Question

In Curriculum Activity Plan in Cognitive Domain. what is the three Content of Modeling Clay and Tools? Content is about one term. one fact and one idea to play the modeling clay?

Answer 1

The Cognitive domain involves the development of our mental skills and the acquisition of knowledge. The six categories under this domain are Knowledge: the ability to recall data and/or information.

Based on the 1956 work. The Handbook I-Cognitive Domain, behavioral objectives that dealt with cognition could be divided into subsets. These subsets were arranged into a taxonomy and listed according to the cognitive difficulty - simpler to more complex forms.

A recent report of National Research Council suggests three principles of learning that have a solid foundation and are directly applicable to classroom teachings stated below.

1, Children develop ideas and concepts at very young ages that help them make sense of their worlds. Learning is not the transfer of new information into an empty receptacle,it is the building of new understandings by the child on the foundation of existing understandings.

2, Developing expertise requires both a foundation of factual knowledge and skills and a conceptual understanding that allows facts to become 'usable' knowledge. In the preschool years, key concepts can be quite basic and therefore easily overlooked.

3, Children can be taught to monitor their thinking in the form of learning strategies. These "metacognitive skills" are used by some children spontaneously. But efforts to help all children learn more deliberately can be incorporated into curriculum.

Content of Modeling Clay and Tools:

Playing with Modeling clay can help children develop important skills and competencies. Marie- Elaine Dupont an early childhood education consultant, she illustrates the "potential contribution [of such play] to the development of the target competencies of the Quebec Education Program for the preschool level."

Content 1: To perform sensorimotor actions effectively in different contexts.

The Child:

1, Acquires a sense of his/her body by creating representative models(Clay figures)

2, Uses his/her senses of touch, sight and smell.

a)Tactile perception: hot cold, smooth,rough,hard,soft,slippery,sticky,gooey

b)Visual perception: Matte, shiny, smooth

c)Olfactory perception: different kinds of clay have different smells; some are scented, and you can scent modeling clay yourself, pottery clay has a distinctive earthy smell.

3, Develops Coordination.

4, Perfects the dissociation of the hand, thumb and fingers from the forearm.

5, Improves fine motor skills and dexterity by manipulating the toold and the clay.

6, Broadens his/her repertoire of actions: squeezing, pinching, stretching, digging, crushing, hitting, shredding, tearing, flattening, rolling.

Content 2 : To Affirm his/her personality.

The Child :

- Learns to recognize his/her tastes and interests.

- Learns to recognize his/her feelings and emotions.

- Learns to to trust his/her instincts.

- Expresses his/her creativity.

- Experiences success.

- Makes decisions.

- Takes responsibility

- Demonstrates autonomy in thoughts and actions.

- Becomes aware of his/her increasing proficiency.

- Builds self-esteem:acquires a sense of competency, power and control over his/her environment.

- Relaxes; working with clay is very calming.

Content 3: To complete an activity or project

- Planning an activity or project.

- Perseverance, dedication, applied effort(working in a sustained way)

- Anticipating next steps.

- Presenting final results, describing difficulties encountered and solutions found.

- Evaluating the overall experience(relationship with classmates, project method, degree of satisfaction with the final "product")

- Expressing degree of satisfaction.

Working with Modeling clay develops all the skills listed above. As well, its distinctive properties present additional learning opportunities;

- It illustrates the phenomena of water absorption and saturation.

- It presents challenges in terms of adherence and bonding (getting the pieces to stick together can be tricky with this kind of clay)

- It needs drying time: concepts of temperature.

- It has to be worked in stages: for example it must be left to dry before being painted, then left to dry again.

- In sufficient quantity, it can be used to build mountains, dig tunnels... as a group.

- It presents specific challenges and problems(e.g. "Why did this piece crack?" [it dried too quickly, we forgot to cover it with a damp cloth to protect the surface]) and requires specific techniques.

Tools of the Mind:

A series of early childhood programs based on socio-cultural theory was developed by Bodrova and Leong(1996). They have engaged in long-term intervention studies using programs they have developed for teaching writing and reading as two major intervention efforts. These tools describe their procedures for instruction in great detail built on the Vygotskian notion of the zone of proximal development. These programs are unusual in that they have a well-established theoretical base from which all measures and teaching strategies are derived.

In addition to developing an emergent writing program, these investigators have also developed the Early Literacy Advisor, which is an" advisor to teachers helping them make informed decisions about the pace and direction of classroom practices for those areas of literacy development that can be impacted by instruction." A battery of assessments has been developed and validated. Reports from teachers using the approach indicated satisfaction with its use and the help it provides in developing classroom instruction.