Jin Wen's Journal Reflection
A journal reflection on our experiences of the Capstone Project
Awareness of early childhood issues
The topic which my group and I came up with for our Capstone project was “Learning through Play”. Upon coming up with the topic, we moved onto finding the center’s needs and solutions based on the needs. Initially, we conducted a semi-structured interview with the principal where we came up with additional questions on the spot, despite already having a list of questions. This allowed us to gather more information about the principal and the center’s needs, in which we analysed that Time was a need. I agreed with the principal and thought that time as a need was self explanatory since teachers would need time to plan and prepare materials for the lesson. However, I did not realise that teachers needs to constantly upgrade themselves by attending workshops and courses. Therefore time was definitely an issue with the center.
After crafting the survey questions in relation to our topic, along with the needs identified from the principal, we sent the survey to the teachers and got them to complete it. We then analysed the results from the survey and realised that the teachers have a different perspective from the principal in terms of play. The teachers believes in child directed play, which is also known as “Play Based” while the principal believes in teacher directed play, which is known as “Purposeful play”. Through this, I realised that it is important to align both the perspectives of the principals and the teachers so as to improve the quality of play in the classroom as they have differing views.
Principal's feedback
In response to aligning the perspectives of both the principal and teachers, the solution which my group and I came up with was to conduct a two day workshop which includes a fishbowl conversation and a follow up discussion on how to solve the problem together. The feedback given by the principal was really positive where she liked the idea and felt that it would be effective as the teachers are “proactive and are willing to share their ideas”. With the reassurance and positive feedbacks given by the principal, I felt reassured and gained more confidence in terms of the solution which we came up with.
Personal growth
Working with my current group has allowed me to learnt and grow as an individual. This is because for assignment 3, apart from content, I was in charge of the aesthetics of the website while the rest of the members were in charge of the placement of information in the allocated tabs. What I had initially planned for the information which would be placed under the tabs were different from what my members had. Ultimately, we came to a consensus and agreed on one which all of us felt was the best. My group members helped me along the way and gave me reassurance whenever needed.
Communication
Communicating with my group members is key as work would not be done and miscommunications would suffice when we do not communicate. Just like what the principal said, “when there is miscommunication, there would definitely be the misalignment in perspective where everyone would not be on the same page”, which highlights the importance of communication. My group and I would usually communicate face-to-face or through online platforms like Whatsapp and Skype to discuss the details of meetings and the content of the assignment.
Problem solving
Initially, my group and I had trouble coming up with a solution as aligning people’s perspective is something we cannot possibly do. Therefore, we decided to look at things from a wider perspective and not be so narrow-minded where we would only think about changing people’s perspective. We came up with a solution to bring about and raise the awareness of people’s differing perspective and to have them talk things out. Although we took awhile to come up with the solutions, we never gave up and we persevered on.
Conclusion
Throughout this module, I have learnt that communication is key and being aware of the early childhood industry is really important as that is where we would be heading upon graduation. I have also learnt that we should never give up despite the setbacks because at the end of the day, there will definitely be fruits to our labour.