Age appropriate Age appropriate ActivitiesActivities

Age appropriate Age appropriate ActivitiesActivities

1.The definition of age appropriate 1.The definition of age appropriate activitiesactivities2.Two views: psychometric educational 2.Two views: psychometric educational philosophy V.S developmentally philosophy V.S developmentally appropriate educational practiceappropriate educational practice3.The implications for teachers3.The implications for teachers4.What is age appropriate activities for 4.What is age appropriate activities for kindergarten children kindergarten children

Age Appropriate Activities

• Age appropriate refers to a developmental concept whereby certain activities may be deemed appropriate or inappropriate to a child’s stage or level of development.

• Lack of age appropriate activities and experience is commonly thought to prevent the children from gaining the skills necessary for their current, even their next stage of development.

Psychometric Educational Philosophy and Developmentally Appropriate Educational

Practice

Psychometric educational philosophy seems more popular in many countries’ educational practice, with no exception in the U.S.

As developmentally appropriate practice stresses that curriculum should be matched to the child’s level of mental ability, the practice has been favorably received in educational circles. But it seems there is still a long way to go to switch from the former practice to developmentally appropriate educational practice, even the advantages of which are obvious.

A comparison between these two educational philosophies will help us better understand their focuses in a variety aspects.

Differences of Psychometric educational philosophy and

developmentally appropriate educational practice

Psychometric educational philosophy focuses on ： 1. achievement testing. 2. Much of the early theoretical and applied work in psychometric

s was undertaken in an attempt to measure intelligence. 3. Francis Galton is often referred to as the father of psychometric

s, having devised and used mental tests. 4. The First psychometric instruments were designed to measure

the concept of intelligence. e.g: the famous the Stanford-Binet IQ test.

Developmentally appropriate educational practice is adapted to the students stage of development.

The Differences Between The Two Views

The two philosophies differ in their concept in the following aspects:

1. the learner, 2. the learning process, 3. the information to be acquired, 4. the purpose of education 5. the assessment.

1.Learner The psychometric viewpoint: 1. learner has measurable abilities; 2. mental abilities exist in some amount and must therefore

be quantifiable; 3. individual differences reflect differences in amount of a gi

ven ability. （智力先天注定）

The developmental viewpoint: 1. learning is developing mental abilities which each child, e

xcept the retarded, may attain, though not necessarily at the same age;

2. individual differences in ability are due to differences in rate of intellectual growth.( 智力发育有快慢）

2.The Information to Be acquired

The psychometric viewpoint: 1. how we learn something doesn‘t matter but it’s what w

e know that counts;

2. knowledge can be measured against an external standard independent of how we learned it; there is a right or wrong. Task of education is to match children with others of equal ability; children must be grouped with special classes provided for the gifted and for the retarded.( 例如：划分快班和慢班， 天才和普通班）

2.The Information to Be acquired (to be continued)

The developmental viewpoint: 1. The task of educator is to match curricula to the level

of the child's emerging mental abilities.

2. Curricula must be examined to determine level of mental ability required to comprehend them.

3. Knowledge is always a construction of the mind's interaction with the world .

4. The reality of the young child differs from the reality of the older child and adult; there can be differences in some knowledge without reference to "right" and "wrong".

3. Learning The psychometric viewpoint: 1. Learning follows a set of principles like intermittent

reinforcement.

2. Learning consists of acquiring a set of skills like decoding, which are independent of the specific content;

3. The view assumes that once children learn thinking skills, learning strategies or computer programming, these skills will automatically be transferred to different kinds of content.

3. Learning (to be continued)

The developmental viewpoint: 1. Learning is a creative or constructive activity.2. Learning involves engaging the world in a way that creates

something new, reflecting both our own mental activity and the material we have dealt with.

3. The learner does not simply copy content, but stamps it with his or her unique way of viewing it.

4. The only way to discover how the child learns it to study the child learning.

5. There is little or no automatic transfer of learning from one subject to another.

6. Transfer of learning occurs when the learner is active, not passive.

4.Goals or Aims of Education

The psychometric viewpoint: 1. to help children score high on tests of achievement; 2. the acquisition of particular information is of

paramount importance.

The developmental viewpoint: 1. to facilitate the development of the child's developing

abilities, the creative activity of the learning process, and the child's construction of knowledge;

2. to encourage students to become thinkers who are creative and critical; the creation of curious, active learners must precede the acquisition of particular information.

5.Assessment

The psychometric viewpoint: 1. measure child's achievement by means of commercial

or teacher-made tests;2. evaluate according to performance on such tests,

yielding a grade representing both the quantity and quality of the work that a child has done over a period of time.

The developmental viewpoint:1. document the work that a child has done over a

given period of time; 2. child may keep a portfolio of writing, drawing, math

explorations, etc.

The implications for teachers under the two philosophies

• It is no exaggerating to say that teachers’ teaching philosophy and belief controls his or her daily teaching activities.

Age appropriate Activities for Kindergarteners

1. Kindergarten children’s play activities often build on the experiences they enjoyed. ( 老师仔细观察有时甚至能够了解到孩子的家庭情况。如：有的孩子喜欢指手画脚，大喊大叫）

2. With better developed motor and social skills, they enjoy active, supervised play by themselves and with others. （所以安全永远第一，甚至比教学重要。 )

3. Many kindergarten children love to pretend . Puppets and other toys may be used for role playing and story telling. ( 因为孩子对此感兴趣，老师可以用手偶讲故事 )

4. Children’s pretend play is often related to stories that adults have read to them, so books can become important parts of a child’s play. ( 老师布置教室时可以专门划分出阅读区，也可以张贴卡片让学生用教鞭一边指着卡片一边读 )

Age appropriate Activities for Kindergarteners

5. Some kindergarten children enjoy card and board games. They can begin to understand that game rules exist so that all players can enjoy playing together. Teachers probably want to emphasize fun and cooperation rather than competition in games.( 老师可节省调解矛盾的时间，因为输了的孩子会哭。老师也可以引导学生玩跟教学有关的 board games ，如： match games ）

6.Most kindergarteners are curious and enjoy imitating other people, so it is good to let them have show time ( 因为学生喜欢模仿和充满好奇心，可以让学生多参与表演。 e.g.; tell and show is a good game to express themselves.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJEw8ocf1Yo&feature=g-all-u&context=G2f9f455FAAAAAAAABAAMadison Heights Lamphere Chinese Immersion Program……..