My Reflection
Reflection of my Capstone Project Experience
Awareness of Childhood issues
At the start of the project, I thought that learning through play was something only a few centres adopt as I was under the impression that Singapore was more academic-based and play curriculum were mostly only found overseas. I wanted to find out more about play curriculum in Singapore, hence, my group and I focused on the topic of learning through play and some factors as to why it is not as widely accepted in Singapore. Through the sharing sessions, I learnt that time is of the essence and that building a community of sharing will allow us to move forward by improving the quality of the Early Childhood industry.
Time is of the essence
As an educator, there will always be times when we are overwhelmed by workload, implementing a play curriculum might even add on to that workload as we need time for many things when implementing a play curriculum. There is a need for time to do planning, prepare materials and gain experience to implement this curriculum in class. In addition to this, Singaporean parents might not be ready for such a shift in curriculum from what they are used to. There is a need for time to organize workshops to let parents gain awareness about the play curriculum and eventually, buy into the curriculum.
Community of sharing
From the feedback session, the principal mentioned about building a community of sharing. This is where the young and new teachers come together with the more experience, both sides will share about their experiences and they will learn from each other. This will allow the industry to move forward as everyone will be open to sharing about their experiences and what works best for the children. This hence, benefits the children as they will be able to get the best experience through the teachers sharing with one another.
Personal Growth
Summary
We started off the project by choosing a topic and brainstorming about the factors affecting the topic. We then came up with interview questions to find out more about our topic of learning through play. We interviewed the centre principal and analysed the centre’s needs based on that. We also surveyed the teachers in centre and came up with recommendations based on the needs of the centre as a whole. This module has allowed me to grow as a person through the process. The skills I have gained will continue to accompany me through my journey in the future.
Organisational Skills
As this project was ongoing throughout the semester, we had to organise the time to get each task completed on our own. Hence, the group delegated different roles to everyone to get the work done. We separated the interview transcript by timing and everyone did their own parts. After that, we split the work once again, some of us did the website while the others went down to the centre to get feedback from the principal and organize the information to be put up on the website. We reminded each other about the tasks and deadlines and we were all able to get the work done in time for each other. I was able manage my time despite other ongoing assignments along with this one.
Communication Skills
Our group’s communication was quite good as we all managed to communicate our ideas across to each other without conflicts. We all helped each other out with the workload and constantly checked up on each other to see if anyone needed help with their tasks. We were all able to share our individual perspectives and ideas to align our perspectives for the project.
Problem-Solving Skills
During the project, there were few problems as our group communicated quite well. Some minor problems included us having to find time to meet up to discuss about the project and not being familiar with the Wix website creation. We were able to overcome these problems by discussing online over Skype and Whatsapp and exploring Wix on our own.
Conclusion
Overall, this project was really meaningful and interesting as it allowed me work with a topic of interest and gain further insight into the industry and its possibilities in the future.