Category: Primary Education

Categories
Primary Education

Infantilisation

The school should be a place of dialogue, listening and understanding, and on many occasions children are infantilized, believing that they cannot or should not deal with certain topics or aspects are taken for granted, so that we do not ask questions or take an interest in their tastes or interests.

One form of this is “Waltdisneyzation” whereby adults believe it is convenient for children not to have information about social inequalities and injustices, keeping them in a kind of artificial limbo.

History is imparted through drawings, fantastic creatures or unreal characters, so they have a reduced and false conception of the world that enhances a conservative, classist, sexist and racist leisure culture.

The tourist curriculum is a type of infantilization that takes place in schools by teachers. In this case, it happens when the study of social groups is carried out withgreat superficiality and banality. Minority cultures are represented in books with similarities to cartoons or comicbooks, making them strange and unreal.

References 

Torres Santomé, J. (2008). Diversidad cultural y contenidos escolares. Revista de educación, 345, 83-110.

Authorship

María Ateca Beti, 2020.

Categories
Primary Education

Education

Education is defined as a fundamental right and it can be said that it is a social institution that allows the acquisition of new knowledge, as well as abilities and skills through study or experience, therefore, education is a right, a necessity to train.

According to Gimeno (2000), the right to education has become an obligation for many states and therefore demands material conditions that make it a reality: that accessibility to a school post be possible; the possibility of attending schools normally and staying in them during the stage considered compulsory; and the possibility of dispensing with child labor for the two previous conditions to be met.

After a long process and after implementing the right to education as a fundamental and essential right, it was established in 1948 in the Declaration of Universal Rights or in the Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights.

“This has been one of the struggles, not concluded today, of pedagogical progressivism during the 20th century: in addition to ensuring that this education is real and free, making it an enriching experience felt as such and, at the same time, attractive” (Gimeno, 2000).

References 

Gimeno Sacristán, J. (2000). La trayectoria de un derecho lleno de promesas. En Gimeno, J. La educación obligatoria, su sentido educativo y social. Madrid: Morata.

Authorship

Categories
Primary Education

Children’s play

Children’s play is an innate, pleasant, free and spontaneous activity practiced by children, with an intrinsic purpose. While playing, the child makes a symbolic representation of the reality that he freely chooses, through an argument, some materials and a context. 

Through the game, every ability of the child is better developed, it’s one of the best ways to express their emotions, feelings and thoughts. It improves creativity and imagination and has a clear educational function. Besides, it stimulates motor and social development, intellectual capacity, strengthens the bonds of affection, fosters communication and generates complicity. 

The game implies an active participation of the child, prepares him for his future life and it’s a great way to exchange ideas and experiences. There are two types of games, free game and directed game. Within this classification we can also find four other types of game: exercise game, rules game, construction game and symbolic game.

Authorship

Montserrat Ruiz, Carlota Martín y Leticia Meléndez, 2020.

Categories
Primary Education

Methodology

Methodology is a curricular element of vital importance in preschool. It is related to how the  content is going to be taught and learned. This is included in the strategies, procedures and  actions. At the same time, the methodology is organized and planned in a conscious and  thoughtful way, which is used by the students to learn the content and achieve the objectives. 

There is not such a thing as “the best methodology”, since it depends on the class group, the  contents taught, the objectives, time, space, context, teaching style, physical conditions and  materials. Therefore the educator must have a battery of teaching methods that could be  applied depending on the situation, some of them being expository, participatory, research  based or integrating.

Methodology is a curricular element of vital importance in preschool. It is related to how the  content is going to be taught and learned. This is included in the strategies, procedures and  actions. At the same time, the methodology is organized and planned in a conscious and  thoughtful way, which is used by the students to learn the content and achieve the objectives. 

There is not such a thing as “the best methodology”, since it depends on the class group, the  contents taught, the objectives, time, space, context, teaching style, physical conditions and  materials. Therefore the educator must have a battery of teaching methods that could be  applied depending on the situation, some of them being expository, participatory, research  based or integrating.

These methods range from very closed actions, where the proposals are  defined by the teacher, with no margin for variation; till total freedom of the children, where  we present flexible proposals that facilitate student experimentation. The preferred  methodologies in Preschool Education can be based on some of the following methodological  principles: playful principle, meaningful learning, activity, socialization, family-school collaboration, globalization and personalization. All of this applied systematically, contributes  to the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, thus facilitating the teaching-learning process.

Authorship

Estefanía Lázaro, Estefanía Martínez, Eva Peral y Lucía Polo, 2020.

Categories
Primary Education

Integrated curriculum

The integrated curriculum is a way of organizing the educational curriculum that implies  the globalization of knowledge disciplines, abandoning the division by conventional subjects. The  engine that moves learning in this strategy is a thematic nucleus that is originated from a center  of interest or a real problem of the students (Torres Santomé, 1996).

Thus, learning arises through  research and the search for answers / solutions, being therefore functional, situated and  meaningful learning. In this process, knowledge disciplines are used at the moment they are  necessary (Beane, 2005), without limits between one and the other, achieving that they are not  isolated from each other, but that they connect with each other.

Through this approach, students  learn to problematize reality, to ask themselves questions that help to resolve conflicts, to locate  the necessary information, to organize a work plan, etc. This process also promotes experiences  and learning that have little place in the model of separate subjects such as teamwork, critical  thinking, creativity or affective communication, among others (Pozuelos Estrada and García Prieto,  2020). For the teacher, this organization requires adopting the role of researcher who guides and  accompanies the students.

References 

Beane, J. A. (2005). La integración del currículum y las disciplinas del conocimiento. Texto  para uso académico en el marco de la asignatura. 

Pozuelos Estrada, F. J. y García Prieto, F. J. (2020). Currículum integrado: estrategias para  la práctica. Revista Internacional de investigación e innovación educativa, 100, 37-54. DOI:  https://dx.doi.org/10.12795/IE.2020.i100.04 

Torres Santomé, J. (1996). Sin muros en las aulas: El currículum integrado. Kikiriki.  Cooperación Educativa, 39, 39-45. Disponible en https://jurjotorres.com/?p=708

Authorship

Lorena Castillo Achutegui, 2020.

Categories
Primary Education

Evaluation

The evaluation consists of the collection of information by the teacher both during the learning  process and the results obtained. It is present in all school life. It must be carried out with an  inclusive, continuous and constructive effect, to favor correct decision-making linked to  improvement. In addition, it should not only serve to assess the students, but also the teachers  themselves, to modify errors and continue with what works. This can also be applied to the  activities and spaces used for educational practice. 

All this corresponds to the formative evaluation for which we bet, since it focuses more on the adjustments that occur throughout the entire course with the intention of promoting learning by  improving it. Although, it can also be complemented with summative evaluation, which  assesses the final results of the process. All this is carried out through activities, projects,  rubrics …

References 

Ginés, N., & Piqué Simón, B. (2007). Evaluación para la inclusión: siete propuestas en forma de tesis. Aula de Innovación Educativa, 2007, num. 163-164, p. 7-11.

Authorship

Ángela López, Lucía Palacio, María Toyos y Ángela Ramos, 2020.

Categories
Primary Education

Hidden curriculum II

The hidden curriculum can be defined as the set of rules, customs, beliefs, languages and symbols that are manifested in the structure and operation of an institution (Acevedo, 2010), which are produced in parallel with the intentions of the explicit, manifest or written curriculum, and precisely through the practices with which it is developed. It refers to learning that is acquired by students although these aspects are not included in the official curriculum.

Any environment, including social, recreational and traditional activities, can lead to unintentional learning, since learning is not only connected to schools, but also to the experiences that a person has. In this case, it is at the pre-school or higher education level. It is everything that can be seen and heard, but transmitted and received unconsciously, at least without any recognised intentionality. 

According to Parcerisa (1999), the hidden curriculum transmits, above all, values and attitudes through a process of analysis and reflection, on many other occasions through what Bandura calls “vicarious learning” produced by teachers in their way of acting and through their intervention. 

References 

Acevedo Huerta, J. E. (2010, noviembre). El currículo oculto en las enseñanzas formales. Aspectos menos visibles a tener en cuenta para una educación no sexista. Temas para la educación. Recuperado de: https://www.feandalucia.ccoo.es/docu/p5sd7590.pdf 

Parcerisa, A. (1999). ¿Qué es el currículum oculto?

Authorship

Paula López Peña, Marcos Ruiz Vadillo, Lidia San Emeterio Uslé y Sandra Viso Sotorrío, 2020.

Categories
Primary Education

Silenced cultures

Culture is understood as the set of knowledge, customs, ideas that characterize a  group. In the same society several cultures can coexist, but there is always one  dominant, called “popular culture” that is the most represented and causes the  marginalization of the rest. In this way, a monocultural model develops, in which other  cultures are silenced and represented from the global idea that society has about  them. In the school environment we cannot see represented minority cultures such as  gypsies, transsexuals, Amish and poverty (their way of life, customs, work or jobs,  their history…) since silenced cultures are not mentioned in the curricular materials  because they do not fall within the ideals of the power groups.

One way to change this is to encompass education across cultures. It is important, the  evolution of each culture in contact and exchange with the others. In this way, we will  achieve an enrichment of silenced cultures and, in turn, of popular cultures. (Enguita,  2001). In addition, the coexistence of different cultures can help and improve the  acceptance of new ideas, customs, habits, etc. 

References 

Fernández Enguita, M. (2001). La ciudadanía en la era de la globalización. En M.  Fernández Enguita, Educar en tiempos inciertos (pp. 44-60). Madrid: Morata. 

Torres Santomé, J (2015). Diversidad cultural y contenidos escolares. Revista de  Educación, 345. (pp. 83-110). Departamento de pedagogía, Universidad de A  Coruña

Authorship

Lidia López, Paula Sengáriz, Cecilia Toca y Cristina Urrutia, 2020.

Categories
Primary Education

Hidden curriculum I

The hidden curriculum is transmitted, without an explicit intention, by the faculty. That  is, it is what is transmitted without being aware of it. This make reference to the not  write curriculum. This does not always coincide with what we, as teachers, expect to  teach and even we can find ourselves in situations in which we are unconscious  transmitters of guidelines and values contrary to what we really want to transmit. It is  important to say that always exist an hidden curriculum, because the teachers  can’t´stop make influence on their student body in multiple ways, many of them  unaware. The learning of this type of curriculum occurs, on many occasions, through  what Bandura calls “vicarious learning”. That is, it is learning by imitating the way of  acting of a model figure, such as, for example, the teacher. We have to be clear about  the transcendence of this curriculum, considera all the elements in a doublé  perspective: that of the explicit curriculum and that of the implicit one, to make the  hidden curriculum visible. In addition, we must be clear that neutral education is a myth  since we are always influencing.

References 

Artur Parcerisa Aran. (1999). Eufonía. [Versión electrònica]. Revista Eufonía 17.

Authorship

Margot Fernández y Andrea Ekai, 2020.

Categories
Primary Education

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