HT5003 Children’s Play, Creativity and the Arts Report Sample

HT5003 Children’s Play, Creativity and the Arts

Description

The critically reflective essay engages students’ analytical and writing skills and helps them analyse and make sense of the role of play, creativity and the arts in young children’s learning, development, and communication.

Requirements

Students are required to reflect on the theories, perspectives and practices associated with children’s play, creativity and the arts. They should select one of the major theoretical theories covered in the unit and respond to these questions:

What is the origin of the theory – how did it come about and what are key benefits and limitations of the theory?

What perspectives does the theory give rise to in terms of helping to understand children’s play, creativity and the arts?

What teaching and learning and care practices does the theory encourage, and what does it discourage?

Overall, in what ways do you see this theory would help shape your teaching and children’s learning?

The written report should be 2,000 words in length. This reflective essay is designed to help each student reflect on their learning. In preparation for this essay it is suggested that students make notes each week to remind them of how they were feeling and what struggles they had, so that by the end of the semester those notes serve as a reminder of ideas about each theory and perspective.

Solution

Introduction

The educational procedures and modernisation of the system have differentiated the teaching and learning practices for children in terms of more creative thinking and approach to retain an effective learning experience. Therefore, play, creativity, and arts influence a child learning aspects and provide a storing educational perspective. The concepts of arts and creativity are associated with the development of intelligence, thinking aspects, emotional development and others that signify the overall impact of children education development. Hence, this essay explores detailed views of children;s education along with the sociocultural theory by Vygotsky to understand different learning concepts more efficiently.

Origin of the Theory

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist and early childhood educator who developed the sociocultural theory related to children;s educational development by aligning with the interaction of social and cultural environments. He was a forward-thinking theorist who developed this theory in the context of the 20th century to explain the factors of adequate teaching and learning practices in terms of play, creativity and the importance of arts among children (Vygotsky, 1986). Four fundamental principles are being developed to elaborate this theory in terms of attention, sensation, perception and memory that shape children;s education and learning development.

The theory is aligned with the social and cultural interaction of a child that helps to develop the mental functions depicting overall psychological development. Thus, understanding the development phases becomes crucial to understanding the effectiveness of this theory and its origin, which influences the teaching philosophies and practices in modern days. Contemporary teaching and learning have been integrated with the fundamentals of this theory in terms of supporting children;s creativity and thinking processes (Vygotsky, 1978). Such a dimension of this theory depicts the key perspectives related to the teaching exercises in recent times to make children comfortable and psychologically fit to interact socially and culturally.

Benefits and Limitations of the Theory

Considering the overall dimensions of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, the prime benefit of this theory is its approach towards a reciprocal teaching style that impacts the overall development of child education. The concepts and factors of this theory help teachers and children to understand different aspects of social and cultural interaction that develop critical thinking processes. Additionally, a professional can get a more holistic view of children;s personalities that helps them plan accordingly to adopt appropriate teaching styles (Alkhudiry, 2022, P-2119). Therefore, the impacts of sociocultural theory are quite prominent in the modern education system, where educational institutions are more focused on developing student psychology and mental state to cope with social and cultural trends.

On the other hand, the prime limitation of this theory is its limited access to different cultures. For example, not all cultures have exploited social interaction, which makes this theory applicable to a certain culture in order to establish its perspectives and principles. Therefore, the generalisation of these theoretical concepts cannot be justified in the modern world and cannot be proven through analytical analysis. Thus, it can be considered a limitation of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. In addition to this, the aspects related to mental health and any kind of psychological disorders are not included within the perspective of theoretical alignment that often faces challenges in the early childhood education process in terms of increased autism among children across the world. The best example of its limitation.

The Perspective of The Theory

Vygotsky;s sociocultural theory offers a guide to a range of components of child education and the factors associated with social and cultural interaction that induce the learning and creativity process among children. Considering the theory, play is a feature of childhood education that influences the social form of imagination among children and provides an adequate understanding of the child;s preferences and personality traits. Therefore, the interactive social form of the play depicts the key essentials of holistic growth supporting the overall development of children's education process. Additionally, the concept of play is also integrated with the rule-bound approach that impacts emotional engagement and personality development to shape educational growth among children. Therefore, it can be analysed that sociocultural theory summarises the early childhood traits and methods of education development with the help of broader regulations and social facts (Csikscentmihalyi, 2014). For example, a child is playing block games in kindergarten and thinking differently to complete a structure of his/her imagination. It depicts the social form of interactiveness which the child imagines is being reflected through the play condition.

Such instances provide clear identification of the level of thoughts and involvement rate that create a visual message to other classmates and teachers (Wolf & Gardner, 1980). Hence, the child establishes an active socio-cultural interaction that supports the reciprocal psychological development phases. This particular stage offers a greater range of attention, which is a prime component of this theory, which depicts successful educational development in terms of mental growth and the thinking process. Along with this perspective, there is a crucial factor related to the live experience for children, which has been gathered through the playing conditions. Therefore, the aspects of creativity and the urge to achieve success in different ways among children reflect key development creativities. Therefore, the interconnectedness among the psychological components of children, as well as play and creativity, produces a positive learning experience for the children in their early childhood education (Sinclair, Jeanneret &Toole, 2009). This particular perspective of this sociocultural theory relates to the modern teaching approaches adopted by professionals to influence children to draw, music classes, and other activities. Differentiated modes of social interactions produce high value among children, allowing them to experience life things and traits that offer the opportunity to adopt preferred learning styles. Therefore, the effectiveness of Vygotsky;s learning theory can be analysed through this segment. Considering this fact, the theorist has explained a phenomenon of Perezhivanie; associated with the intense emotional attachment of children to live experiences (Cong-Lem, 2023, p-871). It produces likes and dislikes among the children in early childhood education. Therefore, the stages of psychological and mental development can be assessed through this theoretical perspective, guiding the teaching practices to an impactful level.

Teaching and Learning Practices Encourage and Discourage by The Theory

Preferred practices

Considering Vygotsky;s sociocultural theory related to child education development, different teaching styles have been supported by the theorist in terms of achieving higher success in the education system. For example, open-ended material-providing teaching processes are supported by the theory as they provide more freedom for children to imagine uniquely. Additionally, this particular teaching method is more useful in engaging a child more precisely in a specific task that influences the thinking process and socially interactive behavioural patterns of individuals.

This teaching method for MBA assignment expert is also efficient in boosting a student's critical thinking ability to reflect the inner imagination that presents a complex structure of the psychological state (Lantolf, Xi & Minakova, 2021, p-330). For example, creating drawings of different fruits, objects, and others signifies the visual transformation of the imagination process that depicts key psychological development. Hence, personality traits and skills can be understood by professionals more efficiently, shaping the success of child education development.

Furthermore, the teaching attributes to develop social and cultural values among children can be achieved efficiently through adapting this particular inspirational teaching method. The collaborative teaching style is another dimension that induces the psychological development and holistic growth of mental states among children by supporting and providing attention to language preferences and many other factors (Newman & Latifi, 2021, p. 15). Considering this fact, teaching perceptions have been developed based on theoretical perspectives and support the play system to enhance children’s social attachment with others.

Discouraged teaching practices

Based on the principles and dimensions of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, the teaching method of the auditory system and delegators have been discouraged as it presents highly complex procedures for children;s education development (Erbil, 2020, p-539791). The aspects of children;s education development and growth of mental stages can be affected in terms of the play, arts and creativity mechanisms of teaching procedure. Therefore, inadequate observation might lead the teaching approach in the wrong direction, affecting individual growth. The detailed aspects of psychological development and creating adequate relationships within the social and cultural interaction cannot be measured through an auditory teaching approach. Hence, the concepts of memory and sensation of sociocultural theory discourage these specific teaching styles from providing a positive learning experience for the children.

Reflecting on theory related to my teaching and learning philosophy

Considering all the teaching styles and modules from the perspective of child education development, I prefer to execute a supportive and ideological role for children. This teaching style helps me to observe a child;s potential developments in terms of mental state, involvement and creativity. Therefore, the explained sociocultural theory is being aligned with the teaching philosophy to encourage children;s creativity and imagination.

This approach influences their learning experience, resulting in increased adaptability and improvement in social and cultural skills. Thus, the systematic approach to providing a proper learning experience for children is being achieved. I believe that teaching practices and executions are associated with the overall development of a child by identifying the potential strengths and weaknesses of the student. Based on the principles of attention and sensation, I try to understand the requirements of a child to understand the factors that affect them the most. A conscious approach to stimulate the psychological aspect of that student provides the benefit of bringing the best imagination and interactive behavior from them. Hence, Vygotsky;s educational theory and its perspectives produce a key challenge for me to relate the play concept with social and cultural interactions that often disrupt the decision-making process in terms of applying appropriate teaching methods.

Conclusion

Completing this essay, it can be concluded that Vygotsky's sociocultural theory sheds light on the facts of the modern education system of the child education development system. The prime objective of this theory is to associate the psychological development of children with social and cultural contexts to support their reciprocal growth.

Reference list

Alkhudiry, R., 2022. ‘The contribution of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory in mediating L2 knowledge co-construction’, Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 12, No. 10, pp.2117-2123. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1210.19

Arana, M. 2018. Open-ended play, guidedlearningstudio.com. https://guidedlearningstudio.com/2018/10/17/open-ended-play/ (Accessed: 18 May 2024). Cong-Lem, N., 2023. ‘Emotion and its relation to cognition from Vygotsky’s perspective’, European Journal of Psychology of Education, Vol. 38. No. 2, pp.865-880. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-022-00624-x

Csikscentmihalyi, M. 2014. Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology. The collected works of Csikscentmihalyi. Claremont, CA: Springer Dewey, J. 1934. Art as Experience. New York: Capricorn Books Erbil, D.G., 2020. ‘A review of flipped classroom and cooperative learning method within the context of Vygotsky theory’, Frontiers in psychology, Vol. 11, p.539791. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01157

Hul, J.V. 2023. The benefits of Art For Kids, The Artful Parent. https://artfulparent.com/the- benefits-of-art-for-kids/ (Accessed: 18 May 2024).
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Mgaiwa, S.J. & Amani, J. 2023. ‘Culturally Responsive Instruction in Early Childhood Education in Tanzania: Teachers’ Beliefs and Instructional Challenges’, Early Childhood Education Journal, pp.1-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-023-01517-4 Newman, S. & Latifi, A., 2021. ‘Vygotsky, education, and teacher education’, Journal of Education for Teaching, Vol. 47. No. 1, pp.4-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2020.1831375

Sarmiento-Campos, N.V., Lázaro-Guillermo, J.C., Silvera-Alarcón, E.N., Cuellar-Quispe, S., Huamán-Romaní, Y.L., Apaza, O.A. & Sorkheh, A., 2022. ‘A look at Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory (SCT): The effectiveness of scaffolding method on EFL learners’ speaking achievement’, Education Research International, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/3514892