Last week in my centre I engaged with the children as we
made hummus. By applying Piaget’s constructivist approach the children were
able to construct knowledge through using unfamiliar materials (ingredients
e.g. chick peas) to make a dish from another culture (Claiborne & Drewery,
2010).
The ingredients the children were given to make the hummus
were, tinned chick peas, a lemon, a clove of garlic and olive oil. The
technological tools that the children had access to were; a food processor, can
opener, sieve, garlic press, lemon squeezer and a knife.
I consider this learning
experience to be viewed as a technological activity because according to Smorti
(1999), “technology is also a creative and purposeful activity aimed at meeting
needs and opportunities through the development of products, systems or
environments” (p. 5). I believe that this is exactly what the children were
doing. They created a product (hummus) that met the needs of their peers and
teachers as the hummus was to be consumed for morning tea.
Smorti (1999), also states that technology is also about
solving problems, and during this learning experience the children had many
opportunities to be involved in this. They had to work out how to get the chick
peas out of the can; the juice out of the lemon; how to crush the garlic and
how to assemble the food processor as its role was to puree the chick peas.
Through collaborative cooperative learning discussions
with their peers and with the teacher, the children were able to work out
(problem solve) how this task could be achieved (Mindes, 2006). One of the boys
looked at the assembled food processor and said to me “we will need to cover
that hole, (pointing at the feed tube), otherwise everything will go
everywhere.” He spoke with such authority that I could swear he was talking
from experience.
According to Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett and Farmer (2007),
when children have access to a range of technologies e.g. the food processor,
and take an active role in their learning the line between childhood and
adulthood is done by voluntary choice and impulse. “An alternative view is that
children are competent users of technology, active agents in their own learning
and very aware of the world beyond their family” (Arthur et al., 2007, p. 13).
Elkonin (2005, as cited in Fleer & Jane, 2011) outlines
the need to provide young children with real life experiences as he states that
historically young children were involved in producing food for the family.
They were able to make an active contribution in agricultural activities in
meaningful and productive ways by digging and planting the crops. Over time new
technologies have been introduced to farming, so that children are no longer
involved with agricultural food production. Elkonin (2005) suggests “that when
children are not involved in real-life tasks to support the survival of the
family unity or the community (i.e. by contributing to food
production/resources), they have to pretend to be involved in these activities”
(p. 99).
Through the strand of contribution as the children learnt
alongside others, they would have developed skills in problem solving, turn
taking and experienced an appreciation of the way in which they contributed to
the group (Ministry of Education, 1996).
From being involved in this task I have learnt that technological
learning comprises of three strands; Technological Practice, Technological
Knowledge and Nature of Technology. However, I believe that this learning
experience focused on the strands of Technological Practice, and Technological
Knowledge as the children took raw materials and turned them into a fully
realised product, while gaining knowledge on how to assemble and use the food
processor (Ministry of Education, 2007).
References:
Arthur, L., Beecher,
B., Dockett, S., Farmer, S., & Death, E. (2008). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (4th ed.). Melbourne,
Australia: Cengage Learning.
Claiborne,
L., & Drewery, W. (2010).Human
development: Family, place and culture. Auckland, New Zealand: McGraw Hill.
Fleer, M.,
& Jane, B. (2011). Design and
technology for children. Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson Australia.
Mindes, G.
(2006). Social studies in kindergarten: In D. Gullo (Ed.), K today: Teaching and learning in the kindergarten year (pp.107-115).Washington,
DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Ministry of
Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He
whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o
Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Leaning
Media.
Ministry
of Education. (2007).The New Zealand
curriculum. For English-medium teaching and learning in years 1-13.
Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents
Smorti, S. (1999). Technology in early childhood. Early Education, 19, 5-10.
Hi Ngaire,
ReplyDeleteCooking with children are always great learning opportunities for everyone involved. There are many areas that children can develop during these, including maths and science but also contribution, responsibility and confidence in own skills (Ministry of Education, 1996). I don’t know if you have realised but these moments also reflect the concept of whanaungatanga when children are enabled to help to prepare food and look after their peers’ well-being in this way (Williams & Broadley, 2012).
From your post it is visible that the children were able to bring knowledge and technological processes they have learnt at home and in other contexts into this experience (Ministry of Education, 2007). Knowing that you have children who can take responsibility during these activities can empower you to offer more experiences in the area of cooking. You could bring a set of recipes for the children to use and discuss what they would need to achieve successful results. As their experience grows the recipes could be getting more and more complex. This practice would allow children to become “innovative developers of products and systems and discerning consumers who will make a difference in the world” (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 17).
References:
Williams, N. M., & Broadley, M. (2012). Resource kit for graduate teachers [Leaflets]. Wellington, New Zealand: AKO Aotearoa National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.
Somerset (2000) endorses that “the total environment or world in which a young child must be conducive to the acquiring of basic skills” (p. 7). This is very much evident from your observation of which the children respond to a hands-on experience of new challenges to develop more involved thinking. Using different tools, the children will feel a sense of achievement during and after completion. The children will be empowered to convey their experiences to other learning endeavours.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of this bicultural learning is that the children “develop their own questions; make predictions; think of ways to test their theories and take time to solve” the puzzle of creation (Clark, 2004). Through this task, they see the rationale of using “literacy and numeracy symbols to represent and communicate” with their group and their teacher (Clark, 2004; Ministry of Education, 1996). There is more than one method of learning in this task, highlighting that the information acquired will be stored in the children’s memory for useful recollection (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). I believe that the children learn to absorb more information through the ‘I-do-it’ approach instead of the ‘show me or tell me’ approach.
• I hear and I forget
I see and I remember
I do and I understand
- Chinese Proverb
Again, it is about developing the fundamental skills of life through fun participation within their learning community. I can honestly see this developing into a cultural cook show venture that can be documented on video and also producing the centres very own children’s bicultural community cook book filled with recipes and step by step photos.
Ngaire
ReplyDeleteI have always found that if children are actively involved in preparing/cooking food they have a greater desire to try it, especially when it is new to them. Giving children these opportunities leads them to develop skills for food preparation, positive attitudes towards eating and keeping themselves healthy (Ministry of Education, 1996). Fleer and Jane (2011) believe that food technology is a good way to introduce technology to children as food is vital to life and is also can be used as a way of acknowledging different cultures. Using the food processor allowed the children to see how food could be changed from its raw state to a different texture altogether. They also begin to develop an interest and pleasure in experiencing tastes that are different from home (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 56)
Did you discuss with the children how the chick peas were changed from its natural hard(ish) form to something which could be spread? This could lead on to suggestions and further discussion about other foods which do the same.
Thank you Ngaire for this blog post, I now know how to make hummus at home. I personally thing cooking and preparing food items with children is always fun and informative for children. Thanks to this experience children were able to recall and construct knowledge from home and from their peers (Claiborne & Drewery, 2010).I can honestly tell that children at your kindergarten might feel as empowered as they are able to use range of technology equipment and have control over their activities (Ministry of Education, 1996). Giving children these opportunities leads them to develop skills for food preparation, positive attitudes towards eating and keeping themselves healthy (Ministry of Education, 1996). I agree with the idea that food technology is a good way to introduce technology to children as food is vital to life and is also can be used as a way of acknowledging different cultures (Fleer and Jane, 2011). The food processor allowed the children to see how food changed its from and changed into different texture, involving concept of science.
ReplyDelete