Hbaxter_PhilosophyOfTeachingStatement_05092023

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Rasmussen College *

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Feb 20, 2024

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1 Philosophy of Teaching Statement Heather Baxter Rasmussen University Ec295/EEC2935 Section 02 Summative Project for Early Childhood Education Monica Stukes May 09, 2023

2 Philosophy of Teaching Statement One of the core values of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Code of Ethical Conduct Position Statement states, “We have made a commitment to recognize that children are best understood and supported in the context of family, culture, community, and society” (NAEYC, 2011). In order to be able to fulfill this commitment, there must be a strong partnership between the teacher and the family. For children to be supported fully, the teacher must understand each child, their families, and their cultures. Strong family-teacher collaborations with fully reciprocal communication will allow teachers to offer the child a fully inclusive classroom environment that will reflect the diversity of each child. A classroom environment that offers a culture the children are comfortable and familiar with will support the children’s learning because it offers a sense of comfort and acceptance. NAYEC’s Principle 2.15 in the Code of Ethical Conduct Position Statement states that “We shall be familiar with and appropriately refer families to community resources and professional support services” (NAEYC, 2011). The family-teacher partnerships allow teachers to learn about the family’s goals, hopes, and challenges. This knowledge allows the teacher to offer culturally appropriate community resources for the families within the classroom that can help support their family unit, as described by NAEYC. An extremely important aspect of teaching is the observation and assessment process. Young children's development and accomplishments are continuously observed, recorded, and evaluated with purpose, strategy, reflection, and diligence (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2022). Observation and assessment are important in setting goals for each child in the classroom. Various observation and assessment processes allow teachers to learn about the child’s development, skills, strengths, interests, and needs. Goals can be set for each child based on the results of the observations and assessments. Teachers are able to develop curriculum and learning experiences that are developmentally and individually appropriate for each child which will allow them to work towards the goals that were set. Children learn through play and learn best when fully engaged and interested in

3 their activity. When a teacher observes the interests and abilities of each child, they can create learning experiences based on those interests and abilities, which allows the children to fully engage in the learning experience. Teachers also need to use what they learn from observations and assessments to adjust their teaching practices to accommodate the specific needs of the children. Young children are constantly learning about the world around them. They are constantly gaining new information and skills. The NAYEC Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Position Statement lists Creating a Caring, Equitable Community of Learners as the first of six guidelines for DAP practice in action. Through interactions with peers, adults, and other community members, children construct their understanding of the world around them (NAYEC, 2020). It is the responsibility of the teacher to help guide the children, with an understanding of their stage of development, through these interactions and behaviors positively. Positive behavior guidance uses many different strategies, including modeling, redirecting, and teaching children through positive behavior guidance rather than punishment. Children learn through observing other people around them. Teachers have a responsibility to model appropriate behavior and problem-solving techniques in order for children to learn the appropriate behaviors. Redirection involves finding an alternative activity for the child that will meet the needs and interests of the child, but in a safe and appropriate manner (Goyette, 2021). The third strategy is using conflict or behavior as a teaching moment, rather than punishment. Teaching children through positive behavior guidance validates the child’s feelings, allows them to problem-solve with teacher guidance, and helps eliminate the negative behaviors and feelings associated with the situation. It is important that the positive behavior guidance method used is appropriate for the age, development, and culture of the child. NAYEC’s position states, “All children have the right to equitable learning opportunities that enable them to achieve their full potential as engaged learners and valued members of society” (NAEYC, 2019). Early childhood educators should recognize the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in

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4 early childhood education. Teachers need to foster a culture that promotes equity, diversity, and inclusion. Educators need to help children recognize and respect differences, as well as address injustice and discrimination. One reason to implement developmentally appropriate practice and culturally responsive practices and programs is to provide high-quality, developmentally appropriate early learning programs and experiences that build on each child’s unique individual and family strengths, cultural background, language, abilities, and experiences (NAEYC, 2019). When a child is able to relate to an experience, and they can understand it on a developmental level, they are going to be more successful at learning from that experience. A second reason to implement DAP and culturally responsive practices is to eliminate differences in children’s educational success as a result of who children are, the communities they live in, and what resources their families have (NAEYC, 2019). It should not matter what color their skin is, what religion their family practices, or how much money their family has, every single child is entitled to the same fair educational opportunities that will enable them to reach their full potential as active learners and valued members of society, and it is important that teachers recognize and foster this culture. When a child is in an anti-biased, inclusive, and diverse learning environment, they feel safe, respected, and valued. Learning experiences have more meaning to the child. When a child can play with a doll that has the same skin color as they have, or they can color with crayons that include the skin tone they have, or they can play dress up in clothes that represent their culture, or the whole class learns and sings a song in their home language, they feel valued and included. Inclusive and diverse learning environments help promote social-emotional development, develop friendships, and help with developing self-worth. All of these benefits will lead to optimal learning through experiences that have meaning to them. Inclusive learning environments are important in teaching young children. Each child is important and has different abilities and skills. These differences need to be recognized so each child is

5 included in the learning experiences. As teachers, we need to know and understand each child’s skills, interests, and abilities. Early childhood educators must deliberately plan and modify the learning environment depending on children's different and particular characteristics, talents, abilities, and needs (which are occasionally undiagnosed or currently being determined in formal methods) (NAEYC 2020). By creating an inclusive environment, each child will be able to contribute to the class and all children will learn (Rasmussen, 2023). If there is a child who has sensory issues, the sensory table needs to be adapted to include items that they can tolerate. An example of this might be putting shaving cream in a sandwich bag for them to be able to squish around without actually having to touch the shaving cream. The writing area should include different sizes and types of writing materials that would include accessibility for students who may not be able to grip a pencil correctly yet. Different skin-toned crayons are an inclusive addition as the children can draw and color to represent the skin tones they identify with. According to NAEYC, there are three different ways to change a learning environment to make it inclusive and developmentally suitable for every child (Rausch et al., 2021). Those three modifications are physical, social, and temporal (Rausch et al., 2021). The physical modification includes having furniture that is designed for the size of the children in the room. Infants will not use tables and chairs to eat their meals, so highchairs are needed in an infant room. School-aged children need larger-sized chairs and seating options than those that are used in a preschool room. If there is someone in the class who is in a wheelchair, the room needs to be rearranged to enable the child to access all centers and areas of the room easily and safely. Social modifications are the planned interactions among the children. They promote communication, problem-solving, social relations, and creating friendships (Rausch et al., 2021). Temporal modifications include balanced schedules, the timing of activities and routines, and the use of visual cues to help with the transition and environmental changes (Rausch et al., 2021).

6 I believe advocating for high-quality early childhood education is an important aspect of an educator. Educators know and understand first-hand what is needed to ensure a high-quality education can be provided. By advocating for what we need for a high-quality educational program, we can help lawmakers and policymakers know exactly what it is that we need and why we need it since many of them have probably not worked in an early childhood education program. We need to let the people who make the decisions know just how important a high-quality early childhood education is when looking at long-term effects on a child’s learning throughout life. We need to use our knowledge and our voice to ensure programs get the funding and support needed to provide high-quality education for children. This can be as simple as talking to the director and letting them know you need new books because the ones currently used are worn out and falling apart. It can mean reaching out to the Board of Directors of the center and letting them know that the playground equipment is beginning to deteriorate, and new equipment is needed. We can advocate with state lawmakers to provide funding for better pay for teachers, changes in policies, or ask for funding for a particular cause that benefits early childhood education. In September of 2022, the Governor of Illinois created an organization called Birth To Five Illinois. This is an advocacy liaison between state lawmakers and the people who are directly involved in early childhood education in Illinois. Each Illinois county is represented by one of thirty-nine action council regions. Each of these regions has a Regional Council Manager, ten Family Council members, and ten Council members that are made up of early childhood educators, directors, and home daycare providers. The Family Council members are people who have children in an early childhood education center. These regions meet once a month to discuss how early childhood education can be improved in their regions. The thirty-nine Regional Council Managers then meet and discuss the challenges and ideas presented at each of their meetings. They then share these discussions with a designated member of the Illinois House of Representatives. That Representative then takes the information to Illinois

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7 lawmakers to make changes, policies, laws, or get the money approved for various things that would benefit early childhood education programs. I am looking into getting involved in this program and being one of the volunteer council members for my region. I would like to be able to advocate for my center, and centers in my community. I would like to advocate for higher pay for not just teachers, but assistants in early childhood education. I feel that higher pay would lead to lower turnover. This would provide consistency for the children in early childhood centers, which, in turn, would help with providing children with one of the most important things they need to learn and develop, which is the ability to develop a secure attachment to their teacher and provide a safe environment to grow and learn in.

8 References Goyette, D. (2021, August 30). 15 positive guidance strategies that work - and teach! Early Childhood Specialties. https://www.earlychildhoodspecialties.com/blog/positive-guidance-strategies-that- work-and-teach#:~:text=Redirection%20is%20an%20extremely%20effective%20guidance %20strategy.%20It,toward%20safer%20ways%20to%20express%20his%20strong%20feelings . NAEYC. (2019). Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education National Association for the Education of Young Children Position Statement . https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position- statements/advancingequitypositionstatement.pdf NAEYC. (2011). Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment . https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position- statements/Ethics%20Position%20Statement2011_09202013update.pdf National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2022). DAP: Observing, Documenting, and Assessing Children’s Development and Learning | NAEYC . www.naeyc.org. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/position-statements/dap/assessing-development NAEYC. (2020). Developmentally Appropriate Practice National Association for the Education of Young Children Position Statement . https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position- statements/dap-statement_0.pdf Rasmussen University. (2023). Module 5: Inclusive Environments [Strategies for Promoting Inclusivity]. BlackBoard Ultra. Launch SCORM (rasmussen.edu) Rausch, A., Jacyln Joesph, Strain, P., & Steed, E. (2021). Fostering Engagement Within Inclusive Settings: The Role of the . NAEYC. Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/winter2021/fostering-engagement

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