Kindergarten 2 teacher at Monarch Preschool
Qi Wen's Reflection
Why Problem Solving?
As educators, many of us employ a combination of teaching strategies that benefit the children's learning. For example, not only do I employ problem-solving in my classroom, I also employ facilitating, grouping, and even scaffolding as one of the main teaching strategies for my Kindergarten 2 children.
Therefore, it is important to know that I have chosen to recommend problem-solving as a teaching strategy for the Kindergarten 2 class because I feel that it is one of the more challenging and complicated teaching strategies that most teachers find hard to grasp.
When I first started out, problem-solving has always been an abstract term for me. I always knew what it was, but could never exactly list down the different steps to encourage problem-solving within the classroom. With that, I have always struggled to implement said teaching strategy with my children. However, after some research, I found many resources on problem-solving and hence shared it through this website. I hope to create a community of practice as sharing the sharing of our teaching practices and findings among educators would no doubt benefit the children.
What I hope to achieve
Problem-solving in Singapore preschools has always been a rare sight as teachers are used to "directing" the children. This could be due to our beliefs that children are "empty vessels", that it is the teacher's role to constantly "fuel them with knowledge".
However, what I have learned from my teaching experience is that children not only learn through nurture (by teaching) but by nature as well. This means that as teachers, we need to provide them with opportunities for them to construct their own knowledge through interaction with the environment and the people around them. One of the ways to achieve that is to provide a problem-solving climate for the children.
I hope that with this sharing, more teachers will be aware of the importance of incorporating child-directed learning into their classrooms, and in turn provide more problem-solving opportunities for the children. I am sure that the provision of such learning experiences would have a positive impact on the child's development and learning.
Remember that
"Children must be taught
how to think,
not what to think."
Do your part as an educator and make a positive impact on your children's lives!