Qi Wen's Journal Reflection
A journal reflection on our experiences of the Capstone Project
Project Overview
For our capstone project, my group focused on the topic of “Learning through Play” in Singapore preschools. Through the interview, surveys and needs analysis, we found out that we needed to align the perspectives of play of the teaching staff in our chosen centre to increase the quality of play.
Academic awareness
Awareness of Early Childhood ISsue
Before the start of the project, my group and I applied our knowledge of factors that contribute to play in the classroom to come up with possible reasons why play-based is not yet implemented in Singapore. There, we narrowed down to parents’ expectations of their child’s education, culture and the lack of resources. However, through the sharing sessions, I have learned two following things.
1. Stakeholders of change
Without realizing, my group’s list of reasons mainly focuses on the child’s perspective: What the child needs (resources), What is expected of the child (parents’ expectations and culture). However, through the sharing session with the principal, I understood that for change to happen, we need to consider every stakeholder. The teachers, children, parents and the community. We need to consider everyone’s needs and perspectives as they all have a part of play in making the change possible. Therefore, it is important to see the bigger picture rather than just focusing on the children.
2. Time is a factor
Personally, I have always been concerned about the end goal more than the steps to achieve that. Similarly, during this project, I was concerned about how to ensure that the centre moves towards a play-based curriculum, rather than the step by step process to reach that. From the sharing session with the principal, I got an insight into what had to be done to buy the parents over on the purposeful play approach. It was a slow change and required lots of effort and time. With that, I have learned that with every change, it is important to give time to make it happen. Changes to the industry cannot be done overnight.
Personal Growth
Working with professionals
Through the interview and sharing sessions with the professionals in the industry, I have learned developed my communication skills. For instance, I learned to be tactful when speaking. As the needs of the centre is analyzed and interpreted by us, both the principal and teachers would not have known about the needs. Therefore, we had to be careful with our phrasing of words when sharing such information. If not done tactfully, it may negatively impact the relationship between our group and the centre.
Working with peers
Through working with my peers, I have developed my organizational skills to work as a team and plan for our project. Initially, I have always thought that it was troublesome to work as a group, given all the potential conflict of interest. However, with all our heads together, we managed to come up with an interesting and feasible solution that I would not be able to create on my own. Therefore, I have changed my perspective towards collaborative problem solving and will be more willing to be a better team player. Next, this project required a lot of planning, in terms of delegation of roles and organizing discussions as a group. As there are many components to this project, without proper planning, we may not have been able to complete it.
Generating solutions
One of the challenges that my group faced was coming up with solutions to meet the needs of the centre. I have always thought that the more extravagant, the better the solution. However, it is through the process that I learned that fancy does not mean feasible. When developing a solution, it can be simple; as long as it meets the needs and can be implemented, it is more than sufficient. Therefore, I have learned that it is important to consider the feasibility, purpose, and rationale of a solution.
Conclusion
Overall, the capstone project was an enriching and meaningful experience for me. Not only has it allowed me to apply my knowledge of the 3-years of study, it also aided in my personal development.