LETTER: The past weeks have seen preschools adapt to the Movement Control Order (MCO) by providing various academic offerings electronically to continue early education among young children. Many preschools struggle to find a balance between their e-solutions and will continue to do so until they understand the current climate of distress.
In an environment survey at a Montessori preschool at TTDI, it was discovered that less than thirty per cent of homes have a printer, whilst all homes will have a smartphone with a camera. With this knowledge, preschools might consider limiting activities requiring a printer.
More than 55 per cent of mothers accompany their children during a video conference; and about thirty per cent of fathers, while the balance are accompanied by "others" – indicating that some children are perhaps in the care of their grandparents. Grandparents, being less tech-savvy.
In a physical classroom, early education teachers use a variety of techniques from teacher-led instructions to student-lead strategies. Teachers employ low-level and high-level techniques to solicit input from a child. In a Montessori school, teachers are trained to scaffold, i.e intervene only when required, to allow the child opportunity for self-discovery.
In a muted video conference, teachers are unable to receive audio feedback from the children, instead, they use visual cues to guide their lessons. Instead of asking "Can you hear me children?", teachers now need to say "If you can hear, put a thumbs up" to minimise background noise and need to mute and unmute microphones.
Any preschool attempting to mimic the physical classroom through long daily video conferences often lose the interest of the young child and will be unsuccessful in getting parent participation. Instead, use the video as a way to catch up with the students, review work and discuss new activities.
If you need more time, extend the video calls gradually. Set a day and time that are routine for parents to commit to. Video recordings of the sessions can be made available to those unable to participate. The use of technologies like Google Classroom is invaluable at a time like this. It allows schools to put out activities and schedule them by date.
By scheduling them, preschools limit over-ambitious parents from doing the entire week's work in a day. These technologies allow schools to set a submission date of completed assignments. In times like these, a broad and forgiving dateline allows both the parent and child to find their rhythm.
The submissions also allow teachers to make a formative (gradual) assessment of the child's progress and keeping them together. By making submissions gradual, teachers can make timely corrections in a child's development. Early education teachers understand the cognitive development of young children. They understand child development comes in stages, and giving children the right motivations and space to grow.
The role of the teacher has shifted to the parents at home. Without a formal early childhood education background, some parents apply the wrong pedagogy. Teaching requires some understanding of child development stages (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational) and therefore different from how you would teach an adult whose formal operational stage is fully developed.
This is a time of tremendous change for preschools and families. Yet, as Covid-19 grips the nation, teachers are forced to become tech-savvy and parents have to adapt to help with their child's new e-classroom. It is prudent for preschools to relax turn-in activities until the parents and schools find a tempo suitable for both. Start small and gradually increase the activities over time.
As a rule, always give time for the changes to bed down, for stakeholders to understand how this is different and you have their interest at heart. Give the change time to succeed by getting the support of your parents to support the initiative. Once you get this far, use your preschool's limited resources to build quality e-content. Good luck!
Chin Peng Hon
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times