The end of term is approaching fast. We said goodbye to our first group of students for three weeks Easter break today and term finishes for the others on Friday. This week we are looking at working with children aged 3 to 6 years. As I set off for Lilongwe on Thursday at lunchtime to pick up Rose and Joe from the airport on Friday morning, I have got off lightly this week as far as lecture preparation is concerned. David on the other hand has a demanding week! This is not as unfair as it sounds as he had visitors last week and I covered for him. I began on Monday morning with a closer look at the Social, Emotional, Moral and Spiritual milestones of the Malawian ECD curriculum for children aged between 3 and 5 years. I began by asking the students what aspects of life they think are affected by Social, Emotional, Moral and Spiritual (SEMS) development and why this is important. Then I talked about it from the six main headings of the EYFS in the Social and Emotional Area of Learning. Well, I had to start somewhere! We went back over the milestones that we looked at for babies and toddlers and then I asked them to work together in small groups to write a description of a typical three year old from a SEMS perspective. I was hoping that the students would be able to paint a picture of a 3 year old in their own words but they found it difficult. In the UK most child care training, whatever the level, has practical experience as an integral part of the course from the beginning and I am sure that this is the best approach, but as I have explained previously there are good arguments for not doing that here at the moment. It is hard for our students to imagine what children of different ages will be like just from learning the theoretical development so we got a lot of quotes from the milestones in the descriptions. For example:

'A three year-old is noticeable due to his/her eagerness and unpredictability of his exploring and his assertiveness. He/she imitates whatever is seen around his/her environment. Is able to recognize family members as well as strangers. He observes and absorbs more and more what is acceptable behaviour from family members. He/she plays side by side with other kids and communicates freely. He/she will be attracted to moral and spiritual stories and songs. The child will be able to mention his or her own name.'

 

Hmmmm? There were a few cultural differences from what you might expect in answer to a similar question from UK students too, e.g:

A typical three year old child likes playing together with peers (Cooperative), and able to use toilet, they imitate what adults do like kneeling down when greeting visitors and talking to adults. They are able to memorise verses and spiritual songs.

 

Next I got them to think about what a child is like from this point of view when they start school at five and consider which skills we need to encourage to help them get to that point. Then we looked at the milestones of the Malawian curriculum for 3-5 years and tried to devise activities to support the children to achieve the milestones. It sort of worked! We had a few songs and a couple of name games. Nevertheless I was left feeling slightly dispirited, and not for the first time wondering if I have pitched this course at the right level!

 

Today I have spent most of the day marking last week's homework, which was to observe a child aged between 3 and 6 years playing, and then look at the Malawian curriculum and see if they could identify milestones the child had achieved and think about how they could encourage the child to achieve the next milestone. It all gets a bit box-ticky if you're not careful. They are all getting better at writing observations and most of them are recording only what they see or hear and not what they assume at last, but it has been a bit of an uphill battle. Some of them are making sensible links to what they have learned in our lectures, but almost none of them managed to link what they observed to the Malawian curriculum and only a few suggested really good activities to help the children move on. I suppose it is complicated but sometimes I wonder whether we are expecting too much. I guess we will be able to consolidate the learning when the Children's Centre opens and they are working with children every day, but at the moment when they are observing the children of neighbours and relatives it is difficult for us to know what they have seen and offer appropriate advice.

 

David spent today encouraging them to link activities to Physical and Mental and Cognitive milestones, but again it was hard work and I think he was more frustrated than I have ever seen him this afternoon. We talked about it on the way home and concluded yet again that we have trouble because they are experiencing all sorts of activities, such as the marble and blow painting we did this afternoon, that they have never seen before and they are so excited about having a go themselves they are not able to think about the learning implications for the children. Perhaps they will get there in the end? Perhaps we all need this holiday, not least David and me!

.We repeat these sessions on Thursday and Friday for the second group and then it is holiday time, Hurrah! I cannot wait to see rose and joe and am getting excited already.