Marsupial

Dia Duit,

welcome to this little Lemmy community for learning Irish/Gaeilge. I'm still learning myself, so I'll be using this as a resource to share what I learn and hopefully entice other learners or speakers to participate?

This is a useful primer to start thinking about how theories exist within the work we do.

• Developmental 
• Socio-cultural 
• Socio-behaviourist 
• Post-structural 
• Critical

These are 5 ways to break down ECE theory. Here’s a brief overview on what they may look like when applied.

Developmental theory focuses on how the child develops, physically and mentally. We focus largely on stages and broad milestones.

Socio-Cultural theory looks at how society affects the growth of a child. What does their family and community impart on them as values.

Socio-behaviourist theory is a focus on stimuli and interactions with environments. We might look at structured routines and positive or negative reinforcement.

Post-Structuralist theory is about challenging our own understandings. What is really best, is eating with cutlery a goal to achieve when at home a child’s household may use their hands more for meals. How do our own cultural values impact a child’s.

Critical theory seeks to challenge our power structures. Are we dictators of children’s development or do we value their input? Should social constructs be enforced or should we challenge them?

What are your views on them? Do you value any over the other, do you incorporate all these things into your practices?

Or at least lots of free dinosaur related content going on.

Did you know you can buy legit fossils of Spinosaurus teeth for like $9 online, could be a special memorable gift if any child really gets into them through these events.

Edit: and free zoo entry https://www.zoo.org.au/dinos-at-the-zoo

Curious to hear people’s ideas on how education would look in such a world.

For me, I’d like to see it moved away from testing and results based learning.

A stronger focus on physical engagement with things, e.g. learning biology by going out and cataloging wildlife and learning what’s in a local ecosystem before coming together and researching findings and looking for new questions to ask.

Less sitting around at desks being fed information and a greater focus on individual agency in exploring topics of interest.

Not to say there isn’t a time and a place for “high level” stuff where you need to deep dive into books and listen to lectures, but there needs to be a greater balance in methodology.

As the title says it's a community based around early years learning and development, so from birth up to pre-school.

Mainly aimed at educators, teachers, and anyone else who works with these age ranges but more than happy to field questions from parents who may be wanting more information to help them.

It's a bit of a niche community, so I'm going to struggle to grow it but Lemmy needs more industry professional spaces!

Edit: It's a .au domain, but the community is for everyone no matter where you live.

Links to Community: Early Childhood Education
!earlychildhood@quokk.au
quokk.au/c/earlychildhood

Do you use theory in any of your documentation or planning?

I personally find myself using Parten's model a lot, although I find a lot of the stages can occur differently depending more on a child's personality than their age. But it is useful for thinking about what sort of play the children may be engaging in.

I'm very much against the fully committing to one method, such as you see in Montessori or Steiner schools. Children need a much more holistic approach, using elements from everywhere.

I'm born here and a citizen, however I don't have a passport, nor a copy of a birth certificate yet I need to prove I have a right to work here for a job.

From my look on the gov site, I can use a passport to get my birth certificate or a birth certificate to get a passport. Neither of which is any bloody help.

Does anyone know what to do?

• It's weird
• It's political
• It's recent
• It's Australian, but the title will confuse people
• It's the vibe

I think it'll resonate well with the Lemmy audience, see these instant upvote lyrics:

When the Orange man
Came into power
The Minutes
Soon Felt like hours
Then the Old man
Won the election
But the world
Didn’t change direction