Our Philosophy
Our philosophy embraces components of many different philosophies, theories, and best practices.
At Jumping Lollipops, we believe that most philosophies have excellent and practical components that can lead our children to reach their high potential in their developmental growth. Here is the core educational approach that we have in Jumping Lollipops;
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PBL
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STEM PBL
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child-centered
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Play-Based Philosophy
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Reggio Emilia Approach
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Metacognition
Project-Based Learning (PBL)
Project-based learning allows the teacher to engage the prior knowledge, skills, concepts, and beliefs students bring with them to the classroom environment. In order for thinking to become visible and therefore shaped, students must be given the opportunity to expose their own thinking through feedback, revision, and reflection with themselves, teachers, and other students. PBL gives students the opportunity to learn through the use of projects and problem-solving. PBL is often used with a diverse group of learners and is differentiated to meet the needs of those learners as they work together.
Principles that impact the design of PBL:
● making content accessible
● making thinking visible, which includes using visual elements
● helping students learn from others
● promoting autonomy and lifelong learning
STEM PBL
The purpose of a STEM activity is to find solutions to a real-world problem through the engineering design process. It is often composed of several problems students will need to solve. STEM PBL provides the contextualized, authentic experiences necessary for students to scaffold learning and build meaningfully powerful science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts supported by language, social studies, and art which is both challenging and motivating. It requires students to think critically and enhances higher-order thinking skills. STEM PBL requires collaboration, peer communication, problem-solving, and self-directed learning while incorporating rigor for all students.
It is during brainstorming sessions that children develop shared knowledge and a group dynamic that will serve as the incubator for their work together and eventually will lead to their unique solution.
PBL here is the use of a project that often results in the emergence of various learning outcomes in addition to the ones anticipated, especially student mastery of several concepts of various STEM subjects.
The learning is dynamic as students use various processes and methods to explore the project. The project is generally information-rich, but directions are kept to a minimum. The richness of the information is often directly related to the quality of the learning and level of student engagement
Metacognition practices
Metacognition is broadly defined as a person’s knowledge and skills to be aware of and reflect upon one’s own thinking (Brown, 1978; Flavell, 1979). This is a practice that helps students take control of their own learning. Because understanding should be the goal of curriculum and instruction, children must learn to recognize when they understand and when they need more information.
Teaching and learning which emphasizes the metacognitive process is proactive. Children do not passively receive information as others make sense of it for them. Students must proactively engage in the learning process and must determine for themselves how this new information is connected to current understandings. In order for this to occur, children must be aware of and able to reflect upon their own thinking.
Metacognitive strategies to be employed into three classifications: awareness, evaluation, and regulation.
Metacognitive Strategies
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identifying one's own learning style and needs.
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planning for a task.
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gathering and organizing materials.
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arranging a study space and schedule.
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monitoring mistakes.
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evaluating task success.
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evaluating the success of any learning strategy and adjusting.
Play-Based Philosophy
This Philosophy teaches children to think creatively so they may succeed in a complex and ever-changing world. Purposeful play is developmentally appropriate and a significant element of any early childhood program. The following emphasizes the importance of play in a child’s intellectual, social, emotional, and physical development.
Play is a way of learning for children. During a typical preschool day, there will be structured and unstructured periods, enabling children to learn at their own rate. Values that support learning through play include:
• Children are viewed as thinkers, reflecting on their world
• Purposeful play is when children learn through the process of their efforts
• Children gain knowledge by building on a path of ever-increasing knowledge
• Children are encouraged to make choices and practice individual decision-making Learning Environments support purposeful play by:
• Blocks of various sizes and materials
• Materials and time for dramatic, imaginative play
• Manipulative and table toys
• Art materials and tools to explore
• Sensory play materials, including sand and water
• A library area
• Music and movement activities
• Cooking experiences
• Computer exploration
• Outdoor and gross motor play
• A quiet area for the child who needs to be alone
• Ample and rich language and print
• Writing tools and materials
Reggio Emilia Approach
The Reggio Emilia Approach to education was started by the schools of Reggio Emilia, a city in Italy, after World War II. This approach places emphasis on the arts as children’s symbolic language and an engaging learning environment. The concept of equal collaboration is very important to the success of Reggio Emilia Schools. In this approach, teachers, parents, and children, along with the community are seen as co-constructors of knowledge. In Reggio Emilia, parents are considered equal partners with teachers in their children’s education. They are respected and valued and are expected to be involved with both the school and the classroom.
Child-Centered
The core of child-centered education is to help the child become independent, responsible, and confident. This approach covers all areas of developmental growth and engages children in active learning.
Environment organized in a way that naturally encourages students to explore. Each student plays and does projects that interest them.
Offering young children a calm, nurturing, and predictable social and emotional environment, and promoting their self-regulation skills, help them feel safe and secure so they can learn, play, and grow.
Teacher-directed model; Can limit learning in a number of ways;
Students don’t feel much ownership of their own learning. Instead, they depend on the teacher to tell them when and how to learn the material. Because so much of the teacher’s time is spent in direct instruction, there’s little opportunity to work one-on-one with students. And because it’s up to the teacher to adjust instruction for students with varied needs and levels of readiness, differentiation becomes one more thing to do.