Question

You are asked to give advice to a program that has been given a large amount of money to facilitate learning in children. They will have the ability to have rooms for different age children, supplies for these rooms and teachers who can be trained to help children. Using the ideas of Piaget and Vygotsky, what would you recommend they do for all child age groups, including infants and toddlers, preschool children, elementary school children, middle school children, and high school children?

Answer 1

Since the school programme funding is aimed towa4s ensuring quality education across different age groups, it is suggested that children of similar age should be placed together in one classroom. They should be initiallly screened to check the variability in the level of competence or cognitive abilities and skills. Based on the initial screening, a variety of stimulation and activities should be planned keeping in mind the differences in the skill set so that each child may have ample opportunities to learn and master competence according to his or her age and also according to his level of understanding. Thus, present School children need to be exposed to mathematical toys and puzzles to help them grasp concepts more easily with the help of concrete objects. Young age children(8-10 years) can be given more of abstract problems and verbal social situations to help them formulate problem solving. Moreover, children should have ample opportunities for social interaction with children from other ethnic backgrounds and they should be engaged in culturally rich and diverse activities rather than just universal or mainstream forms of learning which may otherwise be culturally deficient.