Discussion: Childhood theories and practices

For this benchmark, you will write a personal teaching philosophy based on early childhood theories and practices.

Use the “Teaching Philosophy Template” as a resource to guide the writing of your personal teaching philosophy reflective essay.

In a reflective essay of 1,000 words, ensure that you include the following topics:

The nature/nurture concept and debate.

Your goals and objectives as a teacher.

The role of the early childhood educator as a professional. Include how you plan to uphold ethical standards, professional standards of practice, and relevant laws and policies.

The role of the early childhood educator as advocate on behalf of children. Include how advocacy can promote learning opportunities, strengthen the learning environment and advance the early childhood profession.

Your methods for assessing student understanding for Birth to Age 5/Pre-K and K to Age 8/Grade 3 children, including your views on the statement “all children can learn” and key assessment practices.

The role of technology in the education of young children.

The importance of environment to teaching and learning for Birth to Age 5/Pre-K and K to Age 8/Grade 3 children.

In conclusion, reflect on your experiences and provide specific examples of the importance and implications on your practice and your early childhood classroom.

Use course readings on particular theories and theorists, as well as 3-5 scholarly articles that can be used in support of it.

Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.