When I Think Of Child Development

The quote I selected is “As in the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form and is itself a major source of development.” By Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society.

Vygotsky recognized the value of play as a tool for learning and development for the children.  According to Vygotsky, “the influence of play on a child's development is enormous”. Children satisfy certain needs during play and it is essential for us to understand the characteristics of these needs.  In play, children create an imaginary situation with rules of behavior.  He believed that children should be given opportunities to play in order for each child to develop his/her imagination and conceptual abilities.  (Vygotsky, 1978)

He also argued that play leads to development through culturally planned activities. Play begins as recollections and reenactments of real situations but through their imagination, children achieve an elementary mastery of abstract thought. The development of social rules and language skills are consciously acquired through play too.

Children in pretend play show more about what the already know and can do than they do in any other activity. (Sandra Schmit, The developing child in 21^st century).  Play can also help to create the zone of proximal development.

References

Vygotsky, L. (1978). The Role of Play in Development (pp. 92-104). In Mind in Society. (Trans.

M. Cole). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

 The Developing child in the 21^st Century by Sandra Smidt, Routledge

Note of thank you

I would like to give my sincere thanks to my fellow classmates in group one for their comments given and information/knowledge sharing with us. In fact, I would like to thank you for everyone for the continuous hard work and submitting their work on time so that we can give our comments and review.
Of course, most important of all, I would like to thank you Dr. Nagel for her support, detailed information and references provided. She also corrected our work by also providing additional information or references and explanation so that we can understand better. Her dedication to Early Childhood and her dedication to us as students are much appreciated.

Testing for intelligence

To learn at their best, students must be engaged and motivated. Substantial research shows that students who feel both valued by adults and a part of their schools perform better academically and also have more positive social attitudes, values, and behavior. Plus, they are less likely to engage in drug use, violence, or sexual activity. After-school programs can promote academic achievement, but their success requires targeted investment, stakeholder commitments, focused academic support, quality programming, and a process of continual improvement.
Schools and communities committed to educating the whole child engage students in the learning process and provide opportunities that connect them to the community. Students who are engaged and connected to their schools demonstrate increased academic achievement, attendance rates, and participation in activities.
Ensuring that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged requires us to continually ask questions and examine evidence related to implementation. ASCD’s indicators of a whole child approach provide a guide for continual school and community improvement and serve as a definition of what a whole child approach to education truly requires.
Pupils at Italian schools are tested on average about one test per subject per term, which goes towards the continual assessment of their performance, but does not count all that much. But for serious, GCSE-type, make-or-break exams, from the age of 13 to 18 Italian students enjoy a long exam holiday, all the way up to the maturita exam which they take at the end of liceo, the senior schools in the Italian system. On the other hand, the continual assessments can be rigorous, and if students at the top high schools score less than six out of 10 in two or more subjects they run a serious risk of having to take the year again.
References:
http://www.wholechildeducation.org/