My Pedagogical Commitment

REFRAMING THE IDEA OF LEARNING

Before I came to Canada and joined the ECE program, the word “learning” was an academic word to me. When I thought about learning, I always connected it with crowded classroom, strict teachers, tons of assignments and the stress before exams. And I was not alone. This idea of learning is shared by most of the people from my country, and in recent years, even young children are involved in this academic image of learning. They started to learn to read and write from as early as three years old, and some of them even need to pass certain exams in order to be enrolled in the so called great schools, where the academic environment becomes more competitive. 

So you can imagine my first reaction when I learned that the early education here in Canada is play-based. How could children learn things if they are spending all the day in the playground (regardless the general weather condition) only playing? What is the educator’s role if they don’t have to teach children how to read, how to write, how to count and how to do math?

But once I started the ECE program, I began to see the concept of learning more clearly. Learning should not be viewed as an academic method of getting new knowledge or skills, on the contrary, it is something that is beyond the academic world. Although young children were not asked to sit in classrooms and repeat alphabet, they are learning about this world in every seconds. For example, through play, and with constructive guidance and discipline from educator, children would learn about problem-solving, negotiation, cooperation, empathy and boundaries, which are all essential skills for the whole life. Moreover, we cannot see learning without acknowledging child development. Young children of three years old are simply not developmentally prepared yet to be taught with academic knowledge, so why always think ahead? Why not just let a three-year-old stay as three-year-old?

According to First Peoples Principles of Learning, learning is embedded in memory, history, and story; it involves recognizing the consequences of one’s action; it requires exploration of one’s identity; it is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential and relational; it ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors. So many definitions, all suggest me to see learning differently. Therefore, pedagogically, the commitment that I would take is to reframe the idea of learning. I will explore “learning” in my practicum following my commitment, developing pedagogical questions and documenting my discoveries here with you.