Individual Learning Styles and Diversity
All students are unique, therefore they all learn differently and at different rates.
It is important to recognise (especially when learning the concept of patterning) that children in Year 1 are usually learning in the same ways. Hence, teachers should be mindful of these stages and to ensure that they:
Piaget's Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development
- Use concrete materials and visual aids to teach concepts
- Make instructions relatively short and use actions as well as words
- Allow children time to think and respond to questions (eg. reversibility in thinking can be difficult to comprehend as children of this target age group usually have a one-way logic)
Erikson's Initiative vs Guilt/Industry vs Inferiority
- Make sure that each child has a chance to experience success
- Make sure that students have opportunities to set and work towards realistic goals
- Provide support to students who seem discouraged
Strategies/Methods for teaching Year 1:
Scoffolding (Lev Vygostky, Jerome Bruner, Barbara Rogoff): TEachers assit children in a joint construction of language in supportive environments/space and gradually withdraw their support/scaffolding as children gain independence in their learning.
John Hattie's Visual Learning: Refers to making student learning visible to the teachers as well as making teaching visible to the students (eg. using Learning Intentions/Objectives and Success Criteria).
8 Ways of Indigenous Learning:
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences: