1. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL ABIERTA Y A DISTANCIA
ESCUELA DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
Licenciatura en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
551030 -Educational Management
Group 2
CEAD Barranquilla
ACTIVITY 6
COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITY# 1
PRESENTED BY:
NELSY PATRICIA BUELVAS BARAJAS
CC.55224236
TEACHER: Claudia Yuliana Ramirez
Barranquilla, March, 2014
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2. Educational Management Act.6
INNOVATIVE PRESCHOOL EDUCATION
Pre-school education is crucial to build a strong start to every life. In this new era,
developing critical thinkers helps mould young lives to become motivated, creative
and independent beings. Hence, innovative practices in pre-school education
would expand the possibilities of learning and give both children and educators
endless opportunities in creative discoveries.
Starting Bilingualism at an early age is essential and advantageous given the fact
that young children are natural language acquirers; they are self-motivated to pick
up language without conscious learning. Children’s minds are not yet cluttered with
facts to be stored and tested.
However the truth is that there is currently a lack of knowledge and applied
methodology on language learning available to schools working with little kids
especially those 2 – 5 years old. As for this, we see the need to implement a plan
that would help institutions and teachers become skillful and confident about
second language teaching.
The purpose of the following plan is to help a kindergarten institution become a
bilingual educative institution by January 2017, in order to keep abreast of the
competition and enhance academic excellence. Knowing different languages is of
growing importance for personal development. According to Kristin Kersten et al.
“Providing early opportunities for contact and interaction with a foreign language,
results in a longer overall contact time with the L2 and thus in improved
opportunities for language learning. Additionally, bilingual preschools provide
further factors which have been identified as beneficial for the child learner.”
This plan focuses on four specific objectives:
 Faculty
 Curriculum
 Resources
 Parents’ engagement
Regarding faculty, the preschool team is one of the most important building blocks
of a bilingual programme. Teacher quality makes an enormous difference in
outcomes for students. Most bilingual preschools work with native speakers of
target language, however in order to keep costs down and make transition
smoother we are training actual staff in the target language. Teachers are going to
be trained in L2. Classes are going to be taught 3 times a week, 2 hours each day.
Patience is a very important asset in this respect: language learning takes a long
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3. Educational Management Act.6
time, and a willingness to learn another language and dedicated support for this
goal are needed from everyone in the team. It is an essential requirement for a
successful operation of a preschool that the head of the institution is able to speak
both languages in order to set the example to rest of the staff and to ensure
parents that their children are going to have a 100% bilingual education.
As for the curriculum we must adapt it to the new learning approach. L2 is not
taught as a subject but is used as a means of communication in at least 50% of the
curriculum instead following the immersion principle approach. It should promote
young children’s school readiness in the areas of language and cognitive
development, early reading and mathematics skills, socio-emotional development,
physical development, and approaches to learning. The curriculum must include
hands-on activities, learning games and math specific manipulatives to entice
students to discover their individual mathematical mindset. It incorporates visual
arts, music, dance and drama. The teacher needs to contextualize her language on
different information channels, auditory and visual, so as to provide multi-sensory
learning opportunities for the children.
Talking about resources, we need to improve human resources as well as material
resources. Since we should not increase the amount of money being used, we
need to work with the staff helping them improve their language skills. An English
teacher should be hired to have a stronghold to run to when needed. Since
children learn easier when taught using audio visual techniques and technological
tools provide the skill building support and facilitate “anytime, anywhere” learning to
supplement classroom instruction, classrooms should be adapted for this
approach, perhaps acquiring TVs or a video beam whichever is less expensive
and having internet access.
Last but not least we must work on increasing parents’ engagement on school
activities. Parents will be encouraged to contact the head of the institution and
encouraged to meet with teachers during academic periods for feedback on their
overall perception of the program and ways they believe can be improved. Parents
will be informed of student progress at the midpoint of each grading period, and
report card conferences will be scheduled for parents at least twice each semester.
As said by Kristin Kersten et al.
children are successful in early immersion programmes when their parents are enthusiastic about
immersion and believe in the programme, when they work together with the preschool teachers,
when they take an interest in what the child tells them about the programme, and when they take
part in preschool activities. For parents who are not familiar with the bilingual programme, it is
recommendable to provide information at the moment when they come to enroll a child, and in the
course of the school year, on how bilingual education works, what they can reasonably expect with
regard to the children's progress in L2 acquisition, and assure them that the L1 and academic
development are not negatively affected by bilingual learning.
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4. Educational Management Act.6
In conclusion there is a need for innovation in order to break the routine and make
learning more than an iterative task. But innovation requires willingness to take
risks, to walk an extra mile and to really care about the outcome, as for these and
in order for this plan to function each member should be really interested on the
change, curious, responsible and perseverant in the face of difficulty, playful, and
always ready to use initiative to solve problems. Let’s get ready to prepare our kids
for this competitive world.
References
Barnett, W. S. (2008). Preschool education and its lasting effects: Research and
policy implications. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center
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& Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved from www.epicpolicy.org/publication/
preschool-education
Guardian News and Media Limited (2010). Guardian Speaker Interview: Josephine
Greene. Available online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/innovation-
education/speakerinterview-josephine-green
Kersten, K., Rohde, A., Schelletter, C., Steinlen, A. (eds., 2010): Guidelines for
Language Use in Bilingual Preschools.
Kersten, K., Rohde, A., Schelletter, C., Steinlen, A. (eds., 2010): How to Start a
Bilingual Preschool: Practical Guidelines.
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6. Educational Management Act.6
& Education Policy Research Unit. Retrieved from www.epicpolicy.org/publication/
preschool-education
Guardian News and Media Limited (2010). Guardian Speaker Interview: Josephine
Greene. Available online at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/innovation-
education/speakerinterview-josephine-green
Kersten, K., Rohde, A., Schelletter, C., Steinlen, A. (eds., 2010): Guidelines for
Language Use in Bilingual Preschools.
Kersten, K., Rohde, A., Schelletter, C., Steinlen, A. (eds., 2010): How to Start a
Bilingual Preschool: Practical Guidelines.
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