher-assistant

from our own lesson observation in Montessori Astana, Haileybury). According to Mallory and

New (1994) teacher qualification is tangibly important to provide the finest education at the

innovative, bilingual or trilingual centers of child development as the responsibility, capability,

transparency and lifelong learning is highly important to educate the young learners timely and

appropriately.

Except the dispositions like openness, curiosity, creativity which come from the

childbirth the language and culture around are significant features which can be perceived by all

the young learners. As a result, except the hospitality of Uralsk people to all the ethnic groups

living together in one community most of Uralsk people are bilingual with the comparison of

other regions in Kazakhstan. This very unique issue will work as the key to realize our program.


Section 4: Connection to DAP

Six domains of a child development are described in DAP as a “whole-child approach to

teaching” by Kostelnik, M. J., Soderman, A. K.,& Whiren, A. P in their work

“Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum: Best Practices in Early Childhood

Education,”(2010).

Aesthetic Domain is defined as “appreciation of the arts and enjoyment of sensory

experiments”. It is ability to become aware of environment through senses, and adults should

understand the importance of this teaching approach to children’s cognitive and academic

achievement. Authentic education should be provided through 4 categories: 1) visual arts

(drawing); 2) performing arts (singing); 3) usable arts (pottery) and 4) literary arts (writing

stories). Through Authentic activities which include discovery exposure and evaluation activities

(responsive experiences) and creative activities (productive experience) children develop a lot of

vitally important knowledge. The knowledge concerns development of patience and good work

habits, development of skills to make choice and solve problems; ability to work in a team;

ability to learn through kinesthetic, tactile and auditory .

Affective Domain. Learning emotions and understanding feelings. Educators should play

active role in supporting children to develop their emotional health. It is very difficult for young

people to express their personality in appropriate way. One of the most important ability that

children need to learn is developing empathy. Adults can show them how to understand another

person’s feeling and demonstrate caring and compassion. This domain is very significant for

understanding why teachers need to know about developing self-awareness and self-esteem of

children. To develop children’s emotional intelligence they should learn how to contact and

interact with people around them and copy with stressors. To become children emotionally

healthy and build resilience educators can complete a huge work by focusing on “development

of self - awareness, cooperative relationships, mutual respect; and a climate of fairness, caring,

and participation” (Kostelnik, M. J., Soderman, A. K.,& Whiren, A. P. 2010, p 290).


Language Domain. Every child approximately beginning from 7 months already understand

the importance of language while playing, asking for necessary things, controlling the parents or

siblings to get something, attracting people for love and care (Kostelnik, 2010, p.336). Later they

will grab some frequently repeated words from adults and use them partially back and forth. On

the other hand the children are the best psychologists and learn the most necessary vocabulary

first one-by-one, then short phrases. Children normally begin speaking when they are 2.5 and 3

without any grammar issues. The main thing is understanding both for adults and kids. After the

age of 6 kids begin to pay attention to the grammatical structure of the sentences, usage of ready-

made units, question types and etc.

According to Soderman and Oshio (cited in Kostelnik, 2010, p.338) children who are in

Language 2 immersion try to understand the most repeated sounds, syllables, and words. The

same learning and teaching approach is in progress in Astana Heileybury School. 3-4 year olds

understand already everything said in English by their teachers but still have challenges in

speaking long sentences in English but phrases to respond or question after 8 months. Those who

have learnt enough vocabulary in L2 are already benefitting from playing with other in and out

of the classroom, taking part in arguing, chattering in all the parts of the school.

Physical Domain. Learning through games plays an important role in primary teaching and

learning. By Copple & Bredecamp, 2009; Hirsh, 2004; Pica, 2006; Sanders, 2002; Seefeldt &

Vogel, 1986 (cited in Kostelnik, 2010, p.364) playing effects to easy learning capacity, feelings

of wellness, receptive learning skills. Our ECE Program will begin with Morning School

Meetings where small children are welcome to Circle Time to do various kinds of Total-Physical

Responses (TPR). During such kind of trainings the attention is paid to teaching children through

repeated practice which means not giving the ready answers to kids. Instead to give them

practice then explain the process, the ways of improvement, the directions of better achievement

so kids could see and feel the result themselves.


Better way of implementing full TPR in and out of the classroom in this program the

learners of senior age are taught to visit the junior kids to support them in doing morning

exercises, assist the smaller ones while playing outside or just give all the cute community

freedom to walk around the campus and feel each other, their own community.

Cognitive Domain. According to Begley (1997) (cited in Kostelnik, 2010, p.308) our

brain does not grow like our fingers, but unique in every human being which can be deeply

developed through timely practice in the early ages. This process we witnessed during the lesson

observations in Montessori Astana, Haileybury where the educators and teacher-assistants

modeled the kinds of special activities (pointing to the pictures and repeating what they see in

the picture, summing in the Math zone, feeding the pets) verbally. As a result, the young

learners will acquire the reasoning, daily problem-solving skills.

Section 5: Activities.

Activity 1. (an inquiry-based learning activity)

Inquiry based learning provides conditions when children find out new knowledge for

them through research. A teacher‘s role is to put the question for seeking the answer by children

and organize them the process of inquiry. The teacher is a facilitator.

Inquiry is defined as “asking questions in order to gather or collect information” in Merriam-

Webster dictionary ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inquiry).

During the visit to Haileybury School 2-3 year old kids were observed. Their teacher’s name is

Paula, she is an experienced teacher from the UK. There are 10 students in that group.

Before the lesson started Miss Paula had announced that the theme of the lesson was

“Dinosaurs”.

The first stage was defining children’s prior knowledge about dinosaurs conducted in a class

circle. Teacher asked questions: “Have you ever seen dinosaurs? Was it a real live dinosaur?

Was it a robot? Was it alive? It might eat you?” Children answered the questions, reflecting by

reminding films and cartoons they had seen about dinosaurs.


After children’s discussion concerning what they knew about dinosaurs, the teacher summarized

the information: “We have crocodiles, lizards… We don’t’ have dinosaurs. There used to be

dinosaurs.”

The second stage: she showed a big book about dinosaurs. Children of 2-3 years old could not

ask questions. Some of them even don’t speak. Nevertheless, Miss Paula encouraged them to

look at the pictures and find what the fossils ate, where they lived, how they looked like: size,

colour, parts of body.

The third stage: the teacher took children to the sand area, where they continued an investigation

activity. They were looking for fossils in the sand. They were excited when found artificial bones

and “stones”. They broke the “stones and found toy dinosaurs inside. One boy found a toy

skeleton and started to match a rubber toy dinosaur he had found earlier with the skeleton. The

teacher showed him the book with fossil pictures to help him to find the “correct” toy dinosaur.

A little girl was fond of breaking the “stones” she had taken from the sand big box. She cut them,

knocked at them, dropped them on the tray, and even smelled them. Miss Paula counted the

found dinosaurs with another girl.

The fourth stage: after the break kids went to the classroom. There were prepared materials for

creating job. The teacher prepared dough mixed from flour, water, salt and oil. Children printed

dinosaurs’ footprints on a piece of dough and put them away for drying.

The proverb often cited by educators states: "Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember,

involve me and I understand." Poppets touched dinosaurs and skeletons, delved in the sand,

played with “stones,” and definitely they remembered much more than if they would have

simply listened to the teacher’s lecture about fossils and saw pictures in the big book.

Activity 2

The next activity is good to develop preschool children language and creative thinking while

constructivist teaching.

Creative Thinking Fun


Providing regular opportunities for children to think creatively encourages them to be receptive

to innovation and invention, and to be open to alternatives when learning, solving problems and

facing new situations. This simple game encourages children to brainstorm and use divergent

thinking as they attempt to think of many different ways of using a common object, such as a

scarf, ball, or in the example below, a cardboard tube.

Immy had been playing with a cardboard tube, pretending it was a telescope, for quite a while.

As her initial interest in the tube began to wane I said, “I have been watching you using the tube

as a telescope, it looked like you were having so much fun. Which made me wonder, what else

could you imagine it to be?”

In no time at all she had come up with ten different potential uses, each accompanied by an

enthusiastic demonstration of how the cardboard tube would indeed function in its new role;

§ Flute

§ Trumpet

§ Carrot

§ Ice cream cone

§ Painting implement

§ Toothbrush

§ Spy glass

§ Golf stick

§ Didgeridoo

§ Teeth sharpener (???)

It really is a very simple, spontaneous game and it can be lots of fun – don’t be afraid to give it a

go yourself. Be sure to actually give the child the object to hold and move with as they play. Be

open to all of the child’s responses, no matter how out there they might appear (I am still not

quite sure what a teeth sharpener is!), and be aware that (depending upon the age of your child)

you might need to join in with a few suggestions as they get used to the idea of the game. For


older children you might like to start with, “In one minute tell me as many different uses as you

can for this _____” or “Can you think of five/ten/twelve different uses for this ____?”

Here is a list of other common, household objects that you could put to use for some creative

thinking fun;

§ Pool noodle

§ Plastic plate

§ Square of fabric

§ Hairbrush

§ Wooden spoon

§ Skipping rope

§ Saucepan

§ Pair of pants

§ Bath towel

§ Ruler

§ Leaf

§ Whisk

§ Sock

§ Elastic band

§ CD

§ A forked stick

§ Hula hoop

What else could you imagine a cardboard tube to be?

Activity 3

Lesson Plan 1

Beginning of the lesson. SPIDER ACTIVITY. Age: 3-5

Circle time (3 min)


Teacher invites all the kids to make a circle with the aim to refresh the kids’ mind about the

COLORS.

Standing in the circle teacher (holding a ball of thread) tells one name of the color RED then

throws the thread to one of the child in the circle. The child says BLUE and throws to the thread

to the next. If the pronunciation needs correction Teacher can ask to repeat the correct

pronunciation altogether. So, students repeat the names of colors and have the spider in the

circle.

Middle of the lesson. PRESENTATION. (5 min)

Teacher takes the kids to the GREENHOUSE if they have to let the kids feel the plant or brings

the plant to the room. With the help of teacher kids express their thoughts about everything they

know about plants.

PRACTICE and PRODUCTION. CONCEPT MAPS (10-15 min)

According to Dr.Bharti Dogra, Delhi Army Institute of Education, using CONCEPT MAPS is

essential. In the study of Plants, the ability to build interrelationships among concepts and

related topics, and to relate newly acquired knowledge to prior knowledge, is crucial to the

understanding of biological concepts and how the systems work together to bring about a

coordinated response.

Concept maps, diagrams and other graphic organizers are useful tools to illustrate the links

between concepts and topics.

Once a teacher has refreshed the colors, explained the names of Plant parts and colors, ask the

kids to connect the terms like: root, leaf, blossom, stem, flower, and seed and colors first.

Every term should be connected with the arrows labeled with a word.

When students are able to discover the links between concepts themselves, they move

away from rote or surface learning, and replace it with deep and meaningful learning, thus

increasing the level of understanding and an appreciation for the subject. This encourages

cooperative learning also which a good example of ZPD is as the kids learn from each other.


Activity 4

Lesson Plan 2

Preschool Constructivist Lesson Plan

Title of Lesson / Brief Description

Sink or Float?

Standards (Performance, Knowledge, Virginia Foundation Blocks):

- The child will develop listening and speaking skills by communicating experiences and ideas

through oral expression.

- The child will write using a variety of media.

- The child will identify and compare the attributes of length, capacity, weight, time, and

temperature.

- The child will make observations, separate objects into groups based on similar attributes, compare lengths and mass, and develop questions based upon observations using the five senses.

What concepts do you want children to understand after completing this lesson?

Children will be able to describe the differences and similarities of fruits and vegetables; they will talk about their length, weight, and color. They will be able to draw the fruits and vegetable for a class book. The children will be able to separate the fruits and vegetables into groups based on if they sink or float in water, color, size, and which ones they like after tasting each one

Essential Question:

Which fruits and vegetables float on water and which ones sink?

Criteria for Success (How will you know children have gained the understanding of the concepts?):

Half the class will draw pictures of the fruits and vegetables that sank; and the other half will draw pictures of the fruits and vegetables that float.

Resources/ Materials Needed (What resources will you and the children use?):

Paper, crayons, markers, colored pencils for drawing pictures.

Variety of fruits and vegetables, bucket and water for testing.

Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens


Management (Is this a child-directed or teacher-directed lesson? What special planning is required for this lesson? Manage Behavior? Manage materials? Manage technology? Manage learning center? How much time is needed for this lesson?)

The teacher will introduce the lesson at morning meeting by reading Tops and Bottoms, then showing the children the different fruits and vegetables they will be looking at. The children will do the sink or float part of the activity on their own. The children will sort the fruits and vegetables by color, size, and if they sink or float on their own. The teacher or assistant teacher will sit with the children while they draw their pictures, asking them questions about what they learned. The teacher will cut up the fruits and vegetables for the children to taste at snack time. Around one hour is needed for this lesson for all children to participate.

Learner Diversity (What diverse learner needs do you need to consider when selecting resources, grouping children or planning the culminating project? Are there any special considerations such as assistive equipment, technologies or second–language learning to take into account?)

I would group the more advanced children to do the activity first and have much less teacher guidance for this group. The teacher would supervise the group of children that weren’t quite as advanced and need more help expressing their thoughts

Engage/ Bridge:

Capture the children’s attention, stimulate their thinking and help them access prior knowledge.

During circle time I would show the children each fruit and vegetable, ask them to tell me what it is called then guess if they think it will sink or float in the water. I would write down their guesses for them to compare when they do the experiment themselves.

Explore/Question:

Give children time to think, plan, investigate and organize collected information.

Along with drawing pictures of the fruits or vegetables that sank or floated and the ones they liked to eat, I would have the children make a chart to hang in the room of which fruits and vegetables sank or floated.

Explain:

Involve children in an analysis of their explorations.

Use reflective activities to clarify and modify their understanding.

Having the children draw pictures of which fruits and vegetables sink and float will help them. Children will also learn to classify, sort and analyze the fruits and vegetables.

Elaborate:

Give children the opportunity to expand and solidify their understanding of the concept and/or apply it to a real-world situation.

Ask the children to bring in different fruits and vegetables to test the following day in class.


Evaluate and Assess:

Evaluate throughout the lesson. Use observation and assessment to track children’s progress. Scoring tools developed by teachers target what children must know and do. Consistent use of assessment tools can improve learning.

Teacher should be observing children and taking a running record of conversation between children while they are testing each fruit and vegetable. Teacher should take work samples of each child’s picture after they finish their drawings. Teacher should keep a running record of children’s conversations while they are talking to them about the picture they are drawing.

Citation: www.tarleton.edu/~becker/t4/ConstructivistLessonPlanFormrtf.rtf

Activity 5

Lesson Plan 3

(ows.edb.utexas.edu/sites/.../Example_Constructivist_Lesson_Plans.pdf)

A Constructivist Approach to Children Kindergarten/early elementary Lesson Plan

Sequence for Science Unit: Living and Nonliving (by Angelica Blanchette)

Science Vocabulary: living, nonliving, grow, reproduce, move, breathe, react

Objectives: By the end of this lesson sequence students will be able to:

• Identify criteria for living and nonliving.

• Apply living and nonliving criteria to evaluate unfamiliaritems.

Initial Experience: Presenting the Challenge

Present students with an assortment of images and invite them to discuss whether the item in

each image is living or nonliving.

Allow students to categorize items without intervening to make corrections. Most

categorizations are likely to be correct; however, an explanation of why may be lacking or

absent. Prompt students by asking why as they sort the items. Keep a list of key words and

phrases students use.

Observe student groups for:

• Application of prior knowledge. (What is known? What is unfamiliar?)

• Evaluation of images. (What thinking skills are used effectively? What thresholds are

revealed?)


Challenge: Selection of images with varying levels of familiarity and ambiguity with respect

to living/nonliving criteria can create degrees of differentiation for the initial sort. Some students

may be challenged by working with a collection of less familiar items, such asdeep sea giant

tube worms (view images and read aloud select information from an online source such as

http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/giant-tube-worm.html).

Support: Provide the images already sorted into living andnonliving categories, but do not

reveal what the categories are. Ask students why they think the items are in eachgroup and

whether any items do not seem to fit. Call students together, and revisit the images they were just

discussing. Invite students to share their thinking and discuss with each other the following

question: How do you know if something is living or nonliving?

Refer to the list of key words and phrases students used during the initial experience to generate

and guide discussion.

Write: Something is living if it… on chart paper/the board and record a list of student thought

The generated list may include ideas such as:

• Can walk.

• Gets bigger [*Connect to related vocabulary: grows].

• Has aface.

• Has abrain.

• Talks.

• Etc.

Next, provide formative feedback and begin addressing misconceptions by choosing one image

everyone is confident is alive, such as a mouse. Tell students their task is to find the things

all living things have in common. To do this, they will check the list with several images of

living things. Put a check if the criterion applies and cross off criterion they realize does not fit as

each living thing is evaluated. For example, for mouse, Talks would be crossed off. Continue

with additional images of items you know will help refine the list.


Section 6. Insights

Summing up, the Pre-Teaching or Primary Teaching was not accepted as the significant

part of learning or building the knowledge for each of us before. Owing to the Lesson

observations in different Local Early Childhood Education Centers in Astana, Kazakhstan

(Montessori Astana, Haileybury School, Zebra Montessori, QSI) we developed our thoughts and

changed our minds on the effectiveness of ECE. The name of our project “Social

Constructivism” is already about our own team-oriented work as we shared our ideas between

each other, and constructed/built the whole project. It is true that one of us (Yerbolat) immersed

the challenging thoughts to our relationship culture while the rest two of us tried to be the part of

our building culture and this is itself is the formula of Social Constructivism. Additionally, this

very course lead us to more reading about the childhood education theory, how to organize the

correct children development and learning for now and in the future (Baktygul).

(Raushan) As for me, Early Childhood Education was a new topic I had not ever learnt

before. I have realized that education from the birth of a child till 7-8 years old is very crucial in

each child's’ life that can influence on all their further education and life. I have learnt that

parents are first people who should provide the satisfaction of children's basic needs identified by

Maslow, to give them proper care and education. Parents should fulfill children’s needs in food,

house and clothes on the first stage. The second stage is when parents fulfill children’s needs of

safety and stability. They also should surround their children with love and give them sense of

belonging to the society where children feel themselves loved and happy. The fourth stage of

self-esteem and self-evaluation comes from the previous three stages and makes children

available to meet challenges and become confident. Self -actualization need is the highest one

when people can implement their opportunities and reach their goals.

During my visits and observation different schools and centers like Haileybury Scool, QSI,

Montessori Astana and Zebra Montessori I have got much more knowledge about approaches

like Montessori method, Inquiry -based learning , Zone of Proximal Development and others in


practice. The main idea of these teaching methods is that adult's role in teaching children is

facilitating and creating learning environment, but not giving instructions. Another significant

thing I have learnt from this course is that educators should learn to respect a child and

everything he or she does, and do not consider them as a silent recipient of information.

This proposal project is important for me because it is another valuable experience of working in

a team.

This project gave me an insight into the IB program and made me appreciate the fact that

it is a collection of best practices compiled and researched by the best educators around the

world. I am now prouder to be a part of the IB community because of this project. I have learned

about different theories in more detail and giving the presentation to my group-mates was a great

way to seal my new knowledge. Observing different locations was a great opportunity for me to

refresh my knowledge of early childhood education; I have taken the observation tasks with

more responsibility as I had in my bachelor’s degree courses and, as a result, gained much more

in return. I think we worked well as a team and learned a lot from each other. This project was

important for me because I realized the importance of early childhood education and took steps

to contribute to its development. (Yerbolat).

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