WHAT IS DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION?

WHAT IS DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION?

IFTI LUTHVIANA DEWI

Experienced early childhood professionals encourage caregivers and teachers of young learners to provide developmentally appropriate instruction.  Teacher of young learner have two jobs: to provide care and to provide instruction.

1. Developmentally appropriate practices

Children require and deserve professionals who interact with them in appropriate ways based on the child’s social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and moral development (Bazelton and Greenspan, 2000). By being aware of what children can and cannot do developmentally, teachers are better able to provide appropriate learning experiences for their young learners.

2. Attributes of development

Highlight attributes of development in three areas: social/emotional, cognitive, and physical development. It guides to develop a greater sense of teacher’s young learners individual development.

3. Inconsistent development

A specific child does not develop in all areas at the same rate.

LEARNING ABOUT CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT AND INTERESTS

To tailor teaching experiences to meet the development needs of individual students, teachers need to become familiar with their students.

1. Way to learn about children’s development

Observing children both in and out of the classroom is a good way. at children and the ways that they interact with their peers both in and out of the classroom can be very informative.

2. Children’s treasures

Paying attention to children’s belongings, the treasures they carry around, is another good way to learn about their interests and development.

3. A simple survey

Jayne Moon (2002) advocates using surveys as a way to gather information about the learning process from children themselves. Depending on their age, English level, and literacy level, children can answer simple written questions with words and/or pictures.

4. Obtaining the best result from the survey

When teacher models a task like completing an item from the survey, the students merely copy the teacher’s example. When asking children to give personal or personalized information, it is useful to give an example that they cannot copy so that they will not simply replicate what you have said (Yedlin, 2003).

5. Talking to children about their surveys

Look at the children’s surveys and talk about their responses.it is best to do this o a one-to-one basis when the other children are writing, drawing, or doing independent work.  

6. Children’s work

Examining children’s work, including the drawings and writings that they do on a daily basis, is a good strategy for learning about their growth, development, and interests.

7. Talking and writing box

Talking and writing box is a small box that children cover with pictures that interest them. Children create a talking and writing box at the beginning of the year and then use it throughout the year as a basis for speaking and writing activities.

CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE LEARNING AND ACQUISITION

Krashen (1987) has examined language development and has differentiated the process of language acquisition from the process of language learning. Language acquisition is the natural process used to develop language skills in a child’s native language. The term language learning is often used to describe the more formal approach to language instruction. Focus is usually on the form of the language rather than on the massage being conveyed. 

MAKING INPUT MEANINGFUL TO LEARNERS

Comprehensible Input is input which is a little bit above the learner’s language level but understandable (Krashen, 1986). Different ways that teachers can make input comprehensible:

1. Set the stage. Provide context
2. Build schema
3. Provide a variety of input
4. Make the classroom language rich with environmental print
5. Model each instruction as it is given

SUPPORTING CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND LEARNING

Support can be given to a child within the child’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky has defined the ZPD as the area of support provided so that a child can accomplish a task she couldn’t do on her own. Without ZDP, a child would be unable to complete a given task independently.

1. Wait time

Incorporating wait time into teaching is very important. One way to provide children with support is to increase the amount of time that you wait for them to respond to a question.