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questioTs. Discuss the major theoretical differences between child-centered and

ID: 3451372 • Letter: Q

Question

questioTs. Discuss the major theoretical differences between child-centered and teacher-directed early childhood education programs. What theories underlie child-centered programs? What theories underlie teacher-directed programs? What does each type of program emphasize in its work with young children? Now imagine you have been hired as an educational consultant to the president of the United States. What policy would you recommend to the federal government concerning preschool education? What children should be targeted How much t of these programs? (Be sure to take into consideration the research presented in this chapter),

Explanation / Answer

Child-centered education programmes in early childhood refers to instructional approaches, and learning strategies that are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, or cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students. Here the focus is on encouraging the young children to decide what they want to learn and take greater greater responsibility in executing the learning tasks as a group in the supportive presence of the teacher or instructors. It broadly encompasses teaching methods that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to the young students.

This is in contrast to teacher directed learning which is more traditional approach to education and it situates the teacher in the active role while students take a more passive and receptive role. In a teacher-centered classroom, teachers choose the content that is what the young students will learn, the method- how the students will learn, and the nature of evaluation- how the students will be assessed on their learning using a standardised, uniform measure. Teacher directed programmes apply summation assessment techniques that involve surveys, questionnaires, tests, projects etc as benchmarks to yield a score for comparison of a pupil with the average score of his/her class. Contrary to this, Child centered learning in the preschool adopts more flexible strategies of formative assessment which are geared towards greater student participation in deciding how to demonstrate their learning.