Selasa, 16 Juli 2013

A Reflective Journal of Theories of Childhood



REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
(A reflection of the book, Theories of Childhood, by Carol Garhart Mooney)

I enjoyed reading the Theories of Childhood. The content of this book was interesting and the writer explains the theories of some experts clearly with the classroom experience or some examples so I could understand the meaning well. Beside, the first reason why I decided to read this book because I also interested with children. I could identify the best way how to treat and teach them as their ages adequately. I think the explanation of the chapters would be useful to parents and teachers whom teach children also.
         The book is separated into five chapters. I think all of chapters are best. It contains of the opinion by different experts, it is very important. Those are amazing to analyze and make a good sense with the real life. And then, it explains about theories of early childhood, how they grow, they understand something and how to teach new materials that really important to survive of life. Those are increase my knowledge and much more understand by the right way to teach early children that make them enjoyable, have fun and relax in a good environment which supports learning process in purpose.
The first chapter begins with the theories by John Dewey. He explains that education should be child-centered; education must be both active and interactive and education must involve the social world of the child and the community. I also learned that teachers must be trust of their knowledge and experience so they could provide appropriate activity to children confidently. I could understand that teach a child must to know their world, not only fun but has a benefit to them to learn it.
The second chapter is the theories by Maria Montessori. She has some opinions that early childhood teachers should provide real tools; keep it accessible so they could find and put away what they need; create a good atmosphere in the class. I agree with her opinions because I have done it to my class. The result was good and my students could active in the learning and teaching process and creative.
The third chapter is the theories by Erik Erikson. He explains the development of emotional, social and mental health. I could not understand what the writer means in this chapter even it has much more explanation about psychosocial so it is too hard to me to understand well. This chapters is the  hardest chapter to get the message by the expert because the writer explains it by the sentence that complicated and difficult to understand quickly to me.
The fourth chapter is the theories by Jean Piaget. This chapter which makes me interested with the book actually the quotation by him “The teacher-organizer should know not only his own science but also be well versed in the details of the development of the child’s or adolescent’s mind”, I don’t know it touched my heart so I had borrowed this book to copy from library of FKIP Pakuan university. I have the quotation also that inspired by this experience to make me interesting to read much more until the rest of the book. “Something that you love will be a good reason to you to do your best”.
Piaget’s thought that neither position explains learning by itself nor the child’s interactions with his environment, it creates learning process. I really agree with him because children could not teach by spoon feeding only, it could make them not creative and impossible to have opportunity to do something by themselves. This behavior has the effect to them to do it immediately in their life.
The last chapter is the theories by Lev Vygotsky. He argues that much learning takes place when children play; language and development build on each other. He also believed that a child on the edge of learning a new concept could be benefit from interaction with a teacher or a classmate. I learned that the personal and social experience could not be separated, those are important to balance a good future.
That’s all about the Theories of Childhood that I read. I think on the scale of 1-10 (1: easy, 10: difficult) how is difficult this book to me is 3 because I have found new vocabularies or unfamiliar words in every chapter especially in the third chapter. When reading a book, an annoying thing when I found new words although it is good to increase my knowledge but still unpleasant so it is motivating me to study hard to remember new words. Hopefully when I am reading a book I can read it enjoyable without look up the dictionary oftentimes, perhaps only several times is not a big problem.
This book is very useful. It makes me more understand about childhood so I know the appropriate activities to apply to children in the learning and teaching process. I recommend this book to all parents, teacher and everyone who want their children be better and have a good preparation to face anything in the real life adequately. I have a motivation and love reading by read this book. I will be a teacher later so I have to find other books that related with this book and increase my knowledge about education field so I could be a professional teacher. 



Book tittle                                          : Theories of Childhood
Author                                                : Carol Ganhart Mooney
Publisher                                           : Redleaf Press
Date published                                  : - (2000)
Number of page                                : 102
Genre (Type of book) – Circle one     : Education book
 

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