Thursday 19 July 2012

Lesson 4

It is not new knowledge but certainly an important point that all pre-school teachers must adhere to –
The early years are preparatory years for learning and we should not be overly concerned about content and WHAT to teach. More importantly, we should be giving careful thought to HOW we teach and THE WAY we teach, as we want our children to be diverse thinkers who can see different approaches to the same problem. We want them to eventually be able to visualise situations from different angles.
 
I think that in order for teachers to effectively nurture divergent thinking in children, we have to possess an open mind, value all contributions, and be divergent thinkers ourselves. How else to develop strong thinkers but to be models ourselves..

As I watched Dr Yeap deliver his lessons in an easy-going, candid manner, I saw how important it is to encourage discussion and ask questions like, “Did anyone solve the problem the same way?”, “Who found a different way to solve the problem?”…

Children need to feel safe in expressing their thoughts, therefore it is important to accept all suggestions. We should learn to mediate learning. Our job is not to bring the child to the end point, but walk the path with him or her..

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